By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE executives hosted a conference call pertaining to the WWE third quarter financial report that was released on November 2, 2022 at Corporate.WWE.com. The following are the highlights of the call. Refresh the page for the latest updates.
-The call was hosted by WWE Chairwoman and Co-CEO Stephanie McMahon, WWE Co-CEO Nick Khan, WWE head of creative and talent Paul Levesque, and WWE Chief Financial Officer Frank Riddick. WWE Senior VP of Investor Relations Seth Zaslow read through the legalities and then turned things over to Stephanie for the opening statement.
-Stephanie boasted that the third quarter was another record breaking quarter. She said they remain on track to deliver record revenue for the full year. She touted the ratings growth and attributed the success to creative. She spoke about the White Rabbit project and said Paul Levesque would speak more about it shortly. She also spoke about the Clash at the Castle event and added, “Strong IP and better storytelling drives all lines of business.”
-Nick Khan said it’s been a strong quarter. He said the Extreme Rules event was the highest grossing Extreme Rules of all-time. He also praised the White Rabbit project. Khan spoke about the ticket sales for the Royal Rumble event and said they are on track to make the event the highest-grossing Royal Rumble in history. He also mentioned the Elimination Chamber event going to Montreal and said they expect tickets to be in high demand.
-Khan said they have sold nearly 100,000 tickets for the two-night WrestleMania without a single match being announced and they expect to sellout both nights.
-Khan spoke about the television and streaming deals the company has made since the previous financial call.
-Khan spoke about a WWE Spanish-language comedy that will stream on Netflix. He also mentioned that Bianca Belair and Montez Ford will be featured in an eight-episode Hulu show next year.
-Khan spoke of their confidence heading into their next round of the U.S. media rights negotiations next year. He also said they were watching closely to see how the NFL’s partnership with Amazon goes. He framed the NFL on Amazon positively and spoke about the affect that it’s had on Amazon Prime’s subscriptions. He also wondered if another new buyer would enter the marketplace for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package.
-Paul “Triple H” Levesque said the creative is working and the storytelling is resonating with the fans.
-Levesque spoke about the White Rabbit project. He recalled starting it at arena events and letting fans wonder what was happening. He said they introduced QR codes that led to games and other aspects “that led you further down the rabbit hole.” He said the QR codes led to the September 23 Smackdown and it led to the show being the most watched edition since March 2020. Levesque said that Bray Wyatt’s return at Extreme Rules led to a 30 percent increase for the event and made it the most watched Extreme Rules in history. He also spoke about how it generated viewers for Raw and moved merchandise. Levesque said they will be doing more like this and said WWE truly is 24/7 programming.
-Levesque spoke about developmental and the upcoming Campus Rush. Levesque said they expect to see more Division One athletes move into their developmental system within the next year.
-Levesque also spoke about the company working with celebrities in hopes of bringing in new fans. He pointed to Logan Paul challenging Roman Reigns at Crown Jewel. He said Reigns would undoubtedly have the Bloodline with him, and wondered if that would lead to Jake Paul appearing in his brother’s corner. Levesque also mentioned WarGames at Survivor Series, and comically said no one was more excited about than Frank Riddick.
-Riddick read through the financial presentation that is available on the corporate website. Riddick noted that the special committee investigation into Vince McMahon is now complete. He said Vince has agreed to pay the cost of the investigation that is not covered by insurance.
-Riddick said they have a short-term extension with Hulu for the Raw and Smackdown replays. He indicated that the goal is for the those rights to be available along with the their television rights deal.
-They opened the phone lines for calls.
-A caller asked if there was any room for cost structure improvement. Riddick spoke about investing in content creation. He said they see opportunities to manage and control costs.
-Levesque was asked what the core of his content philosophies are and how he looks to manage that over a year cycle. Levesque said they are looking further ahead than they’ve ever done before. He said he’s already working with the team to collaborate on what next year’s WrestleMania will look like followed by the spring into the summer.
-Levesque said they are having success without Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Cody Rhodes, and Randy Orton. He said they are significant stars who he feels will move the needle. He said they are focused on character development. He said there have been stars returning and there will be stars coming up from NXT who have never been seen on the main roster before. He spoke about character development and also keeping things fresh. He said some of the outside of the box ideas will work and some will not. He pointed to the White Rabbit. He said he’s not afraid of failing with those things and when something doesn’t go right he wants to figure out why.
-Khan was asked what makes him so positive about the media right deals. He touted the three R’s – ratings, relevancy, and revenue. He said he thinks the company is firing on cylinders in each area. He was also asked about live events and said they have an offer that they like.
-Levesque was asked about NXT Europe and the timeline for expansion into Europe. Levesque said the desire with NXT UK was to replicate what they were doing in the U.S. He said COVID hit and they needed to rethink it. He said they got to a place where they were ready to go again, but it’s tough to rebrand something that’s still happening, so they shut it down. He said it will replicate the U.S. version of NXT with a level of recruiting of top athletes. Levesque said they will partner will people and then bring in athletes who will be trained and developed. He spoke about turning it into a feeder system for WWE. Levesque said Europe is an interesting hub for places such as India. He said it’s tough for them to recruit in India and bring those athletes into the United States, whereas they can get those athletes to Europe much quicker. He said that once Europe is established, they hope to branch out into other markets.
-Levesque was asked about a timeline for getting recruits into the WWE Performance Center and getting them to the main roster. Levesque said the high-end athletes are used to be coached at a different level. He said there’s roughly a six-month cut-off period and another three or four months later. He said there are talents on NXT television who have only been in the system for six to eight months. He said the future is incredibly bright on that front.
-A caller asked about the media rights deal in Canada with that deal expiring in 2024. He spoke highly of their current partner and said they are “quite bullish” on what the future may hold in Canada.
-Khan was asked if he feels that packaging linear and broadcasting together with a couple of partners together is the right way to go about it or if they may look at broadcast-only and streaming-only separate deals. Khan said he feels nights of the week matter and the way things have ended up with Raw on cable and the PLE’s on streaming have worked out perfectly. He said they are happy with all three platforms. He said there will be fewer basic cable networks, but a lot of the content has been picked up by the streamers. He acknowledged the possibility of networks doing away with an hour of prime time.
-Khan was also asked for more about the “second to air” rights. He turned that over to Riddick, who said they felt the shorter term deal was better for them. He said it doesn’t really say anything about the rights negotiations in 2023.
-The final caller asked to rank the markets outside the United States. Khan said they feel the live events and rights deals are one in the same. He spoke more about Canada and the Labor Day weekend show in Cardiff and how it allows their potential partners to come see the product. He also spoke about how it allows the shows to air in prime hours. They wrapped up the call at this point.
Powell’s POV: An interesting conference call with so much credit being given to creative improvements. It’s deserving and also strategic in that it sends a good message to anyone in the financial world who might still believe that WWE will take a big hit without Vince McMahon heading up that side of things. The executives continue to come across very confident about their upcoming U.S. television rights negotiations.
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