WWE held their Second Quarter 2021 Earnings conference call today. Michael Weiss opened the call and noted that Vince McMahon, Nick Khan, Stephanie McMahon and Kristina Salen will be on the call.

Vince McMahon opened the call and said that they generated a solid second quarter as they focused on fans and that their live events have been at close, or full capacity thus far, while they will have the largest WWE SummerSlam event in the United States that they have ever had. Vince said that they were up big time in the 18-49 demographic for the RAW and SmackDown shows when they returned before live crowds and believe that they can take advantage of the evolving business environment as they always have. Nick Khan said that they wanted to start with some industry perspective and that the last time, other sports saw rights increases, even though they had lower linear viewership and noted that the second quarter was a busy quarter for activity. Khan ran down some of the deals for other sports leagues and spotlighted the growth opportunities that are there for the WWE, before noting that they renewed their deal with Foxtel in Australia and are encouraged by the trends that they see as they renew the WWE Network deals internationally.

Khan noted that ratings are up across the board for all of their shows, while months into their Peacock deal, they are now seeing the benefits as viewership of the pay-per-view events have increased, with Backlash up 26%, Hell in a Cell up 20% and Money in the Bank up 46%, higher than even pre-pandemic viewership and that they expect viewership to keep increasing as Peacock gains new subscribers. Khan put over their return to touring and said that the July 16th SmackDown in Houston sold out and was the highest non-PPV grossing event in Houston history, while they had a great night for merchandise. Khan noted that the WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view was sold out and was the sold out prior to the return of John Cena, while the RAW in Dallas was the highest grossing for that venue, with merchandise up 50% from the last time that they were there. Khan said that the show in Cleveland sold out and was the best non-PPV event in Cleveland, while merchandise was up 60%. Khan put over their relationship with the Rolling Hard Festival in Miami and said that they saw strong merchandise sales at the Festival itself. Khan then noted that the WWE Supershow event in Pittsburgh was the highest grossing non-televised event in Pittsburgh’s history and that the WWE Supershow event in Louisville was the highest-paid attendance event in over five years, while their merchandise was up and that additionally, their Kansas City event was the best non-televised event ever for the company.

Khan put over next month’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view and said that they have already moved well over 40,000 tickets, which will make it the biggest gate for a non-WrestleMania event ever. Khan then noted that their New Year’s Day event will see them running that weekend as college football will not be playing that weekend. Khan noted that they have brought in 20 new and existing sponsors this year under Stephanie McMahon and that they are looking for more brands seeking unique ways to promote themselves, pointing out the TikTok SummerSlam Ring Announcer contest, which has seen thousands of submissions and over 9 million video views of the contest. Khan noted that the company will be doing John Cena NFT’s during SummerSlam weekend and that they are excited for the story to be told in the upcoming The United States vs. Vince McMahon, with Blumhouse Productions.

Stephanie McMahon noted that it was an exciting time for their business and that while they don’t know what the future holds, they are excited to return to touring, noting that HHH and herself met with the fans before the first show and that it was like a huge family reunion. Stephanie put over the return of John Cena to the company, as well as their relationships with NBCUniversal and FOX and noted that they have upgraded their production for entrances and a wide variety of augmented reality, while the costs associated are on part with their 2019 costs, but that they have seen an increase in linear viewers. Stephanie said that RAW ratings and SmackDown ratings have been up since the return of fans, especially in the 18-49 demographic, while mobile video viewing is also up, especially across YouTube and Facebook. Stephanie said that they had a solid performance on A&E, bringing viewership and good 18-49 ratings, while they continue to make a positive impact for their partners. Stephanie said that brands are looking for unique ways to interact with their customers and that the WWE can create customized ways to do that, pointing to the zombie invasion at WrestleMania Backlash as a way that they can mash up and cross-over brands and said that the results speak for themselves as three of the fourteen trending topics that night were related to that integration, while the film was one of the biggest in Netflix’s history. Stephanie put over the company’s new Credit Card partnership, as well as their deal with Pure Life Water and work with community partners and said that the company is well positioned to continue to grow the brand and service their audience. Kristina Salen then took over the call before the Q&A session and reviewed the company’s financial performances from the press release.

The first caller aske about what drove rights to soccer and how they view the WWE’s value for streaming. khan said that it’s the normal one sport globally and that the WWE brand is appealing on the scale globally and believe that they will see the benefits. The next caller asked about international events going forward. Kristina Salen said that the company have not released the number of total events for 2021 specifically, but their guidance does include large scale international events and that they are forecasting them to be in the area of the second half of 2019, noting that they have 35 events on sale through the end of September and that they will announce the latter half of 2021 shortly, while their past numbers were based on 2019-2020 and was a forecasted number and not an actual number.

The next caller asked what they see the opportunities being for sponsorship over the next 2-3 years in terms of increased sponsorships. Stephanie McMahon said that they believe that there is significant upside and that they are tracking it, while they have the chance to work with Peacock to monetize things and can bring advertisers and sponsorships over different lines of business. The next caller asked if there was any news on the MENA/Middle East TV rights deal. Khan said that himself, Vince McMahon and others are hoping to have news shortly on that front. The next caller asked about the out of ring TV production plans and how many hours the WWE are looking to create, as well as whether they are looking to pre-sell them so that there is no financial risk and if they are being seen as profit center, instead of promotional tools. Khan said that they are and pointed to the A&E ratings for their documentaries and hidden treasues show and said that they should be looking to see more of that, unscripted shows and dramatic shows, such as the Vince limited series coming.

The next caller asked about the WWE HQ. Khan said that they hope to be in the new WWE Headquarters by late 2022 and that once they move in, they intend to sell the three buildings that they own currently. The next caller asked when they expect to see real growth. Stephanie McMahon said that the return to live events helps with the energy and that they have seen increases. Vince McMahon was asked about All Elite Wrestling investing in talents and seeing a rise in their ratings and discussed if AEW is direct competition like WCW. Vince said that Ted Turner was a different situation and that they came after them, but noted that he does not consider AEW competition in the way that he considered WCW competition back in the day and said that he did not know about their talent investments. Nick Khan said that everyone is their competition and that they are sort of in a horse race with blinders, but noted that they are concerned about themselves first and foremost, and that while no one is a specific competitor, everyone is their competition including sleep, as Reed Hastings of Netflix noted himself. The next caller asked about changes made internally. Khan said that they had Network, Television and Digital redundancies and that they pulled them together in May and we’ll see the effect in the third quarter.

The next caller asked about Univision’s investment in Combate Global and if Khan saw similar things leading to cross-overs. Khan said that it sort of feels like the business model that Vince built out, having one big territory for wrestling and that UFC sort of followed that in Mixed Martial Arts, while Boxing has not followed that as it is all splintered there. Khan said that they like any new entrant in the combat space that is well financed and that they feel that they are uniquely positioned for their space. The next caller asked whether Peacock being part of SkyTV for free would include the WWE Network. Nick Khan said that they are in a good moment in time and that almost all of the U.S. conglomerates are looking to go global and that they have a turn-key product where they can do a deal with WWE and it’s automatically ready for international outlets and said that they will see how it goes in the coming months ahead. The next caller asked about international events. Kristina Salen said that their current guidance does include one large scale international events. The final caller asked Nick Khan what the next big opportunity for the company was. Khan said that international media rights, sponsorships and scripted, as well as unscripted deals are what those next big opportunities are as the call closed.