Notes from today’s WWE Q3 conference call

Notes courtesy of John Pollock and Wrestling Observer:

– Vince McMahon not on today’s WWE Q3 financial call because of Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia.

– George Barrios discussed the overhaul of the WWE Network and the improvements made.

Will be interesting if he’s pushed on the decline in subscriptions for the quarter despite changes – they had projected 1.53 million paid subs and ended with 1.51 avg paid for Q3. (Pollock)

– They acknowledged that reviews for WWE 2K20 have been “mixed”

– Barrios asked about NXT going to the USA Network – spoke of trying to create another flagship brand for content rights. He was asked about taking NXT out of Full Sail but never answered that portion of the question.

– Barrios doesn’t see a price decrease for the WWE Network to be competitive with other “broader” streaming services – they are targeting a smaller portion of their overall audience w/ the network and is for a “passionate fanbase”

– Barrios again mentions the Network tiers (Premium, free, etc), so that’s still in the plans at some point

– “Too early to tell” regarding immediate benefits of being on Fox and affecting other sectors of WWE’s business

– Asked about AEW, Barrios says there is a lot of competition for eyeballs through all media and sports entities. Their expectation is that they win.

– Barrios believes 70% of total growth in years ahead will come outside the U.S. and both India and China are a big part of that growth.

– Barrios didn’t answer a question about Bischoff’s early exit from SD or Heyman’s role on Raw, and instead talked about the creation of the roles discussed on previous calls

– Asked if this year’s Crown Jewel event is more expensive due to Fury and Velasquez, Barrios simply says the company has “accelerated investments in their core rin-ring talent

– Asked if investors can assume two yearly Saudi shows per year going forward, WWE’s Barrios says they can’t guarantee that at this time.