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Vince McMahon spoke about the declining ratings of WWE TV and participation in live events earlier today during the fourth quarter earnings call of 2018, partially blaming the recent series of injuries to the company.
The discussion began when Vince was questioned that RAW champion Ronda Rousey might have left the company. Vince praised Rousey, adding that the "WWE Rondas come and go," but the company will always work around these departures as long as they know the dates.
The interlocutor asked: "Ronda Rousey. Once again Vince, I do not know if you're ready to … it may be a bit controversial for you, but Ronda Rousey was an experience. She had built her brand on a different platform, she brought it to the WWE. … Let's say that Ronda Rousey is leaving the WWE, that it is undermining the WWE franchise and making it a worthy experience, bringing in people who have built brands elsewhere in WWE, while they risk going out and damaging the WWE brand. I am curious about this experience and your lessons from this Ronda Rousey experience. "
Vince replied, "Once again, we can bring people from outside to our environment. It can not be a simple matter, because our audience realizes that it will not push further the enjoyment of what we do. Nevertheless, the arrival of Ronda has given us more visibility with regard to the initiative to reach more women. And when you do something like that, it allows you to not just use Ronda's platform from another niche to enter the WWE, it becomes in itself a WWE brand. It's a different Ronda from the one you've seen before, in terms of UFC and others. When you put talent in touch with Ronda, she can help us create talent, and that's what she does. She knows how to do it. She is one of the brightest people we have dealt with. And the fact that she adapts so quickly to the WWE culture is truly an incredible salvation for her as an athlete and as a human being. So the Rondas come and go, and when they do, as long as we know what those dates are, we plan accordingly. "
Vince continued his response and spoke of the injuries that forced the best plans to change. Vince said he thought John Cena would be more involved this year, but these plans have changed because of his career in Hollywood.
"The unfortunate aspect of sometimes in our sector is that we … our interpreters are not cartoons. They hurt themselves. This year, we had unprecedented injuries. And when you have wounds … you know, there's a whole lot. Roman Reigns is the principle. And even John Cena, not like an injury, but we thought John would be more part of our programming than we do. John, God bless him, make more movies. And even John, I think, would say, "Damn, I thought I would spend more time with what I like to do," namely WWE. He goes in and out, so he's not really part of the story. You lose John, you lose Roman Reigns. In addition to that, we had injuries … Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, who is one of our best female performers, was injured. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Bray Wyatt, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Braun Strowman, Dean Ambrose, Ember Moon, Samoa Joe, Akam from a new team, Jason Jordan, Fandango, Big Show, Seth Rollins. It's as if … you had all these wounds, which is really unusual for us, it's characters. It's no different if you write a soap opera and suddenly your main character is no longer there. You are in production, what are you doing? You change the script very skillfully, but it's not as good as the original. Sometimes it's better because we're good enough, but that's something we're facing, and one of the reasons that television ratings have dropped. And one of the reasons, obviously, from the point of view of live events, has also been abandoned. Because if you do not have your favorites on TV, you obviously will not be able to see it during a live event either. We are wide open and Ronda has done an amazing job. There will be other people coming from different regions who will join us in the long run, it will help us too, "added Vince.
You can read our full summary of today's conversation with Barrios, Co-Chair Michelle Wilson and WWE President Vince McMahon on this link.
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