Vince McMahon Speaks - Buying TNA?!, The Rock's Deal

Vince McMahon was asked about WWE's relationship with the Rock, specifically whether the company's new deal with him was cost-effective, since they obviously were having to pay a high premium for someone of his current stature. McMahon responded that he and Rock are working on a handshake deal and that is "how they have operated for a long, long time." McMahon said it's all based on increased value. He said that if there is a higher percentage in terms of growth in terms of what they would "normally expect", Rock is "going to get a piece of that". McMahon said their net was going to be much higher and he and Rock were proud of that.


McMahon was asked whether Smackdown had retained its audience in the transition from MyNetworkTV to SyFy, McMahon said that the show has just about the same penetration now and they are very happy with SyFy, stating that they have "been the number one show on the network" since they've debuted there. He said if there's been any change in distribution, it's offset by the advantages of being under the NBC Universal family through promotion. McMahon noted that the syndicated network system, such as MyNetworkTV, is in trouble. Being on SyFy gives them longevity and provides them with non-preemptive status (i.e. they won't be bounced out their timeslot), which is "so important" to the company. He explained how they would often be bounced for sports programming on MyNetwork and the audience would be diluted when they were moved out of the slots.

Another stockholder followed up on the conversation, noting that some of the matches held in the past were passionate, bringing up Austin vs. McMahon and HHH vs, Undertaker as examples. He commented that matches like "Michael Cole vs. Jim Ross" lacks that passion and drive that "wrestling fans come to love and enjoy." McMahon said that it's important to reach, from a demographic point, everyone like a menu at a diner. He said HHH vs. Taker was very passionate and serious but they had Cole to provide something else. He said that they are in the entertainment business and there's always going to be a balance. McMahon said he would personally prefer more from the serious side but WWE's E is for entertainment and there always has to be that balance.

Another stockholder brought up the "lack of build-up to PPVs" as a problem the company has. McMahon said that they try to do things long term in terms of building an attraction. He said that they attempt to have a longer range approach to story arcs but with as many PPVs as they produce, sometimes there are difficulties doing that.

A stockholder brought up running Extreme Rules the same weekend as UFC, noting that in the past, such events being held the same weekend has been detrimental to WWE's PPV buyrates. He asked whether there were future plans to avoid running the same weekend. McMahon said that there were plans to do so and they have been successful in recent months to avoid running head to head. He said that it wouldn't matter if it was UFC, boxing or another major even

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• wwe
• vince
• buying
• TNA
• wrestling
• OneTrueMedia

[CatDogFishHorse]

you son of a bitch