The Hamilton Ave Journal 09.29.07: Volume 1 – Issue 1

And where is Hamilton Ave? That is the location of the WWE Production Studio in Stamford, CT, and thus the most powerful place in the wrestling world. Besides, The East Main Street Journal just does not have the right ring to it.

Who am I? I am JP Prag: consultant, entrepreneur, businessman, journalist, and wrestling fan.

Now, ring the bell because the market is open.

Lead Story: WWE Makes Personnel Changes Across the Globe
People have been moving and shaking all over the corporate empire of the WWE this week.

New Head of Development System
On the small scale, Ty Bailey has apparently been name Mike Bucci’s replacement for the talent relations role in the development system. The first question you may ask yourself is who is this man, and how can he take over this role? According to William Ingram of Wild Talk Radio:

Ty Bailey is the son of Joe Bailey, who is the CEO of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins football team. Ty Bailey was originally brought into WWE as the Operations Coordinator for the failed XFL.

Many in the system now are rumored to be fearing for their jobs and futures, and with good reason. The appointment of Mr. Bailey is vast divergence from how the WWE has been running the system in the past. For the most part, former and current wrestlers have been the leaders in the system, with names like Tommy Dreamer, Al Snow, and Bill DeMott, as well as wrestling personalities like Jim Cornette. Here, the WWE is putting in a non-wrestlers with operations experience. That means they are trying to tighten the reigns on the system and put in more controls and processes. Mr. Bailey will most likely approach running the system in a manner extremely different than his predecessors and seemingly should not be tempered by sentimentality felt between wrestlers.

Whether this move should prove use to WWE Corporate or will just drain creativity from the process remains to be seen. This reporter expects to see Mr. Bailey try to install a more streamlined and position oriented system in order to create a flow process for wrestlers to move up to the main roster. History has not been kind to operations and financial managers taking on authority figure roles in wrestling in the past, and one with the stigma of the XFL on him will not help matters, no how good of a job he may have done there.

Harvard Alum Gone
Also of note is that the WWE has apparently cut all ties with Christopher Nowinkski. Mr. Nowinski is a Harvard graduate who competed in the first ever Tough Enough and went on to sign a contract with the WWE. He had to retire from in-ring action due to post concussion syndrome in 2003 and has been a vocal name in having more research put into how head trauma affects athletes. After the Benoit double-murder-suicides, Nowinski pushed police to exam the brain of Chris Benoit for signs of injury and post-concussion like areas. At first, he remained relatively anonymous as the WWE did not want someone on their payroll trying to be part of the investigation. Basically, the WWE wanted to distance themselves from the tragedy as much as possible. Mr. Nowinski instead went directly to Chris Benoit’s father in order to get the brain scan done and has come out for a spokesperson for the Sports Legacy Institute, which he co-founded. It remains to be seen if the WWE will take legal action against Mr. Nowinski for violating his contract by speaking to the media against the WWE’s wishes, but that remains highly unlikely. The parting of ways appears to be mutual for both parties.

International Expansion
Most important, though, is the expansion of the international divisions. Reporting to Executive Vice President of Global Media Shane McMahon, international division heads are being put in place around the globe. Already in place for many years is Carl DeMarco, President of WWE Canada. He will also gain the territories of Latin America and China. WWE London will see a new head in Andrew Whitaker, who will oversee Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Last, but not least, is Jonathan Sulley. Mr. Sulley will be establishing an office in Sydney, Australia and oversee the Asia-Pacific markets.

There are many different directions that these placements go. On one hand, the regional leads may simply be responsible for maintaining relationships with local broadcasters and advertisers, as well as trying to secure better deals and market the product.

On another hand, each regional lead may eventually have small production offices and take raw WWE footage and tailor it to local markets. Currently, the WWE does all of the editing for local markets in it Hamilton Ave office and then either dubs there or sends it to locations around the world for dubbing. People in closer markets may be able to better edit the product to the local tastes.

The other option that has been repeated is that each of these regional presidents could head up one or several different “brands”. Similar to how the United States has “Raw”, “SmackDown!” and “ECW” brands, the Sydney office could be in charge of a “New Zeeland Professional Wrestling (NZPW)” brand and a “WWE Japan” brand. This would require replicating entire functions of the WWE creative and operations process in several locations, not to mention staffing with wrestlers, announcers, production support, and managers.

Although there may seen to be a lot of overhead with this decision, it provides another interesting opportunity. Those who wrestle with WWE travel for much of the year. One of the benefits of wrestlers defecting to TNA is that they do not have to travel as much. If the WWE has more regionalized brands, and wrestlers did not have to travel as much, it may make the WWE a more attractive place to work. There are no doubt many talented wrestlers in Japan, Australia, Mexico, England, and various other countries who do not want to leave their native lands, or at least go too far. Knowing that, the WWE may finally be able to attract these wrestlers with the promise that they will not have to make long trips or relocate to the United States. It truly does open up a slew of human resources that they have never had before.

TNA Holding Talent Auditions, Looking for College Students
Also of note in the world of personnel, TNA is holding open auditions at the iMPACT Zone in Orlando, FL. Although the note has disappeared from TNA’s website, the open auditions were slated to be on October 29, 2007. For a $250 fee, potential wrestlers get to perform for TNA management member Terry Taylor and present a video of their abilities and a resume.

This is an interesting move by TNA. Obviously they would not make a lot of money off of this as the fee is there to deter non-serious competitors. TNA needs a way to scout for talent, but they do not have the resources to send their scouts to shows all over the country. ROH had been considered a defacto feeding pool to TNA, but that has dried up as ROH now has their wrestlers under contract. With no way to appropriate contracted wrestlers from ROH or WWE, TNA is forced to scour the independents for fresh talent.

Though they may not hire any of these people now, at least it will give them a basis for who is available and at what locations. As they begin to tour the country more, TNA may also utilize these local talents, giving them more work.

At the very least, TNA will know who is available and interested. At the most, they may find another star for their roster.

On a similar from, TNA is also launching a “TNA U” program in order to get more word-of-mouth advertising for the product. Although details are limited, it appears as though this is a similar program to the TNA Street Team, except for college students at various universities across the country. Red Bull had very successful college team that helped it penetrate the American market, and TNA seems to be taking a similar stance. Also this year, Nielsen has begun to take college students into account for ratings, so an increase in the share of this market will actually help TNA’s ratings, unlike the WCW programs in the late 90’s.

WWE Looks to Give Wellness to Former Empoloyees
Earlier this week, a letter signed by WWE Chairman Vincent K. McMahon went out to all former WWE performers. 411mania columnist John Meehan estimated this number to be more than 500 people, if the list includes all wrestlers for Capital City Wrestling, WWWF, WWF, and WWE. It remains unknown if the letter was sent to wrestlers who never performed for the WWE but for brands the company acquired, such as WCW, ECW, AWA, World Class Championship Wrestling, Smokey Mountain Wrestling, and others.

In the letter, the chairman offers unconditional drug, alcohol, intervention, and psychological (by proxy) help. This offer is only being extended to the performers and not any of their friends and families, despite the fact that many may be enablers in their lives.

Although this move may be a knee jerk reaction that is designed to appease the media more than the wrestlers, this is a move being applauded by the industry as a whole. The affects of this offer and how many people accept should be quite telling, and it will cover the WWE for years to come. Now the pressure is on to not only complete this round, but to send follow-up letters and information in the future. This cannot be a one-time program, but needs to be known and rebroadcast on a regular basis. Without that, it most likely will disappear in the abyss of other corporate programs.

Liz Difabio will be in charge of implementing the program and be the liaison to all former talent. This will help ensure anonymity and liability. Since this is an HR issue, all documents and information much be secure and private, and no one outside of HR, even CEO Linda McMahon, should know about the results. Liz has traveled on the road with wrestlers, as noted in Steve Austin’s book “The Stone Cold Truth”, so she has a knowledge and understanding of life on the road. Being with the WWE for 24 years, she seems to be a solid choice for this position.

TNA iMPACT Makes Two-Hour Debut
This Thursday, October 4th, TNA iMPACT expands to two hours, making it the first time since March 2001 that there are has been a company outside of the WWE with a two-hour wrestling program on television. This is the latest evolution in TNA, which started as weekly PPV company, moved to a Friday afternoon spot of FSN, took a huge risk by moving to internet as it negotiated a television deal, premiered on TNA in an eleven o’clock time slot on TNA, and last moved to nine o’clock.

TNA now has all the pieces in place and pressure will be on to not only increase ratings, but to make money. Despite having a roster larger than RAW, a full production staff, management, talent relations, and a studio, the company has yet to make any significant money. Since TNA is privately owned by Panda Energy figures are hard to come by (Panda does not even break out TNA holding in its 10K reports), but TNA President Dixie Carter claimed in June 2007:

“We’re finally in a situation where we’re starting to generate some serious revenue. It’s just been through the years of hard work and the combination of different revenue streams. It is our Slammiversary, but it is our ‘turning point’ pay-per-view, would be apropos at this time for us.”

Serious revenue is one thing, turning a profit is another. TNA has been in business for over five years and the pressure will now be on. There are plenty of examples of companies that went longer without a profit (Amazon, Sirius, Ford), but each had different models.

Should TNA start to achieve profit, they face a larger problem: managing growth. Some companies try to take on sales and business as much as possible and they cannot handle the growth. TNA will need personnel to fulfill orders, manage contracts, make ad sales, watch the fringes, and keep up quality. TNA already has a lot of overhead, which is a concern for start-up entrepreneurial company, and cannot afford to be slowed by bureaucracy, but can equally not afford to grow with nothing but exuberance.

Should the company start to grow more, the question becomes if Dixie Carter should continue to be in charge. This is not a knock on Ms. Carter’s leadership skills. It is that in some cases the leader to take you through one phase (start up for Jeff Jarrett, initial growth for Dixie Carter) is not the person to take you through the next phase (extreme high curve growth). Ms. Carter will need to reflect on herself and honestly decide if she is the right person for the job.

As with stocks, here in the Journal we track the progress of television ratings. If ratings are the barometer by which we judge the product, then over the course of 52 weeks we should be able to see patterns, trends, and anomalies. Please note that gaps in the chart below are due to data not being released/available.

For the week ending Friday September 28, 2007, here are the current standings of our shows:

RAW
Close (This Week’s Rating): 3.4
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 3.3
Percentage Change: ▲ 3.0%
52-Week High: 4.3
52-Week Low: 2.5
All Time High: 8.1
All Time Low: 1.8

SmackDown!*
Close (This Week’s Rating): 2.7
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 2.6
Percentage Change: ▲ 3.8%
52-Week High: 3.3
52-Week Low: 2.2
All Time High: 5.8
All Time Low: 1.0

What are the top ten selling items for the WWE? From WWEShopZone.com:

1. Triple H Grey Skull T-shirt
2. John Cena Beware of Dog T-shirt
3. WWE Black Gift Bag
4. Rey Mysterio Hooded Sweatshirt
5. WWE Superstar 6pc Pen Set
6. Hardys Purple logo Pennant
7. Randy Orton Skull T-shirt
8. Rey Mysterio Role Play Series #1
9. John Cena Camo Military Style Cap
10. Rey Mysterio Master of 619 T-shirt

Although Triple H may be the top of the list, it is Rey Mysterio and John Cena who dominate the various selling items. It seems that despite all the hate many member of the IWC send John Cena’s way, he still manages to outsell everyone on the roster. That is why he is champion and gets so much TV time and exposure. Rey Mysterio, of course, is an even larger seller to kids. Despite many claiming that he was not as over with the crowds when he returned, Mysterio is still burning up the charts where it counts: sales. The oddity on the list is Randy Orton. There are authors of news reports even on this site who try to diminish the impact Randy has, but here is on the list with a top selling item. That is reason enough to keep him around, at least for business.

TNA requires a little bit more research. Their website does not release Top Ten lists, so I did a general search for a space and sorted by most popular. They came up in order as:

1. The Original 3 (DVD 3 Pack)
2. Against All Odds 2007 DVD
3. Sacrifice 2007 DVD
4. Bound for Glory Fan Interaction Ticket
5. Christian Cage “Instant Classic” T-shirt
6. The Best of the Bloodiest Brawls 2003
7. Against All Odds 2006 DVD
8. Sting “Craw” T-shirt
9. No Surrender 2006 DVD
10. TNA Anthology – The Epic (DVD 3 Pack)

Now here is the main difference between TNA and the WWE. The WWE listed is dominated by personalities, the TNA list is dominated by events and compilations. Christian Cage and Sting are the only two to sneak into the top ten (noticeable by his absence in Kurt Angle), showing they are two of the highest drawing single individuals. As for the rest of the list, although TNA is selling their brand, there has to be concern over when is selling. For instance, a compilation DVD from four years ago and PPVs from last year are outselling three quarters of the PPVs from 2007. That means that the fans have so low of a regard for the product TNA has put on PPV in the past year that they would rather watch the product from one to four years ago. TNA needs to take notes of the downstream affect of their decisions. When they have questionable booking, especially at PPV events, it not only leads to lower buyrates, but also leads to lower DVD sales. The company right now is highly leveraged on people buying the various forms of media products they have, and too much of that is based on past product, not current.

Do you know a wrestling event coming up? Send one in to The Hamilton Ave Journal and we’ll be sure to add it to the list.

Being this our premier issue, you would think we wouldn’t have anything. And you would be right.

Instead, also worth your read this week is: