The Hamilton Ave Journal 09.03.09: Volume 2 – Issue 102

Posted by JP Prag on 09.03.2009

What does TNA President Dixie Carter have to say about the future of her company and the industry? Can a few seminars help WWE talent with their finances? How many women’s only wrestling shows will launch this year? What happened to WCW contracted wrestlers when the company was bought out? All this and more is answered in this week’s edition of the Hamilton Ave Journal!

THE HAMILTON AVE JOURNAL
By JP Prag

Volume 2 – Issue 102

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

The Hamilton Ave Journal is the only wrestling news report focused solely on the business of wrestling. Here in the Journal we not only look at the stories that are important to the investor and business-minded person, but also delve deeper into stories that most fans of wrestling would overlook. That is because the Journal is about getting the heart of the matters that affect the companies and outlooks of the wrestling world.

And where is Hamilton Ave? That is the location of the WWE Production Studio in Stamford, CT, and thus the most powerful place in the wrestling world. Besides, The East Main Street Journal just does not have the right ring to it.

Who am I? I am JP Prag: consultant, entrepreneur, businessman, journalist, and wrestling fan.

Now, ring the bell because the market is open.






The Journal's front page area known as What's News isn't just about telling you what has happened. The stories in this section are about what will have an effect on the wrestling industry, individual federations, and the wallets of the fans.

LEAD STORY: TNA President Speaks Out

After her recent cable television debut, TNA President Dixie Carter has been hitting the interview circuit and giving her thoughts on the future of the company and the industry. When asked about the new 3-year deal with Spike TV, Ms. Carter said in one interview:

It's huge for us. We're going into this with a lot of momentum. Our viewership is up 30 percent through the early part of this year. Our goal is to get our there on Spike.

While in another interview she states:

It's a huge deal for us. We've been with Spike four years now, and in that time period we've more than doubled our viewing audience. We're almost at like two and a half times where we started. And we've moved time slots three different times and two different days, and it's just a testament to those loyal wrestling fans out there to continue to follow us and to continue to allow us to grow. Spike is extremely happy and they've been very, very good partners, but we look forward to growing new programming with them as well as other networks

Much to Ms. Carter's normal repertoire, the number keep growing as she talks, but the point remains the same—Spike TV remains happy with their progress and TNA is thus far happy with their own growth. The other important note on there is that Ms. Carter mentions "other networks". Normally this means their international partners, but in this case Ms. Carter also makes reference to domestic stations:

We're being more competitive internationally because we have more programming. And Spike understands that and recognizes that. We're going to have more programming with them. We're talking to other networks. We're going to have more exposure on other networks as well. And that's going to help us grow in the United States faster.

In another interview yet, Ms. Carter revealed that Spike had first right of refusal. So if TNA pitches a show and Spike turns them down, TNA is free to shop the show around.

But what of their main show, iMPACT? Would Ms. Carter like to move the show to a Monday night timeslot?

I think that you're going to see some different things with us and Spike. I think that's our goal going into this. Do we know specifically what they're going to be? No. Does Spike love us for Thursday night on their network? Absolutely, they do. Is that our preference? No. We would love to be up against Raw on Monday night.

Despite appearing on iMPACT, Ms. Carter has against started that she had no desire to be a regular on-air character. She did reveal, though, that she has a much longer history with professional wrestling then she ever let on:

I was a wrestling fan growing up. I grew up in Dallas, and the Von Erichs were gods there, and I was a Hulk Hogan fan. I watched Saturday morning wrestling with my brother all the time. But I quit watching wrestling as a young adult. I just did not like what was on television; it really didn't appeal to me. I booked wrestling in college a little bit but had gotten away from it until I started talking with the TNA folks back at the end of 2001, early 2002.

And furthermore…

I booked mostly out of Memphis. Ric Flair and those guys up there. Jerry Lawler. At one point I think I even had Jeff Jarrett, even though I didn't know him at that point. We've had a couple of weird accounts. I think I booked him at Ole Miss, and then we used to live absolutely next door to each other in Dallas right after I graduated from college.

This seems to contradict every other interview over the years where Ms. Carter was presented as someone with no ties to the industry. She may be exaggerating now to give her more clout where in actuality she was part of team that did marketing her wrestling events (marketing being her job before TNA President). Ms. Carter has been known to stretch facts to fit the puzzle she is creating, so that could be the case here as well.

Whatever her true history may be, Ms. Carter has been getting more involved in the creative side of the company. When it comes to creative, one name always comes to mind… Vince Russo:

"We have a running joke that when the fans chant, 'Fire Russo,' there's a 90 percent chance he had nothing to do with it (the angle). He's a brilliant, creative writer. He's about keeping character development real, and not doing run-ins."

If that is the case, then has Ms. Carter looked in to firing the people responsible for those angles? If an audience is angry enough to chant to fire someone over an angle, perhaps the creative process needs to be looked at, even if the person they are chanting about is not the right one. Saying the audience is off-the-mark just detracts from paying attention to the reaction in general.

With the recent changes in creative members, is TNA going to change?

I think as a newer company we have to have exposure. And we have to have that using name recognized talent. So these guys that have come in – the Mick Foleys, the Kurt Angles, the Stings, the Booker T's – they have come in with such a great understanding and respect for the fact that they're there to help grow and expose TNA to more fans, and also help us get our own TNA original or homegrown talent over. And if you've watched the show of late, you've already started to see a tremendous shift in focus on going from those veterans who have helped us in such a great way to seeing these young guys getting their due – A.J. Styles, Matt Morgan, Hernandez, Beer Money, Samoa Joe, and I can go on and on. If you watch, I don't think anybody's going to be able to use that criticism toward TNA.

Whatever her understandings and motives, Ms. Carter appears to at least talk the talk. The next six months will help prove if TNA can really walk the walk.


WWE Talent Initiative

As part of the overall "Wellness" policy, the WWE has also added a "Talent Life Skills" set of seminars to their general public information. Some of these seminars are new and some have been going on for a while, but the WWE is choosing the advertise them now as part of their changing corporate image. The items listed below in italics are from the WWE.

Personal Life Development
WWE provides our developmental talent with a Life Management workshop. This workshop provides practical skills and solutions to manage out-of-the-ring issues that can adversely effect their careers, particularly during initial adjustment into WWE. The program focuses on communication between personnel and a utilization of resources and is conducted by Dr. Earl Suttle, who administers similar programs for the NFL and NBA. To read Dr. Earl Suttle's bio, please click here.

This appears to be a newer program in response to issues related to living the WWE lifestyle and an extension of the WWE Development system. Since the talent spend less time managing their own lives and careers traveling around the country and world then their contemporaries 20 years ago, the WWE is now looking to take that learning experience on to themselves.

Personal Finance Education
Each year, WWE conducts a workshop for our talent that details the importance of financial planning. Conducted by Fidelity Investment representatives, the workshop offers talent an overview on how to save for the long term, balance their portfolios and manage other financial responsibilities. For more information, please click here.

Since the WWE provides no saving benefits and does not collect taxes from their "independent contractors", personal wealth management is even more important than in traditional employer-employee relationships. At that, with even wrestlers the caliber of Ric Flair not able to manager their money, the WWE is trying to be proactive in making sure talent are set up for the future.

Health Insurance Education
Each year, WWE holds a workshop for our talent that explains the value of obtaining proper health insurance, detailing the unexpected occurrences and costs of healthcare that may arise. It also gives talent the tools to explore healthcare options at any time. For more information, please click here.

Health insurance for an independent person is a huge expense per year, but for a wrestler it is even more since they live in a high risk occupation. The WWE could do better by actually providing health insurance since they could engage in collective bargaining, but that would come too close to admitting that talent are actually employees and the WWE can not do anything that makes them look like they are embracing that definition.

Media Training
WWE offers media training to our talent to teach them how to best present themselves and the WWE brand to the media and our audience. Our media training gives them the tools to effectively translate their message and image to all media outlets, both domestically and internationally. The training curriculum is presented by Kathleen Hessert, President of Sports Media Challenge. For more information, please click here.

This is more in line with not how the talent present themselves, but how they represent the company. Although the WWE has tight control over who the talent speaks to, every once in a while there is an interesting slip through the cracks.

These programs all seem like decent efforts by the WWE to help their talent be better in their personal and professional lives. That said, they all also appear as items an employer would give their employees, not what an owner would give a set of contractors. The WWE again has to watch that line before someone comes in to challenge that position, despite the success they have had thus far fighting off the definition in court.


Newsbites

Some items of note in the rest of the wrestling business world:

As part of their international touring, TNA will be holding tryouts for local wrestlers in an effort to continue to find talent from all over the world. Not only will six wrestlers be given tryout matches during the TNA's tour of Germany, but Jeff Jarrett and Christy Hemme will be evaluating talent while they tour Australia on a promotional outing. Wrestlers such as the Massive Q may end up on TNA television in the near future.



The Massive Q is the one putting his mask on in the background at the 23 second mark.

In an expansion before much product exist, Dragon Gate USA has announced that their premier PPV will also be available on Dish Network, boosting availability to 75 million homes in America. It remains to be seen if additional availability will help the buyrate for the upstart promotion.

As part of TNA's new deal with Spike TV, TNA can pitch a show idea to Spike and if they turn it down, TNA is free to shop it around elsewhere. This has fed rumors that TNA will again try to launch a Knockouts only show.

TNA is not the only promotion looking to launch a woman's wrestling show as it appears that a new version of GLOW is being shopped around to networks. Meanwhile, it appears that Wrestlicisous does not actually have a deal FOX as reported several weeks back. No additional tapings have been scheduled and Bischoff-Hervey Productions have also not got involved.

After five years of successful growth, the WWE has extended their working relationship with Avail-TVN to be long term provider of their Video on Demand (VOD) services. Says Jim Brown, Director of Operations for WWE Classics on Demand:

"We've been using Avail-TVN's services for nearly five years and are continually impressed with their business acumen, customer service, responsiveness and strategic insight. We are excited to extend our partnership into the future."




In the Marketplace we look at the trends in television ratings. This section is less for critical analysis by the Journal but more for the reader to see what is really going on and to draw their own conclusions.

As with stocks, here in the Journal we track the progress of television ratings. If ratings are the barometer by which we judge the product, then over the course of 52 weeks we should be able to see patterns, trends, and anomalies.

For the week ending Wednesday September 2, 2009, here are the current standings of our shows:





RAW
Close (This Week's Rating): 3.6
Open (Last Week's Rating): 3.9
Percentage Change: ▼ 7.7%
52-Week High: 4.5
52-Week Low: 2.6
All Time High: 8.1
All Time Low: 1.8

SmackDown*
Close (This Week's Rating): 1.9
Open (Last Week's Rating): 1.9
Percentage Change: UNCH
52-Week High: 2.5
52-Week Low: 1.6
All Time High: 5.8
All Time Low: 1.0

* SmackDown! ratings may include fast overnight if final ratings are not posted. Also, SmackDown! ratings are for the prior week as overnights are not available before this article goes to print.

ECW
Close (This Week's Rating): 1.4
Open (Last Week's Rating): 1.2
Percentage Change: ▲ 12.5%
52-Week High: 1.4
52-Week Low: 0.7
All Time High: 2.3
All Time Low: 0.6

TNA iMPACT**
Close (This Week's Rating): 1.1
Open (Last Week's Rating): 1.2
Percentage Change: ▼ 8.3%
52-Week High: 1.3
52-Week Low: 1.0
All Time High: 1.3
All Time Low: 0.6

** TNA iMPACT's are for the prior week as ratings may not be available at the time of the Journal's posting

SuperStars***
Close (This Week's Rating): 0.9
Open (Last Week's Rating): 1.0
Percentage Change: ▼ 10.0%
52-Week High: 1.0
52-Week Low: 0.7
All Time High: 1.0
All Time Low: 0.7

*** SuperStars ratings may include fast overnight if final ratings are not posted. Also, SuperStars ratings are for the prior week as overnights are not available before this article goes to print.

Analysis:

With little fanfare coming in this week, RAW ended its streak of 3.9 ratings and settled back to a 3.6, still well above the ratings seen six months ago. With Bob Barker taking the stage next week, will ratings return or has the show seen the max out on the guest host angle? Also, timing has to be a question as most schools in North America went back in session this week, which could have pulled some viewers. In just a week, the NFL season also starts which has traditionally cut into RAW's ratings. All of these factors happening at once do not bode well for what may be ahead for the red brand.




We all know that wrestling is a business, but we don't often pay attention to what sells and makes money. Money and Investing looks into the top selling items in the world of wrestling and any interesting figures that may have come out this week.

What are the top ten selling items for the WWE? From WWEShopZone.com:

2. The Rise and Fall of WCW DVD/NWO Retro T-Shirt Package ($54.95, on sale $26.99)
3. Hardys Green Pendant ($10)
4. John Cena Attitude Adjustment T-Shirt ($25)
5. Triple H Fear No Man T-Shirt ($25)
6. D Generation X Basics YOUTH T-Shirt ($9.99)
7. Hardy Purple Logo Penent ($10)
8. WWE White Gift Bag ($3)
9. Randy Orton Root of Evil T-Shirt ($25)
10. John Cena Lunch Cooler ($6.99)

There was not a lot of movement this week as most items were a hold over from the week before. Randy Orton rejoined the list and John Cena added a Lunch Cooler, while Triple H lost a T-shirt, but otherwise the list did not move. That said, Jeff Hardy still holds a couple of key spots, but his items have not been discounted yet. It looks like the WWE is being smart with Hardy and are trying to get as much out of his merchandise while they can.


TNA sometimes releases a list of top selling items on ShopTNA.com. According to the site the top selling items were:

1. Sting "Discharge" T-shirt ($19.99)
2. Beer Money - Daily Buzz Shirt ($19.99)
3. TAZ "FTW" Shirt ($19.99)
4. Beer Money T-shirt ($19.99)
5. Bound for Glory Fan Interaction General Admission ($55)
6. Il Padrino (The Godfather) T-shirt ($19.99)
7. TNA Stars 8 X 10 Extravaganza ($29.99)
8. The British Invasion T-shirt ($19.99, on sale $17.99)
9. AJ Styles "Phenomenal Brand" T-shirt ($19.99)

TNA updated their list this week by bringing in a large amount of diversity. This list has far greater array of talents than seen in many lists as Sting, Beer Money, Taz, Kurt Angle, the British Invasion, and AJ Styles all took strong positions. Can this mix of old and new talent continue to highlight TNA's list, or is this week just the aberration as we return to a couple of outsiders and various DVDs? Only time will tell on this one.




Wrestling isn't just about watching and reading. The best way to be a wrestling fan is to experience it live. Where is wrestling coming to in the next 2 weeks? The Personal Journal answers that question.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
6 (Sep) RAW Live (Madison, WI) SmackDown / ECW Live (Ponce, Puerto Rico)	7 RAW (Chicago, IL)	8 SmackDown / ECW (Rockford, IL)	9	10 ROH Live (Phildelphia, PA)	11 TNA Live (Augusta, GA) ROH Live (Philadelphia, PA)	12 WWE SuperShow (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) TNA Live (Dalton, GA)
13 WWE Breaking Point (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) TNA Live (Gainesville, GA)	14 RAW (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)	15 SmackDown / ECW (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)	16	17	18 RAW Live (Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada) ROH Live (Dayton, OH)	19 RAW Live (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada) RAW Live (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) SmackDown / ECW Live (Bangor, Maine) ROH Live (Chicago Ridge, IL)

Do you know a wrestling event coming up? Send one in to The Hamilton Ave Journal and we'll be sure to add it to the list.




The Editorials section is designed for you, the readers, to respond to the views presented in the Journal, send an important news item, or talk about another overlooked business related item in wrestling. Just beware: the Journal reserves the right to respond back.

From the commentary section last week, The IWC apparently asked in collective thought:

So just because DX can sell merchandise that justifies them returning?

From a creative, ratings, buyrate, and attendance standpoint, perhaps not. But a merchandise perspective shows there is some benefit to the return to DX, despite all of the other shortcomings. From an objective perspective of the bottom line, they provide a short term cash boost. Does the group provide any long-term gains? Well, that does not appear to be the WWE's game right now.

Speaking of DX merchandise, Cena is LAUGHING AT YOU!!! LOL!! noted:

Funniest thing I saw at Summerslam was little kids walking around in "Worlds Biggest Member" shirts.

It does seem quite counter-intuitive to the WWE's TV-PG image, especially considering their recent press releases.

Sticking to the merchandise, deciding what your kids can buy came down to a question of parenting skills. Jack Conner asks:

Did that guy really say he won't buy his six year-old son a Jeff Hardy or John Cena t-shirt because he personally doesn't like them?

What a moron.

TheTheoryofTimeandSpace let Mr. Connor know his thought process:

Yep, that's exactly what I said. I refuse to purchase him any WWE tatty merchandise because I don't see why Vince should get my money.

Nor should I allow my son to have Jeff Hardy, a known drug addict, as a role model. Nor should I allow said person to get a penny of my pound through his share of merchandise.

Why should I capitulate to the WWE marketing machine and allow my son to become a brainwashed sheep?

I guess I should allow my SIX year old son to make crap choices all his life, huh?

He'll be trying to convince me WWE.Com is the most visited website in the world next and quote random Did You know facts at me.

Remember, if you tolerate this, your children will be next.

Jack Connor and The Truth both had choice responses here, but you can check back to last week for that.

Speaking of last week, the Journal covered the end of WCW and the backdoor deals that made the WWE's purchase of their rival possible. JWestmoreland says in response:

Very interesting about WCW, and that is odd that they would be willing to cancel their highest-rated show when they would no longer be taking the financial losses.

What is even more interesting is that all WCW wrestlers were contracted to Turner Sports, not WCW. So when the WWE bought WCW, Turner Sports formed the "Universal Wrestling Corporation" in order to transfer all of the contracts in to. The WWE did take a number of contracts, but did not have to pay AOL-Time Warner anything for that talent. Meanwhile, any larger talent that wanted to come over for the invasion (Booker T, DDP) had to ask for a release from their contract from the UWC.

Most wrestlers and other contractors did not. So Kevin Nash, Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Jarrett, Sting, Lex Luger, and other high paid talent all remained with AOL-Time Warner and continued to be paid. In other words, the UWC had no revenue (which it would have if WCW existed) and had to continue to pay out costs for another 3-4 years.

But it does not end there! The WWE assumed none of WCW's debt and liability. So the UWC had to still pay back all account payable and monies owed as well as deal with lawsuits, like the one Hulk Hogan launched against the company and Vince Russo for defamation of character. Luckily, the WWE dropped all the lawsuits they had against WCW, but there was no reason they could not have continued them.

As you look more and more at the deal, it makes less and less sense. Why would someone sell all the revenue generating portions of a company at a fire sale price but then maintain all of the cost and liability? Even as a write off, it seems like nothing but a waste of cash and resources.

On the same subject, Stinger126 asks:

Very interesting read on the WCW stuff. Do you have anymore info on it or know where a person can find out more about the deal that ended WCW?

Plenty more information is available from the Journal (as you can see above), so if you have any questions be sure to ask. The information is piecemealed around, so getting a total story is an adventure in and of itself. Too many of the "death of WCW' type books want to throw in the author's personal feelings on angles and storylines and avoid the backstage issues, but pieces can be found there. Eric Bischoff's book "Controversy Creates Ca$h" has many interesting tidbits on the corporate politics side of Time Warner. If you want to learn more about Jamie Kellner he is a subject of the "Rise and Fall of WCW" DVD, but you can find out more information by researching his name with "Tivo". That will help you understand his mindset a bit better.

Moving away from the past and looking at the future, Darth Mortis wants to talk about the WWE possibly launching their own station:

I noted in another comment on this new channel that the WWE could run a new program every hour of every day for nearly 15 years (if you include the new programming in the mix, but NOT including their DVDs and WWF/E Movies) without repeating a single minute of programming.

Fact is, WWE doesn't need UFC whatsoever [EDITOR'S NOTE: this is in reference to another commenter saying the WWE should sign UFC away from Spike and start a fighting network], especially if the WWE worked a deal to air the channel in India and/or China, which is arguably the two hottest international markets for WWE right now.

Another commentator elsewhere said that seeing all the RAWs and Nitro's during the Monday Night War shown during the week may make it possible to not have to wait 28 years to get through them all (since they only update that once a month on the on-demand service).

And wrapping up the topics this week was TNA's ratings in the UK. Everyone has a slightly different perspective, starting with Lambster420:

I'd put TNA's Uk ratings victory down to availability.

WWE is shown on sky sports over here and you have to pay quite a bit for the privelage to watch these channels (due mainly to them showing premiership Football (or Soccer, if you prefer).

TNA on the other hand is on Bravo which most people with cable or digital TV get for free.

Still, good to see TNA are doing well internationally, even if i havn't been much of a fan since Russo took the book.

dennett316 seems to take this point to an extreme:

Lambster has it right, Bravo is on a subscription free channel and is available to pretty much all digital TV viewers in the UK, while Sky Sports requires an extra subscription.
TNA truly is grasping at straws a little.....if WWE Raw or Smackdown were on a free channel, TNA wouldn't even get a look in.

TheTheoryofTimeandSpace returns with yet another view on this:

Expanding more on the WWE / TNA satellite issue in the UK. The WWE did used to air free, on terrestrial television no less, between, I think, 1999 - 2001 on Channel Four.

This included "Live" (on a half hour delay) PPV's, including the Royal Rumble (one of the WWE's Big Four) and ratings were so crap Channel Four never bothered renewing the deal or even perusing it.

We also had TNA for free from the glory days on a now defunct "The Wrestling Channel" which aired loads of US wrestling including ROH, which got most people who watch TNA now watching, if not talking about it.

However, with regards to viewership of RAW / Impact, even though I have access to Sky, I choose to download the programme so I can watch at my leisure without advertising.

Dunno if this help chimed in with some helpful information:

Sky Sports 3
w/e 16 Aug 2009
000's

4 WWE LATE NIGHT RAW (Mon 26:00) 62
6 WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT SMACKDOWN (Fri 21:00) 52
9 WWE RAW (Mon 15:00) 40
10 WWE LATE NIGHT RAW (Thu 21:33) 37

As you can see, it's pretty hard to tell if the live Raw figures and the repeats are unique viewers or not.

That is true. RAW does have a proliferation of timeslots and without the proper ratings software it is hard to know if there is any overlap. But then, as dAVE!!! and other pointed out, ratings can be a fickle beast:

Just to chime in on the TNA/UK ratings topic, the August 15th ratings were down to less than 39,000.

Raw that week did 62,000 (at 2am), and SD! did 52,000.

So sadly, TNA failed to keep its momentum.

So it goes…


Plenty more was written, so be sure to take a look. And if you enjoy the Journal, why not bookmark 411mania.com and make it your home page? You can do that by clicking here.




This concludes Issue #102 (Volume 2) of THE HAMILTON AVE JOURNAL. Join us next week as we get ready to ring the bell again.

Till then!