Ryan Glasspiegel of TheBigLead.com recently spoke with Jim Ross:
How do you feel about Stephanie and Triple H as prospective leaders when the baton eventually — and who knows when that will be — gets passed?
I think they’re going to be great leaders because they have an inherent love and understanding of the genre. I don’t think anyone can lead WWE without understanding the two key components of talent and television. This is a different field than being the president of the New England Patriots, for example. Bob Kraft is smart enough to leave the football operations to Bill Belichick and company, and he’s also smart enough as a businessman to hire really good people to manage the other aspects of the business.
I think that Triple H and Stephanie will have good instincts on which people to surround themselves with. More importantly, I think they’ll have thorough understanding of the core business as far as to assemble a team of wrestlers, prepare them, manage them, and produce compelling television.
This is not like a job for them — it’s not like going to a headhunter and hiring an executive. This is their life, and I’ll take my chances any day with somebody who has that kind of passion in managing a company.
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May 27, 2014
Jim Ross Talks About Triple H and Stephanie Running WWE
WWE wrestler Kane helps hold a free workshop about concussions for the community
Kane and WWE's Dr. Chris Amann held a concussion workshop at Halls Middle School in Knoxville, Tennessee on Monday. This is the first of many workshops planned across the country to keep student athletes safe. Click here for the local news video.
Two WWE Hall of Famers Appearing at NXT Takeover
On Monday night's edition of WWE RAW, it was announced that WWE Hall of Famers Ric Flair and Bret Hart will both be appearing at this Thursday night's NXT Takeover event on the WWE Network.
They will both play roles in the NXT Women's Championship Match, as Flair will be in Charlotte's corner and Hart will be in Natalya's corner.
Brad Maddox Fired As WWE RAW General Manager
On Monday night's edition of WWE RAW, Brad Maddox was fired as the on-screen General Manager of the show. There is no word on who Maddox's potential replacement could be.
May 26, 2014
WWE Announces NXT Takeover Pre-Show Panel
WWE has announced that the panel for the NXT Takeover pre-show will consist of Renee Young, Christian, Paul Heyman, and Cesaro.
The pre-show will air on Thursday at 7:30PM EST on the WWE Network, half an hour before the two-hour NXT Takeover event airs live also on the WWE Network.
May 25, 2014
May 24, 2014
Vince and Linda McMahon Named As Republican Mega-Donors
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and his wife Linda McMahon have been named as Republican mega-donors according public finance records acquired by The Washington Times.
The McMahons have given around $1 million to Republican candidates, party committees and super PACs this year, including Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts’ group Ending Spending.
The donations for the most part have been made in Linda’s name. Before Linda’s run for Senate, the McMahons donated only around $30,000 in 2006 and 2008.
May 23, 2014
WWE Network News and Notes: Monday Night War, Advertisements, Subscribers, Apple, More
* WWE CFO George Barrios participated in a presentation at the Global Technology, Media & Telecom conference in Boston this week. Here are some highlights:
* The Monday Night War will debut "in the fall" on the WWE Network.
* Assuming WWE loses all of their pay-per-view business, they need 1.3-1.4 million WWE Network subscribers to break even. They believe they can reach 2-4 million subscribers globally within 2-3 years
* They monitor the quality of the WWE Network "by the second" after going through some rough patches during launch week.
* On March 30th, they had "about" 500,000 subscribers for the Network. By WrestleMania XXX Sunday on April 7th, they had 667,000 subscribers. They will announce numbers quarterly going forward.
* Apple gets 30% of any subscribers made through them. There are similar deals for other platforms, such as a Roku.
* They have discussed running advertisements on the Network but haven't made a decision on that.
* WWE doesn't maintain credit cards on file from Network subscriptions as they use partners to process that material.
Miami Herald Offers In Depth Look at Why WWE is NOT in Bad Shape Financially, Takes Aim At Those Who “Gleefully Knock WWE” & More
The Miami Herald has posted a new article covering the misconceptions which came out of the report of WWE recently losing $350 million in one day. The article speaks to those "who gleefully knock WWE by claiming the company doesn’t know what it’s doing, is losing money and will soon be going out of business."
Below are some excerpts, and you can read the entire piece at this link.
WWE’s stock took a downward spiral late last week, falling hard from the $20 price per share to the $11 range, after investors did not like the TV deal WWE signed with NBCUniversal. Investors expected a bigger deal financially.
Let’s look at two areas.
1) The television deal
WWE did not get the dollar amount investors wanted, but WWE did increase the amount of money it will receive from NBCUniversal annually for its television rights.
It’s been reported WWE’s new contract with NBC Universal will net $150 million annually, which is nearly a 70-percent increase from the previous deal worth $90 million per year.
What? The stock dropped. I thought WWE was losing money.
This is a fact and a big one. The company received a 70-percent raise from NBCUniversal.
Rumor Mill - Details On The Return Of Tough Enough, Change Of Philosophy In WWE
It looks like the WWE is going in the direction of using actual trained wrestlers for the return of Tough Enough as opposed to starting from scratch and offering a developmental deal. Preliminary information suggests the cast will feature talent already under developmental contract.
Speaking of WWE developmental, there may be a change in philosophy in the company’s system. There have been internal talks about signing talent solely for use on NXT. The thinking is that NXT is its own brand and the company has to decide if it could be a permanent home for some talent where there isn’t a spot for them on the main roster.
While WWE has heavily considered producing a cruiserweight-only show as original WWE Network programming, the thinking is they may already have that with NXT.
The use of Tyson Kidd and Natalya on NXT are good examples of the company slightly pivoting when it comes to developmental. While the core purpose of NXT will always be to develop new talent, it’s not the only purpose with the evolution of WWE Network.
