Peacock signs up 9 million after adding WWE and The Office

WWE Most Wanted Treasures Viewership Up

Sunday’s second episode of WWE Most Wanted Treasures drew 769,000 viewers on A&E at 10pm. The one-hour show drew a 0.27 rating like the Biography on Piper, tying for the #10 spot on the Cable Top 150.

This is up from last week’s Most Wanted Treasures premiere, which drew 766,000 viewers. Last Sunday’s premiere drew a 0.29 rating in the key demo, ranking #11 on the Cable Top 150.

Supreme Court declines to hear wrestlers' brain damage cases against WWE

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeals of several former pro wrestlers who claimed in lawsuits that World Wrestling Entertainment failed to protect them from repeated head injuries that led to long-term brain damage.

The former wrestlers asked the high court to review lower court rulings that dismissed the lawsuits because they were filed too late. The plaintiffs include William "Billy Jack'' Haynes, Russ "Big Russ'' McCullough, Ryan Sakoda, Matthew "Luther Reigns'' Wiese and the wife of the late Nelson "Viscera'' Frazier, also known as Big Daddy V, who died in 2014.

Monday's decision, which the Supreme Court did not explain under its usual practice, put an end to the last remaining lawsuits in an array of litigation originally filed six years ago in Connecticut against the WWE over concussions and other injuries. The WWE is based in Stamford.

More than 50 former wrestlers, most of them stars in the 1980s and 1990s, sued the WWE, saying they suffered repeated head injuries including concussions that led to long-term brain damage. They accused the WWE of knowing of the risks of head injuries but not warning its wrestlers.

Other wrestlers who filed suit were Jimmy "Superfly'' Snuka, Joseph "Road Warrior Animal'' Laurinaitis, Paul "Mr. Wonderful'' Orndorff, Chris "King Kong Bundy'' Pallies and Harry Masayoshi Fujiwara, known as Mr. Fuji.

Snuka and Fujiwara died in 2017 and 2016, respectively, and were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, after their deaths, according to their lawyer. Pallies and Laurinaitis died in 2019 and 2020, respectively, of undisclosed causes. Other plaintiffs have dementia and other illnesses, the lawsuits said.

Several lawsuits were dismissed in 2018 by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant in Hartford, Connecticut. Bryant ruled there was no evidence the WWE knew while the plaintiffs were wrestling that concussions or head blows during matches caused CTE or other long-term injuries.

She also ruled the lawsuits that were the subject of Monday's Supreme Court decision were filed after the statute of limitations expired.

The rulings were upheld last year by a federal appeals court in New York City. The WWE denied wrongdoing and said the lawsuits had no merit.

"We're glad it's finally over,'' Jerry McDevitt, a lawyer for the WWE, said Monday. "We were completely vindicated.''

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John Cone’s WWE Termination Rescinded

Throughout the past week, WWE has been in the midst of some major changes in the executive department.

Previous reports stated that Mark Carrano and Dan Engler, among others, had been relieved of their duties. One of the employees in this group has reportedly been reinstated.

Mike Johnson of PWInsider reports that the departure of John Cone, who serves as a Senior Manager in the WWE Talent Relations department, has been nullified.

“PWInsider.com has learned that John Cone’s termination from the WWE Talent Relations department has been rescinded,” Johnson writes. “Cone is already back as Senior Manager for the department under John Laurinaitis.”

Cone’s dismissal had been met with displeasure, and in a tweet, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley asked WWE to reconsider the move. 

Departures In WWE Talent Relations Shake-Up

PWInsider is reporting that WWE has been undergoing somewhat of a corporate level housecleaning this week, with the departures centered around the Talent Relations department.

Nicole Zeoli, who was working as Director of Talent Relations, is no longer with the company. She had been with WWE for more than 11 years, and moved into this Director’s role in February 2018.

Longtime WWE referee John Cone has been released from his role as Senior Manager of the Talent Relations department. He remains with the company as a referee.

John Laurinaitis recently took over as head of the Talent Relations department.

WWE Body Slams Wall Street's Forecasts

WWE reported first-quarter revenue of $263.5 million, down 9% from the year-ago quarter but ahead of Wall Street estimates as the company starts to wriggle out of Covid-19’s headlock.

Earnings per share also more than doubled the consensus expectation from analysts, reaching 51 cents compared with 31 cents a year ago.

The company’s signature live events have been all but eliminated during the pandemic, but they are slowly returning to the schedule as virus trends improve. A major influx of revenue also came in during the quarter as the stand-alone WWE Network was absorbed into NBCUniversal streaming service, Peacock.

The March 18 launch of WWE Network programming on Peacock was followed by the shift of NXT to Tuesday nights this month on longtime network partner USA.

Wrestlemania 37, the annual pay-per-view extravaganza held this month at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, was the most-viewed live event in the history of Peacock, WWE said. While they didn’t offer any specific numbers, the No. 1 ranking is noteworthy given that the year-old streaming outlet carries Premier League soccer as well as a range of other sports in the U.S.

Company founder and CEO Vince McMahon said his company’s emergence from the dark days of Covid — which doomed his effort to revive the XFL on top of the steep losses for the WWE — has been gradual. “At first we were in survival mode, but then we found a way,” he said during a conference call with analysts.

Nick Khan, the former co-head of television at CAA who joined the WWE several months ago as president and chief revenue officer, said trends in sports media are helpful for the company. The NFL’s long-term rights deal with Amazon, for example, points to streaming as a lucrative trend. Khan said the WWE is shopping the same package that migrated to Peacock to international streaming outlets.

source: deadline.com

WWE Developing Anime Series For Crunchyroll

During today’s WWE Q1 2021 earnings, WWE President Nick Khan announced that WWE is developing an anime series for Crunchyroll.

Crunchyroll offers the largest anime streaming service in the world and is one of the top 10 streaming companies in the United States.

“As we continue to expand WWE’s brand beyond the ring, we remain focused on developing a slate of original programming from our WWE Studios,” Khan said. “We sold a multiepisode anime series to Crunchyroll, which as all of you know is now owned by Sony.”

Triple H, Stephanie McMahon Publicly Apologize To Mickie James, Fire The Person Who Sent Her ‘Care Package’

Following Mickie James being sent a “care package” of her belongings in a garbage bag, multiple WWE executives have now stated that the person responsible for the disrespectful mishap has been fired.

Mickie James was released by WWE on Thursday, April 15, 2021. At the time, she stated that she was looking forward to going out and doing the things that “they said she couldn’t.”

One week later she took to social media to share that her belongings have been sent back to her in a trash bag with a sticky note attached, sharing her name. She later tweeted about this directly to Vince McMahon’s account and several WWE Executives including Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have apologized and stated that the individual has been fired. John Laurinaitis, head of Talent Relations, also posted an apology.

In Stephanie’s tweet, she’d directly address Mickie, saying that she felt embarrassed that something like that would ever happen on behalf of WWE.

Wrestling Inc. is reporting that WWE has fired Senior Director of Talent Relations Mark Carrano.

Triple H Calls NXT vs. AEW An Imaginary War

The competition between NXT and AEW Dynamite, dubbed the "Wednesday Night Wars," officially ended earlier this month when NXT moved to Tuesday. Both shows have benefited since then, with NXT's audience breaking 800,000 for the past two weeks while Dynamite brought in its second-biggest audience in the show's history by surpassing 1.2 million. Triple H was a guest on the Cheap Heat Podcast this week and discussed NXT's move to Tuesday, referring to their ratings battle with All Elite Wrestling as an "imaginary war."

"The promotional opportunity for us is much better on a Tuesday and also then not having to have a narrative where it's just constantly about an imaginary war or this imaginary battle," Triple H said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). "People can say what they want, but the truth of the matter is you compete against everything. If you are creating a television product or content and that is the world we live in is content not television, not internet. It's everything. You're constantly competing for eyeballs and time against everything under the sun, including sleep and time to do other things, and video games, and Tik Tok and everything else that's out there.

"So having your own space where you don't have to then have an added imaginary battle stacked up against it, it's kind of nice. The bigger fact is having a lead in from a Tuesday into a Wednesday. When we first started, NXT was on Wednesday's for viewers of The Network. The transition to USA and wanting to keep that consistency for those that were watching on The Network so they would know where to find it and not have confusion of SmackDown leaving Tuesday's and people joining in and finding something else. Time has gone by now, and this is a great opportunity for us to have that lead in for Monday Night Raw, get that promotional window for Monday Night RAW, get to Tuesday's and continue to deliver the product."

"Again, I'm thrilled with it, and I think the opportunity is the same as it was before, which is for talent to get out there live and show everything that they can do, and I'm a big believer that talent will shine through, and they'll get that opportunity and you'll make bigger and bigger stars as time goes by. It's about making stars and them having that opportunity not just the number every single week."

Rob Van Dam On What Vince McMahon And Triple H Told Him At The WWE Hall Of Fame Ceremony

“One thing I want to mention that was the highest honor during the ceremony was when I talked to Vince and Triple H when we were getting our photos taken. They both told me that I changed the style of wrestling. That’s huge to hear that from them. I jokingly said, ‘For better or worse?’ They both said for better and the people trying to emulate me now are dangerous. I’ll always remember that. I would like to think I was impactful on the style.”

Stephanie McMahon Issues Statement On WrestleMania 37

Stephanie McMahon issued the following open letter:

Good morning,

On Saturday night, I stood on stage at Raymond James Stadium, surrounded by WWE Superstars, in front of a 103 ft long pirate ship, and looked out into a sea of fans. My father, WWE Chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon, addressed the crowd and said: “Throughout this past year our WWE Superstars performed tirelessly for all of you. Week after week, month after month but we all knew there was something missing, something very important, THE most important, and that would be all of you, our fans, the WWE Universe. And as we emerge from this dreadful pandemic on behalf of our entire WWE family, we would simply like to say thank you and welcome you to, WRESTLEMANIA!”

The 25K in attendance erupted and the rest of us had tears in our eyes; reinforcing the meaning behind our new company signature that started the show, “Then. Now. Forever. Together.”

WrestleMania streamed exclusively from its new home on Peacock in the U.S., and WWE Network around the world, taking place over two nights and making history.

Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair became the first Black female Superstars to main event WrestleMania. We had live musical performances from Bebe Rexha, Wale, Ash Costello and Ashland Craft, and Grammy award-winning artist Bad Bunny and YouTube influencer Logan Paul found themselves getting in on the action inside the ring. Bad Bunny’s performance receiving praise from ESPN touting it as “…one of, if not the, most impressive showings by a celebrity in the ring.”

WWE also secured a record 14 new and returning blue chip partners for WrestleMania including Snickers as the Presenting Partner for the sixth consecutive year and Presenting Partner of the Main Event, NBCUniversal, Papa John’s, Cricket Wireless, P&G’s Old Spice, DraftKings, 2K, Nissin, and Credit One Bank.

Across YouTube, WWE.com and WWE social media content during WrestleMania Week, video views hit 1.1 billion, 31 million hours of content was consumed, and WWE-related content saw 115 million engagements. WrestleMania was also the world’s most-social program both nights of the weekend, delivering 71 Twitter trends in the U.S. alone.

For the first time we launched a series of NFTs featuring The Undertaker, had record breaking WrestleMania weekend e-commerce sales and record merchandise per capita sales in stadium.

WWE Superstars and executives participated in more than 300 interviews to promote our WrestleMania celebration including appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, TODAY Show, ESPN Get Up, FOX & Friends, E! and Access Hollywood. And because we always want to leave our host city better off than when we arrived, we held more than 10 community activations throughout the week, from our community caravan where we recognized 11 local community leaders; to teaming with FOX Sports and Good Sports to donate sports equipment to Special Olympics Florida; and working with Feeding Tampa Bay, University of FL IFAS program, the Healthy Living Coalition, Nestle Waters and the Tampa Bay Sports Commission to dedicate the first of five sustainable community gardens throughout the Tampa Bay area to combat food insecurity.

It takes the effort of so many different people to make WrestleMania happen, especially during a global pandemic. Thank you to our friends, partners, employees, and of course, our Superstars for making it possible.

I hope to see everyone in person soon,

Steph

AEW Dynamite Draws Largest Audience Since Debut

Wednesday’s edition of AEW Dynamite, featuring TNT Champion Darby Allin retaining over Matt Hardy in the main event, drew 1.219 million viewers on TNT, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.

It should be noted that this was the first Dynamite episode to air unopposed after WWE NXT made its move to Tuesday nights. 

This AEW viewership is up 77% from last week’s show, which drew 688,000 viewers.