Credit to TheStreet.com for this transcript of Vince McMahon’s address to WWE investors at this week’s conference call..
Click Here for more on WWE’s 2nd Quarter financial results.
Basically, we had a lousy quarter, and I think that it was sort of like a perfect storm, if you would, we had quite a number of negatives as it relates to the Icelandic volcano situation, which our troops were stranded over there for quite some time.
Notwithstanding that, another perfect storm as it relates to talent and intellectual property and the use of them at the end of WrestleMania, the remaining of those really our top talents, some of them retired, which one of them we knew was going to another we did not.
In addition to that there were considerable injuries that booked a number of our performers on the sideline as well, Undertaker, CM Punk, Shawn Michaels retired, Batista, unexpectedly, took a hiatus, Triple H injured. These are some of the stalwarts that we rely on.
These are some of the star, which that we are relying on to for pay-per-view numbers, rely on for live events, and that’s really my major barometer in terms of where the business is going. All live events is for those pay-per-view numbers, because the pay-per-view is no different than really a live event that’s simply televised.
So, those two are numbers that were indicative of the lousy quarter in terms of pay-per-view and the lack of attendance, but all of that of course relates to WWE not giving the public the performance in terms of attraction that they want to see.
And again, that’s because of the perfect storm-type situation that we’ve never had in the business in terms of all of these talents leaving and injured all at the same time.
We did have a couple of strengths in terms of home video somewhat up. Our tour launch with Mattel, and Mattel as a partner is tremendous and we will continue to have very positive impacts.