Forgive the pun.
But it looks like World Wrestling Entertainment, the world’s premier source of professional wrestling for the better part of the last fifty years, may be on the ropes.
When rumours began swirling recently that WWE head honcho and in ring uber-villain Vince McMahon had put the company up for sale, it highlighted a forgettable year of turmoil for the billion dollar company. And it only look’s like it’s going to get worse.
It’s no secret that WWE’s television ratings have been in free fall. While Smackdown Live’s ratings were were initially strong when it moved to Fox last October, viewership has been sliding hard enough that some are wondering out loud when Fox brass may begin suffering buyer’s remorse (Fox paid a little more than a billion dollars for the right to televise Smackdown until 2024). And for the past several years WWE’s flagship show Monday Night RAW has seemed intent on setting new weekly records for the fewest captive eyeballs. WWE NXT meanwhile is locked in a life and death ratings battle with All Elite Wrestling, a promotion that is less than a year old.
Not only are the WWE’s television deals the company’s biggest cash cow right now, they’re the only thing keeping it’s stock price above water. If consistently low ratings begin eroding the TV value, the company is in for a rough ride.
Yet WWE’s tumbling ratings aren’t the only thing reflecting a growing lack of consumer interest in the company’s product. The truth is WWE was having plenty of trouble getting paid butts in seats at its live shows well before they were forced into an empty performance centre by the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Posting pictures of half empty arenas on social media during television tapings had become something of a sport for fans and the company is now considering reducing or even scrapping house shows altogether. Once upon a time house shows-live shows not meant for TV-were considered the backbone of the company. They could be used to push specific characters, develop and experiment with storylines and advertise the product, usually making a little money on the side. Fans loved them because the wrestlers, free from performing for television and unbound by scripts and time allotments, could break character and joke with each other and fans alike.Â
But those shows have been haemorrhaging cash because of anemic attendance as of late and could be a victim of corporate belt tightening.
Then there’s the whole Saudi Arabia debacle. WWE has been performing live shows in the Middle Eastern country since 2014 and signed a lucrative ten year agreement in 2018 (sans female wrestlers because, well, Saudi Arabia). Saudi Arabia was hoping the partnership would “modernize” it’s nation culturally while mitigating damage to its international reputation. In return WWE got a lot of money, access to middle eastern markets it lacked before and the potential to cut an endless amount of lucrative side deals.
But the partnership with Saudi Arabia has been dogged by controversy since day one, earning the WWE acres of bad press and convincing a number of high profile performers to skip the shows for various reasons. Things got worse following the torture and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a crime that drew international condemnation but little more than a shrug of the shoulders from the WWE (though it persuaded a few more wrestlers to skip the Saudi shows).
But now that deal, which was supposed to be the financial engine that drove the company forward for years to come, is strained to the breaking point. Things came to a head last September when 175 WWE employees (including some of their top wrestlers) were essentially held hostage on a Saudi airstrip. Now a number of the company’s shareholders (including the Warren City police and firefighters pension fund) have launched hefty lawsuits against the company claiming it misrepresented information and even outright lied about the fraying partnership with Saudi Arabia (and therefore WWE’s financial future).
A few weeks ago the XFL collapsed (again), painting Vince McMahon’s face in fresh egg (and costing him a few hundred million in losses) and the WWE Network-WWE’s own version of Netflix-has cooled considerably (such a decline during a global quarantine should send the WWE’s accountants running for the closest bottle of pepto bismol). They lost one of their top stars in Becky Lynch for the foreseeable future and they seem intent on erasing Roman Reigns (one of their other top names) from history for possibly petty reasons.Â
And in case you thought things couldn’t have gotten any worse, along came Black Wednesday. Despite bragging about having tonnes of cash in the bank and constantly referring to its talent, employees and fans as family, WWE sent an unprecedented chunk of its workforce packing on April 15th. Some of the names they cut enjoyed prominent roles in Wrestlemania just days earlier while others had been with the company for years. Online fan backlash was both immediate and unforgiving, granting some just one more excuse to tune the WWE out.
This isn’t to say that WWE is done. To paraphrase the man from True Detective, there’s a difference between being on the ropes and bleeding out. The truth is WWE has successfully navigated troubled waters before and come out stronger on the other side.
It has faced controversy, lawsuits and stiff competition in the past and always come out on top. And it isn’t as though McMahon and company aren’t without powerful allies. The United States’ government is being very generous to big business with its carious Coronavirus bailouts packages and the WWE has plenty of history with President Donald Trump (the WWE’s current corporate matriarch Linda McMahon resigned as the Trump administration’s Secretary of Small Business to chair a pro Trump super Pac heading into next November’s election). It’s fair to say there will be more than a few bailout dollars headed the WWE’s in the very near future.
Simply put, the WWE has very powerful friends in very high places while also boasting a winning record.
But if we’re being honest, it hasn’t faced all of these challenges all at once let alone during such uncertain times. While it quickly shot down the rumours that it was for sale, the truth is we could see a chunk of the company or the entire WWE Network sold off. The past few years have bruised and battered the company’s brand and it has failed to slow the steady exodus of existing fans while proving unable to attract new ones. WWE has to turn things around or something is going to give. And soon.
The WWE isn’t on the mat yet, but it’s definitely taking it’s lumps. And in the next little while we’re bound to see what it’s really made of.
Image via www.republicworld.com
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