• WWE Generated Its Highest Revenue Ever In 2017
WWE released the following today:
WWE® Reports Strong Fourth-Quarter Achieving Record Results for 2017
Fourth-Quarter 2017 Highlights
* Revenue increased 9% to $211.6 million as compared to the prior year quarter
* Operating income was $27.0 million. Adjusted OIBDA1 reached $34.8 million, which was in line with guidance
* WWE Network’s average paid subscribers increased to 1.48 million during the fourth quarter 2017, consistent with the Company’s guidance
* Celebrated the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw in January 2018; SmackDown surpassed 950 episodes and remained the second longest running episodic program in history (behind only Raw)
* Formed partnerships to create content across platforms, including the series Mixed Match Challenge™ which streams live on Facebook Watch, Miz & Mrs. which will air on USA, as well as virtual reality experiences from select 2018 special events available on a new WWE channel within the NextVR app
Full Year 2017 Highlights
* Revenue increased 10% to $801.0 million, the highest in the Company’s history
* Operating income increased 36% to $75.6 million. Adjusted OIBDA increased 40% to $111.9 million, which was within the range of Company guidance and represented all-time record performance
* Supporting the global reach of WWE content, completed multi-year distribution agreements in France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa among other countries and regions
* Digital engagement continued to grow with video views up 32% to 20 billion and social media engagements up 4% to approximately 1.2 billion from the prior year3
* WWE’s YouTube channel remained the #1 most viewed Sports Channel and the 2nd most viewed channel on YouTube with 20 billion lifetime views (as of January 31, 2018)
* Demonstrated strength in consumer products with the #1 selling action figure property in the U.S. ahead of Star Wars and Marvel Avengers4
* Forbes named WrestleMania as one of the world’s top 10 most valuable sports event brands for the fourth year in a row, alongside the Super Bowl, Olympics, FIFA World Cup and NCAA Men’s Final Four
• Shane McMahon Makes Big Change To The WWE Title Match At FastLane 2018 – AJ Styles Comments
On this week’s episode of SmackDown Live, it was announced that “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles will defend the WWE Championship against Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn in a Triple Threat match at FastLane 2018 PPV.
SmackDown Live Commissioner Shane McMahon has now announced on Twitter that the WWE Championship match at FastLane 2018 will now be a Fatal 4 Way match and the winner of next week’s match between the returning Dolph Ziggler and former US Champion Baron Corbin will enter the WWE Title match.
An unexpected end to #SDLive with a triple threat match made for #WWEFastlane…I’m going to make a bit more interesting.
Next week: @BaronCorbinWWE vs. @HEELZiggler. The winner is added to the match and makes it a #Fatal4Way for the @WWE title.
— Shane McMahon (@shanemcmahon) February 8, 2018
Below is what AJ Styles had to say about this:
Swell.
Line ‘em up. I’m gonna knock them down. #WWEFastlane https://t.co/Hz9xPu4dmo
— AJStyles.Org (@AJStylesOrg) February 8, 2018
The winner of the WWE Championship match at FastLane 2018 will defend the Title against the winner of the Men’s Royal Rumble 2018 match, Shinsuke Nakamura, at WrestleMania 34.
