**Obviously, the big topic of conversation is going to be the move from TV-14 to TV-PG…**

“We saved our company from Bankruptcy and got to the point where we could buy out the second biggest wrestling company North America has ever known by being TV-14… obviously this is no good and we need to be TV-PG, because kids spend SO much money on wrestling products these days.”

Unlike the old days, the WWE has to compete with cable networks devoted entirely to children, anime, three very active video game consoles (Divided 40% for Nintendo, 35% for Microsoft, and 25% for Sony, as opposed to the era of Hulkamania where the demos looked like 90% for NES and 10% for Sega Master System), internet, cell phones, i-Pods, DVDs, etc…

**as well as the development of Legacy as a threat…**

I’m sure that one will get the smarks pissed off, but at the end of the day Ted DiBiase is *still* a no-talent poser who has been given match after match to prove that he’s completely lost in the ring. Putting any faith in him is stupid. He can’t carry his end of anything. He would be a heavier piece of luggage then Luger, Sid, or the Warrior.

**and the continued sameness of the main event picture.**

Yes, the main events are stale. But to the WWE’s credit (and to a degree, determent), all the rookies they had placed faith in have no talent. MVP, DiBiase, Kennedy, etc. etc. They have a crop of guys who show promise (Morrison, Ziggler, Miz, etc) but in some cases they are YEARS away from being viable main eventers.

It’s a bad time for the WWE. If they were a little bit more hands on with their farm-leagues, they would know which guys are ready and which aren’t. To throw a guy like Ted DiBiase out there even though he has nothing going for him and clearly needs a lot more training and expect him to just be good by osmosis is silly. But hey, it’s their multi-million dollar company. If they want to run it into the ground, that’s their right.

I think you hit the nail right on the head Charlie.  The era where kids/teens sit and watch WWE no matter what is happening is over.  If something sucks, they just turn the TV off and go play Xbox for a few hours.  I think that’s something that a lot of people forget about, but I’m glad you brought it up.And yes, Legacy, MVP, etc. have all been pushed continuously with no upward spike in ratings being seen.  I do agree that Morrison, Ziggler, and Miz all show great promise and hopefully can be bigtime players soon but you’re right in saying it might take them a few years.
Look at it this way:  HHH, Mick Foley, Chris Jericho, Steve Austin, and Shawn Michaels (all obvious Hall of Famers) all toiled in the lower ranks of wrestling for YEARS before finally hitting it big.  HHH was stuck with a terrible gimmick in WCW and WWE, Foley destroyed his body for 100 people in the independents, Jericho paid his dues in Japan and ECW, Austin was a career midcarder, and HBK was a career tag wrestler.
You can’t expect to throw someone out there on TV (ala DiBiase, Rhodes, etc.) and have them strike gold as soon as they show their face on TV.  It’s like when they have new guys win titles in their debut matches (Santino and I believe Carlito).  The fans want the chance to get behind a guy and supplement his rise up the card.
But hey, I’m not the booker and that’s a good thing.

Wrestling aside, I follow the financial markets pretty closely and a 10% drop year-over-year in revenue is a -BIG- number… I saw the companies CFO on a financial television station yesterday talking about growth in oversea revenue but he didn’t bring up any of these numbers.

Maybe the company would be able to elevate talent of Triple H didn’t use their names as punchlines to jokes at random in his promos… and those years of Triple H being fed every wrestler on the roster be finally catching up with them. They have no one who has been on the roster that isn’t already a main-eventer who hasn’t been turned into a comedy act… and they’re right back where they started 10 years ago, with DX cracking lame jokes at the roster’s expense.

It isn’t even about talent or charisma, it’s about being pushed and put over other guys cleanly to build credibility in the wrestler, which builds drama during the matches… look at Batista, he was put over HHH for half a year, and then UT at WrestleMania to solidify his spot… Jericho is only taken seriously as a main eventer now because he took time off to let the memories of his jobs faded away… and when he came back he was -STILL- originally booked to put Orton and JBL (a color commentator) over.

But we’re just internet wrestling fans… it’s perfectly normal to see business consistently slide year-over-year for 6+ years and now drop off by a big 10%… what evidence can they show anyone that business is about to turn around? DX winning the tag titles from Jerishow? Where is my $50 for that?

That report is worth a quick read-through imo.

“Home Video net revenues were $11.2 million as compared to $11.0 million in the prior year quarter. The increase reflects the performance of our new releases and catalog titles. ”

Charlie has written before about just buying the PPV on DVD 30 days later for $15, compared to the $40 (or $50 around here for HD) the night of. Good to see this area grew though as I enjoy collecting the dvds. Hopefully they’ll continue to archive old sets on DVD.

Breaking Point at 169,000 – christ, that almost rivals No Mercy and Armageddon 2004. Those were smackdown only PPVs – not combined like BP was.

“Maybe the company would be able to elevate talent of Triple H didn’t use their names as punchlines to jokes at random in his promos…”

Now THAT is a point that I’m happy someone made. On Raw this last week, Triple H called Legacy the “Ratings Killers.”

I’m not a big fan of Legacy, but what sense is there in having the top guy of the company go out and actively bury them like that? How is publicly labeling anyone a ‘ratings killer’ supposed to draw money, or help anyone’s career?

I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. It was the most ignorant promo I’ve seen in years.

@Cool Preppy Nerd
“It isn’t even about talent or charisma, it’s about being pushed and put over other guys cleanly to build credibility in the wrestler, which builds drama during the matches… look at Batista, he was put over HHH for half a year, and then UT at WrestleMania to solidify his spot… Jericho is only taken seriously as a main eventer now because he took time off to let the memories of his jobs faded away… and when he came back he was -STILL- originally booked to put Orton and JBL (a color commentator) over.”

This sums it up.

Unfortunately, I think the wrong conclusion might be drawn here. A.k.a… “See? Punk is put on top of these PPVs and we drop 10%. We got to get Hunter and Shawn out there!”

The old schooler in me says that the reason bidness is down is because they failed to pitch any matches that people wanted to see.

Let’s face it. WWE has failed to build credible match-ups. The Cena/Orton thing has gone on WAY too long. Punk’s build was (once again) fumbled dramatically. And DX have gone from being “hip and edgy” to just being a pair of Grumpy Old Men.

They’re funny the way Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau are funny. As in, funny to my grandparents.

I think the numbers show that no one’s paying $50 for another Cena-Orton match or to watch Undertaker bury a new guy or to watch DX bury another tag-team.

It’s their job to give us a reason to care.

Nice job.