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HOSTAGE WATCH: WWE Stranded In Saudi


Accident Prone

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6 minutes ago, seph said:

It's comparable to the Fox deal, if not slightly more from what I recall. If this deal fails and Fox get the hump over the deteriorating SD product then it could be huge.

Not quite. The FOX deal is for $205M per year, for five years.

The Raw deal is $265M per year for five years.

The Saudi shows are estimated at $40-45M per show ($80-90M per year, for ten years) but that's estimates, as they hide the money in a sector mixed with other income, and nobody involved seems to be legally obligated to say "The Saudi Arabia shows are for exactly X amount, with X amount of profit". 

WWE could afford to lose these Saudi Arabia shows and be fine. Yes they'll lose some income, but it's not to the level of TV money. If you spread the sums of money for the US TV deals out, over ten years (they are unlikely to go down in rights fees when they expire, maybe they stay the same if they can't get the right bidding war). That's $ 4.7B in comparison to $800-900M. 

That's not counting overseas rights fees, NXT rights fees on USA etc. If this was the WWE of ten years ago, they wouldn't have been in the position to turn down this Saudi money. It would have been like burning a lottery ticket. Now though, with the TV money being so high, it's like the euromillions winner crashing their new Ferrari and their insurance going up on the replacement Lamborghini. WWE could have turned down that money and not jumped into bed with a disgraceful government, but they were greedy and they wanted it. 

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2 hours ago, Ralphy said:

any updates? very interested to see how Smackdown plays out now. 

It's all gone very quiet. Twenty crew and roster members are probably still in the air heading over to Buffalo, and the others have probably been put on social media lockdown. There's no other reports worth mentioning really but it has gone eerily silent. Joey Mercury being let go from ROH and airing all their dirty laundry on his Twitter page today has probably took the heat off WWE somewhat, but I think this Tweet sums up the Saudi situation thus far perfectly;

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Edited by Accident Prone
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from @Onyx2 last night in minor news

 

WWE earnings taaaaanked today due to a dreadful quarter earnings call. Ironically after great TV news in the past year, unable to secure their middle East TV deal has scared the markets. 

In six months, the share price has nearly halved. Time for another haircut picture. 


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Edited by Hannibal Scorch
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I'm gonna say judging by Buddy Murphy's 'Never again' tweet that the aircraft story is bollocks. Or at least that's not all of it.

So now the guys already on the way back won't make it in time either? Saudi Shitshow. 

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The latest from pwinsider.com:

Quote

 

LATEST ON WWE TRAVEL ISSUES
By Mike Johnson

The word making the rounds among talents still in Saudi Arabia is that a new flight has been arranged to take them from Riyadh to the United States around 3 AM local time tonight.

That would be a full 24 hours after they were slated to leave following Crown Jewel.

www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=130951

 

 
Edited by DJM
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