➡️ Subscribers have exclusive access to reports like this for 90 days after publishing. SIGNUP NOW.

John Pollock & Brandon Thurston will discuss the WWE earnings call and other wrestling business news live at 2:30 pm ET today (Tuesday). Audio and video will be available for free afterward, on POST Wrestling‘s and on Wrestlenomics‘ YouTube channel, as well as our free podcast feeds.

WWE reporting second-quarter earnings today, with results for the period from April 1 to June 30.

In addition to the revelation that Vince McMahon has been served with a subpoena and search warrant (read my earlier report on that here) related to a federal investigation, here are my takeaways.

Headline financial results for Q2

• Revenue: $410.3M (over consensus estimates)
• Adjusted OIBDA: $140.7M (over WWE’s guidance of $130M to $140M)
• Operating income: $87.3M
• Net income: $52.0M
• EPS: $0.67 (under consensus estimates)

WWE reaffirmed earlier annual guidance on adjusted OIBDA for 2023 of $395 million to $410 million.

What’s taking so long for WWE to announce new TV deals?

WWE’s U.S. TV deals for Raw and Smackdown, the company’s most lucrative agreements, are being renegotiated now. In previous rounds in 2014 and 2018, new deals had already been announced by this point in the cycle. The exclusive negotiating windows for incumbents Fox and NBCUniversal have come to an end.

WWE CEO Nick Khan offered this explanation in Q&A:

“Last time having been across that negotiation the starting prices of where we were for Raw and Smackdown were far far less than the starting prices now, which means deeper and longer conversations. All of those conversations have been productive. We remain quite optimistic on it, in terms of time.”

Is the delay because the networks are waiting for NBA rights deals to be done first?

The NBA’s rights deals with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery expire at the end of the 2024-2025 season.

“Our view has not changed on that,” Khan said, reaffirming his previous comments that he doesn’t believe WWE has to wait for NBA deals to be done first.

Does WWE need a live digital component to guard against the continued decline in traditional TV households?

“It’s important in that we did it with Peacock,” Khan said.

“When you look at the NFL and you look at their most recent deals, there’s no longer a split between digital rights and linear rights… We expect the same thing. If it’s a traditional buyer, there’ll be a digital presence. If it’s a digital buyer like Peacock, there won’t be a traditional presence. So depending on what the totality offer looks like, we think we’ll be in good shape there.”

Summerslam has sold 43,000 tickets

“To date, we have over 43,000 tickets sold and are on track for a sell-out,” Khan said.

As of today, WrestleTix latest estimate of tickets distributed (which includes comps) is 47,061

Live events are doing well

Live event attendance is up strongly from last year, averaging in North America 7,300 excluding Wrestlemania, up nearly 50% from last year’s 4,900.

This is consistent with data from WrestleTix, which shows average tickets out for the quarter were up for every event type: Smackdown up 40%, Raw up 50%, PLEs up 23%, and house shows also up 23%.

Wrestlemania paid attendance

WWE’s reporting of average attendances for the quarter with and without Wrestlemania implies that paid ticket sales for the two-day event were between 122,241 and 130,557.

That’s consistent with data from Pollstar which showed paid attendance for the two days was a combined 127,531. Night 1 drew 63,243 and Night 2, 64,288.

WrestleTix previously estimated tickets distributed (including comps) at a total of 134,856, with Night 1 at 67,303 and Night 2 at 67,553.

WWE announced on television that the combined attendance was 161,892, claiming 80,497 the first night and 81,395 for the second night.

Premium live events in particular are doing well

WWE noted the company continued to set records in the quarter for PLE viewership, live event business, and venue merchandise sales, consistent with previous announcements. PLE viewership year-over-year comparisons are benefited from the near-doubling of Peacock paid subscribers, which are up to 24 million, increasing from 13 million a year ago, according to Comcast’s latest disclosure. 

WWE disclosed in its earnings press release, “Each WWE premium live event (WrestleMania, Backlash and Night of Champions) set global unique viewership records with year-over-year increases of 29%, 34% and 45%, respectively.”

WWE touts economic impact study

WWE published a release saying Wrestlemania generated $215 million in economic impact for the Los Angeles area in April. 

The release doesn’t say how much of that revenue was incremental due to WWE’s presence in the area. While there’s no doubt WWE had some economic impact on local businesses, such economic impact studies related to sports events have often been found to be misleading.

Perhaps less dubious, the release says more than half of the fans who traveled to LA were from outside southern California and 15% of attendees were from “international markets”. Those visiting had an average annual income of more than $100,000, the release says.

WWE-UFC merger

WWE still expects to close the deal in the second half of 2023, to merge with UFC under TKO Holdings Group.

WWE stated that the required 30-day waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act has expired and all foreign regulatory approvals have been obtained. The deal is expected to be completed pending “the satisfaction of customary closing conditions”.

We didn’t hear from Paul Levesque

Despite being introduced as present on the line along with Khan and CFO Frank Riddick, chief content officer Paul Levesque didn’t speak on the call.

Khan and Riddick handled all opening remarks and responses in Q&A.

I don’t think any individual wrestling talent was mentioned at any point during the call either.