TKO announced on Friday that Wingstop will be a presenting sponsor for this weekend’s two-night WWE SummerSlam as part of an expanded partnership.
The restaurant chain will also “receive enhanced match sponsorships and other integrations within future premium live events, including Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.”
The partnership will continue at November’s UFC 322, expected to take place at Madison Square Garden. Wingstop branding will be featured in the Octagon and during fight week events, continuing a partnership that began last year.
Wingstop joins Minute Maid and Chase Freedom as presenting sponsors for this weekend’s SummerSlam which takes place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Saturday and Sunday.
WWE SummerSlam night one (Saturday, August 2):
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther defends against CM Punk
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez defend against Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss
Randy Orton & Jelly Roll vs. Drew McIntyre & Logan Paul
Roman Reigns & Jey Uso vs. Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed
WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton defends against Jade Cargill
Sami Zayn vs. Karrion Kross
WWE SummerSlam night two (Saturday, August 2):
Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena defends against Cody Rhodes in a street fight
WWE Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio defends against AJ Styles
WWE United States Champion Solo Sikoa defends against Jacob Fatu in a steel cage match
WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch defends against Lyra Valkyria in a no DQ match (if Lynch retains, Valkyria cannot challenge for the title again while Lynch is champion)
WWE Women’s World Champion Naomi defends against IYO SKY and Rhea Ripley in a triple threat match
WWE Tag Team Champions The Wyatt Sicks defend against Motor City Machine Guns, The Street Profits, DIY, Fraxiom, and Andrade & Rey Fenix in a six-pack TLC match
TKO is making a change to a now-former WWE severance pay policy.
PWInsider reported Friday that according to a company memo, any severed employees will now receive two weeks of pay for every year they have worked for the company, effective immediately. That’s a change from the previous way of one month for every year.
The outlet also reported that “there are additional caps on the policy based on management level but have not heard particulars on that.”
It’s unknown if the policy also applies to other TKO properties like UFC, Professional Bull Riders, On Location, and IMG.
TKO has not been in the news for any layoffs as of late following a multi-year consolidation after merging UFC and WWE and eventually bringing on the other aforementioned companies. On various investor calls, TKO’s Mark Shapiro has mentioned looking for efficiencies throughout the various brands.
WWE is getting into the cosmetics ring, announcing their first-ever such partnership with Maybelline New York.
Announced on Thursday, the company becomes the first-ever “official cosmetics partner of WWE” and will be the presenting partner of this Sunday’s all-women’s Evolution card from Atlanta, Georgia. They will be featured in the center of the mat and will receive “a custom vignette” in addition to social media promotion.
It was not clear from the press release what form the partnership will take past this Sunday.
Maybelline New York is owned by global cosmetics giant L’Oreal who has a current day value of nearly $240 billion.
Current WWE Evolution PLE card | Sunday, July 13 | Atlanta, Georgia:
WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton defends against Trish Stratus
WWE Women’s World Champion IYO SKY defends against Rhea Ripley
NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne defends against Jordynne Grace
WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch defends against Bayley and Lyra Valkyria in a three-way
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez defend against Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, Asuka & Kairi Sane, and Sol Ruca & Zaria in a four-way
No holds barred: Jade Cargill vs. Naomi
Battle royal for a title shot at Clash in Paris — Nikki Bella, Stephanie Vaquer, Natalya, Maxxine Dupri, Nia Jax, Ivy Nile, Zelina Vega, Giulia, LAsh Legend, Izzi Dame, Tatum Paxley, Kelani Jordan, Lola Vice, Jaida Parker confirmed entrants
A former WWE writer who alleged both racial discrimination and wrongful termination in a lawsuit against the company and several individuals voluntarily dismissed the suit without prejudice on Thursday against all defendants with the exception of WWE.
Because the case was dismissed without prejudice, that is a temporary move where she could either refile/alter the lawsuit or bring it to another court against any or all of the defendants.
This past April, Britney Abrahams filed suit in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, accusing WWE of releasing her after she objected to multiple instances of “offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” used in WWE scene scripts, specifically citing examples with Bianca Belair and Apollo Crews.
Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, vice presidents Ryan Callahan and Christine Lubrano, former writers Chris Dunn & Mike Heller, and writer Jen Pepperman were listed as individual defendants. The dismissal applies to all of them.
It is possible this development means Abrahams and her legal team are working on a settlement with WWE. When Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reached out to The Cochran Group to inquire about that, their representative declined to comment.
Following a Vince McMahon payment to WWE, a consolidated lawsuit filed in Delaware by shareholders against the company’s Executive Chairman was dropped on Wednesday.
The development was reported by Bloomberg Law on Thursday.
The reason the suit was dropped was due to McMahon repaying WWE $17.4 million in late-March for expenses related to the investigation surrounding hush money allegations that came to light last summer. As a result, the initial reason for the lawsuit was considered moot.
The $17.4 million covers the cost of the investigation and not the near-$20 million McMahon allegedly paid multiple accusers of sexual misconduct. McMahon resigned from WWE last summer under the pretense of retirement, only to force his way back onto the Board in January in an effort to lead the sale of the company.
An interesting note from the Bloomberg piece stated that lawyers for the consolidated shareholders group want a “mootness fee” for their efforts:
Counsel for the WWE investors indicated they plan to seek a “mootness fee” as a reward for their role in forcing McMahon’s hand.
A different group of shareholders is already seeking a mootness fee after dropping a related case when McMahon walked back some bylaw changes he’d pushed through as part of his corporate coup in early January. McMahon had left the board in mid-2022.
The dropped lawsuit is unrelated to the lawsuit filed Monday against McMahon and others in WWE by a former writer claiming the company released her after she objected to multiple instances of “offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” used in scripts.
In an extensive interview done earlier this month, WWE CEO Nick Khan discussed what the company is looking forward to with the impending Endeavor merger, adding in an interesting line about their Peacock deal coming up in a few years.
In his discussion with Lightshed Partners, Khan was asked about whether the new WWE & UFC merged company would be interested in packaging their rights together and perhaps delaying the next round of TV rights to align everything.
Khan said WWE is “ready to go now” when it comes to Raw and SmackDown negotiations, but specifically mentioned that one thing not being talked about is their WWE Network and PPV/PLE licensing deal to Peacock which is up just months after the UFC’s deal with ESPN is in 2025.
“That Peacock deal? The timing of that is interesting to us,” he said.
As he’s done in the past, Khan put over the Peacock relationship and that he feels NBCU leadership would say WWE fans have contributed greatly to their 20+ million paid subscribers.
When asked if WWE would be interested in a similar model to what UFC and ESPN have with PPVs and live events, Khan said he thought the UFC/Disney deal was “extraordinary” and pointed out how UFC retained their rights to their Fight Pass streaming service as a hedge.
Khan said their preference is to license the WWE Network product, but that if it can’t be done for the right price, they will just take it back in house.
Here are some other notes from the hour-long talk that took place on April 7th.
More rights talk, a return to PPV?
Khan said there isn’t interest in going back to linear PPV due to those providers taking half the money “just for plugging in.” They would consider going back to the digital PPV model if it was accessible for the fanbase and priced right.
With the rights for both Raw and SmackDown, they “want the best sized deal possible” and while they hope they remain with both NBCUniversal and Fox, “if we get out of the exclusive negotiation window, the marketplace is going to be robust.”
Asked about their ratings being down compared to the past going into these rights, Khan said they look at ratings vs. everything else currently and while linear and cable ratings are down, they are up.
“We think we have a hot hand at this moment in time and we think, comparatively speaking in the marketplace, we’re doing pretty well,” he said, noting there are many more buyers than there were five years due to the presence of streaming providers.
Khan said he doesn’t know if the marketplace is showing much of an appetite for a split between linear and streaming when it comes to splitting rights, using the NFL as an example.
“Would we? Sure. Do we think the marketplace will allow for that? Not as sure,” he said.
Asked about whether the Raw and SmackDown rights have to be negotiated together, he used the NHL as an example of deals not being done together and cited their big rights increase despite people saying their ratings were down too.
A return to a more mature WWE?
Asked if WWE would consider more mature content that is more geared toward what they did in years past, Khan said there has been a “conversation point” amongst themselves and NBCU about the 10 PM hour of Raw and what they could do with that, adding they are nowhere near a decision.
On paying wrestlers more
The criticisms of UFC fighter pay came up which Khan said is the UFC’s business to manage and “goes untouched by us” in this eventual merged company.
With wrestler pay, Khan said, “We think a lot of them are well compensated. Certainly, all talent wants to be paid more and management wants to try to manage those costs.”
He said that their individual deals with talents are unique and WWE is “confident in our position in the marketplace.”
He did add that depending on whatever the rights fees increases turn out to be, “we expect a lot of that to drop to the bottom of the line,” intimating talent would see some benefit.
The benefits of Endeavor
There were two specific points Khan brought up that they are looking forward to having Endeavor help with. One is sponsorship as despite hitting highs for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, he admired how Endeavor helped grown the UFC sponsorship number from $35 million pre-sale to nearly $200 million post-sale.
The other is Endeavor’s relationships overseas which they think will be a big benefit with various rights deals throughout the world as they have “boots on the ground” in many regions that WWE does not.
UK & India media rights, Saudi relationship
Khan said UK media rights (coming up in the next few years) and a “hyper-focused” approach in India will be focuses. He said the India-targeted WWE Superstar Spectacle in January 2021 was viewed by 25 million people live and nearly 40 million over a three-day period. He expects things to pick up in India following the Zee-Sony merger as they can begin planning their next live event there.
Khan said there are no issues with the Saudi Arabia relationship post-merger announcement despite Endeavor’s past moves in pulling business out of the country. They are looking forward to two Saudi events this year.
Corporate cuts
As has been stated before, Khan said there are cost synergies to be had with the new company with “obvious overlap” between the two. They want to become as lean and mean as possible.
In terms of cutting a significant headcount, he said they are looking at cutting “other costs” and need to be protective of the creative and production teams and are not looking to cut there.
WWE used examples of MLW’s deal with Reelz, AEW’s expanded media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, and Women of Wrestling’s deal with CBS Media Ventures to prove their point that other companies can compete in the market.
WWE also addressed MLW’s complaint in the amended lawsuit regarding complications that see MLW Underground blacked out on Reelz on Peacock due to WWE’s exclusive deal with the NBCU-owned streamer. They stated in the motion that MLW could make deals with any streaming service and that Reelz approached Peacock after the MLW deal was already done.
They also denied MLW’s claim about WWE “blacklisting” wrestlers who work for them, using Matt Riddle and Karrion Kross signing with WWE as recent examples.
In the motion, WWE also pointed out that during the course of the last year, they had to send a cease and desist letter in June 2022 to MLW regarding the use of the name nZo and an NWO-style logo for the former Enzo Amore who changed his name to Real1 around that time. They also cited the use of the name WarGames and their past IP issues surrounding that.
It’s unknown when the judge is expected to rule on this latest motion.
Three months after Vince McMahon found his way back to the company in an effort to spearhead a sale, WWE announced a transaction agreement on Monday with Endeavor, owners of the UFC, to buy the iconic wrestling brand.
The news was first broken hours before night two of Sunday’s WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles by CNBC’s Alex Sherman and made official Monday morning with the SEC as it was finalized Sunday.
There are several regulatory hurdles to clear before the deal can be done, but the plan as first reported is to combine WWE and UFC into a publicly traded spin-off company. Endeavor will remain in place, owning 51% while the other 49% will be owned by WWE shareholders.
The name of the new company is unknown, but will trade under the ticker symbol TKO. If the aforementioned regulatory hurdles are cleared, the all-stock deal will be done in the second half of the year.
“This is a rare opportunity to create a global live sports and entertainment pureplay built for where the industry is headed,” said Ariel Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor. “For decades, Vince and his team have demonstrated an incredible track record of innovation and shareholder value creation, and we are confident that Endeavor can deliver significant additional value for shareholders by bringing UFC and WWE together.”
WWE’s enterprise value is reported as $9.3 billion with UFC carrying an enterprise value of $12.1 billion, putting the new company at just north of a $21 billion valuation.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
“We see significant operating synergies throughout the ecosystem,” Endeavor CFO Jason Lublin told an investors presentation that was webcast on Monday morning. He pointed to a combined $1 billion cost base, excluding direct operating expenditures, “half of which we believe are addressable.
“Lublin predicted the UFC and WWE merger will secure $50 million to $100 million in annual operating synergies, in part by following the earlier acquisition model for UFC which delivered $70 million in cost synergies and similarly integrating WWE into Endeavor’s global infrastructure.
According to reports, the deal came together quickly and the details were finalized over the past few weeks with everything being put to bed on Sunday.
The corporate structure will be Ari Emanuel, who was in attendance at WrestleMania Sunday, as chief executive of both Endeavor and this new venture. Patrick Whitesell remains as Endeavor executive chairman while Mark Shapiro remains as president of Endeavor and the new company. McMahon will be executive chairman of the new company with Nick Khan as president of WWE and Dana White remaining as president of UFC.
A new 11-person Board to be established this year will include six members from Endeavor and five members from WWE.
From the New York Times:
“Must-watch TV is a rarity these days,” said Mark Shapiro, Endeavor’s president and chief operating officer, who will also have those roles at the new company. “And unicorns like the U.F.C. and W.W.E. will be heavily in demand.”
Some answers, more questions
The impending sale ends an intriguing first quarter of the calendar year that saw McMahon return to the Board with two of his former executives in tow that resulted in several Board members resigning, his daughter Stephanie McMahon departing as co-CEO, and plenty of “palace intrigue” speculation with head of creative and Stephanie’s husband, Paul “Triple H’ Levesque, remaining at WWE.
Throughout the sales process, several companies were linked to buying WWE which included NBCUniversal (owners of USA Network and Peacock) and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. A rumor shortly after Vince McMahon’s return that had the PIF buying WWE as a done deal caught fire for a night on social media but was debunked in short order.
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that WWE employees were sent an email announcing the transaction Monday morning and that there will be an all-hands meeting at 4 PM Eastern.
WWE became a publicly traded company on October 19, 1999, selling 11.5 million shares at $17.00/share.
A major part of the WWE financial puzzle are the company’s impending media rights with both NBCUniversal (Raw) and Fox (SmackDown) which are both up in October 2024. The exclusive negotiating window with both entities opened up this weekend with the rights expected to increase substantially — a massive financial benefit for Endeavor. The UFC’s media deal with ESPN is also up in just a few years.
In past earnings calls, Khan has been bullish on WWE’s prospects of a massive increase in revenue due to the presence of streaming providers.
Vince McMahon remaining in power
There was some questions over the past few months that prospective buyers wouldn’t want McMahon to stay around due to the cloud of controversy surrounding his various “hush money” payouts that were uncovered by the Wall Street Journal last summer. McMahon repaid the company $17.4 million for costs related to the investigation last month.
In interviews, Khan said repeatedly that McMahon’s post-sale inclusion, or lack thereof, wouldn’t prevent any sale and that he would be willing to step away if required.
With this deal, that will not be the case.
He and UFC head Dana White have an existing relationship and White has gone on record for how much he appreciates McMahon. The two worked together during the time Brock Lesnar was bouncing between both companies and McMahon and family attended a UFC pay-per-view in Las Vegas that took place on the same day that Money in the Bank was held in the same venue.
Nick Khan’s media rounds ahead of this weekend’s WrestleMania 39 continued Thursday as the WWE CEO discussed whether his former co-CEO Stephanie McMahon could return one day.
Talking on CNBC’s Closing Time, Khan was asked about why McMahon left and whether she could be in the company’s future plans.
Khan pointed out that she was taking a leave of absence when he and Vince McMahon called her to request her return to the company to take over both as co-CEO with Khan and interim Chairwoman of the Board as Vince McMahon stepped down due to the scandal of last summer.
Khan said she did “phenomenal work across the board” but he believes she went back to do whatever she was thinking about doing during the aforementioned leave of absence, saying, “she seems to be in a great place.”
Could she return either before or after a sale?
“It’s a question for her. We would always love to have her as part of WWE. The time would need to be right for her and I’m not sure if she’s there yet,” he said.
Other Notes:
He couldn’t comment on who is involved in the bidding to buy the company, but said there is “quite the robust response.”
When asked if the asking price was $9 billion, he couldn’t confirm.
He again reiterated that Vince McMahon made it clear to him and the marketplace that he doesn’t need to be part of WWE post-sale. He said he isn’t sure McMahon wants to be involved if a sale happens.
Regarding gambling, Khan said the conversations they were having were intended to be private and “unfortunately, it got out there.” He said they are looking at the future and see the prospects as similar to other predetermined events where gambling is allowed in some states which includes the Grammys and the Oscars. He said they “remain optimistic on the whole proposition.”
Ahead of WWE WrestleMania 39 this weekend, company leadership has been publicly discussing how strong their sponsorship is going into this weekend, touting both a record in revenue and some new innovations.
In an interview with the Associated Press, WWE senior vice president & head of global sales Craig Stimmel said the company has generated more than $20 million in sponsorship revenue — a WWE record for any event.
There are 12 total sponsors for this year’s show, half of which are new. Returning sponsors include Snickers and WWE 2K23.
One of the rookies is Cinnamon Toast Crunch whose Cinnamojis mascots “will perform live at WrestleMania 39 alongside WWE Superstars.”
He said branding will be a part of their annual mega-event in a variety of ways which includes “a match sponsorship, a “blurring of the fourth wall” between what home viewers see vs. what live audience members observe and an augmented reality experience.”
There were no other details given for any of those items, especially what the “blurring of the fourth wall” will mean.
WWE has been leaning more heavily into product placement for big events like the first-ever Mountain Dew Pitch Black match at this year’s Royal Rumble. In past years, they edged into it with stunts like “zombies” attacking The Miz at 2021’s WWE Backlash to promote a Netflix movie.
WWE CEO Nick Khan is looking forward to WrestleMania 39 weekend in Los Angeles for a variety of reasons — one of which includes the beginning of TV rights negotiations.
Khan also dropped an interesting nugget when it comes to a potential return to pay-per-view if a rights partner was interested.
During an appearance on John Ourand & Andrew Marchand’s podcast, Khan said the exclusive domestic TV rights negotiating window with existing partners NBCUniversal and Fox opens up this weekend, giving them “the first bite at the apple” as he put it.
Khan wouldn’t put a number on what the company expects for an increase when it comes to Raw (NBCU) and Fox (SmackDown), but Marchand predicted 2x while Ourand thought it would be more than that.
Khan simply said, “I expect a lot” and added a lot of that was up to his work and that of the team at WWE.
Khan said there will be “a lot” of other companies in attendance this weekend, not in an official business capacity but to enjoy themselves. He declined to say who.
A return to PPV?
He said he loves how Peacock has expanded their audience with no upcharge and that Peacock executives would say a “substantial” portion of their 20 million paid subscribers is due to WWE.
But when asked if WWE was open to conversations about following the model ESPN and UFC has with ESPN+ and UFC PPVs, Khan said they were open to conversations and that if, for example, NBCU offered 5x in rights fees but needed to have an upcharge in order to do that, they would listen.
Khan said the most important thing is to not price out their fans, citing that the upper decks for this weekend’s WrestleMania are just $25.
Vince McMahon
Asked about Vince McMahon’s involvement in creative, Khan said the executive chairman was “not that involved.” He said McMahon has embraced Paul Levesque as head of creative and that they have their own dynamic, “and from my point of view, things have been terrific for the last few months since Vince’s return.”
With last summer’s scandal surrounding McMahon, Khan credited both shareholders and WWE employees with “staying calm” and that, “Fortunately, we’re on the other side of it.”
Roman Reigns
Asked if the current undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns has a future in Hollywood, Khan thought he did and that they would fully support that, adding there are a lot of conversations going on. However, Reigns would be staying aligned with WWE if he does make that jump.
Pat McAfee
He said there are no plans for the popular commentator to be involved or at this weekend’s events.
A new report out Tuesday has several parties kicking the tires on a potential purchase of WWE that “is expected to conclude in the not too distant future.”
WWE was a focus for CNBC analyst David Faber on Tuesday as he delved into the talks about the sale of the company. In the clip seen below, Faber said that the sales process isn’t just live, but is “going quite well.”
“I am hearing from people close to the situation that it’s a pretty good sales process with some saying it’s hot and heavy,” he said, adding those he had spoken with that were doubtful a deal would get done are less so now.
Part of that doubt was due to Vince McMahon’s reluctance to step aside if a sale is made, something WWE CEO Nick Khan said on CNBC and a recent investors call that he would indeed be open to.
Faber said that “we can all take our educated guess” on who the potential buyers would be, mentioning Endeavor (they would do a reverse Morris trust, spin off UFC into a new company and merge that with WWE); a private equity interest “perhaps in partnership with a well-known name in the sport,” Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and perhaps Colorado investment firm Liberty Media.
Faber reiterated his previous reporting that NBCUniversal (owners of USA Network, Peacock, etc.) are not part of the sale process.
The news comes as WWE is in the media spotlight ahead of this weekend’s WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles.
A high-ranking WWE executive was immediately fired last week due to an HR violation, according to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp.
It’s unknown what the violation was for James Kimball, who held the position of senior vice president of talent operations & strategy, to be immediately relieved of his duties.
Kimball was hired in August 2020 as vice president of business operations. After 11 months, he was promoted to senior vice president of global strategy & development where he spent 15 months before moving to his final role.
Kimball was quoted often in media stories in relation to the company’s Next In Line (NIL) program and for their various tryouts with college athletes.
He came to WWE from UFC where he spent nearly a decade in various roles. The final three-plus years of his tenure there was as vice president of operations for their Performance Institute after nearly three years as their director of athlete development.
WWE CEO Nick Khan said that any concern about Vince McMahon staying with the company post-sale won’t be a factor for potential buyers who see that as a detriment.
In the opening question of Thursday’s investors call, LightShed Ventures’ Brandon Ross speculated that the potential buyer universe for WWE would be impacted by McMahon’s insistence to remain with the company post-sale.
Ross asked Khan if he could tell investors “with certainty” if McMahon would be willing to end his involvement with WWE following a sale if that gives shareholders the most value.
Khan immediately said, “Yes. Without question.”
“He’s declared it to the Board. He’s declared it to us in management. It’s all about shareholder value. He’s obviously a shareholder so it’s not about what role he’ll have. It’s about maximizing that value opportunity,” he said.
Khan said with any potential buyer, they are looking for someone in the media business, someone that understands the media business, knows the WWE product and intellectual property, and who can accelerate the business — not just a company with “deep pockets.”
This post has been updated with notes from the investor call and subsequent Q&A.
WWE’s financial dominance remains unmatched in the industry with the company announcing record-breaking yearly revenue and another strong quarter to end the year.
Ahead of their quarterly investors call Thursday afternoon, the company released their reports and touted a company-best $1.3 billion in net revenue — an increase of 18% year-over-year (YOY). Their operating income also increased to a record $283.8 million, up 11% YOY.
The record numbers were fueled by their various rights deals with NBCUniversal and Fox for both Raw, SmackDown and domestic WWE Network rights. Additionally, they enjoyed a full year of ticketed shows and their return to Saudi Arabia this past fall.
The other category of media revenue, which contains the revenue from the Saudi show and additional programming, was up to $148.5 million from $73.5 million YOY.
Their media revenue increased by roughly $97 million YOY. In the case of live events, revenue increased to $123.1 million YOY from 2021’s $57.8 million. Consumer product revenues were up by roughly $33 million YOY.
The company did 231 total ticketed live events in 2022: 218 domestic and 13 internationally. The domestic shows averaged 6100 for attendance. Those numbers are up from 2021’s 101 total ticketed events (88 domestic/13 internationally) with an average of 6900 in attendance.
Quarterly success
For the last quarter of 2022, WWE generated revenues of $325.3 million — an increase of 5%. The increase (due to “network revenues related to the timing of premium live events as well as higher monetization of third-party original programming”) were offset by declines in consumer product licensing and online sales in addition to the staging of the event in Saudi Arabia this past year and the prior year.
Operating income for the quarter decreased by 22% to $62.7 million due to content creation costs, the Board’s Special Committee investigation into Vince McMahon, and a higher stock compensation expense.
The report noted there was $2.3 million (Q4) and $21.7 million (2022) “associated with certain costs” related to the Board investigation into McMahon in addition to $7.4 million in expenses “related to certain payments to be made by the Company’s controlling stockholder.”
Media revenue was up to $279.7 million YOY, buoyed by increased WWE Network license fees that were up to $47.1 million YOY and the “Other” category (powered by the Saudi show) that increased to $61.7 million.
While live events were up slightly to $23.8 million YOY, consumer product revenue dipped to $21.8 million from $32.6 million YOY.
During the quarter, WWE held 61 ticketed events: 54 domestically and seven in international markets. In 2021, they did 57 total ticketed events: 48 domestically and nine in international markets. Average attendance was approximately 5500 for the North American shows, up from 2021’s 5200 average.
The decrease in consumer product revenue was chalked up to a decrease in both licensing (down to $12.3 million from 2021’s $18.1 million) and ecommerce revenue (down to $5 million from 2021’s $11 million). Venue sales were up by $1 million YOY
Big domestic viewership increases for PPVs
The company stated last November’s Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia, headlined by Roman Reigns vs. Logan Paul, was WWE’s most viewed international event ever with a 70% YOY increase on Peacock.
Both Extreme Rules (36% YOY increase) and Survivor Series (46% YOY increase) broke domestic records for most viewership as well.
While not in Q4, they still reported numbers on last Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble. They experienced a 52% YOY increase in domestic viewership with the highest gate in Rumble history.
Call Notes: TV, Vince & Stephanie praise
Nick Khan, Paul Levesque and Frank Riddick conducted the call. Khan acknowledged Vince McMahon’s return to the company as did Levesque later on, saying having McMahon around “has been great” and having him back, even just at the Board level, is a “tremendous asset” to the company.
Khan also gave praise to Stephanie McMahon in referencing her exit from the company.
Khan acknowledged the exploration of a sale without saying the word “sale” and that they were reviewing all options for shareholder value. What they are looking for with a partner and how the sale could affect media rights came up consistently during the Q&A portion.
Khan said that McMahon’s inclusion in running WWE wouldn’t be a factor with a sale and that he would step down and not be involved if it meant more for shareholder value.
Any sale would honor the existing NBCU & Fox deals. The first renewal rights window begins after WrestleMania.
When talking about NBCUniversal, Khan said he really liked the “cadence” of their WWE promotion and the ability to move Raw to different networks when pre-emption is needed, citing the Winter Olympics example.
Khan said WWE set gate records for both Raw and SmackDown in more than 20 cities in 2022.
Khan said more than 12,000 tickets have been sold for February’s Elimination Chamber in Montreal.
Khan said WWE expects bigger success with sponsorship revenue in 2023 and are off to a strong start with Royal Rumble sales nearly tripling and that sponsorship revenue is up 98% thus far YOY.
Khan said they are exploring selling rights to “ring assets” (think ring apron, turnbuckles, mat).
Khan said Mountain Dew/Pepsi came to them wanting to sponsor a match. His team then went to Levesque and asked what could be done.
Khan says more companies are interested in WWE media rights than last time around (two).
NBCUniversal and USA Network are “thrilled” with NXT’s performance and WWE internally is happy with its growth.
An advance of their delayed plans in India appears to be on tap for April if regulatory issues are resolved there. Khan said the pandemic really delayed some plans there.
