Recap of WWE’s Post-WrestleMania 33 Conference Call; New Network Subscriber Count Revealed, WrestleMania Numbers, Indy Content

April 3, 2017

WWE Chief Strategy & Financial Officer George Barrios and SVP Financial Planning & Investor Relations Michael Weitz are hosting a post-WrestleMania 33 conference call today.

The call will take place at WWE Headquarters in Stamford, CT, and will begin at 3:05pm EST. WZ will have live highlight coverage of the call below:

The call opened with Michael Weitz noting Vince McMahon would not be participating in today’s call. George Barrios then took over the call and in addition to touting the success of WrestleMania 33, he noted the WWE Network now has “nearly” 2 million subscribers, and that subscriber numbers are up 11% domestically from Q1 in 2016.

WWE Exec Michelle Wilson then took over the call and commented on how the Network continues to grow as the company continues to “super serve” viewers content like WWE 205 Live, the Edge and Christian show, The WWE UK Tournament, Story Time and the upcoming Women’s tournament which will air this summer.

The call was then opened up to investor questions.

-WWE Network subscribers were up 23% internationally for WrestleMania season, and that is due in part to the big boost they get when they run the free monthly subscription promotions.

-WWE Network subscriber count is 1.949 million with 1.661 million paid. There are 1.452 million domestic subscribers with 1.257 million being paid. There are 497,000 international subscribers with 424,000 paid.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, it was noted WWE expects 1.63 million paid subscribers.

In social media news, WWE had over 130 million social media views for WrestleMania 33, doubling WrestleMania 32’s number.

WrestleMania 33 broke records in terms of in-home views.

Investors then asked about WWE potentially acquiring indy promotions, such as the rumored negotiations in which WWE has been with Ring of Honor regarding a buyout. Wilson once again reiterated that WWE is constantly looking at ways to “super serve” content to the fans, and all possibilities are being explored. This ended the call.

Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.

Nick attended New York University and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Drama.

Nick first entered the internet wrestling community back in 2004 when he became the co-host of The Voice of Wrestling Radio Show. From there, Nick made the transition from radio personality to editor when he began working with WrestleZone in 2008.

Nick is a member of two Off-Broadway theatre companies, Another Urban Riff, and the Drama Desk Award winning Godlight Theatre Company. Nick has appeared in over a dozen Off-Broadway plays since he moved to New York City, and has shot several short and feature length films. In 2010, he completed principle photography on a film titled "How to Score Your Life," which also features TNA Knockout ODB.

Inspiration in his life has come from many people including his family, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, The Beatles, and of course, Lassie.