Brandon Howard Thurston
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Wrestling
Read This Article Before Sounding the Alarm About WWE TV Ratings
When we study pro wrestling business and try to assess how healthy a company is, we need to recognize the “maturity” of the metrics being considered. As the media landscape evolves, some metrics are still in their childhood, some are…
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Wrestling
YouTube Ad Revenue Changes Hurting Indie Promotions
Beyond Wrestling and Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) say they’re making almost no ad revenue on YouTube in the last few weeks. Much of the wrestling content across YouTube appears to be included in a restricted category that’s not able to…
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Wrestling
JBL and WWE’s Culture of Hazing: An Oral History
Throughout John “Bradshaw” Layfield’s long tenure with WWE he’s served as a “policeman” to “test” new members of the company’s locker room, sometimes at the clear direction of CEO Vince McMahon. Going back to his hiring in 1995, there are…
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Wrestling
WWE Announces Network Subscriber Numbers Following WrestleMania 33, Say They’re Open to Indies on Network
As of this morning the WWE Network had 1,661,000 million paid subscribers. An additional 288,000 users held free subscriptions giving the Network 1,949,000 in total subscribers. WWE held a conference call this morning to report Network subscriber numbers. When asked…
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Wrestling
WrestleMania 33: Country of Make Believe
ORLANDO—The giant printed faces of Roman Reigns and the Undertaker peered out, in their best attempt at cinema, high on the exterior of the Citrus Bowl. Below, throngs of wrestling humanity crawled toward the entrances. The majority were dressed in officially licensed merchandise…
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Wrestling
EXCLUSIVE: Is Roman Reigns a Draw?
When Roman Reigns perches on the turnbuckle Sunday in Orlando he'll probably be showered with boos for the third WrestleMania in a row. He'll raise both his fists again and stare out into the crowd with his cool movie star eyes,…
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Wrestling
WrestleMania Business Stats: Which Mania Was the Biggest?
Measuring the success of WrestleMania has evolved over the years as WWE exploited emerging forms of media to drive business to the biggest pro wrestling show of the year. Pay-per-view was so new in 1985 that there isn’t much data…
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Wrestling
Pay Disclosed for WWE Executives and McMahon Family Members
WWE released its annual proxy statement which provides a number of insights into the company, including compensation for the company’s top executives. Total compensation (not including dividends) for WWE’s five named officers for 2016 and 2015 was as follows: Name…
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Wrestling
Exclusive: WrestleMania 32 Had Just Over 80,000 Fans In Attendance
80,709 fans went through the turnstiles at WrestleMania 32 last year. This is in contrast to the 101,763 attendance announced live at the event and restated in WWE press releases. The event was held on on April 3, 2016, at…
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Wrestling
Exclusive Analysis: Looking into the Crystal Ball for Predictions on WWE’s Future
WWE Network WWE’s stated 3 million to 4 million subscriber goal for the WWE Network seems more and more like a fantasy. The company itself acknowledges 2017’s year-over-year growth of subscribers will be less than 2016’s as the Network’s maturity…
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