Promoting Monday’s historic 1000th episode of Raw, Vince McMahon addressed a number of topics including how WWE’s pay-per-view purchase number stacks up to those of Ultimate Fighting Championship.
“We’re in show business, they are a sport. Their ratings are abysmal,” McMahon says of the mixed martial arts league. “They are in the pay-per-view business, and they do reasonably well there. We just set a record for WrestleMania. We had 1.3 million buys for this year’s WrestleMania, and our pay-per-view numbers for our shows have been up 30 percent since then. So, we are looking pretty good.”
McMahon’s entertainment company has had its ups and downs over the years, particularly during the Monday Night Wars with World Championship Wrestling. Referencing the league by its former owner, media mogul Ted Turner, as he so often did in the 1990s, McMahon explains why his company beat them: “Ted Turner was a bit of a battle. Ted was part of Time Warner; that was difficult to compete with. But perseverance is extremely important in life and in business. The other guys got tired of traveling each and every week to do TV. They just didn’t have the same passion we do. They were working for a paycheck. It was only a matter of time until they burned out.”
When asked why so much of his talent, like The Rock, have gone on to movie careers, he responded, “Our talent is taught not to be prima donnas, to be on time and know their lines. And quite frankly, people in Hollywood, once they see what we do, they are amazed. Our talent doesn’t demand the biggest trailer or a certain amount of grape juice or whatever the hell it is. Our talent is extremely flexible and knows how to act, so it’s a logical extension for them.”
In regards to WWE and its performers using Twitter more, he said, “Back in the early days, our performers elicited a response—a boo or a cheer. Today, we use all this social media. We are going to do Tout, in which the WWE just invested. With that, you get a 15-second video shout-out that goes straight to our TV programs. Beginning with the 1,000th show, people can participate in terms of the types of matches and what actually happens on air. It will be the most interactive TV programming in the world.”
McMahon also attributes the success of the USA Network to WWE: “We became the No. 1 show on USA. And they wouldn’t be No. 1 right now in primetime if not for Raw. We switched one time to what became the Spike network and became the No. 1 show there. We have proved that we can pretty much make TV networks.”
McMahon also revealed that his favorite part of the Olympics is when it ends.
“I consider our business the Olympics, and it doesn’t just happen every few years, but every night. My favorite part will be the closing ceremonies. That means the Olympics are over, and everyone will settle down and Raw, Smackdown! [on Syfy] and WWE will have more prominence,” he says.
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*PHOTO* of Vince McMahon’s mansion »