mookeighana

Wrestlenomics Radio - Dummies Guide to G1 Rich from voicesofwrestling.com joins the show to preview the upcoming New Japan G1 Climax tournament and explain why Mookie's statistics-driven model is complete bunk. Plus comparing ratings systems (Meltzer vs Keller), ideas to help fix the WWE Network and perhaps a look ahead at the Battleground "PPV"! in Wrestling http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/07/19/wrestlenomics-radio--dummies-guide-to-g1 Wrestlenomics Radio - 7/27/2014 - with Joe Lanza (and guest star Joe Gagne!) We keep the G1 training moving along with the other half of Voices of Wrestling power team - Mr Joe Lanza! We talk worldwide indy wrestling, what to do with those old VHS tapes (Cop Squad!), lots of G1 predictions and thoughts (including why the guru of grappling couldn't even finish his pick 'em bracket), the state of WWE(What do with Brock? Rusev? Titus!) and status updates on TNA/ROH. I talk a lot about WWE Q2 conference call (including a list of questions worth asking McMahon/Barrios) and we lament the sad state of paying attention to details of WWE Network old footage. There's a SURPRISE guest run-in from Mr. Joe Gagne talking G1 (and more) and Mookie's insane lists (Lucha 1000! Joshi 100! Indy NA 325!) gets some validation. Does God love workrate? We explore. This was a terrific sunday treat. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/07/27/wrestlenomics-radio-w-joes-voices-of-wrestling-gagne

I still think that ridiculous angle where they had Tyson guest-hosting Raw here in Minneapolis and him wrestling and turning all in a single night was just a waste.

We can finally get that comprehensive Christian documentary we've all been waiting for.

I'll do my best to explain the voodoo wrestlenomics that generate the rankings. Let's take AJ Styles. Among the companies in my database, Styles worked 18 matches for "non-major" companies. Those companies held shows in many places including Canada, Central States (Ohio/Illinois), Northern States (NY/PA/NJ), Pacific States (California) and Southern States (North Carolina). In the end he gets 3 points out of a possible five points for working in Canada (1 point) and because he had several matches in Northern States (1 point) and several matches in Central States (1 point). (To qualify for the list, you had to have at least 2 points.) Styles record (all North American companies including major companies) was 23 singles matches and 3 tag matches for 26 total matches. His singles record was 17-4-2 (81% win) and his tag record was 3-0 (100% win). This put his "estimated singles wins" at (17+4+2)*.81=18.63 and his "estimated tag wins" at (3+0+0)*1.0=3. AJ Styles' "estimated single wins" (18.63) was 8th highest among everyone on the list (Michael Elgin, Kevin Steen, Chris Hero, Cedric Alexander, Caleb Konley, Lince Dorado, Danny Duggan all had more). AJ Styles' "estimated tag wins" (3.00) was 125th on the list (the leaders were Michael Elgin, Davey Richards, BJ Whitmer, JT Dunn, David Starr, Mason Cutter, Devin Cutter, Dylan Bostic). If you think of a wrestling card completion going from 0% to 100% (opening match at 0%, last match at 100%), AJ Styles average "placement" on the card was 92.6%. That put his "main event equivalence" at 93%x26 matches=24.09. Among all the wrestlers on the list his ""main event equivalence" (24.09) was ranked 16th (top ten were Michael Elgin, Davey Richards, Kevin Steen, Chris Hero, Jimmy Jacobs, Kyle O'Reilly, Cedric Alexander, Caleb Konley, Rich Swann, Matt Hardy). So, his "weighted average" was a combination of Singles Win Rank(3x), Tag Win Rank (2x), Placement rank (1x) which was (8*3+125*2+16*1)/6=48.333 Final score was then "adjusted" by the absolute placement, [1.1-placement]x"weighted average"=[1.1-.926]x48.33 = 8.41 score. That was AJ Styles' "all companies" score (8.41). Among everyone on the list, it was 7th (behind Michael Elgin, Kevin Steen, Jimmy Jacobs, Matt Hardy, Ron Mathis, Danny Duggan). However, we're not done. Next, we calculate all of the same variables, but we do it just looking at match records for non-major companies. AJ Styles was 13-3-1 singles (81%) and 1-0 tag (100%). His "estimated singles wins" was 13.8 and "estimated tag wins" was 1.0. That put him at 13th and 240th respectively. On non-major shows, his average placement on the card was similar, 93.5%. His "main event equivalence" for non-major companies was 16.8, which put him at 36th. His weighted average would be (13*3+240*2+36)/6=92.5. Final score is adjusted by absolutel placement (93.5%) so [1.1-0.935]x92.5=15.26. This is AJ Styles' "non-major companies" score (15.26) which put him 15th among everyone. (The top ten for the "non-major companies" were Michael Elgin, Heidi Lovelace, Joey Ryan, Ron Mathis, Lince Dorado, JT Dunn, Danny Duggan, Jimmy Jacobs, Gory, Matt Hardy). Now, we have two rankings: all-companies (Styles was 7th) and non-major companies (Styles was 15th). His final score is a combination of these two factors with the original "points" metric thrown in. So, his final score was calculated at (points/5)x((400-[all companies rank])*3+(400-[non-major companies rank])*2)/5. In this case, his score would be (2/5)x[(400-7)*3+(400-15)*2]/5=60%*(1179+770)/5=234. That number (234) was ranked among everyone and that's where AJ Styles ended up as 19th. To be honest, there's really a very tight pack as numerous people have scores that range from 220 to 240 Matt Hardy, Ron Mathis, Lince Dorado, AJ Styles, JT Dunn, Gory, David Starr, Jack Pollock, Matt Cage, Drake Younger. There's a "random variable" in my data to prevent ties and when you're dealing with many people who have the same tag records (or whatnot), people really start to fly around when you rerun the data. It's a shortcoming in the model based on not enough matches. I can certainly talk about the reasoning behind each of the steps, but basically it was just something I threw together with the idea that I wanted to reward people who (1) won a lot (2) worked both tag & singles (3) worked in several regions (4) worked near the top of the card. So, the short answer is that if I re-run the model, even today, there's some significant shuffling that happens naturally (or randomly) so it might be more accurate to band the wrestlers where you have the top four (Elgin, Steen, Hero, Ryan) as one group and then the next band and so forth. I know this all sounds crazy and well, it is.

Mookie's insane train rolls on. I just finished the North American Indy 325. http://indeedwrestling.blogspot.com/2014/07/mookieghanas-north-american-indy-power.html I looked at results from 200 North American pro-wrestling companies YTD 2014 and created a list of eligible wrestlers based on who had most matches outside of "major" companies. *) Major = WWE, TNA, ROH, EVOLVE, DGUSA There was also consideration taken in for which people worked in a variety of "regions" across the US (and Canada) as well as the similar factors as before (total matches, estimated singles wins, estimated tag wins, average place on the card). Again, this is a silly stats driven model which gives no thought to working ability or other critical judgment calls. Think of it as a Mookie's ridiculous indy PWI. Compiled by someone hasn't seen most of the people on this list. rank / wrestler / matches / federation with most matches / single win % / tag win % / place on 8 match card 1 Michael Elgin 73 Ring Of Honor (23) 71% 88% 6 2 Kevin Steen 53 Ring Of Honor (20) 55% 46% 5 3 Chris Hero 51 Ring Of Honor (8) 54% 75% 6 4 Jimmy Jacobs 49 Ring Of Honor (15) 56% 64% 5 5 Joey Ryan 39 Champ Wrestling From Hollywood (8) 65% 68% 4 6 Rich Swann 47 EVOLVE Wrestling (7) 37% 40% 5 7 Johnny Gargano 33 DREAMWAVE Wrestling (8) 54% 33% 6 8 Athena 27 Anarchy Championship Wrestling (5) 48% 100% 4 9 ACH 47 Ring Of Honor (20) 48% 21% 4 10 Kyle O'Reilly 48 Ring Of Honor (22) 29% 53% 5 11 Candice LeRae 28 Women Superstars Uncensored (6) 50% 69% 4 12 Nick Jackson 20 Ring Of Honor (4) 50% 67% 7 13 Davey Vega 30 Beyond Wrestling (6) 39% 43% 4 14 Trent Barreta 31 EVOLVE Wrestling (7) 29% 50% 6 15 Leah Von Dutch 19 Absolute Intense Wrestling (4) 63% NA 6 16 Matt Hardy 39 Big Time Wrestling (6) 76% 63% 7 17 Ron Mathis 38 Rockstar Pro Wrestling (18) 65% 77% 5 18 Lince Dorado 42 I Believe In Wrestling (10) 64% 54% 5 19 AJ Styles 26 Ring Of Honor (6) 81% 100% 7 20 JT Dunn 37 Combat Zone Wrestling (10) 60% 71% 5 21 David Starr 36 Combat Zone Wrestling (11) 67% 65% 5 22 Gory 32 Pro Wrestling eXpress (10) 71% 59% 5 23 Jack Pollock 26 Pro Wrestling eXpress (15) 50% 75% 6 24 Caleb Konley 47 Premiere Wrestling Xperience (12) 58% 33% 5 25 Ethan Page 38 AAW: (9) 41% 78% 4 26 Matt Cage 32 Beyond Wrestling (11) 69% 67% 4 27 Jason Kincaid 23 National Wrestling Alliance (9) 67% 60% 5 28 Drake Younger 24 Supreme Pro Wrestling (6) 50% 67% 6 29 Matt Conard 29 Black Diamond Wrestling (13) 61% 40% 5 30 Josh Crane 37 IWA Mid-South (14) 46% 42% 4 31 Mia Yim 24 SHINE Wrestling (6) 56% 71% 5 32 Dave Crist 34 Rockstar Pro Wrestling (14) 70% 58% 4 33 Kimber Lee 33 Women Superstars Uncensored (8) 53% 50% 3 34 LuFisto 22 Rockstar Pro Wrestling (5) 73% 60% 5 35 Gangrel 19 West Coast Wrestling Connection (7) 70% 63% 5 36 Matt Cross 26 Absolute Intense Wrestling (7) 81% 50% 4 37 Chris LeRusso 31 Black Diamond Wrestling (13) 52% 14% 5 38 Tommy Dreamer 17 Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (3) 40% 50% 6 39 Matt Jackson 17 Ring Of Honor (4) NA 69% 7 40 Louis Lyndon 23 AAW: (8) 43% 63% 4 41 Allysin Kay 14 SHINE Wrestling (7) 50% 75% 6 42 Tripp Cassidy 26 Evolution Pro Wrestling (9) 38% 54% 4 43 Facade 22 International Wrestling Cartel (9) 50% 50% 5 44 Gregory Iron 20 Smash Wrestling (4) 40% 50% 3 45 AR Fox 41 EVOLVE Wrestling (7) 45% 33% 5 46 Reby Sky 23 Big Time Wrestling (6) 73% 100% 4 47 Carlito 15 World Wrestling Council (7) 44% 67% 7 48 Ricky Starks 24 Canadian Wrestling's Elite (6) 32% 20% 4 49 Jessicka Havok 16 SHINE Wrestling (4) 63% 33% 5 50 Jay Flash 11 Black Diamond Wrestling (8) 38% 100% 6

Time for round two! Let's keep the insane train rolling. Full list: http://indeedwrestling.blogspot.com/2014/07/mookieghanas-japanese-men-400-and-joshi.html I pulled in results from CageMatch for thirty Japanese companies (including New Japan, Dragon Gate, Big Japan, NOAH, All Japan, DDT, Wrestle-1, Osaka Pro, K-Dojo, Zero1, Ice Ribbon, WAVE, JWP, Michinoku Pro, Stardom, Union Pro and Oz). In the end we had about 4,750 matches spread across 810 events. I separated each match's results into individual people and looked at the same factors as before. I assigned "gender" of wrestlers based on which company they worked in and who their opponents were in the matches that I reviewed. It certainly was not a foolproof method and I easily could have screwed up some people! JOSHI 100 rank / name / matches/ singles win % / tag win % / place on 5-match card 1 Tsukasa Fujimoto 83 87% 66% 4 2 Mio Shirai 80 59% 57% 3 3 Hikaru Shida 61 64% 64% 3 4 Kyoko Kimura 47 63% 52% 4 5 Kyoko Inoue 21 100% 46% 5 6 Maki Narumiya 43 60% 71% 3 7 Io Shirai 25 89% 69% 4 8 Hamuko Hoshi 54 71% 49% 3 9 Yumi Ohka 39 82% 33% 4 10 Cherry 57 56% 59% 2 11 Tsukushi 41 80% 42% 3 12 Risa Sera 63 47% 68% 3 13 Misaki Ohata 32 90% 65% 3 14 Kana 44 75% 63% 3 15 Arisa Nakajima 41 100% 63% 3 16 Shuu Shibutani 51 68% 39% 3 17 Hiroyo Matsumoto 46 71% 58% 2 18 Kayoko Haruyama 36 67% 68% 3 19 AKINO 14 100% 56% 4 20 Command Bolshoi 33 83% 67% 3 21 Rabbit Miu 50 52% 44% 2 22 Kurumi 49 65% 54% 2 23 Syuri 23 90% 62% 3 24 Natsuki Taiyo 24 50% 64% 4 25 Leon 37 67% 52% 3 26 Nanae Takahashi 22 75% 56% 4 27 Hanako Nakamori 29 75% 61% 3 28 Aja Kong 21 100% 65% 4 29 Yumiko Hotta 15 100% 67% 4 30 DASH Chisako 18 67% 75% 3 31 Neko Nitta 33 33% 71% 3 32 Manami Katsu 38 47% 56% 3 33 Kaoru Ito 21 89% 55% 3 34 Tomoka Nakagawa 33 79% 50% 2 35 Yoshiko 24 78% 62% 3 36 Kaho Kobayashi 57 39% 37% 2 37 Kairi Hojo 23 50% 72% 3 38 Miyako Matsumoto 37 20% 44% 3 39 Tomoko Watanabe 11 NA 40% 4 40 Tsubasa Kuragaki 18 71% 91% 3 41 KAZUKI 33 47% 29% 3 42 Dynamite Kansai 12 67% 67% 4 43 Sachie Abe 36 36% 30% 3 44 Meiko Satomura 11 80% 83% 3 45 Mayumi Ozaki 12 100% 40% 4 46 Makoto 30 100% 56% 3 47 Jaguar Yokota 11 100% 78% 3 48 Mask de Sun 11 33% 75% 4 49 Takako Inoue 8 100% 33% 4 50 Takumi Iroha 23 33% 55% 3 Men in Japan 400 rank / name / matches / singles win % / tag win % / place on a 6-match card 1 BxB Hulk 87 93% 45% 4 2 Isami Kodaka 76 88% 69% 5 3 Shingo Takagi 83 91% 78% 4 4 YAMATO 87 79% 38% 5 5 Jun Akiyama 61 71% 72% 5 6 Takao Omori 58 68% 67% 4 7 Ricochet 52 75% 89% 4 8 Takoyakida 72 56% 68% 4 9 KAI 42 72% 71% 5 10 Shinsuke Nakamura 61 69% 46% 5 11 T-Hawk 86 57% 56% 4 12 Masakatsu Funaki 46 94% 85% 4 13 Kazuaki Mihara 72 86% 69% 4 14 Kota Ibushi 55 73% 67% 4 15 Yuko Miyamoto 64 70% 72% 5 16 Kazuchika Okada 60 67% 39% 6 17 Suwama 54 78% 44% 5 18 Akira Tozawa 85 78% 74% 4 19 Hiroshi Tanahashi 61 83% 53% 5 20 Jimmy Susumu 83 62% 43% 4 21 HARASHIMA 47 77% 52% 5 22 Mohammed Yone 54 87% 53% 4 23 Ryuji Ito 58 83% 46% 4 24 Masaaki Mochizuki 80 67% 41% 3 25 KUDO 42 82% 68% 5 26 Shinya Ishikawa 61 75% 53% 4 27 Masato Yoshino 85 78% 74% 4 28 Joe Doering 41 75% 48% 5 29 Daisuke Sekimoto 49 89% 52% 4 30 Katsuhiko Nakajima 56 88% 43% 4 31 Kanjyouro Matsuyama 72 44% 50% 4 32 Uhaa Nation 51 80% 63% 4 33 Kenou 54 57% 77% 3 34 Kotaro Suzuki 54 81% 58% 4 35 KENTA 36 78% 69% 5 36 Takashi Sugiura 45 86% 68% 5 37 Takeshi Morishima 46 67% 56% 5 38 Naomichi Marufuji 56 75% 45% 5 39 Shigehiro Irie 67 78% 71% 4 40 Naruki Doi 86 57% 47% 5 41 Cyber Kong 68 67% 60% 4 42 Daisuke Harada 58 74% 46% 4 43 Akebono 28 100% 67% 5 44 Bad Luck Fale 53 67% 50% 5 45 Masato Tanaka 46 89% 64% 5 46 Ultimo Dragon 54 75% 58% 4 47 Kento Miyahara 54 50% 55% 4 48 Keisuke Ishii 66 62% 67% 3 49 Mikey Nicholls 45 64% 62% 4 50 Maybach Taniguchi 55 25% 55% 5What does it mean? Probably nothing.

I was inspired by this thread to take it to the ridiculous level. Here is the Mookieghana YTD 2014 Lucha 1,000. Yes, I ranked a thousand wrestlers despite having zero knowledge about what's going on in Mexico. Essentially, the methodology is completely driven by a model that looks at projected singles/tag wins, their place on the card and some extra weight for which company (major or indy) they worked for. (I'm terrible with correcting duplicates so I'm sure the list is riddled with them.) Here's the top 50. rank / name / matches / singles win % / tag win % / avg place on a 5-match card 1 Volador Jr. 99 73% 62% 5 2 La Sombra 92 78% 57% 4 3 Rush 94 78% 58% 4 4 Atlantis 121 38% 67% 4 5 Titán 85 75% 56% 4 6 Shocker 87 30% 56% 5 7 La Parka 56 100% 63% 5 8 Diamante Azul 57 100% 69% 4 9 Negro Casas 81 43% 49% 4 10 Cavernario 66 71% 50% 4 11 Mistico 51 75% 59% 5 12 Último Guerrero 119 57% 45% 5 13 Valiente 91 40% 59% 4 14 Drako 65 50% 55% 4 15 Silver Star 54 67% 56% 4 16 Myzteziz/Sin Cara 40 100% 94% 5 17 Psycho Clown 75 33% 72% 4 18 Slayer 61 100% 50% 3 19 Mephisto 63 75% 28% 4 20 Cibernético 38 33% 61% 5 21 Rey Escorpión 66 50% 33% 4 22 Guerrero Maya Jr. 78 43% 66% 4 23 Blue Panther 69 75% 56% 3 24 La Máscara 94 33% 57% 4 25 Stuka Jr. 80 40% 60% 3 26 Fénix 73 40% 64% 4 27 Texano Jr. 68 33% 25% 5 28 Súper Nova 43 80% 60% 4 29 el Hijo del Perro Aguayo 36 33% 38% 5 30 Orquídea Negra 35 100% 100% 4 31 Tritón 65 67% 53% 3 32 Lady Maravilla 48 50% 100% 3 33 Daga 55 50% 48% 4 34 Mr. Niebla 84 25% 55% 5 35 Piloto Suicida 67 NA NA 4 36 Tiger 68 60% 43% 3 37 Destello 58 50% 63% 3 38 Dr. Wagner Jr. 24 40% 100% 5 39 Hijo de Máscara Año 2000 39 67% 40% 4 40 Pedro Navajas 43 50% 75% 3 41 Chessman 34 50% 43% 5 42 Dragón Rojo Jr. 60 40% 38% 4 43 Fuego 61 50% 69% 3 44 Hijo De Dos Caras 34 50% 55% 4 45 Ángel Del Futuro 35 NA 100% 4 46 Máximo 108 25% 67% 4 47 Marco Corleone 60 100% 65% 4 48 Cachorro 54 50% 41% 3 49 Eterno 79 40% 40% 3 50 Delta 62 40% 63% 3

The episode listings are tantalizingly bizzare: (from purodvd descriptions) --

If anyone is looking for some reminders of the sort of great stuff they showed, you can check out http://japaneseindysleaze.tumblr.com/ with a bunch of purodvd.com screencaps.

Landslide.

Yes. Class A shares get one vote per share and Class B shares get ten votes per share. And yes, it's a 1:1 conversion. "If, at any time, any shares of Class B common stock are beneficially owned by any person other than Vincent McMahon, Linda McMahon, any descendant of either of them, any entity which is wholly owned and is controlled by any combination of such persons or any trust, all the beneficiaries of which are any combination of such persons, each of those shares will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock." Back in Feb, there was 75 million total shares of WWE stock split 31.3 class A and 43.8 class B. There was a total of SIX holders of Class B shares back then.

Two great new episodes: 1. Wrestlenomics Radio is back with a special live lunchtime edition. Guest @DylanWaco joins the show to talk about his love of pro-wrestling, the role of Tertiary North American pro-wrestling companies and probably some HOF chatter! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/07/01/wrestlenomics-radio--dylanwaco-tertiary-companies-and-more http://placetobenation.com/wrestlenomics-radio-dylan-waco-tertiary-companies-and-more/ 2. New Wrestlenomics Radio episode posted! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/07/12/wrestlenomics-radio--ryan-carse-the-tag-rope Ryan Carse, the editor of the The Tag Rope Blog & Magazine joins the show to discuss his latest project along with his journalism dissertation about professional wrestling! You can read my summary of his dissertation too. Great show with some technical difficulties that were my fault!

6/23/14 -- Brand new Wrestlenomics Radio with a familiar voice - Bryan Alvarez - auspicious author and prolific podcaster joins the show to talk about the re-release of The Death of WCW. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/06/23/wrestlenomics-radio--death-of-wcw I spend 40 minutes with Bryan talking about what he added to the book, the disappearance of WCW fans, how Sid Vicious vs Scott Putski drew the same number fans as last week's Raw, Top WCW Salaries, TV Rights vs TV Advertising, relationships with foreign pro-wrestling companies, who makes a good booker, "Incidents", age vs stardom, wisdom of what works and WWE Network's lack of Nitro episodes! I hope you enjoy.

I've got some local indy wrestling tapes from the early 2000s which I will pop-in from time to time. However, between youtube, WWE Network and DVDs, my wrestling VHS collection has been shrinking and that's okay with me. I am anxious for the day where all that Jakked & Velocity is up so I can toss those tapes.

You can look at Historic WWE Financials here: http://indeedwrestling.blogspot.com/2014/02/pure-wwfwwe-financials-1994-2013.html TV Rights have grown from less than a quarter of WWE revenue in 2009 (23.5%) to almost a third (31.7%) by 2013. And they're getting another boost at the end of this year/beginning of next year. Plus WWE's contracts for annual increases written in so they'll keep growing even though they won't be renegotiating the big deals. Live Events have been stuck at about 22% of the WWE revenue for several years. They figured out how to juice that a bit recently by adding VIP ticket packages and raising top end ticket prices (i.e. trying to reduce amount of tickets that were bought and immediately resold on stubhub at a premium), but WWE's stagnant live event attendance averages (domestically flat, internationally falling) are certainly an impediment to growing this stream much above the $111M it was last year. This area does need some attention. PPV was their third largest revenue stream at 16%. That's $60M (domestic) and $20M (int'l) that is being converted (in some form) from 50% profit to whatever they're going to get out of the WWE Network revenue stream. After that is Licensing which is at $47M (10%) and could be bigger. However, the Video Game revenues are a good example of where the golden goose isn't working quite so well anymore. Merchandise (including WWE ShopZone) is at 7% ($35M) which is decent, but not going to explode anytime soon. It's been as low as $32M and high as $36M. I guess that's a 10% variance, but you can see the base seems pretty steady these days. Home Entertainment is shrinking - it's sdropped from $39M in 2009 to $24M in 2013. I see the WWE Network hurting sales and of course the DVD/BluRay industry is on the downswing in general. However, it might not die as quickly as originally thought. WWE.com was $23M in 2013 (4.5%) and has been growing. They reorganized the segments this year so most of the Digital Media revenues are together (including WWE Network) which is smart. Publishing is at less than $6M (down more than 50% from 2009) and barely breaks even. Perhaps they'll figure out how to make it profitable in a digital age. The fact they haven't announced a replacement for Perkins Miller (EVP of Digital) isn't good because they need leadership in that space. I was interested to see that they're branding next year's Wrestlemania as being in Silicon Valley which makes me wonder. WWE Studios is a relic. They might have a "profitable" model, but they're still tens of millions in the hole from previous mistakes and scratching for a little here and little there isn't anywhere close to the millions that a project like the original Marine movie made them several years ago. I think this area is a distraction for the company but maybe they've finally turned it around. It can be a $20M segment but there tends to be a ton of ebb & flow when it comes WWE Studios and it's driven a ton of writeoffs in the past. When you look at all of this, the biggest growth opportunities are obviously Digital and Licensing. Live Events needs to grow but turning that around isn't an overnight process and I think there's been some really negative trends for several years which have been completely masked by the fact that WWE grew in overall revenue from $475M to $508M in the past five years.

I, too, would be flabbergasted if WWE's Network subscription numbers dipped. Especially considering the additional promotions they've run post-WM. I do wonder what's going to happen during the "dark days" from Sept to December but I still figure they'll keep growing Network because Global Growth will outpace any domestic contractions. However, we will learn a lot for this Q2 update. I sense that WWE's hesitancy to announce any kind of out-of-cycle number is basically their admission that growth is still anemic but it's easy to cast a wide net of assumptions from afar.

I had a great show last week where I talked with Brendan Quinn who wrote his detailed thesis on UFC Buys and the impact of WWE, stardoms and lots of other variables. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/06/07/wrestlenomics-radio--researching-follies You can read his paper here: http://www.tinyurl.com/ufcbuysthesis Plus there's chatter about stagnant WWE attendance, options for monetizing WWE Network and state of stars vs draws. Enjoy! It was a solid two hours!

A new piece that I've been working on for awhile: The Wrestlenomics of ECW

Three monsters that I felt really just got lost in the WCW mix were Earthquake, Bossman and Haku. All three had working ability, size, and could effectively hype a program (especially with the right mouthpiece). They all seem like they could have been so much more. In a similar way I feel like Albert's Giant Bernard era proved that he could be lot more than a geek and his longevity with the company shows they respect his ethic and talent enough to keep him around. Even more than perennial throw-away heel Kane, I'd rather watch a good Matt Bloom match.

Partially inspired by this thread, I had John Lister join #wrestlenomics radio last weekend so we could talk about his ECW book (Turning the Tables) along with British Wrestling, WWE Network Global Demand and more. I tried to touch on some of the topics that have been brought up. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/05/31/wrestlenomics-radio-w-john-lister

British Wrestling Historian and Author John Lister joins #wrestlenomics radio to talk about ECW, British Wrestling (including the Big Daddy Debate), Kamala arm-wrestling, Heyman's business choices, WWE Network global expansion and much more! I took some talking points from this board, so I hope people enjoy. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/indeedwrestling/2014/05/31/wrestlenomics-radio-w-john-lister Terrific show and I edited out the technical difficulties. Thanks John!

The opening chapters of John Lister's "Turning the Table" talks about the TWA days.

Last week was a great episode of #wrestlenomics: * Talked about the WWE Conference call, the art of negotiation and legacy of Vince McMahon Carny Wrestling Public Trader Company CEO. * We listen to Bo Dallas teach us how to Bo-lieve in ourselves. * Talked with DezWalker all about his mmadraws.com website and methodology including surprise draws, biggest hits & misses and how to turn TV ratings into PPV buys. & Great segment discussing Best Cameos in TV & Movies including Hulk Hogan cutting a promo on Muppets, Savage vs a Hamster, Boy Meets World logic and why the Bushwhackers hates Cops. * Some final Q&A about WWE Financials - particularly around WWE Network Global Demand and possible Network price adjustments. Listen to the whole two hours at: http://placetobenation.com/wrestlenomics-radio-mma-draws-vince-as-ceo-and-best-wrestling-cameos/ Read Wooly's piece on Cameos at: http://whatculture.com/wwe/wwe-15-best-wrestler-cameos-tv-movies.php See my latest WWE Network Global Demand analysis at: http://whatculture.com/wwe/calculating-global-demand-wwe-network.php Check out Paul's MMADraws.com for great MMAnomics.

I wouldn't say that they didn't see it, but they apparently underestimated the risk it posed. I wrote about this back in November - launching the WWE Network before they had secured the domestic TV deals (which would be needed to subsidize the launch for awhile) seemed foolish to me. It seemed doubly foolish when it was clear that the WWE Network was going to be over-the-top and they now appeared to be biting the hand that was feeding them.

I had a great two-hour show on Saturday talking about the new WWE TV deal, talking independent talent with Rich from Voices of Wrestling and doing some wrestlenomics on the "first five televised WWF" matches for wrestlers: http://placetobenation.com/wrestlenomics-radio-wwes-brand-new-tv-deal/ The previous week I did a solo podcast (1 hour) covering the anticipation leading up to the WWE TV deal: http://placetobenation.com/wrestlenomics-radio-12-wwe-q1-financials-and-more/ Also, #wrestlenomics radio is proud to now be part of the Place to be Nation!