[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer WWE reported this morning revenues of $186.4 million and profits of $21.8 million for the third quarter of this year, numbers that beat Wall Street estimates of $172 million and $15 million ... The key are increases in profitability in most categories, with only WWE Studios and home entertainment falling below last year's numbers. WWE Network profitability increased from $15.7 million during the third quarter last year to $24.3 million, due to a combination of more revenue and lower spending due to producing fewer original shows. However, the 1,507,000 subscribers for the Network, while up four percent from one year ago, was a decline from the last quarter. There were 392,000 new sign-ups and 453,000 cancellations during the quarter. During the third quarter last year, there were 388,000 new sign-ups and 455,000 cancellations, so the trend was very close to identical. This shows that the strength of the pay-per-views, as the main events were stronger this year, only has a very minor effect on subscription numbers. The other take is that the Mae Young Classic, with all the hype, really meant nothing for subscriber numbers. They also predicted another drop in Network subscriptions, as much as 50,000, in the fourth quarter. WWE also increased profitability of house shows, although it was by running more total events as the average attendance dropped from 5,300 to 4,900 per show. Licensing profits went from $4.6 million to $6.7 million due to an increase in mobile game sales.

The Network's numbers dropping instead of growing is not a good sign. Still stuck in the 1.4-1.5 million range when they were expecting the 2-3+ million by now for original plans. Also some of their money increases has catches to them which can become a big issue down the line.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc Once again WWE did not specify the breakdown of free vs. paid subscribers. It was announced in the post-WrestleMania 33 conference call that the Network had 1.959 million total subscribers - 1.661 million of those being paid. WWE is projecting 1.47 million average paid subscribers for the Network in the fourth quarter of this year. They project 1.53 million average paid subscribers for the full year 2017, a year-over-year growth of 8%.

Some comparisons on the Network's numbers and splits for Mania 33.

Originally Posted by Observer During the conference call, WWE pushed the idea of localized television, like they have in the Middle East and India, and have secured 20 new advertisers for television. They pushed the worldwide aspect of the product by noting that of the athletes training at the Performance Center, 40 percent come from outside the United States. The company pushed the new television negotiations. The deal with NBC Universal expires on September 30th, 2019, while deals in the United Kingdom and India, the other two largest revenue television deals, expire on December 31st, 2019. They are targeting a new U.S. deal and announcement sometime between May and September of 2018.

Right now its probably a safe bet the next US contract won't be a major increase and could probably include the removal of the 3rd hour if WWE can find a way to recoup the $20-$40 million it brings in annually.

Originally Posted by Observer Kenny Omega has added another Ring of Honor date to his calendar. ROH announced today that Omega would be appearing at their show in San Antonio, Texas on November 17th, which will go directly against an NXT house show in the same city that night. NXT has Drew McIntyre defending his title against Adam Cole with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. ROH posted a promo earlier this week of the Bullet Club hyping up going against NXT, with them doing a skit where they extended an offer to any member of the McMahon family to purchase tickets to ROH at a 10 percent discount. The ROH show in San Antonio will be the first night of this year's Survival of the Fittest. The final two nights of the tournament will take place in Dallas and Oklahoma City the following two days, with the winner getting a future ROH World title shot.

Link to announcement: http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ken...or-san-antonio , Promo link: https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/stat...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

Originally Posted by Observer As Dave Meltzer confirmed in this week's edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Jeff Jarrett checked into a rehab facility yesterday. Meltzer wrote that Jarrett came to grips with the fact that he had a problem, with Karen Jarrett working with WWE officials to set up the rehab stay. The decision comes after Jarrett allegedly showed up late (with Jarrett saying he was held up at customs for three hours), was drinking and passed out backstage, and then wrestled while in no condition to perform at a show for Real Canadian Wrestling in Calgary last Friday. Jarrett then missed their show in Edmonton the next day as he returned to the United States.

Originally Posted by Observer Sinclair Broadcasting has come one step closer to purchasing Tribune Media after stockholders of Sinclair voted to approve the $3.9 billion acquisition. This would give Sinclair 42 new television stations and have television in 39 of the top 50 markets. This acquisition would greatly benefit ROH because it would be expected to get television exposure in those new markets. (thanks to Daniel Thomason) New Japan announced last night that tickets for Wrestle Kingdom 12 via the e-plus English language site are sold out. There will be more tickets available soon. There are still plenty of tickets available at Japanese outlets. Who would have thought that wrestling in 2017 would have geographical limitations on ticket buying.

Originally Posted by Observer PWInsider reported the company is planning a major episode of Raw on 1/12 from the Barclays Center which would be the 25th anniversary special for the show that debuted at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York in January, 1993.

Originally Posted by PWI A pre-roll on the WWE Network says we will get a "Table for 3" episode following Raw. One has to wonder if this is going to be the postponed Sting, Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat episode. That episode was scheduled to air two months ago but was delayed due to the two time WWE Hall of Famer's dire health battles. WWE Shop has new holiday items in the store. Some of these things include updated ugly Christmas sweaters for AJ Styles, Chris Jericho, The Hardys, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Finn Balor, Sasha Banks, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Braun Stroman. There are multiple ornaments sets of every variety including elf, gingerbread man and traditional sets for multiple different talents past and present. Plus, Santa hats as well. There will also be a 25th Anniversary of Raw DVD set.

Some random WWE related news bits from PWI

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE has a new poll asking fans which current Superstar are they or someone they know dressing up as for Halloween this year - RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Becky Lynch, The New Day, Bray Wyatt, Charlotte Flair, The Shield, The Fashion Police, "The Demon" Finn Balor, John Cena, The Hardy Boyz, Naomi, Sasha Banks, Shinsuke Nakamura or other. As of this writing, 21% voted for other and 21% voted for The Shield while 14% went with The Demon, 7% for Cena, 6% for Bliss, 6% for Banks, 5% for Nakamura, 5% for Breezango, 4% for Wyatt, 4% for The Hardys, 3% for The New Day, 2% for Becky, 1% for Bayley, 1% for Naomi and 0% for Flair.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc WWE officials are still planning on doing the Horsewomen vs. Horsewomen match with Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Bayley vs. Ronda Rousey, Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The match is now being planned for WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans. One reason the match has been pushed back until then is because there's a RAW vs. SmackDown theme at Survivor Series, where the match was once rumored to take place. Another reason they're waiting until 2018 to do the match is the feeling that the extra time will help them get Rousey, Duke and Shafir ready for the ring. Baszler continues to train at the WWE Performance Center under her WWE NXT deal and Rousey was at the Performance Center this past week. No word yet on the rumored Rousey vs. Flair singles match happening in the future but it was once rumored for WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc We've noted before how WWE is looking to have a special referee for the WWE Champion Jinder Mahal vs. WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar match at the November 19th Survivor Series pay-per-view. John Cena is rumored for the role, which could lead to Cena challenging Mahal, something Jinder has pushed for WrestleMania 34. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Vince McMahon was also considering The Rock and WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin for the role. No word yet on talks with Rock or Austin but the issue would be if they want to work the match, and with The Rock the main issue would be if his schedule would allow it, and how much WWE would have to pay him. It's unlikely that a Lesnar vs. Rock or Lesnar vs. Austin match would come out of the special referee gig at Survivor Series. The Observer notes that while Austin is done as a wrestler, there is still the intrigue of he and Lesnar being in the ring together.

Originally Posted by Observer Matt Riddle is not on the New Japan Tag League tour after all, and there’s no word who Jeff Cobb will be teaming with. The story is that Riddle had been in talks to do the tour and it was just about a done deal, but before being finalized, things changed. The belief is that Bushiroad, the New Japan parent company, found out about his UFC marijuana test positives and in Japan, marijuana has more of a stigma than in most places, and the deal fell apart and there is no start date ... Riddle twice failed tests in UFC and had wins overturned due to positive marijuana tests. This is a key reason why WWE has held up on ever making him an offer. Some time back at a conference call I was talking with Paul Levesque on this subject and Levesque said that everyone deserves a second chance, although I don’t know they’ve made him an offer even though it was WWE who originally hooked him up with Evolve after he did so well in a tryout shortly after he started in wrestling, but they wanted to test how he’d do before offering him a deal ... Usage of marijuana is prevalent in pro wrestling which is why this seems so weird from a WWE standpoint, since WWE does fine people $2,500 a shot for marijuana, but doesn’t suspend them for it, and it’s viewed in WWE as the pot tax

Originally Posted by Observer The new Lucha Libre promotion that Aroluxe (Ron & Don Harris) are behind with the idea they’d be looking to sign up talent from Lucha Underground that could get out of their deals or if LU is done, is scheduled to tape a pilot from 12/9 to 12/11 in Nashville. That’s the company that was interested in Vince Russo for creative, but I don’t know that the deal with him is in place or not The last episode of Lucha Underground season three aired on 10/18 and the final graphic said “To Be Continued.” People are hoping that meant something but there is still no deal made going forward. Christopher DeJoseph was on The Midweek War show teased the idea of Prince Puma continuing as a character, saying he’s got more in mind for the character. Obviously, if the character continues it would be somebody else playing the role. When asked about the future of Sexy Star, he said that decision will be made by people pay grades above him but they try and resolve every story. He did bring up being high on Rey Escorpion and Averno Chris Roach, one of the writers, was on The MMM show and talked about how the reason they put the title on Sexy Star was a way to build heat for Mundo to cheat to have to beat her. The feeling is that if Pentagon was the guy who Mundo beat that his losing without coming back strong for revenge would have hurt him, and the idea for the season was to put as much heat on Mundo.

Originally Posted by Observer Apparently the reason the tapings are being done in Ottawa is because the building gave the company a tremendous deal. It’s going to be exceedingly difficult to draw for six straight nights, particularly since, unlike in Orlando, they are charging for tickets and aren’t in a theme park where tourists can be recruited to come in and watch. Right now for the tapings from 11/6 to 11/10 they are offering 50 percent off tickets

Reason why Impact is holding a series of tapings in Ottawa. Also getting rid of current ring announcer Dave Penzer to cut costs since it would be cheaper to hire a local one from the indies.

PW Insider wrote a story regarding the proposed U.K. television show and the basic gist behind the delays is as we had noted, they are looking to get a paid deal on TV in the U.K. for the show rather than have it be a WWE Network exclusive. The costs of the pilot shows where they did the U.K. tournament were very high and that’s why, after announcing they would be starting a weekly series, nothing has happened. It is still in the planning stages but it takes time to make TV deals. The PW Insider story said the working title for the show would be WWE King of the Ring. They noted the show was being pitched to ITV, which is the same thing we’ve heard, basically it’s being pitched everywhere. ITV would be the killer deal because of the reach of the station and because ITV itself was planning on doing its own weekly Saturday afternoon wrestling show. A key point is that ITV earlier in the year was looking at doing a ten week run and then evaluating it from there. That was one of the reasons the deal with Impact fell through, although there were others regarding who would pay what costs. ITV has not dropped the idea of the show and was still looking at trying out wrestling at some point in 2018, so on the surface, WWE producing such a series makes sense for both sides. ITV gets a solid promotion which has top guys under contract and if they are on ITV, pretty much would be able to sign any U.K. talent except the guys with the New Japan or ROH deals. But one would think WWE would want more than a ten-week commitment

Some details regarding WWE's UK show plans and ITV's own wrestling show plans.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE has signed a multi-year deal with SPORT TV in Portugal for weekly Portuguese language WWE programming. Starting on 10/31, they will air Raw every Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Smackdown every Wednesday at 7 p.m., as well as air one hour edited versions of Raw every Thursday at 6 p.m. and a one hour edited version of Smackdown every Saturday at 11 a.m.

Might actually be able to watch this since the local cable company carries RTP which shows stuff from SPORT TV as well.

Originally Posted by Observer The most watched shows of the week on the WWE Network were: 1. TLC PPV; 2. Raw Talk after TLC; 3. Ride Along with The Shield, Bayley and Banks; 4. TLC pre-game show; 5. NXT from 10/18; 6. 205 Live from 10/17 (based on usual standards that is a great showing for this show); 7. Hell in a Cell 2017; 8. Story Time episode 5; 9. Ride Along with Sheamus, Cesaro, Angle and Show; 10. This Week in WWE

Some other sheet news includes:

• According to PWI, WWE's stocks reached its highest value in 3 years due to the very positive fiscal report. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/11...years.html?p=1
• WWE recently posted a photo of The Undertaker with Ric Flair as part of ESPN's early screening for the 30 For 30 documentary on Ric Flair. They also had an article on their website about other WWE stars who attended this event. Link to photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BautEsjAj1C/ , link to article: http://www.wwe.com/article/superstar...-boy-screening
• Recent episode of X-Pac 12360 podcast show had Sean Waltman discussing a variety of topics including his thoughts on Jeff Jarrett's current problems, Nia Jax's status in the WWE, what his best promos were, and him being upset at a Chikara show. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...x-to-walk-out/
• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, CM Punk celebrated his 39th birthday today.
• According to the Observer, NHL's Philadelphia Flyers now have a tradition where the MVP of every game gets to wear a replica Ric Flair robe for official game photos as a reward. They recently purchased the replica robe for this season.

Some stuff from the TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: Jericho on Hot Ones, Nia Jax, Flair Documentary Premiere, Tozawa
• WWE Rumors: Balor vs. Lesnar Off? Ricochet/WWE
• Gargano vs. Shawn Michaels “Best Abs” Contest Added to NXT WarGames