1. THE MAIN EVENT WWE - World Wrestling Entertainment
Andrew Birns, Kevin Connolly &
Sue Vilim – BUSN412

2. COMPANY / WEBSITE / INDUSTRY:
WWE - World Wrestling Entertainment
Website - wwe.com
Industry – Entertainment Diversified

3. BACKGROUND / HISTORY: IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS: NWA & WWWF
TOP PROMOTERS
VINCE MCMAHON SR
TOOTS MONDT
1976
DEATH OF MONDT
RENAMED THE WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION
MCMAHON WAS OLD SCHOOL
1980’S
MCMAHON SOLD WWF TO HIS SON
1985
FIRST WRESTLEMANIA

4. BACKGROUND / HISTORY: 1987 WRESTLEMANIA 3
INDOOR RECORD OF 90,000 IN ATTENDANCE
FIRST SUCCESSFUL PAY PER VIEW EVENT
1990
FACED TWO SCADELS
WWF STARTED TO SUFFER
1999
WENT PUBLIC
2002
LOST RIGHTS TO WWF
NAMED CHANGED TO WWE
2005
WWE BRINGS BACK ECW NAME

5. TODAY’S WWE: CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS STAMFORD, CT
SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BUSIENSS
LIVE AND TELEVISED EVENTS
MERCHANDISE SALES
APPAREL
BOOKS / MAGAZINES
TOYS
VIDEO GAMES
DISTRIBUTES IN 30 LANGUAGES
APPROXIMATELY 145 COUNTRIES

6. TODAY’S WWE: EXECUTIVES VINCENT K MCMAHON GEORGE A BARRIOS
CO-FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN, CEO,
CHAIRMAN OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
GEORGE A BARRIOS
CFO, PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING OFFICER
KEVIN DUNN
EXEC VP OF TELEVISION PRODUCTION, EXEC DIRECTOR & MEMBER OF EXEC COMMITTEE
PAUL LEVESQUE
EXEC VP OF TALENT & LIVE EVENTS
MICHELLE D WILSON
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER

7. WWE SWOT: STRENGTHS WEAKNESS OPPORTUNITIES THREATS VINCE MCMAHON
300 LIVE SHOWS A YEAR
TELEVISION PROGRAMING
SYFY, USA, WGN
CONSUMER PRODUCTS
INTERNET SALES
FORBES TOP 200 BEST
SMALL BUSINESS
WEAKNESS
WRESTLING MATCHES SCRIPTED
PRODUCTION COST OF LIVE SHOWS
XFL EIGHT-TEAM FOOTBALL LEAGUE
MOVIE PRODUCTION
OPPORTUNITIES
PURCHASING WCW
OWNS RIGHTS TO THE CHARACTERS
CONTINUOUS STORY LINES
LICENSES LOCAL STATIONS IN 145 COUNTRIES
30 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
THREATS
NFL
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
CRITICS
WRESTLERS BEING RECRUITED BY COMPETITORS
ADVERSE PUBLICITY
STEROID USE
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

8. STRATEGIES USED: GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ANALYZE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTS
INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION
FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
SOCIAL MEDIA
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
EXPAND PARTNERSHIPS
MOVIE SLATE
ANALYZE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTS
SCRIPT BASED ON AUDIENCE REACTION IN LIVE EVENTS
WORK ON EXCEEDING THEIR COMPETITORS
ASSESSING THEIR INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
130 PRODUCT LICENSES WORLDWIDE
OWN THEIR CHARACTERS AND SCRIPTS
INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIES
145 COUNTRIES
30 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES

9. STRATEGIES USED CON’T:
BUSINESS & CORPORATE LEVEL STRATEGIES
RAW – LIVE EVENTS
SMACKDOWN
MAIN EVENTS
SOCIAL MEDIA
INTERNET PRESENTS
VIDEO GAMES
MERCHANDISE
ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY & COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS
XFL
MOVIES
REALITY TV – ARE YOU “TOUGH ENOUGH”?
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

10. CHALLENGES: LACK BEHAVIOR CONTROL LACK PR CONTROL
LACK PR CONTROL
LACK OF BIG NAME STARS
PAST HULK HOGAN, MACHO MAN, JESSI VENTURA
IMAGE
SEX AND VIOLANCE
MIX MARTIAL ARTS
E-COMMERCE
LIVE PERFORMANCE

11. FORMER WWE SUPERSTARS:
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin
“Goldberg”
“Hulk Hogan” &
“Macho Man” Randy Savage

12. CURRENT WWE SUPERSTARS:
“CM Punk”
“Sheamus”
Daniel Bryan
John Cena

13. RECOMMENDATIONS: MORE EPHASIS ON CREATING WRESTLING SUPERSTARS
PUBLICIZE POSITIVE ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL FITNESS
AQUIRE MORE POSITIVE PUBLIC RESOUCES TO INHANCE PUBLIC IMAGE
CONTINUE EFFORTS ON IMPROVING OVERALL PUBLIC IMAGE AS IT PERTAINS TO FAMILY
CREATE A NEW BACKGROUND WRESTLER STORY LINE TO COMBAT MMA COMPETITION
WORK ON EFFECTIVELY MARKETING E-COMMERCE SALES
BUILD UP THE SUSPENSE TO INCREASE LIVE EVENTS THROUGH PROPER MARKETING

14. OPINION ABOUT CASE STUDY:
“WWE used to be so great,  you could tell by just talking to people how they could name a bunch of wrestlers and how they would intimate there super moves.  Now it seems like the people you ask do not care for wrestling anymore.  We feel that with our helpful ideas that we could bring that spark back to WWE and influence past watchers to come back and watch.” Andrew Birns
WWE is not my topic of choice so this Case Study forced me to research a business of which I knew nothing about and gather intelligent information, which could be used to formulate recommendations based on unbiased opinion. By doing so and presenting this information to a group I found this process to be invaluable to any organization’s management team. Sue Vilim

15. REFERENCES: http://www.wwe.com http://corporate.wwe.com/index.jsp

16. REFERENCES: http://nwalegends.com/fanfestforum/YaBB.pl?num=1265730561

17. REFERENCES: