The Hamilton Ave Journal 01.08.09: Volume 2 – Issue 68

THE HAMILTON AVE JOURNAL
By JP Prag

Volume 2 – Issue 68

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

The Hamilton Ave Journal is the only wrestling news report focused solely on the business of wrestling. Here in the Journal we not only look at the stories that are important to the investor and business-minded person, but also delve deeper into stories that most fans of wrestling would overlook. That is because the Journal is about getting the heart of the matters that affect the companies and outlooks of the wrestling world.

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.

The Journal’s front page area known as What’s News isn’t just about telling you what has happened. The stories in this section are about what will have an effect on the wrestling industry, individual federations, and the wallets of the fans.

LEAD STORY: US Government gets into steroid

After the double-murder-suicide of Chris Benoit in June 2007, the United States Congress began investigating steroid use in professional wrestling. Although there has always been a bit of probing (culminating in the steroid trial of the early 1990’s), this was the first major and serious effort in quite some time. On January 2, 2009 Chairman of Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Henry Waxman (D-CA) released his finding to the committee and public record. This is mostly being done down as Mr. Waxman is leaving the committee and wanted to summarize finding up to this point. Here are some highlights:

In the first year of testing for the WWE program (starting March 2006) 40% of wrestlers tested positive for either steroids or other drugs despite being warned in advance that they were going to be tested.

The WWE hired four out of five wrestlers who failed pre-contract testing.

Chris Benoit in particular tested positive for steroids three out the four tests he received, yet was never given anything more than a warning.

Among the other drugs that wrestlers have tested positive for are cocaine, ecstasy, and methadone.

Dr. Black, the WWE’s drug testing program administrator, says that there are therapeutic uses for steroids, including allowing continual use because the person’s endocrine system was already damaged by abuse. In other words, because they did the drug illegally, they now need it for normal functioning and therefore it is a legal prescription.

Mr. McMahon admitted to using steroids in the past, but refused to answer questions about current use. Despite sometimes performing in the ring and on camera, Mr. McMahon contends that he is not subject to the Wellness policy and does not have to submit for testing.

Mr. McMahon also stated that he was unaware of the health risks associated with steroid use and did not know if steroid use impaired judgment.

When TNA began baseline testing in January 2008, 15 of 60 wrestlers tested positive for steroids (25%) and 11 also tested positive for other drugs.

Mr. Waxman admits that both WWE and TNA have been working to make their programs stronger, but feels the organizations lack transparency and accountable to enforce any policy. Considering the “3 million children and teenagers [who] watch professional wrestling each week”, Mr. Waxman would like the committee to continue to investigate in his absence and “take appropriate steps to address this problem”.

So what does this mean for the WWE, TNA, and other professional wrestling companies? Most likely not much at all. With Mr. Waxman leaving the committee, it will be up to someone else to take up the reigns. In a year and half of investigations, they are exactly where they were at the beginning: thinking something needs to be done.

But who is going to take steps to make “appropriate steps” happen. Given current economic conditions, the senator who takes up this charge will most likely lose constituents and sponsors. Meanwhile, with a new President and cabinet coming in, the interests and direction of Congresspersons is changing dramatically. During this regime change, the topic of steroids in wrestling may well be forgotten.

Although the Associated Press has picked up on the story and the WWE is said to be cracking down on even marijuana use, this may all be short lived. The topic could be investigated for another year or two, and still no action taken.

Then again, some members of the committee may want to continue the trial just based on the interviews alone. Mr. McMahon and his lawyers came into the sessions hostile from the beginning and insulted committee members several times. Exchanges like this with WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt did not ingratiate Mr. McMahon and his cause to them:

Mr. Leviss. It’s not something that we discussed and I just wanted to clarify that.

Mr. McDevitt. Why would you even think we would do that?

Mr. Leviss. I didn’t suggest that you would do it.

Mr. McDevitt. What good‐faith basis would you even have to ask a question like that, whether we’re recording this? We know it’s against the rules.

Mr. Leviss. You asked me if it was against the rules, so maybe you didn’t know.

Mr. McDevitt. Well, no, I thought it was. That’s why I’m stunned by your question.

Mr. Leviss. I have a good‐faith basis to ask all the questions that I’m asking here today.

Mr. McDevitt. What’s your good‐faith basis to ask if we’re recording this?

Mr. Leviss. It’s not something that we had discussed and I wanted to clarify that you understood that it’s not allowable.

Mr. McDevitt. You didn’t ask any of the other two witnesses that question.

Of course, trying to get answers out of Mr. McMahon on allegations was equally hard. After a long back-and-forth, the committee wanted to know how Mr. McMahon would respond to an allegation that the WWE promotes an environment that requires people who are willing to take steroids. Finally, the committee found a way to phrase it so that Mr. McMahon would answer:

Q Mr. McMahon do you have any idea why somebody would tell us something like that?

A Yes, I do.

Q Okay. Can you share it with us?

A Insanity.

Q No other reason?

A Insanity.

Mr. McDevitt. Vince, don’t even take these baits. You don’t have to answer those kind of questions.

We’re not here to answer those. And if you think you can ever get a subpoena to ask questions like that, go ahead and try.

Overall, there are over 800 pages of documentation and the Journal has just scratched the surface. With so much material out there and so little action, the question remains how much more material the government will want to collect? The Journal will continue to examine and read through all of this documentation to find as many valid points and new information as possible in the weeks ahead.

WWE signs new deals everywhere

While the beginning of the year may be a quite time for some companies, the WWE has been hard at work expanding in every conceivable way.

First up, the WWE has expanded its programming options by recycling the original ECW English broadcast on SciFi to have it play Fridays at 10pm on mun2. mun2 is a property owned by NBC-Universal (who also own USA, NBC, SciFi, and plenty of other networks) that is branded as a dual English-Spanish network for Latino youth. The show begins this Friday January 9, 2009, which means ECW will actually be available three times a week (on SciFi, on WWE.com, and on mun2), making it the most available WWE program in the United States. The show also goes on immediately after the end of SmackDown on MyNetworkTV, so wrestling will be on for three hours on Friday night.

That was not the only expansion of existing programming as WWE RAW will now return to Denmark. Starting January 16, 2009, WWE RAW will air Fridays on the new station 6’eren. Says Tina Moreton, Head of Acquisitions for SBS TV (which owns 6’eren):

“We at SBS TV are pleased and excited to be launching WWE on our new male channel 6’eren. Returning WWE to TV screens in Denmark is a testament to 6’eren’s commitment to a new direction in programming: delivering world-class action entertainment in Denmark. We look forward to welcoming the RAW Superstars and Divas to 6’eren.”

At this time, there are no plans for SmackDown or ECW to join the lineup in Denmark, but that could change depending on how well RAW’s ratings do in the near future. The WWE has been doing extremely well in expanding in new markets, including recent deals in Mexico, China, India, and France.

Of course, the big new show is the previously announced “WWE Superstars” on WGN beginning in April 2009. According to a WGN press release, the terms of the deal stretch over several years and the WWE will provide 1 hour of original programming. Given this, the WWE may have to give up on the double SmackDown tapings in order to tape an additional hour of television program a week, similar to when they have HeAT and Velocity on the air at the same time. Still, WGN promises being able “to see Superstars and Divas from all three WWE franchises in one program”, meaning that either matches are going to be taped with all exiting programming or wrestlers from all three brands are going to go to other tapings. Considering talent like Miz, John Morrison, and Matt Hardy regularly appear on all three shows, that does not seem unlikely.

An interesting note is that the show will air on Thursdays at 8pm (1 hour before TNA iMPACT) and replay at 11pm (immediately after iMPACT). Wrestling, then, will now be on for four hours on Thursdays in America and TNA will face minor competition in their last quarter-hour overrun. Also, for those who wanted SmackDown to move back to Thursdays, that seems highly unlikely now as the WWE would not want to compete in the same timeslot as itself.

Outside of programming, the WWE has also been expanding in the merchandise front. In the United States, the WWE signed a deal with Digital Blue which has been known for developing technology related accessories for Disney. For the WWE, Digital Blue will be creating digital cameras, boom boxes, alarm clock radios, MP3 players, walkie talkies and accessory cases. These branded items are part of the WWE’s larger licensing effort and puts the costs on Digital Blue. LEGO and Cartoon Network also recently signed deals for similar products.

Over in the UK, the WWE has signed with Unanimis to manage all online and mobile advertisement. Says Toby Feldman, marketing directory for the WWE:

“Our site offers a deep and diverse range of advertising opportunities There’s the potential to extend our relationship with Unanimis into Europe.”

Over the world and in different areas, the WWE continues to find ways to expand and keep revenue up, even in a soft a market.

Newsbites

Some items of note in the rest of the wrestling business world:

Covered in the Journal in prior weeks, the NWA was apparently trying to get their titles back from Mexican promotion CMLL with the intention of running their own shows in Mexico. Though all of the titles had spent 90% of their lives in Mexico, the NWA felt they should seize control of them. It appears that this may have just been a pressure move, though, as now CMLL and the NWA will look to promote shows together. In this deal, CMLL will be able to keep their 3 NWA titles and the NWA will have much less costs in producing shows.

Forbes.com “guru” Joshua Lipton has added WWE stock to his list of Top 5 guys. His main reasons for doing so are the 12.8% dividend yield, the large cash reserve, low liabilities, being a “well run” company. Some of the “guru’s” research seems in question as he called the WWE a “$600 million in annual retail sales” company. The WWE did $485 million in revenue in 2007 and has not had most of it’s 2008 quarters around $110 million in revenue, so $600 million seems quite off the mark. He also completely ignores the rising costs issue with the WWE, as well as the fact that the dividend is being financed with cash on hand and not with operating income. The “guru’s” pick appears to have lifted WWE stock for one day, but all gains were given back by Wednesday close.

Midway Games, makers of TNA iMPACT the Video Game (and potentially iMPACT 2), got a slight reprieve in having to pay back $75 million of the $150 million in debt they have. The company has been given a small extension through the middle of February to come up with the money, which should get them through some game launches and development.

Covered in the steroid interviews above, TNA President Dixie Carter had this to say about the TNA demographic:

Q Can I just go back to the demographics? One of your sources of revenue are toys?

A Uh-huh.

Q Can you describe what kind of?

A It is mostly collectibles, action figures. And I don’t know if any of the men around this table admit to having any. But it is really — it is more in the collectible side where guys keep the toys and they keep them in their boxes and then they increase in value and things such as that. They’re not as much, you know, play toys as more collectible items.

Q And who is the target audience for those items?

A Well, collectibles are a much older demographic. I mean, they are probably — I mean, they are more grown men. I mean, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s even. Have you seen the 40-Year-Old Virgin with that man that has all the toys? I mean, that is kind of — that’s our audience.

The Journal would like to cover this point in more detail next week, along with Mr. Carter’s other points on the TNA demographic.

In the Marketplace we look at the trends in television ratings. This section is less for critical analysis by the Journal but more for the reader to see what is really going on and to draw their own conclusions.

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.

For the week ending Wednesday January 7, 2008, here are the current standings of our shows:

RAW
Close (This Week’s Rating): 3.4
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 3.5
Percentage Change: ▼ 3.4%
52-Week High: 4.0
52-Week Low: 2.6
All Time High: 8.1
All Time Low: 1.8

SmackDown*
Close (This Week’s Rating): 2.1
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 2.0
Percentage Change: ▲ 5.0%
52-Week High: 2.8
52-Week Low: 1.6
All Time High: 5.8
All Time Low: 1.0

* SmackDown! ratings may include fast overnight if final ratings are not posted. Also, SmackDown! ratings are for the prior week as overnights are not available before this article goes to print.

ECW
Close (This Week’s Rating): 1.4
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 1.3
Percentage Change: ▲ 3.8%
52-Week High: 1.5
52-Week Low: 1.0
All Time High: 2.3
All Time Low: 0.6

TNA iMPACT**
Close (This Week’s Rating): 1.0
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 1.0
Percentage Change: UNCH
52-Week High: 1.2
52-Week Low: 0.9
All Time High: 1.2
All Time Low: 0.6

** TNA iMPACT’s are for the prior week as ratings may not be available at the time of the Journal’s posting

Analysis:

The year 2009 looks to be getting off to a comparatively decent start. ECW was the big winner, seeing its highest rating since September 2, 2008 with a 1.35 compared to a full 1.4. SmackDown continued to hit near it’s MyNetworkTV high with a 2.1, though still has yet to make up the about 0.3 to 0.5 rating points that were lost with the CW. Although it may not seem so, MyNetworkTV is actually available in slightly more homes than the CW. It is just that MyNetworkTV is missing in more large markets than the CW, and these markets are the ones that control ratings points.

TNA iMPACT was also impressive by hitting their usual zone of a 1.0 despite being on New Years Day and having a clip show. Nothing seems able to shrink that audience too much, though nothing is really being done to grow it. RAW also so only a small slip, but beat out their show of 2008 that did a 3.2 rating. Not going in to a clip show at the end of the year has really paid off in the WWE being able to retain their audience.

We all know that wrestling is a business, but we don’t often pay attention to what sells and makes money. Money and Investing looks into the top selling items in the world of wrestling and any interesting figures that may have come out this week.

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

1. WWE Ultimate Rivals Trading Cards ($2)
2. Hardys Purple Logo Pendant ($10)
3. Jeff Hardy Armband Package ($80, on sale $29.99)
4. Jeff Hardy Armbands ($20, on sale $10)
5. Randy Orton Age of Orton T-Shirt ($25)
6. Triple H Hammer T-Shirt ($25)
7. Edge-A Decade of Decadence DVD/T-Shirt Package ($54.95, on sale $26.99)
8. WWE 2009 Day Dream Calendar ($13.99, on sale $9.98, on double sale $6.98)
9. John Cena HLR Academy T-Shirt ($25)
10. WWE Black Gift Bag ($3)

The WWE’s Top Ten this week is the most diverse list in months. Here we have Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton, Triple H, Edge, and John Cena all represented, but that is not all. For the past 6 weeks, the majority of the items on the list were under $10, which is not a great sign for the WWE’s bottom line. Seeing three $25 T-shirts on the list (an extremely high margin item) is a better sign than in most weeks. Will this last? Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to continue for too long as the economy is still in a sour state. If anything, some of these items may have made it into the Top Ten because of dropping volume overall. Next week will be the interesting one to watch to see the results.

TNA sometimes releases a list of top selling items on ShopTNA.com. According to the site the top selling items were:

1. Autographed Sting Baseball Bat ($149)
2. Cross The Line Triple Pack DVD Set ($24.99)
3. TNA Ultimate Matches DVD ($19.99)
4. Beer Money T-shirt ($19.99)
5. Mick Foley – Bang Bang T-Shirt ($19.99)
6. TNA Christmas Ornament ($9.99)
7. Autographed Mick Foley & Sting Poster Combo ($49.99)
8. Autographed Sting Poster ($29.99)

At least they finally took down the message about getting your gifts before Christmas.

Wrestling isn’t just about watching and reading. The best way to be a wrestling fan is to experience it live. Where is wrestling coming to in the next 2 weeks? The Personal Journal answers that question.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
11 (Jan) TNA Genesis (Charlotte, NC) RAW / ECW Live (Des Moines, IA) SmackDown Live (Springfield, MO)	12 RAW / ECW (Sioux City, IA) SmackDown Live (St. Joseph, MO) TNA iMPACT (Orlando, FL)	13 SmackDown (Omaha, NE) TNA iMPACT (Orlando, FL)	14	15	16 RAW / ECW Live (Oshkosh, WI) TNA Live (Dublin, Ireland) ROH Live (Manassas, VA)	17 RAW / ECW Live (La Crosse, WI) SmackDown Live (Charleston, WV) TNA Live (Dublin, Ireland) ROh Live (Edison, NJ)
18 RAW / ECW Live (Madison, WI) SmackDown Live (Lexington, KY)	19 RAW / ECW (Chicago, IL) SmackDown Live (Muncie, IN)	20 TNA Live (Manchester, UK)	21 TNA Live (Birmingham, UK)	22 TNA Live (Glasgow, Scotland)	23	24 WWE SuperShow (Toledo, OH) TNA Live (London, England)

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.

The Editorials section is designed for you, the readers, to respond to the views presented in the Journal, send an important news item, or talk about another overlooked business related item in wrestling. Just beware: the Journal reserves the right to respond back.

From the commentary section last week, merchandise was the name of the game, starting with graves9:

They have a million DX commercials the last month or so, and it can’t get into the top ten most sold items on Shopzone rather sad.

That is an excellent point that the Journal has not covered. From an ROI perspective (Return on Investment – how much profit you get divided by total cost to get it), those commercials were a tremendous loss if not on DX item could outsell the WWE Black Gift Bag.

Sticking in the merchandise, Brett chimes in with:

I don’t think it’s an indictment against Hardy that he sells cheaper items, because the reason he does is because he doesn’t have many higher priced items, and at the same time, Cena doesn’t have many lower priced items. You can say that Jeff had T-shirts, but they also have his brother on him, he didn’t really get his own shirt until a few months back. Also, If you are a hardy fan, a necklace is may be more acceptable to wear and cheaper, so if it comes down to one or the other, you’ll go necklace.

On the other hand, Cena doesn’t have necklaces, or lower priced items that I’m aware of. So if you’re a Cena fan, it may come down to Hat, T-shirt, or nothing (would his fans want necklaces?). I don’t think Hardy should be indicted for having variety in merchandise much in the same way Cena shouldn’t be praised for lacking variety in the area. Either way, they are the only two wrestlers who seem to move merchandise consistently, and Cena seems to have a big affect on ratings(as much as I hate to admit that).

Actually, you are way off base on this one. John Cena has plenty of lower priced items including his own #3 seller $12 sweatband set, the $6.95 lanyard, $20 baseball cap, $5.95 cell phone charm, and $10 dog tags. At the same time, Hardy has plenty of items in the expensive range that don’t sell quite as much including his $45 designer t-shirt, $15 youth t-shirts, $60 jerseys, and $64 motocross jersey. At the end of the day, Cena and Hardy have close to the same number of different products available that travel the full range of prices and diversity. It just so happens that Cena sells more higher priced / higher margin items compared to Hardy. Let’s look at their individual Top Fives:

John Cena

John Cena HLR Academy T-Shirt ($25)

John Cena Chain Gang YOUTH Sneakers (On Sale $9.98)

John Cena Cenation Blue Sweatband Set ($12)

John Cena Cenation Adult Package (On Sale $29.99)

John Cena HLR Academy YOUTH T-Shirt ($22)

Jeff Hardy

Hardys Purple Logo Pendant ($10)

Jeff Hardy Armband Package (On Sale $29.99)

Jeff Hardy Armbands ($10)

Hardys Pendant ($10)

Hardys Blanket (On Sale $19.99)

So side by side, John Cena just sells more expensive items than Jeff Hardy—overall. That said, that is not an indictment against Jeff Hardy. Just because Cena is better in one are (price) and Hardy is better in another (volume of cheaper products) is not a knock against him. The Journal understands that people want to be defensive about Jeff Hardy, but there is nothing to be defensive about. He moves a large amount of merchandise and is extremely important to the WWE’s licensed products division. Just when it comes to the bottom line, Cena has a slight edge. That could all change tomorrow, but that is the story today.

Breaking up the troll-related fight over Ric Flair was HBK fan who finishes up the merchandise discussion:

An interesting thing is that there is never any heel in the top ten selling items for the WWE.

Was there a heel EVER who sold the most merchandise?

Well, this week there were two of them (Edge and Randy Orton). Both have appeared in this list before, though usually not for long. Armando Estrada also made an appearance (albeit after being fired). It is rare for a heel to sell that well. With the exception of the nWo, heels tend to sell a lot worse than faces. Eric Bischoff actually brought up this point in his book “Controversy Creates Cash” pointing out that even heels keep acting like faces because they do not want to miss out on merchandise sales. This makes more watered down heels and actually lowers product quality. Although the Journal disagrees that having shades of grey is not good for the current business, Mr. Bischoff does have a point that people are acting against the interests of the product for their own benefit (he particularly pointed out Triple H’s 2 minute face-style entrance when Triple H was a heel as an example of this).

Jumping to Hollywood, Blargh Jr writes:

The Marine may have turned a profit, but it isn’t popularly regarded as a success. In the entertainment industry perception is just as important as fact.

And let’s face it, Vince’s failures are far more numerous than his successes. You can be pedantic about that all you want, but just about every non-wrestling endeavor he’s touched has failed.

Wrestling in general isn’t popularly regarded as a success (just read any USA Network press release about ratings where they barely mention WWE RAW, their #1 program), but that has never stopped the WWE. True, in Hollywood movies that make no money can be considered a success and movies that make $200 million can be considered failures, but from the business perspective the Marine actually beat all estimates. And considering Mr. McMahon did take the WWE (through whatever means) from a regional promotion losing money to a $485 million public company, the Journal would say Mr. McMahon’s successes far outweigh his failures. That said, his failures are more notable and numerous than his successes. But all of those losses do not even add up to one-quarter of WWE revenue nowadays, so the economic gain on Mr. McMahon is quite high.

Jumping out of the main money path, Doug wants to know a bit more about PPV conversion rates and television ratings:

Your discussion of TNA’s strategy of pursuing new TV viewers at the expense of converting existing viewers into PPV buyers was really interesting. It got me thinking.. .how else do WWE and TNA financially benefit from higher ratings? Can the TV networks then charge more for advertising time? If so, do the TV shows running in those time slots see any of that benefit? Would be interested in hearing more if you can shed light on this…

Absolutely. In years past, the WWE used to get a small programming fee and then sold advertising time during their own show that they split with the network they were on. With higher ratings (during sweeps periods), they could make money by charging higher rates. That all changed about four years back when each of their shows contracts came up for renewal. The WWE decided they no longer wanted to sell advertising themselves, so they now accept a set large amount of dollars for their programming and that is all they get all year no matter what. It is up to the networks to sell advertising to recoup their costs for the programming, so ratings matter more to them.

Actually, during the first year the WWE actually lost about $2 million compared to what they made form their television shows before and it looked to be a bad idea. But given the drop in ratings, the WWE has actually made out much better in the deal and looks smart to have switched over. Plus they dropped the cost of advertising sales which helped out tremendously on the bottom line.

TNA has basically followed suit. At the beginning they actually paid for their spot on Fox Sports Net and on Spike, but now they are paid for iMPACT (mostly through international redistribution rights). So do the companies care about rating? While there is no direct compensation change to rising ratings, these contracts with networks do expire. If RAW is still pulling low 3 ratings in 2010, USA is not going to renew the contract for the same amount of money and demand a price cut. On the other hand, if RAW were to start delivering ratings in the 5’s, the WWE would have more leverage in the negotiations and be able to demand a higher price tag. At the end of the day, the ratings matter most in the contract negotiations, and that can lead to more dollars down the line.

The last big topic of the week was wrestling unions, staring with casual_monday_mayhem:

Vince has been trying to class wrestlers as “entertainers” (or superstars, if you please) for the past 20 years, to get his product out of the control of state athletic commissions. So he is in fact arguing that wrestlers are performing artists, making Aronofskys case for including wrestlers in SAG valid.

There is also N.Y. based AGVA (American Guild of Variety Artists), a labor union for performing artists on variety shows, circuses, stage shows etc.

Vince himself went on NBC Today in November I think, and called WWE “a variety show”.
I don’t want to get on the soapbox here, but unionizing wrestlers will not take anything away from the product, it will create a stable, safer working environment that will enable talented individuals perform and entertain US, the viewing public, to the best of their abilities, and know that they are taken care of should something happen.

At the end of the day, it’s just a job like any other. They should have the same rights and benefits as anybody else.

That is an interesting point about Mr. McMahon making the case for Aronofsky and SAF. Also, it seems more like the WWE performers would fall under the AGVA as you mentioned, or perhaps both. Many people who are in SAG are also in the Writers Guild, so the crossover seems logical. But that brings up the question Kevin wants answered:

The real question is, do wrestlers WANT a union? Do they want a portion of their paycheck going to SAG, which is already a bloated and arrogant union? It’s very sad that a guy like Scott Levy, a guy who admittedly and willingly destroyed his body not because of wrestling but because of drug use, now wants employee compensation and benefits because of what he has admitted doing to himself. A union would destroy the wrestling industry because it would eliminate much of the profit motive. WWE would not only have to pay extraordinary amounts of money just to cover union benefits, but salaries would drop due to the need to pay for all these things. Do you think we would ever see Shawn Michaels or Sting wrestle again if they had to get their salaries cut by 40%+?

Moving aside from your personal assessment of SAG and Scott Levy, there is an important question in there: if the WWE workers were unionized, would overall salaries go down? Or would positions be eliminated? There is that possibility, but benefits have to be considered as part of a balance with wages. For instance, a traveling consultant will make more than a local cubical worker doing the same type of work, but the local cubical worker will have more time off and a better social balance. On the other hand, the consultant will get greater experience, be able to grow faster, and have more options in the future. These are things that individual people need to consider before they agree to anything and it is a personal decision. Kevin seems to be of the mind that most wrestlers would not want to give up a portion of their money (and perhaps Kevin wouldn’t). Perhaps, though, the wrestlers feel the sacrifice is worthwhile?

The Journal truly doubts that the loss would be 40%, but do not forget that the WWE (and TNA to an extent) have been driving down the salaries of wrestlers since the death of WCW. Without a union or competition, nothing has been done to protect the salaries and rights of wrestlers. Instead, they have had much less choice, control and money.

Still, nomark finishes us up with this thought:

WWE wrestlers would never join a union because they know they would be fired.

If they joined as an individual, yes, that would absolutely be true. If they joined as a group, though, the WWE and TNA would have no choice. Each company still needs a roster of at least 30 people to keep the shows going, and are 30 people going to cross a picket line? Then again, the probability of wrestlers who are really in competition with each other for spots and TV time even doing anything for the collective good is highly unlikely. It will actually take a union like SAG coming in first to get everyone on board to make it happen. Aranofsky seems to be on the path that the move has to come from the outside, and he is the man to push it through.

Plenty more was written, so be sure to take a look. And of course, a week would not be complete without a good dose of JP Prag’s own HIDDEN HIGHLIGHTS!!

This concludes Issue #68 (Volume 2) of THE HAMILTON AVE JOURNAL. Join us next week as we get ready to ring the bell again.

Till then!