Welcome to another edition of The Wrestling Post. This week we look at the WWE calling out TUF, a new distribution deal for the WWE and CM Punk not happy with management.
WWE makes another run at the UFC
During this week’s Monday Night Raw, the WWE took a shot at the low ratings of TUF. In one of its intro bumpers it boasted that the WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown on SyFy was the most socially active show on broadcast and cable TV. The bumper went on to state that it beat The Ultimate Fighter “by 10 times!” (via MMA Fighting).
Payout Take: The implication is that the WWE has more viewers and a bigger fan base promoting the product via social media than the UFC. Yet, as the MMA Fighting article points out, neither company considers the other a direct competitor. Usually, the WWE touts (no pun intended) its company versus others in the marketplace. This past Monday, another one of its bumpers stated sales of the WWE’s game, WWE ’13, exceeded that of Madden and NBA2k13.
The interesting thing is that the UFC usually does not return fire at the WWE even though Dana White is known for responding to anything negative about the UFC.
WWE forges new international distribution deal
The WWE announced it has entered into an agreement with FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) for the exclusive home entertainment rights to WWE’s catalogue of programming across Europe, Middle East and Africa. (EMEA).
According to the press release FME will manage the DVD, Blu-ray and digital rights for all new and existing WWE content, making it the first time that fans of WWE’s popular programming can access it digitally across EMEA.
Payout Take: The move should help with growth internationally and bolster the profits overseas. The digital media sector is lagging based on the 3rd Quarter results from the company so this move looks to assist with this issue.
CM Punk appears on The Talking Dead; gets to be Grand Marshal of parade
WWE Champ CM Punk will appear on AMC’s The Talking Dead, the shoulder programming for the network’s big hit, The Walking Dead. The interesting part of this is that Punk was critical of the WWE for not promoting his appearance this Sunday.
The WWE has promoted its talent on other programming. This past Monday, it promoted the WWE taking over the E! Networks “The Soup,” on Raw this past Monday but no mention of Punk’s appearance.
Payout Take: Whether or not Punk is in his bad guy character when he’s tweeted his disappointment for not promoting his appearance. It could be a part of his gimmick but I would think that the WWE would want to take advantage of any mainstream publicity it could especially since The Walking Dead is one of the more popular shows out there. Even if Punk would be on the talk show supporting TWD, it would be beneficial for the WWE. Overall, appearances by WWE characters on The Soup and The Talking Dead help the brand and its characters and reflect an emphasis on the Entertainment part of WWE.
“The interesting thing is that the UFC usually does not return fire at the WWE even though Dana White is known for responding to anything negative about the UFC.”
It would really be stupid of White to return fire. For no other reason than he has tried for years to distance the UFC product from Professional wrestling. Even when the UFC used Brock it was only because his legit wrestling background which is what they promoted him with. Dont remember them ever mentioning his Pro Wrestling. Dana wants the UFC lumped in with real sports. singling out WWE and taking shots would only cause people to lump the UFC in with WWE more so than they already do. It would be like Dana calling out Toughman contests and making it a point to out due them. He would only be killing his credibility as a real sport in the minds of the public.
As for the WWE. This is what they always do. Everything about wrestling is stolen. They are the least original group i have ever seen. All the way down to characters they create are just lifted straight from current news. When gays are accepted and it was in the news they bring out Golddust. If there is a war they bring out Sergent Slaughter, When fighters got big in UFC they signed Shamrock, When MMA moves got well known they added them to their matches, When MMA got big they had a half dozen guys pretendign to be fighters pretending to be submission experts. IF there is a big boxing match they bring in the boxer. Almost every once of success the WWE has had has been piggybacked off someone else who is completely sepperate. From Mr T to Maywether Jr to bring in actors and Super Bowl champs to music acts. To me it seems like they dont have a clue. You would think it would be easy to create stars when everything is scripted and you can have anyone you want win and win impressively. But when you look how many top wrestlers had to go through 10 different characters before making it big you see how many times the WWE strikes out. Their success is based on law of averages rather than any real talent in creating stars. If you have Steve Austin play 20 different roles eventually you luck into a Stone Cold and people forget Stunning Steve. So to wrap up WWE is doing what they do best. trying to ride the success of someone else. Hoping to trick their fan base into thinking Pro Wrestling is cool and everyone is watching it.
Recent WWE stock price history:
Thanksgiving of 2005 – $13.39 a share
Thanksgiving of 2006 – $15.94 a share
Thanksgiving of 2007 – $15.18 a share
Thanksgiving of 2008 – $9.59 a share
Thanksgiving of 2009 – $16.09 a share
Thanksgiving of 2010 – $13.84 a share
Thanksgiving of 2011 – $9.14 a share
Thanksgiving of 2012 – $7.84 a share
wwe doesnt even make much profit, but the ufc is sitting on a mountain of debt.