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They are in a funny position.
Ratings have went up slightly, but PPVs and house show business continues to be poor.
But on the other hand their international touring is still doing great business, and Mania the last two years has done tremendous business. I was certain this year's Mania would fall flat, but it looks like it did the biggest buyrate of all time.
So financially they are still doing fine.
Now, this year's show will be a challenge. They have a less financially sound deal for RAW on USA, and they have SD being moved to UPN. With that in mind, there's a better chance now that UPN will not renew their deal for SD. Now, I still think they'll have a home for SD, but again, it wont be as profitable as their prior deals.
That means they'll be losing a significant amount of revenue, but I dont think that will mean they will start losing money.
So if youre Vince, its hard to see the urgent need to make drastic changes, when the bottom line keeps turing profits.
Personally, I think its going to take the WWE to start losing money before big changes are made.
The other problem is that I dont think ANYONE knows what it will take to create another boom. Maybe they should let Eric Bischoff go, and hope he still wants to be in the wrestling business and can start something up that has a fresh new concept that Vionce can eventually copy.
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