World Wrestling Entertainment took further financial hits in the 2nd quarter of 2009, failing to meet the company's own PPV buyrate expectations. WrestleMania XXV achieved 960,000 buys, short of the one million buys WWE expected though exceeding many outside expectations. To be fair, actual WWE profit for WM25 was up above WM24 due to lower cost expenditures.
Of the other PPV's that fell in the second quarter 2009, pay-per-view purchases were down for three of the four events. Only this year's Extreme Rules PPV exceeded the previous year's One Night Stand effort in total buys. WrestleMania also fell in buys from the first quarter 2008 to the second quarter 2009.
WWE's principal year to year revenue drop was in the Consumer Products division, primarily due to DVD revenues which fell off a sharp 45%. Obviously, the deep economic recession is a significant factor in the decline, DVD's coming off as a non-necessity in troubled economic times. World Wrestling Entertainment plainly can't do anything about the economy.
What World Wrestling Entertainment can do something about though is the staid nature of its ongoing week-to-week product, especially on the top level of its flagship Raw brand. With Randy Orton, Triple H and/or John Cena clogging up the Raw main events, there's little hope of a positive change anytime soon.
