- WWE’s 1st Quarter Financial Reports are in and Vince McMahon isn’t happy. He said:

“Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA declined 20 percent reflecting mixed performance from our business lines, including the impact of the ongoing transition in our talent base, and an increase in SG&A expenses. While we understand the lead time required to develop new characters with broad appeal, we were disappointed with our financial performance and our management team is working on addressing these challenges.”

“Looking ahead, we are optimistic about our longer-term opportunities to leverage our strength as the ‘New WWE’. We are pleased with the strong performance of WrestleMania, which is expected to deliver a 30 percent increase in domestic pay-per-view buys and reach more than one million buys globally. Further, the successful launch of our new program, Tough Enough showcases the power of our branded programming. We believe the recent adjustment in our
dividend will enhance our flexibility to create and monetize new content, to distribute that content on a variety of existing and emerging media WWE’ initiative.”

To sum everything up revenues totaled $119.9 million compared to 138.7 million last year.

PPV revenue was $13.5 million, down from the $32.4 million.

Revenue from WWE Classics On Demand for the first quarter were $1.1 million, down from $1.3 million in 2010's first quarter.

WWE.com pulled $2.7 million down from $3.4 million.

On the positive side DVD sales were $8.1 million, up from $7.6 million, and WWE Shop earned $3.4 million for this first quarter, up from $3 million for 2010's first quarter.

WWE Studios recognized revenue of $8.6 million for this year’s first quarter, up from $3.4 million in 2010. WWE attributes the growth in revenue to The Chaperone with Triple H. It was also noted that their financial statements reflect a loss of $1.5 million related to The Chaperone’s advertising costs, among other things.

- Before Awesome Kong could use the name Kharma in WWE, the company had to purchase the rights to the name from fitness model Jennifer Thomas who used it on the Indys.

- The following message pops up when trying to purchase certain DVDs on Silvervision, the EU distributer of WWE DVDs:

“It has been removed at the request of WWE – we’ll have more news on this next week.”

The titles affected are: The Hart Family Anthology, The True Story of Wrestlemania, WWE’s Greatest Stars of 90s, Best of Raw Season 1 & 2, WWE Raw 15th Anniversary.

- HDNet have filed a one-hour interview with Hulk Hogan to air Friday, May 20th at 10pm EST. Here is the trailer:

Source: wrestlingtruth.com