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Welcome back to the EXCELLENCE IN COLUMN WRITING here at LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com. So last week, a bunch of WWE marks were yelling "see, see, see, WWE Network is a raging success" as they saw the 2015 WWE Year-end Financials post. Instead of actually reading the financial report, the WWE marks read the WWE's Press Release and were also hanging on CEO/Board Chairman Vince McMahon's every word. Sure, when you hear the spin from the company itself, it looks like the WWE had a great year... But investors know better. Last week, the WWE Stock began trading at about $17.00 per share... Then, in anticipation of the earnings release, several wise investors got out early... As soon as the WWE earnings drop on the market, BAM, dropping from about $16 per share to about $14.50 per share. However, the loyal WWE following online thought it was a good year. Yes, when you listen to the WWE's propaganda, you'll believe it. As I've said on day one when the first earnings release came out regarding the WWE Network (see my columns archive), the WWE Network will succeed if and only if they can keep expenses down. However, bandwidth costs money... Marketing the WWE costs money (that "free" month costs WWE lots of money)... The biggest cost of all is providing original content to keep you hooked as subscribers. Then, WWE has several expensive pieces of talent on their roster. For whatever reason, they have many long-term veterans on their roster who were actually in the Attitude Era. Roster is pretty thick on 10+ year guys now. Then, Brock Lesnar's 3 million per year, Alberto Del Rio is earning over $1 million to stay away from Lucha Underground, Rock's special appearances don't come cheap, and Cena/Orton's contacts are quite hefty. It adds up. Remember ---> Profit = Revenues - Costs. If you look at the WWE's 2015 expenses on their Financial Statements, 2015 saw about $620 million in overall expenses. Compare that to $585 million for 2014. Greatly exceeds the 2013 expenses of $502 million when the WWE Network was being built. Sure, the WWE has to spend money to make money... But 2013-2014 were the true years where those WWE Network investment costs were seen. 2015 has become a year of maintaining with the 1 Free Month policy becoming permanent for new subscribers (works for Netflix, why not?) but the more WWE Network subscribers, the increased server costs. I can't imagine how hot those servers get during BIG Pay Per View nights and many subscribers had issues with Royal Rumble 2016's broadcast at times. With over 1 million subscribers now and possibly more freebies joining just to get Wrestlemania 32, those servers could be pushed to their limits. WWE would have to pay for that extra capacity. And that's my point. While I commend the WWE on the risk of creating the WWE Network, I greatly worry about the cost containment. Things are only going to get more expensive as Cable companies continue to increase their costs of allowing streaming services to eat up much of their bandwidth. I know that Netflix pays a hefty fee to Comcast to help subsidize their bandwidth use and on a heavy Pay Per View night, WWE might be pressured to do the same. Hence, why the WWE may have agreed to remain on the USA Networks for its flagship show RAW and other Comcast/NBC/Universal channels. WWE needs the Comcast Cable Internet network and through their deal, they may be receiving a discount. In my opinion, the rising 2015 costs are just part of the disappointing reviews by investors regarding the WWE's 2015 financial performance. I believe that many focused on the 4th Quarter 2015 numbers because for the last 2 months, there was NO John Cena and the WWE was attempting to elevate other talent in his place. Accounting wise, WWE had a Net Income (loss) for the 4th Quarter at negative $1.2 million (remember, Profit = Revenues - Costs), but if you look at the WWE Network numbers, it gets very interesting... Total PAID WWE Subscribers during the 4th Quarter ended at 1,217,000 subscribers... But WWE reported an average of 1,237,000 paid subscribers during the entire quarter. That means that a run-off occurred at Quarter end. Looking at the number, the WWE at least lost 20,000 paid subscribers at month-end. But then you look at the 3rd Quarter End paid subscribers at 1,233,000. That affirms that the WWE LOST Network subscribers at year-end and heading into 2016. Not good. Higher Costs + Reduction in WWE Network subscribers (plus, lower ratings) = Lower Stock Price. I'm NOT here to blame Roman Reigns... Let's just call it what it is... At the October 2015 Pay Per View, Hell in a Cell, that show featured Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Undertaker, and John Cena... Then, POOF... John Cena takes 2 months off, Seth Rollins tears his ACL, Brock Lesnar was out of relevant dates for 2015, and the Undertaker left on his own to help headline Survivor Series 2015. Then, by TLC 2015, none of those 4 were present. For much of the year, the WWE has centered around John Cena and Seth Rollins and both are now out for an extended period of time. Randy Orton isn't there as well to help fill any voids... Daniel Bryan obviously didn't return. Injury after injury, part-timers went away. That's what investors see... I believe that they've seen enough metrics on the WWE's financials to suggest that WWE is failing to replace John Cena as a main event babyface draw. RAW ratings are down, WWE Network subscribers have dipped, attendance is down... Those are legitimate facts that cannot be denied. Vince McMahon, who has run the WWE longer than any of us, thinks that he knows best and sees potential in Roman Reigns and will also use Triple H as a wrestler to help things along. What is Vince to do? Can't get Daniel Bryan back either... Bad times for the WWE and they'll have to work hard to pull off a successful Wrestlemania 32 to convince people to believe in Roman Reigns and the WWE product. WWE needs new talent at the top of the card badly. Nothing guarantees that John Cena will ever return to 100% or even be motivated to be the Cena of old. I full expect BIGTIME Spring Cleaning by the WWE. If you're a long-time WWE Veteran of 10+ years that I described above, you might want to look up how your earnings have been invested. Labor is always the first thing to go ("variable cost" in economics) and I predict that the WWE will indeed elevate some NXT talent to the roster while letting some long-time veterans go. I also think that they'll scale back the Women's Division bigtime on the main WWE roster and maybe make Women's wrestling an NXT exclusive. So there you go... My 4th Quarter/Year-end 2015 financial analysis of the WWE. Just remember that this is for entertainment purposes and all purchases of WWE stock are made at your own risk. ========================================= Mr. Tito's WWE FASTLANE 2015 PREDICTIONS Hey - Where is Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles on this card? If it gets booked on Smackdown, give me AJ Styles for the win. --------------- WWE Pre-Game Match: 2 out of 3 Falls - Kalisto(c) vs. Alberto Del Rio I must admit... This is a pretty good match for a pre-game show. Imagine if they are legitimately given 20 minutes and just pack as much action as they can within those 20 minutes, they could really show-up the rest of the card. See, I like when WWE takes risks like this... I don't otherwise care about Kalisto vs. Del Rio but because we have 2 out of 3 falls, which doesn't happen often, I'm fascinated... WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Alberto Del Rio. I know that he had a reported back injury, but with the WWE announcing the Cruiserweight show, Kalisto might see his true calling to headline a show. But I wouldn't doubt that Alberto Del Rio wins the US Title back and begins a strong push. After all, the WWE sent the Brinks truck to Del Rio's house to re-sign him and keep him away from Lucha Underground. -------------- Sasha Banks/Becky Lynch vs. Tamina Snuka/Naomi Honestly don't care. It's a tag match with zero "sense of urgency" other than Sasha was a former member of Team BAD. So what? Not like they did anything significant together as Team BAD. I figure Sasha will go over her former team unless WWE has any plans to do Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks. Just go watch NXT if you want to see that. WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch --------------- Ryback/Big Show/Kane vs. Wyatt Family Zzzzzz... Let's find 3 big stiffs to throw at the Wyatt Family. Sorry, but WWE has zero plans for Ryback, Big Show, and Kane other than occupying a spot on the WWE roster to look tough when needed. Yet, not many people are allowed to beat those 3... This match will feature Braun Strowman dominating in the end because that's one of Vince McMahon's handpicked future superstars. WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Wyatt Family --------------- Divas Title: Charlotte(c) vs. Brie Bella Most think that we're going to see Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks at Wrestlemania 32. Now now, you have too much NXT on your brain. This is Vince McMahon's world where the Bella Twins are heavily favored by Vince and WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn. Remember, the Total Divas factor comes into play here... Brie Bella is overcoming adversity with her sister Nikki out with an injury (maybe retired) and now Daniel Bryan's retirement. I think what you'll see is a booking favor done for her in the wake of that adversity and it will be done to boost Total Divas. Maybe... But if Brie Bella is truly going to start a family soon, then this could be one last run before Daniel Bryan releases his army onto the Bella beach... WHO SHOULD WIN: Charlotte. Damn it, give me Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks at Wrestlemania 32. WHO WILL WIN: Brie Bella. I wouldn't doubt that we'll see a Triple Threat at Wrestlemania 32 between Brie, Charlotte, and Sasha for the Divas Title. Maybe Brie wins and then loses on RAW? --------------- Intercontinental Title: Kevin Owens(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler As I type this, I'm watching RAW on Hulu and the RAW Intercontinental 5 Way match is on... Thank you WWE Fastlane Card for the spoilers! Zero hype heading into this match given that Owens wins the title just 1 week before the Pay Per View. If you are a Dean Ambrose fan, this could be a GREAT move because losing the Intercontinental Title might suggest Ambrose will wrestle Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 32... WHO SHOULD WIN / WHO WILL WIN: Kevin Owens. You can't let him drop the title in less than 1 week after winning it. That and I have no faith in Dolph Ziggler based on the way WWE Creative repeatedly buries him. --------------- #1 Contendership for WWE Title: Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns How can I predict otherwise? Triple H vs. Roman Reigns is set in stone based on the events of TLC 2015 and Royal Rumble 2016. Can't deny it, so why fight it? But I think the more intriguing part of this match is Dean Ambrose wrestling Brock Lesnar. Could we get that match-up for Wrestlemania 32? I would love it... WHO SHOULD WIN: If we're getting Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar, I'm OK with Roman Reigns happening. Sometimes, you've got to compromise and I would be happy with WWE giving us fan service with Lesnar/Dean. Otherwise, I'm booking my strongest guy to win this match and Brock Lesnar should win and give the SummerSlam 2014 Cena treatment to Triple H. Lots of Germans, please. WHO WILL WIN: Duh, Roman Reigns is winning. WWE invested lots of time in building HHH vs. Reigns and won't throw it away now. ============================================== RAW is HULU Being brutally honest here, I wrote most of this column while RAW is Hulu was on... And finished it at 11:30pm. Bear in mind that I wrote my RAW review last and if there's a drop-off in quality during this part, well, I wrote this part last when I'm extremely tired... MISSED THE CUT on Hulu's 1:30 airing -Paige vs. Summer Rae -Heath Slater vs. Zack Ryder (this had "CUT ME HULU" written all over it) -Lucha Dragons/Neville vs. League of Nations -Becky Lynch vs. Naomi -Dudley Boyz Segment In my opinion, the cuts have been excellent on RAW lately for the Hulu 1 and a half hour broadcast. Between watching a condensed RAW and seeing the new mini-series 11.22.63, along with Drawn Together reruns (I need my fix, I'm sick!), Hulu is rising up my streaming viewership list. Oh, and that Triump the Insult Comic Dog election special... LOL Show starts off with Dean Ambrose, which is cool... I'm glad to see Ambrose getting a better role on RAW and hopefully removing the Intercontinental Title means some kind of promotion up the card. WWE needs him... Stephanie confronts him in the ring and puts his Intercontinental Title up for grabs in a 5 way match. And I enjoyed that 5 way match with Dean Ambrose defending his title against Kevin Owens, Stardust, Tyler Breeze, & Dolph Ziggler. Yeah, Dean Ambrose, it's time to drop the IC Title if this is your competiton. And I'm not ripping the talents but how WWE Creative has poorly used all 4 of those guys recently. Owens won and we get INSTA-BOOKING of Owens vs. Ziggler at Fastlane. OK... But fun 5 way match to start the show. Big E beat Mark Henry... It's almost a shame that Mark Henry didn't officially join New Day and maybe break out that "Sexual Chocolate" gimmick for one last go around... Oh well. Hopefully, this was an injury angle for Henry and not another real injury for the guy. He's too injury prone in the later stages of his career which is amazing considering how he's not exactly taking high risk moves or getting slammed by other wrestlers. I enjoyed the Brie Bella and Charlotte segment... Charlotte's not bad with a heel promo, especially talking down to her opponents. Brie finally had a sense of purpose as a babyface by being the proud wife of Daniel Bryan and wanting to stand up for herself in wake of his retirement. I'm more hyped for this match than pretty much any Divas match since the famous "Divas Revolution" happen. And that's sad. Good match between Miz vs. AJ Styles again... Consistently good matches from AJ Styles and better yet, he's pushing his opponents to better matches as well. That's a good worker... Afterward, Jericho and Styles confront each other... Wait, are they wrestling at WWE Fastlane? I don't see it on WWE.com or anywhere else... On Smackdown? Paul Heyman does his usual attempt at talking up Roman Reigns in the ring again... Same old, same old... We saw this repeatedly last year. This time, though, the Dudley Boyz attacked Roman Reigns to begin the "ECW Reunion 2016" speculation. Dean Ambrose for the save but then he hints at wanting to fight Roman Reigns. Vincent J. McMahon award, eh? We'll see who wins this first before judging. My guess is the Undertaker as the recipient? Main Event was Big Show vs. Braun Strowman... Blah. Not much of a match as lots of interference happened to begin setting up the Kane/Big Show/Ryback vs. Wyatts match. Good to see Ryback changing his tights... Bray Wyatt's promo at the beginning of this match was so tired and repetitive. Fans were crapping on it with the "WHAT?!?" chants but in this case, he deserved it. The character is stale, sadly. I actually watched Big Show on the Stone Cold Podcast with Steve Austin on WWE Network LIVE as it happened. Great show... I wonder how much trouble Big Show could get in by saying how "horrible" he's been used by WWE Creative. Little too revealing for being an active wrestler yet Big Show praised the WWE heavily many times as well. Very much worth watching if you have the WWE Network. Ditto for the recent JBL interview with Ron Simmons which is equally as good. SHOW THOUGHTS: The usual "GO HOME" edition of RAW, although I wouldn't have ended the show with hyping a midcard 6 man match. They should have ended with Heyman/Reigns segment, particularly with the way that ended with Ambrose and Reigns. The real money at WWE Fastlane is if WWE delivers with a strong match between Ambrose/Reigns/Lesnar and develops Ambrose vs. Lesnar from that match. Otherwise, Fastlane is quickly thrown together and we're just counting the days between now and Wrestlemania 32. [ C+ ] grade for this week's show. ============================================== THE LAST WORD Throughout the week, I kept getting asked "what do you think about Titus O'Neil's suspension?"... And my response has been... Eh, what about it? From all that I can gather, Titus was suspended for breaking character at a televised live event (on WWE Network). If you saw the end of the Daniel Bryan post celebration, the ending shot was Daniel Bryan entering through the curtain and Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H following him to end the WWE Network's additional feed. That was a planned shot... Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon are very particular on the way things look on camera and especially particular on the way that the camera fades at the end. Instead of seeing HHH/Vince/Stephanie follow Daniel Bryan to the back, Vince McMahon is tugged and pulled back by Titus O'Neil clowning around. Vince is clearly pissed and probably went nuclear backstage for Titus ruining the ending shot. The result? 90 Day Suspension (revised to 60 days). Vince McMahon almost fired him, too... Almost instantly, the Internet was in an uproar. Oh, the "WWE is racist, the WWE is unfair". Really? Now, most will argue that this was a WWE Network extra and shouldn't have been taken seriously like RAW, Smackdown, Pay Per Views, or other officially taped events. But, what is also being reported is that Vince McMahon is fed up with wrestlers "going into business for themselves" and not always following scripts. I can only imagine that Vince doesn't like heels/faces saluting themselves after matches, improvised spots responding to fans, and saying different things in promos. Vince is most obsessive over his television product, however... Every segment has a purpose and Vince wants those segments to end with a specific look... Not with Vince getting pulled by a midcard wrestler. And why the 90 day suspension? Well, what would you like the WWE to do instead? BURY Titus with WWE Creative? HA! If WWE Creative buried Titus down the card, I wouldn't be able to tell... WWE has yet to take a Titus singles run seriously. That's much different than in mid-1996 when Triple H completely broke character and saluted the departing Diesel and Razor Ramon in the ring while also saluting the top babyface Shawn Michaels. Triple H had a pending big push on the way, reportedly going to win the King of the Ring 1996, and he had everything to lose by being demoted on the WWE card. With Titus, there are no plans... Thus, the WWE hit his wallet... I probably would have done 30 days, as 60 days is a bit harsh... If we were to assume that Titus makes roughly $250,000 as a downside guarantee (I'm probably being conservative), that's $42,000 ripped out of his salary. He has a family to support. Oh pity him, eh? At a $250,000 annual base salary, Titus is paying 33% Federal Income Tax. But what would bother me more, if I were the WWE, is how quickly the Titus O'Neil's suspensions was reported along with what Vince McMahon almost did (terminate him). How on earth are we able to know backstage happenings so quickly? Riddle me this... Reportedly, Vince McMahon was pushing for Braun Strowman to either wrestle Brock Lesnar or the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 32. Sure, the WWE grants their monopolies to specific insider news reporters to test balloon certain ideas. The manner of which these Strowman/Wrestlemania news stories were reported, however, were not flattering towards Vince McMahon. Ditto for plans to push Roman Reigns... All leaked. In fact, stories were coming out that Vince wanted to push Roman Reigns hard during 2014. Other things that keep getting leaked about Vince... Tearing up multiple RAW scripts given to him by Creative, mood swings, being very critical of NXT talent call-ups, and his continual dislike for tag team wrestling. For the most part, we as wrestling fans on the internet are hearing about happenings at WWE Production Meetings. WWE has several meetings backstage during the day at RAW tapings in particular. For one, you have the WWE Creative Meeting which pieces together scripts and storylines from previous shows or any ideas hatched by Vince, HHH, and Kevin Dunn. Those meetings are usually led by Triple H or one of his direct creative reports. Then, hours before the show, the WWE Production meeting is held with Vince McMahon and WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn attending. There, the creative direction that was decided earlier in the day is presented to Vince and Dunn. Vince is critical of the creative direction and Kevin Dunn is usually vocal with how it could look on television. HHH and his key direct reports (talent, live events, creative) also attend the meetings. But yet we keep hearing details of those WWE Production Meetings, specifically what Vince McMahon says at those meetings. Huh? Vince is the CEO and Chairman of the Board for the WWE Corporation. How on earth is a CEO and Board Chairman's closed door discussions being made public? And better yet, why aren't those same insider news reports discussing any of Triple H's comments made at those SAME meetings? Hmmmm... That's fascinating. After all, there's a good chance that Triple H attends BOTH the Creative and Production meetings and would therefore have more information to be recorded and reported to the insiders. Not a peep. When I had some WWE contacts during the early to mid 2000's, I was told by a few sources that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are extremely sensitive to gossip and negative comments made about them. From what I heard, there were various HHH/Steph loyalists who snitched on any wrestlers talking smack on the couple or any of their creative decisions. Several of the Ohio Valley Wrestling "Class of 2002-2004" wrestlers were repeatedly placed into the WWE "doghouse" for gossip or Creative Team bashing and those wrestlers were gone by 2009 at the latest. Various wrestlers, writers, and road agents quickly saw the writing-on-the-wall that Triple H/Stephanie would one day be in charge and hitched their wagon quickly to the couple. Any wrestlers talking smack were quickly reported on and disposed with time. You hear NOTHING on Triple H as an EVP of Talent, Live Events, and Creative. Think about how many meetings backstage that Triple H attends. Furthermore, access to Vince McMahon is far more exclusive than Triple H. Now, it could be that HHH repeatedly vents to writers and talent that "Vince is in the way" that allows HHH to escape being mentioned in the dirtsheets. But it could be something else, far more sinister. It's just funny to me how a CEO/Board Chairman has information repeatedly leaked on him... I don't see the CEOs of Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Walmart, or any other Corporations for that matter having their closed door meeting comments leaked. Not at all... WWE is a unique corporation in that its CEO/Board Chairman is repeatedly trashed in the news media and to the point where it could actually hurt the WWE's business model. After all, even though we are critical of Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman, what if we didn't have all of this insider information leaked that told us about their upcoming pushes? Now, we watch both win repeatedly or look strong in every segment and blindly think "Vince McMahon is behind this". Things are made worse when Vince, himself, now appears on RAW to help push Roman Reigns. The LEAKED news is making Vince McMahon look bad and worse yet, it's exposing the business. Do you want ratings to improve? STOP THE LEAKS! Yes, I'm aware that might hurt our business here at LoP, as we report the news and you mostly come here to read it... But the Pro Wrestling business has been exposed for too long that it has caused the fans to stop caring... Lack of regard for Title Belts, being very open at how scripted the wrestling business is (very open on the WWE Network), and the wrestlers themselves openly talking about how their line of work is "entertainment" and not "competition" has done its damage. The WWE needs a serious crackdown of proportions larger than just suspending Titus O'Neil for breaking character and goofing around with Vince McMahon. If Vince McMahon were a true leader in 2016 and wanted to fix his product, he should first root out who has been leaking WWE Production Meeting notes to the insiders. Terminate them immediately, even if it's your son-in-law or daughter. Secondly, start to cover-up the scripted part of the business. Make your WWE wrestlers speak as if WWE is a legitimate athletic competition and don't let them break character in public. What the WWE needs is for wrestling fans to suspend their disbelief enough to make them want to watch more and more and more and more... Once you've buttoned down the leaks and changed the tone of your company away from admitting that it's scripted... Then, you can tackle the big event industry. As I've said for YEARS, WWE has the distinct advantage of controlling the outcomes of their wrestling events instead of delivering a boring 12 round match or something that lasts under 1 minute like Boxing or MMA. Titus O'Neil, though it could have been handled better, could be the start of tightening up things in the WWE. However, Vince is 70 years old and might not have the energy to really crackdown on how much information is known to the public. Thus, it is likely that we'll hear more "Vince is senile" stories coming out of the pro wrestling news media and it shall be leaked by the very same people that Vince has made into millionaires. As for Titus, if what happened was so bad, more WWE wrestlers should stick up for him... So far, we have Batista who is pretty much done with WWE and can say whatever... I can imagine that most WWE wrestlers realize that WWE is the only true payday for pro wrestling and won't say anything. However, I think that most wrestlers know that Titus was in the wrong by screwing with Vince on camera and to end a production shot... The message may have already been sent and received. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. Like Super Mario Maker for the Nintendo Wii U? Then check out my pro-wrestling based courses within Course World --> Search: - WrestleWar - ID: AEAC-0000-01C3-4578 - nWo Run-in - ID: 2274-0000-01B3-5AC0 - WCW Wargames - ID: 7BAA-0000-01B0-8F99 - WWE Royal Rumble - ID: 7B38-0000-01A3-2F4C - Pro Wrestling Mario - ID: E290-0000-0199-7AC7 © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2016
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