Vince McMahon SHOOTS On AEW During WWE Q2 Conference Call

By Andrew Pollard / July 25, 2019

WWE’s hugely intriguing Quarter 2 Conference Call took place earlier today, with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, WWE Co-Presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, and WWE Investor Relations Officer Michael Weitz present to run through WWE’s quarter financial report and field questions.

One big take-home from this conference call is that Vince McMahon has *shock horror* finally admitted that WWE may have some competition on the horizon. Crazy times, right?

Courtesy of ProWrestling.net, here’s the breakdown of everything you need to know from today’s extensive conference call.

- Vince’s first input was to say that the revenue figure of $269 million “is what it is”, before moving on to discuss overseas TV deals – including the news that an Indian television deal is close to being announced.

- McMahon mentioned that new executive directors of both Raw and SmackDown Live have recently been hired, although he stopped short of actually naming Paul Heyman or Eric Bischoff.

- SmackDown’s upcoming October movie to FOX will put WWE in 33% more homes.

- George Barrios brought up talent injuries as being a reason for WWE’s declining year-on-year ratings. It is to be noted that the Quarter 2 yearly TV ratings are only down by 11%, in comparison to the Quarter 1 yearly drop of 14%. Because yay for small victories!

- WWE does not expect to hit a record number of WWE Network subscribers this year, but Barrios was keen to make reference to the imminent changes coming to the interface and search facilities of WWE Network.

- New A&E biographies are being planned for WWE legends.

- WWE will return to tour China this September for the fourth year in a row.

- As per Barrios, a possible Saudi Arabia media rights agreement could net WWE between $10 million and $20 million. Barrios presumes a second Saudi event will take place later this year.

- When asked by a caller about the recent hiring of Heyman and Bischoff, Vince admitted that he “can’t personally be in the weeds any longer” and that these new executive directors “will have a lot of latitude”.

- WWE Network’s new tiering system will consist of three tiers, the first of which will be a free tier. Barrios said this change will be in place within a year, hopefully by the end of 2019.

- In response to a caller, Vince said that WWE storylines have “definitely turned the corner” and that the recent hiring of new executive directors will afford more time and care to be spent on developing talent and storylines.

- When asked about the chances of WWE’s product becoming edgier, McMahon confirmed that the current plan is to make WWE programming edgier whilst still working within the confines of a PG environment.

- There are zero plans “to go back to the old Attitude Era or do blood and guts”, although VKM speculated that their “new competitor” may resort to that approach. “We are not going back to that gory crap like we used to. It’s a more sophisticated product.”

- For those worried about NXT being moved to FS1, George Barrios skimmed over that concern by discussing how every piece of programming needs to be evaluated as it pertains to which platform it’s best suited.

- With SmackDown Live already been promoted on FOX’s Nascar coverage, Michelle Wilson explained how FOX’s promotional push of WWE “will be dialled up significantly” from September. SmackDown will be promoted across all of FOX’s sports programming and will also be pushed on FOX’s entertainment output.

- Vince added that NBCUniversal is looking to do more to push Monday Night Raw, although he’s not sure if they’ll be able to match the push that FOX will be giving to SmackDown.

- McMahon signed off from the conference call by taking a veiled shot at AEW. Admitting that competition is good for everybody, Vince then questioned whether TNT will put up with “the blood, guts, and gory thing”.

So, there’s plenty of information to digest there. The biggest story seems to be McMahon promising an edgier product, that Raw and SmackDown’s new executive directors will have some freedom, and Vince stirring the pot by suggesting that AEW may have some trouble trying to get TNT to air the sort of product All Elite has in mind.