World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.(WWE, inc.) is a company with a long history. What started out as a family business grew to become literally a billion dollar empire. Vincent J. MacMahon Sr. started out with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which was later shortened to World Wrestling Federation (WWF). After his son, Vincent K. MacMahon, took over the company in the late 1980’s it began to expand rapidly. Now based in Greenwich, Connecticut, our wrestling company is plagued with many potentially serious problems.

World Wrestling Entertainment has tried to expand beyond its capacity. The value of the company has dropped from $1.1 billion in 2000 to $700 million in 2001 and to $570 million in 2002. In the year 2002, WWE had losses in the second, third, and fourth quarters, consecutively. Investors in WWE stock are starting to panic and lose confidence in the company. Shares originally started out at $24, and are now down to $7.

The XFL, a spin-off "hardcore" football league was cancelled after the first season. A combination of bad football, odd camera angles, and reporters who tried to turn the players into soap opera characters was the downfall of this league. XFL was listed as one of the top twelve failures in NBC’s broadcast history. The loss suffered by WWE was $116 million.

After a spectacular opening week, the World, WWE’s night club, has suffered from falling attendance and corruption. This fall, the manager of the club was arrested for embezzling over $437,000. This happened only a few months after the owners of the WWE issued a statement expressing their confidence in the club and its manager. We have lost $10 million on this $40 million restaurant.

The World Wildlife fund filed a defamation lawsuit against the wrestling business because of the vulgar material on its television programming. Because of the fact that the two shared initials—in WWF-- the wrestling company was forced to change its logo to WWE. This cost us $50 million for wasted merchandise, and a huge cost to change all logos. WWE paid $50 million to the Wildlife fund. THQ, a video games manufacturer, is suing the WWE for $350 million in losses. This pending lawsuit could be financial ruin for our company. We were forced to send an advisory to the SEC which stated that a loss in this case would cause devastating financial losses for the company. In addition, WWE has paid $13 million to the William Morris talent agency to settle a lawsuit out of court.

Attendance continues to decline for all WWE live events. Despite increasing the number of events by 58%, audiences continue to diminish.

After the purchase of our major competition, the WCW, World Wrestling Entertainment has had no competition. This has caused boring wrestling, stale storylines, and lower number of viewers. This is an impending disaster for the company if the government decides to split the company up due to monopoly status.

Declining Ratings have been due to splitting the WWE talent roster onto two different shows. Monday Night Raw used to be the highest rated show on cable television. In its prime, it usually pulled an 8.1 share. However the ratings have now dropped to pathetic levels, the lowest of which is a 3.1.

Thursday Night Smackdown began in 1998 as a spin off of the popular Monday Night Raw. The UPN network, part of Viacom, signed a three year deal for a two hour show. However, with the falling ratings, UPN wants to switch to a one hour show.

The WWE fired the Chief Marketing Officer and the Chief Financial officer on the same day this past fall. This loss of leadership makes our company look vulnerable to investors.

World Wrestling Entertainment needs immediate action to remedy these problems. The company keeps trying to expand, when what it desperately needs is to concentrate on its core product--its Thursday and Monday shows.

First, merge the Thursday and Monday night shows into one, and then hire new writers. The storylines of wrestling are fundamentally important for each feud between wrestlers. When the stories are interesting, two good wrestlers look even more interesting. When two characters are perfect foils for each other, a good guy versus a bad guy, the intensity of the matches improves. All this in turn builds television ratings.

The writers at the WWE have recycled all of the same, pathetic storylines over and over again. Also, when new stories are tried, the angles are disastrous. Fans have turned off their TVs in disgust with the angle about Necrophilia. Parents forbid their children, a main target audience, from watching "Hot Lesbian Action."

The current writers are hired from Hollywood to make the company look like a sitcom. The owner has tried to bring credibility to his programming with these "respected" Hollywood writers. In reality, they know nothing about wrestling. These writers need to be fired immediately and replaced with writers who are educated in the wrestling business.

We must build New Stars and fire stale talent. Viewers are tired of watching Hulk Hogan "hulk-up" for the one-millionth time. The repetition of current WWE shows has bored viewers into changing the channel to Monday Night Football. The following veterans should be immediately released: Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, Triple H, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, and Arn Anderson.

New wrestlers need to be built up. They represent the future of the company. Veteran wrestlers, while having a great fan following, do not allow the characters of new wrestlers to grow. I suggest building up Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Leviathan, Edge, Christian, the Hardy Boys, and Rob Van Dam.

The firing of two of the top officers in the WWE has investors questioning the viability of our company. We need to thoroughly research the backgrounds of our employees before we hire them, and stop hiring people out of sympathy for hard times they may have had.

Changing television ratings and overall company profits will not be accomplished overnight. We need at least a year.

I will be an asset to the WWE during its vital restructuring. As a wrestling fan, I know what a good storyline is, and I can distinguish between skilled wrestlers and skilled performers. I also have been wrestling professionally for two years, so I know what good talent should do. I am fair and objective, but I am also hard and decisive when I have made up my mind. I do not tolerate office politics. As a Journalism major from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps school of journalism, I know what good writing is, and what will bore an audience. I have two years already in business, and I am enthusiastic to help this company that I have grown up watching.

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