[Emperor Smeat]

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Originally Posted by Observer WWE announced Thursday that they set a record for revenue of $214.6 million for the WrestleMania quarter, finishing with $5.1 million in profits as compared to $199 million in revenue and $800,000 in profits for the same quarter last year The big key was less spending on the WWE Network. With fewer original non-wrestling shows, the profit margin for Network and pay-per-view was $1.2 million for the quarter instead of $8.3 million in losses for the same period one year ago. Actual subscribers were up four percent as of June 30th, but the number of people who canceled was also the largest in the history of the Network.

In terms of the Network it went from around 1.9 million to around 1.6 million although unlike before, didn't bother to reveal the split between free and paid accounts.

Originally Posted by Observer Television, based on new deals and escalating deals, also increased in profitability and when it comes to overall profitability, it is still television and live shows that carry things. Live event profitability was down even though business was steady. North American shows were slightly up in attendance when you factor out WrestleManias each year (with WrestleMania, things were down based on the larger venue capacity last year). North American non-Mania attendance went from 5400 to 5500 due to the increased number of pay-per-views that draw a larger attendance. Including WrestleMania in the average, it would be a decline from 6600 to 6400. Overseas shows fell from an average of 8000 to an average of 6300, but the drop was partially due to adding a lot more events in new markets.

Pretty much everything that went up also had something go down or had a catch for the increase.

Originally Posted by Observer A question regarding moving Raw and SmackDown to Facebook came up and George Barrios noted that Raw and SmackDown is the company's biggest revenue stream and felt that at some point, social media platforms will mean as much as television does which is why they are working on their social media following. When asked about the much-discussed weekly UK television show, Barrios really didn't answer or give a timetable. As noted before, WWE had contacted venues for monthly tapings that would have started in June, but then backed off with no announcements.

More details from the financial report: http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/ww...k-churn-240016

Originally Posted by Observer WWE 2K18 will have a collector's edition celebrating the 15th anniversary of John Cena's debut. It includes playable versions of Cena, Rob Van Dam, Batista, and Kurt Angle, a Cena action figure, and a plaque autographed by Cena.

Link with details: http://www.wwe.com/section/wwe-2k18/...n-announcement

Originally Posted by Observer Mike Kanellis tweeted to someone who called him a joke in Impact and WWE, with Kanellis writing that the difference is that he gets paid now. Matt Hardy responded: "It is truly DELIGHTFUL to get your check every week, on time, without having to chase it down for months."

Link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/RealMikeBennett/...18587781636096, Matt Hardy's response: https://twitter.com/MATTHARDYBRAND/s...93381638291456

Originally Posted by Observer WWE is putting out an exclusive Brock Lesnar shirt for those in attendance at their last show at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Saturday. Lesnar is facing Samoa Joe in a Universal title match at the house show.

Link to the announcement: https://twitter.com/HeymanHustle/sta...24971994787840

Originally Posted by Observer Skip Chaisson, the El Rey Network's chief creative officer, told IGN that things "look good" for Lucha Underground being renewed and said that they're discussing where to place it on their schedule.

Originally Posted by Observer PROGRESS Wrestling announced that Candice LeRae will debut for the promotion at their show in London on Sunday in a Women's title match against Toni Storm. That show will also have British Strong Style defending their tag titles against Mark Haskins & Jimmy Havoc.

Link to the announcement: https://twitter.com/ThisIs_Progress/...60609867472896

Originally Posted by PWI Global Force Wrestling has added two more dates to their scheduled August tapings in Orlando, Florida at Universal Studios. The company will now tape from 8/17-8/22, six days total. The company also officially announced the lineups for their 8/4 event in St. James, Long Island and 8/5 debut in Staten Island. No sign of Alberto el Patron.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc We noted before that several WWE RAW Superstars met up with GFW wrestlers at a bar after the July 17th RAW in Nashville. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Karen Jarrett approached Braun Strowman at the bar but it's believed that Strowman had no idea who she was. Karen commented that Braun was one of her son's favorite wrestlers and asked for an autograph for her son. Strowman was reportedly rude to Karen and may have sworn at her. This turned into a scene at the bar as Karen immediately "cut a major loud promo" on Strowman for blowing her off. While Karen was ranting at Braun, she mentioned that she was going to tell her son's father, RAW General Manager Kurt Angle, about what happened. Strowman then changed his tune and said he would sign the autograph, begging Karen not to tell Kurt or anyone else. Strowman also apologized. Karen said she was still going to tell Kurt, which led to Braun saying he would get on his knees and beg her not to. The Observer noted that Braun then got on his knees in front of a bunch of WWE talents and begged Karen not to. Karen said something to the tune of, "you're acting like that because you found out that Kurt Angle" is the father of her son, but even if he wasn't, Braun should not have acted like that to a mom who was trying to get her son an autograph. Braun said that she was right and he was sorry.

Originally Posted by WrestleInc There has been talk of doing another Superstar Shakeup after next month's WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view, according to new reports by PWInsider and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. WWE previously held a roster Shakeup in April after WrestleMania 33. While it might seem early for another Shakeup, The Observer notes that there is definitely talk of making a few roster moves in the fall. There has also been talk of sending one or more Superstars from the main roster to WWE NXT. The moves from the main roster to NXT would be for talents that were major stars in NXT that Vince McMahon simply is not going to push on RAW or SmackDown, even if they are over, or talents who are doing nothing on the main roster with the feeling that they could be more useful as top stars in NXT.

Originally Posted by Observer Khali was kept secret and away from everyone. It wasn’t a secret that Mahal was winning, but the Khali interference was not well known. Khali wasn’t at television after, nor is he advertised at this point for any shows going forward. The one thing is that Khali is a legitimate well-known star in India. Since business growth in India is the big goal right now, even as limited as Khali is, using him makes all the sense in the world. Plus him being with Mahal, even in a limited capacity, may help get Mahal over to a higher level and be the modern Indian superstar the company is trying so hard to make

Originally Posted by Observer Thus far, business is G-1 is also strong. At press time, every show but one, the 7/25 show in Fukushima, sold out in advance, and that show did end up being sold out. It was almost weird on 7/24 when the word was out the day before the show that there were tickets available. For a comparison with last year, four of the first even nights were legitimate sellouts and overall business based on the same period last year is up nine percent from what was considered a strong tour. Another amazing stat is that the Japanese language feed of opening night, which was available free, did 600,000 live views. What that shows is that in Japan, there is great interest, but the mentality of paying for a streaming service isn’t there as New Japan World only had just over 60,000 paying subscribers at that point. The WWE Network, for the same reason, hasn’t done well in the Japanese market.

Originally Posted by Observer While at the San Diego Comic Con, Johnny Mundo was asked if he was 100 percent done with AAA, and he said, “Never say never in wrestling.” He also said, “I still have the AAA titles. We still have business to take care of. We’re working things out, with several different companies and we’re dealing with a firestorm with the comments that have been flying back-and-forth on Twitter because of the situation, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Regarding Vampiro, he said, “Vampiro is a yes man. Vampiro just says yes to everyone, and he’s got his nose was up Dorian’s turd cutter and all it does is tell people what they want to hear. And ultimately, it sucks, because he tells us what we want to hear, and he tells someone else what they want to hear, and ultimately, he’s just lying to everyone. Both were later at a 7/21 show in Tijuana where they tried to turn their Twitter thing into an angle. Not sure how well it worked since their beef was in English and most AAA fans don’t follow the company on Twitter, and particularly don’t in English ... After the match, Mundo brought all three of his belts and threw them on the ground in front of Vampiro. Vampiro then praised Mundo and Taya (who wasn’t there) and said he was disrespecting the belts. Mundo ran down Vampiro like it was on Twitter and said he would come to Aguascalientes (where AAA has its TV taping) if they paid him what he was owed. Mundo also threw the mic at Vampiro. Vampiro teased fighting Mundo. The belief is that Taya is not going back, but Mundo will be doing business and at least working TripleMania, but it’s unclear what his plans are after that point

Originally Posted by Observer To save money and not have to tape content for the “One Night Only” shows, they are using footage from the GFW tapings a few years ago in Las Vegas with Chael Sonnen and others as monthly PPVs and free monthly specials for India and the U.K. Bobby Roode was on the tapings and they were marketing the next show around the idea that what was Bobby Roode doing in Las Vegas for the GFW show, like the show was new and Roode was showing up for it. Decades ago, Bill Watts did a segment on his shows where they’d show old footage of guys who were in WWF at the time, from Mid South months to years earlier, losing to wrestlers who were in Mid South, usually clean on their way out of the territory. Watts would air the footage, pretend the matches had just happened and how the WWF guys were looking for real competition, and then talk about how when they came in to test the Mid South guys they ended up not being able too hang

Originally Posted by Observer There was also talk about ROH, with Nordholm saying that ROH wants an answer but they can’t give ROH an answer (this would be regarding the proposed Hardys vs. Young Bucks program that was to go on for months in both promotions trading the tag titles back-and-forth) unless Matt signed his deal. Matt talked about being at the tail end of his career and wanting to make sure he made the right deal for his family and said he was open for negotiations, and was willing t come to Orlando for TV, but Nordholm said that unless he signed a new deal, even if it’s a short-term deal, they can’t put him on TV

Seems its not just the Hardys who are currently pissed with Impact/GFW's new management.


Some other sheet news includes:

• In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Triple H celebrated his 48th birthday today with people in the Performance Center singing him a happy birthday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_anKwirT5E
• In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Rock revealed the origins for his wacky Stunner sells was from him making beer bets with Austin on how crazy he could sell the move at a given night. https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/890624770089168897
• In a third "WWE Did You Know" type fact, The Drifter Elias Sampson recently joined the "No Longer has a Last Name" stable in the WWE. WWE's website revealed his new name is just Elias. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...his_last_name/
• Moose announced he has signed a new 3 year deal with GFW. https://twitter.com/MooseNation69/st...64903609053184
• Sneak peak of the upcoming Kurt Angle WWE Network Colelction set was recently released. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=BSfir9t9P-k
• Latest episode of Corey Graves Superstar Ink had Jeff Hardy as the guest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPChqPS93v8
• The Charlotte Observer had a recent interview with Cody Rhodes talking about leaving the WWE, NJPW G1 Special, and his lucky charm for wrestling. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...cape-from-wwe/
• Recent episode of Edge & Christian's podcast show had AJ Styles as the guest talking about winning the US title at a house show, wanting Nakamura for a Mania match, and more. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...change-at-msg/
• The Observer's Dave Meltzer wrote an article about the changes in wrestling over the years and pulled an article he wrote 24 years ago about this same situation. Basically it talked about not becoming disgruntled because things are no longer like the old days since entertainment has to evolve. Also not become just another person who gets seen as being out of touch because they refuse to see the good in modern wrestling. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...hanging_times/
• WWE is currently selling a new Braun Strowman shirt which is basically his catchphrase at the start of his theme. http://shop.wwe.com/braun-strowman-b...=Black#start=6
• AAA/LU's Vampiro is currently dealing with a scandal involving him and a wrestling camp being alleged to have stolen money from students. Supposedly the camp shut down after all the students paid. The camp claims Vampiro took his share of the money and then refused to work for them. Vampiro claims he never dropped out, never was paid, and wasn't the person who handled the money from the camp.