[Emperor Smeat]

The Sheets:

Originally Posted by Observer Ratings are in for this weeks installment of the Wednesday night wars. AEW Dynamite got the win, averaging 928,000 viewers on TNT. That viewership number was up 25 percent from last week. With coverage of the impeachment hearings and Democratic primaries dominating the cable news ratings, Dynamite dropped to 11th in the 18-49 demo with a 0.36 rating, up six percent from last week. NXT averaged 770,000 viewers, which was up eight percent from last Wednesday. In the demo, the episode drew a 0.22 rating. That number was even with last week, but NXT climbed slightly to 34th overall in the cable TV ratings ... Miz and Mrs., which followed NXT on USA, averaged 475,000 viewers and a 0.20 rating. Those numbers were up from 437,000 viewers and a 0.18 rating for last week's season premiere but still well below what the show was doing when it aired after SmackDown.

Originally Posted by Observer Prior to their investors' call Thursday morning, WWE released their 2019 Q4 numbers, showing 18% revenue growth to $322.8 million, good for their highest quarterly revenue in company history. The reason for the increase was revenue from their new TV deals, offsetting lower revenue from their live events. Quarterly net revenue in Media increased to $264.6 million, up from Q3's $205.3 million. Year over year, Media net revenue increased to $743.1 million, up from 2018's $683.4 million. Despite the increase, Wall Street didn't respond favorably as the stock was trading at $42.34 as of this writing, down $6.62 from Wednesday ... A few quarterly notes from their release: WWE Network subscriptions dropped by 10% to 1.42 million. They are predicting a slight increase to 1.47 million for Q1 of 2020. Quarterly and yearly notes for Live Events/Consumer Products/Network Quarterly live event revenue increased to $27.4 million, but was down from last year's $34.4 million. The lack of a supershow in Australia was blamed as well as less events /// Year over year, live event revenue fell to $125.6 million, down from $144.2 million in 2018. That was attributed to 56 fewer shows, lower average attendance, and the lack of an Australian supershow. Average North American attendance increased by 15% to 5800 with an average ticket price of $57.13. Average International attendance decreased to 4100 with a 30% average ticket price increase to $84.26 ... Yearly Network revenue was down to $184.6 million, down from $199.3 million in 2018.

As of around 7:37PM, WWE stock was at around $44.19 for after-hour trading.

Originally Posted by PWI In today's WWE earnings report, it is interesting to note the company was not touting televison rights fees for WWE NXT on the USA Network, but noted that the company has taken on additional production costs for the series with it's second hour. There was no specific mention of NXT TV revenue in the earnings report at all. So, whatever revenue WWE is deriving from the series has been folded into somewhere else, not specifically noted.

Originally Posted by Fightful On Thursday's fourth-quarter earnings call, Vince McMahon was asked about the transition of leadership process. McMahon answered, "I think in terms of changing or reimagining our culture and the way we do business, it's going to be far more inclusive. Quite frankly, with that, our strong management team currently going forward, attracting world class individuals to our company. Who wouldn't want to work for WWE? I mean, come on! It's exciting."

Originally Posted by Fightful Speaking on the WWE fourth quarter earnings call, Vince was asked about All Elite Wrestling and how the company may have changed WWE's content since it launched on TNT in October. Vince replied, "AEW has not changed our content at all. It's all about our characters, storylines, and resolutions. It really hasn't changed our point of view in terms of what we present. We don't need more 'edgy' content. PG, one of the few programs out there that really is PG. As far as NXT, we're competing. NXT is competing on Wednesday night with AEW and doing extremely well. We're confident that NXT will continue on with success." Vince previously referred to AEW's content as "blood and guts" on the second quarter 2019 earnings call last July.

Guess Vince completely forgot all about the Lana-Rusev infidelity angle that also included a lesbian twist.

Originally Posted by Observer WWE's "Ruthless Aggression" era will be the subject of a new docuseries that's premiering on the WWE Network this month. The company announced today that the debut episode of WWE Ruthless Aggression will be made available on the WWE Network on demand at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, February 16. New episodes will then be uploaded on demand every Monday at 10 a.m. Eastern starting on February 17. WWE wrote that the series "picks up where WWE Network’s critically acclaimed Monday Night War docuseries left off, detailing the prolific, if turbulent, years that followed the Attitude Era, after WWE won the battle for Monday night supremacy and absorbed its top rival, WCW.

Originally Posted by PWI The New York Times ran an article today covering a massive embezzlement scandal in the State of Mississippi involving a state auditor and former WWE developmental talent Brett DiBiase, the son of WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase, Brett DiBiase. According to the article, the former director of the state welfare agency and five others are being charged in one of the biggest embezzlement scandals in the history of the office. Allegedly, DiBiase was given funds to go to a drug treatment facility in Malibu that was earmarked for Mississippi's welfare programs. According to documents, DiBiase was allegedly given the money as payment for classes that he didn't teach for drug abuse.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Former 6-time WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett talked to SunSport about the lineage and importance of the Intercontinental Title in WWE: “I’ve had this conversation with a lot of folks and it’s just a completely [different] generation now. It’s like getting a No.1 song way back, that was really something special. Now today, the methods of the distribution, it doesn’t quite carry the same cachet. That Intercontinental Title will always be that logical progression, steppingstone if you will, but nowadays we can pick up our phone and watch wrestling instantly. Years ago in WWF, and yes you had WCW and some other organizations, but there was only one main one and that’s what you watched. WCW had the U.S. Title and then others in Japan and Mexico that were steppingstones to a world championship. Nowadays due to the method of distribution, you can watch so much content that is original from independent promotions all across the world, so there are so many more belts and titles that, in essence, it brings the overall championship aura down. In WWE, you have the WWE Title and the Universal Championship that didn’t exist years ago. The I.C. Title has always been and always will be a unique belt with the lineage that goes with it. But it all depends on the champion and it always has. You are looking at the greatest of all-time, and do you know why I was the greatest of all-time? Because I told you that I’m the greatest of all-time. But it is just a different era.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling Southpaw Regional Wrestling characters and the stage set-up will be included in the February 7th WWE 2K20 update.

Link: https://wwe.2k.com/news/wwe-2k20-ori...nal-wrestling/ Speaking of WWE 2K20, sales for the game are down by around $2 million compared to WWE 2K19. Link: https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/...24515515195392

Originally Posted by Fightful Hosting a special NWO panel on the Chris Jericho Rock N Wrestling Rager At Sea: Part Deux, Scott Hall was telling the story of how he went to Vince and let him know about WCW's contract offer. Hall, as he's said many times, wanted to take the money and Vince wasn't offering the same amount Chiming in, Jericho discussed his conversation with McMahon when he signed with AEW. "I'm not in AEW because I was a rebel. I'm in AEW because Vince went, 'Go.' And then when I went, he went, 'You signed the contract?' 'Yeah.' 'Can you get out of it?' 'No. You told me to sign it.' He had the opportunity to stop it, like he did with [Scott Hall], which is very interesting to me. 23 years later, he made the same...I love Vince," he said.

TPWW Frontpage:

• WWE: Backstage Ratings, New Woman Ref Signed, Jake Atlas Debuts
• WWE Stock Price Plummets Again After Release of Q4 2019 Financial Report
• WWE Considering Airing Their PPVs on Another Streaming Service