Wrestlenomics

Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo talk the week's wrestling business news. AEW and WWE's are likely nearing negotiation time for their current U.S. live rights agreements. Brandon gives a detailed breakdown on how those rights might be valued. Video version: https://youtu.be/kjE6tUqj9-M 📺 Tune in to Wrestlenomics Radio every Sunday at 11:00am ET at youtube.com/c/wrestlenomics 📊 Patreon: h...

Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo discuss various consumer-driven metrics for AEW and WWE over time. Plus an assessment of the state of the media ecosystem as Netflix subscribers stall and CNN+ is shutdown soon after launching. 📺 Tune in to Wrestlenomics Radio with Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo every Sunday at 11:00am ET at youtube.com/c/wrestlenomics 📊 TV ratings reports and data: https://pat...

Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo talk about the week's wrestling business news, including how the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery could affect AEW, and why this probably isn't AOL-TimeWarner/WCW in 2001 all over again. Video version: https://youtu.be/NWcXCDiK2lQ A subscription to the Wrestlenomics Patreon is a must for understanding the wrestling business. Subscribers get: Nearly daily...

More business news coming out of Wrestlemania as Brandon Thurston is joined by Chris Gullo who returns from his week in Dallas. WWE was the subject of articles from CNBC and ESPN. The company's annual proxy statement discloses top executives' pay and other details. Plus, Tony Khan says AEW is the target of a bot campaign and talks about Ring of Honor's outlook in media interviews. Vide...

More than 65,000 fans were in attendance for Night 1 of Wrestlemania. WWE, as always, announced a bigger number. Brandon Thurston is joined by Jesse Collings who subs in for Chris Gullo this week, to discuss WWE president Nick Khan’s recent media appearances leading up to Wrestlemania. Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnobp6bLYgQ A subscription to the Wrestlenomics Patreon is a must...

"Triple H" Paul Levesque announced his retirement as a wrestler this week and discussed his future as a WWE executive. We look at Wrestlemania attendance as the two-day event is a week away. Plus, Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo go over ticket sales for other live events for Wrestlemania week. Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKdnzMenQRQ A subscription to the Wrestlenomics P...

WWE responds to MLW's antitrust lawsuit. We have an updated breakdown of viewership demographics by race. Plus, Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo talk about WWE introducing a new class of Performance Center recruits. Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SIKjAkgt18 A subscription to the Wrestlenomics Patreon is a must for understanding the wrestling business. Subscribers get: Nearly d...

AEW Revolution pay-per-view business. WWE2K22 is a pivotal release for the partnership with Take Two. Plus, Tony Khan says he will book Ring of Honor. Vince McMahon and Nick Khan get raises. And we look at what Apple TV+'s new deal with MLB tells us about the outlook of media rights fees for wrestling. 📺 Tune in to Live TV Ratings talk with Brandon Thurston every Thursday at 5:30pm ET! 📊 TV...

Tony Khan bought Ring of Honor. Vince McMahon had his first live interview since 2014. Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo look at AEW's pay-per-view and streaming potential ahead of the Revolution event tonight. Plus, a breakdown of the latest Google Trends data for major wrestling companies. Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHr918NI-bI Get the Wrestlenomics Pro Wrestling Industry...

"Mookie" Chris Harrington, All Elite Wrestling's Senior Vice President of Business Strategy, and the creator of Wrestlenomics, talks with Brandon Thurston ahead of the AEW Revolution pay-per-view this Sunday. Just $5/month: http://patreon.com/wrestlenomics Wrestlenomics merchandise is available now at https://store.postwrestling.com! Follow Brandon Thurston on Twitter: https://twitter....

Vince McMahon and Steve Austin are likely to have matches at WrestleMania as about one-third of the inventory of tickets for the two-day event are still left to be sold. Plus we look at AEW Revolution tickets and consider a report that the secondary market is going to make a half-million dollar profit on resales. Get the Wrestlenomics Pro Wrestling Industry Report 2021 by becoming a patron at http...

One of the founding members of All Elite Wrestling moves on, as Cody Rhodes and AEW announced this week the former is leaving the company. Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo discuss what might have led to his exit and what his future, likely with WWE, may be like. Plus, WWE stock continues to climb and outperform the market. Brandon's new financial estimate argues WWE will need live streaming di...

We estimate All Elite Wrestling made about $84 million in revenue in 2021. Brandon Thurston breaks down AEW's revenue sources and how much he believes the company made in 2021 and 2020. Plus, Brandon and Chris Gullo discuss whether YouTube view data or quarter-hour viewership is a better indicator of interest in TV segments. Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94tGj_zcLoI Get the Wr...

WWE reported its Q4 and full year 2021 earnings on Thursday. The company made more than $1 billion in revenue and $180 million in net income for the year, both new records. Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo go into depth on comments of Nick Khan, the few words from Vince McMahon, and all we learned about WWE's business and its outlook going forward. Get the Wrestlenomics Pro Wrestling Industry...

Brandon Thurston is joined by MJ from NJ to preview WWE's next earnings report and conference call, coming up on Thursday after the close of the market. This podcast is an edited audio version of the YouTube live stream version of this podcast, which was longer and had a few audio issues: https://youtu.be/k3myNNQX-gg 📊 TV ratings reports and data: https://patreon.com/wrestlenomics 🎙️ Listen t...

WWE president Nick Khan spoke with the Sports Business Journal this past week, days before the outlet also reported Disney+ Hotstar acquired WWE Network rights in Indonesia. As terms for next-day rights to Raw and Smackdown, currently held by Hulu, near expiration, Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo discuss the possible suitors for that content. Plus, some news about WWE possibly outsourcing its liv...

New Japan returned to AXS TV this week and we have the exclusive ratings breakdown for the program as well as the final airings for New Japan in 2019. We’ll look at how the New Japan TV audience might differ from Impact and others in wrestling. Raw and NXT will be preempted due to the Olympics for two weeks in February. Plus, we take questions from our subscribers. Video version: https://youtu.be/...

MLW filed an antitrust lawsuit against WWE on Tuesday for allegedly interfering with MLW's deal with Fox-owned streaming service Tubi. Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo spend the entire episode breaking down the legal complaint and the outlook of the case. Video version: https://youtu.be/Dr-9f9PZths New Wrestlenomics merchandise is available now at https://store.postwrestling.com ! Get brand ne...

Many of "Triple H" Paul Levesque's allies were let go from WWE in the same week Bron Breakker won the NXT title and kicked over a yellow "X" that symbolized the brand's prior era. New Japan Pro Wrestling comes back to AXS TV in a block with Impact on Thursday nights. New episodes begin in March. Plus, AEW Dynamite debuts on TBS. We look at the quarter-hour breakdown. 📺 Tun...

David Bixenspan joins Brandon to for a special bonus episode to discuss some retrospective Wrestlenomics topics that Bix has written about recently, including WWF pay-per-view buys and the TV ratings for WWF's "Black Saturday" run on TBS, and more. Read David Bixenspan's written work: https://babyfacevheel.substack.com/ Follow Bix on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidbix/ 📺 Tune i...

*Brandon's conversation with David Bixenspan mentioned in this podcast that wouldn't fit in the episode is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utE9AHetcmk Former AEW wrestler Big Swole criticized AEW’s diversity on Friday, leading Tony Khan to defend the company on Twitter. We look at the data on how often wrestlers of color, including Black wrestlers, appear in main events on...

2021 was the year of Nick Khan and Tony Khan (no relation), both of whom gained influence in the industry. WWE president Nick Khan sold U.S. WWE Network rights to Peacock. The former CAA agent made numerous other licensing deals as WWE revamped its talent development vision. Meanwhile, AEW CEO Tony Khan led All Elite Wrestling to overcome NXT in the Wednesday Night War. “TK” signed CM Punk and Bry...

As 2021 draws to an end, we make some predictions for 2022. Will Ring of Honor run a show next year? What will WWE and AEW TV ratings be? Plus, Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo discuss some mainstream media articles related to AEW’s recent TV ratings, the history of DQ finishes across companies, and NOAH and DDT parent, CyberFight, reported a net loss for its fiscal year. A subscription to the Wre...

AEW and WWE's views on talent development appear to be diverging. Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo discuss WWE's announcement of college athlete signings to its new NIL program. Meanwhile Johnny Gargano and Kyle O'Reilly are possibly on their way out of WWE. Plus discussion of ticket sales, TV ratings, the friendship between Nick Khan and The Rock, and more! 📺 Tune in to Live TV Ratin...

We study live+same-day TV ratings, but what about DVR viewership? How do Raw, Smackdown, Dynamite, Rampage, NXT, and Impact TV ratings compare when including delayed viewing? Plus, WWE this past week introduced a new NIL program to recruit college athletes. And we look at who are the wrestlers and wrestling companies that are searched for most often on Google. Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo disc...