>>13891325Smackdown signed for $280,000,000/year for 2025 and beyond. Raw + International rights signed for $500,000,000/year.
If not for UFC and it's baggage weighing TKO down, the stock would have risen much more than 2.5% in the last year.
The companies giving WWE billions of dollars for their programming are not doing so because they expect 35 minute long matches with guys taking turns doing moves to each other, writhing around on the canvas while the clapping seals chant THIS IS AWESOME. No amount of astroturfing on niche websites, for $0 out of pocket, can compare to billions of dollars in real currency being invested in WWE-related properties.
The people with the access to the consumer information - not just overnight TV ratings, but who is watching the show a day, 3 days, a week later; what trends are happening on social media from non-bot accounts during off-peak hours - they decided that the value of WWE programming is worth bidding on, and multiple parties do so. The same people, with the very same information on other companies, have decided that those Wrestling outfits are in no way, shape or form, anywhere near the level of WWE as it pertains to producing compelling TV content, therefore those companies get no bids and have to take whatever slop deals are offered to them.
This is the truthful story, and you can either believe it or not, doesn't matter. Whether it's met with (they all cheered), or orioles.png/show stats.jpg/other faggotry, doesn't matter and never has. Scoreboard. Bank accounts. Stock market. TV, Streaming and Social media metrics. Attendance. Those are the things that matter.
