I’m told that there is a change in plans regarding breaking up The Shield. I take that to mean the breakup plans from earlier this year that were considered delayed for a while because of the feeling they were getting over strong as a face trio, are not even being talked about for any time soon. Originally the break-up was going to have already happened.
WWE has revamped other plans going forward. As of right now, Orton is no longer being pushed to the merchandise side as a top babyface for down the line, which seems to mean a post-Mania turn is no longer in the short-term cards. The WWE right now is looking at, in order, the top four singles babyfaces for down the line, in order, being Cena, Bryan, Cesaro and Sheamus (that was the plan as of a little more than a week ago, I’ve been sensing a Sheamus turn for some time and the nature of his U.S. title win certainly seemed like that was the direction they were going). The last time an internal list was made, Orton, Batista and Reigns were near the top, right behind Cena and Bryan, with Sheamus as the big names planned as the top faces for down the line. What that would seem to mean is they are going forward now with The Shield as a group based on several months out projections (what they recommend to those they do business with when it comes to marketing is based on creating things now that won’t hit the marketplace for months) as opposed to a Reigns singles push, and they are bullish on Cesaro as a babyface within a few months. Given that Cesaro vs. Lesnar seems obvious when it’s time for Cesaro to make the split from Heyman, I could see the idea of a SummerSlam where Reigns goes over HHH and Cesaro goes over Lesnar as ways to elevate them to top babyface status. Keep in mind when you project months out, they are moving targets and it changes monthly.
Right now the four retired wrestlers they are pushing, in order, are Hogan, Undertaker, Austin and Warrior. Warrior was higher on the priority list a few weeks ago, but that’s understandable. However, for the month of April, more people purchased Warrior merchandise on the Internet than anyone else, including Cena. The Internet merchandise numbers were Warrior first, followed by Cena, Punk, Bryan, The Wyatts, The Shield, Evolution and Hogan. At the arenas, Cena is so far above everyone else, as noted last week, that it’s not even close. The latest best sellers at the arenas have been Cena, Bryan, Orton, Warrior, RVD, Lesnar, Wyatts, Batista and Sin Cara has broken into the No. 9 spot. It’s notable that past Cena, Bryan and Orton, everyone on the list is new as far as character merchandising, except Sin Cara. RVD is there for his return and much higher than he should be given his push. Warrior is about the unique circumstances of his return and his death and it’s clearly temporary. Lesnar is up there because somebody’s client conquered the streak. Batista on the list is just plain hilarious, and shows (as do others) the difference between the vocal crowd that drowns people out on TV and the money spending consumers. Sin Cara on the list right now may be just a fluke of scheduling, since they ran some successful events in Texas over the past few weeks, where the old Mistico was super strong. I doubt he’ll stay on, but the key is that even with shows in some border markets that drew well, Mysterio did not crack the top ten, which speaks of an out of sight, out of mind deal.
The stock closed at press time on 5/6 at $18.12 per share, bringing the market capitalization to $1.36 billion. I expect the next real movement up or down is based on the television rights deal. If you think they will beat double, then now isn’t the time to sell. If you don’t think they can double TV rights, now would be a very good time to sell. If they don’t beat double, I’d expect a drop because the inflated price, which actually right now is no longer that inflated, was based on the idea of tripling TV rights and the idea of 3.5 million network subscribers at the end of 2015.
A group called Shareholders Foundation Inc., claimed they were going to do an investigation over potential securities law violations by WWE based on certain things announced by directors and company officers regarding financial statements. An attempt to find out what in specific they are looking at went unanswered. WWE issued a statement claiming there was no substance or merit to the claim.
WWE just purchased some old 8mm and Super 8 footage from the 70s and early shot by George Pantas from matches in Norfolk and Hampton, VA. This was the old house show footage used in the great Jim Crockett Promotions documentary put out by Michael Elliot that won video of the year, since WWE owns what is left of the JCP collection (JCP sold its video library to Turner Home Entertainment in 1988, which then sold it to WWE in 2001). Pantas noted selling his collection after negotiations with Ben Brown, who is in charge of archival footage for WWE, Paul Levesque and other execs. I don’t know how extensive the footage is as far as complete matches go, but at least for round table discussions, it has at least parts of main events with tons of the biggest names of the 70s in their primes that in many cases wouldn’t be in any other collection the company owns.
Memphis wrestling while on his break from taping a film
Rocky for watching Memphis wrestling. If he got to see that GOAT Hair vs Hair Cage Match between Idol and Lawler...
Batista?
