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I don’t know what’s more shameful here: The fact that USA Network issued a bogus press release announcing that Donald Trump had bought World Wrestling Entertainment’s popular “Monday Night RAW” franchise? Or that publicly traded World Wrestling Entertainment participated in a scam that sent its share price down nearly 7% at one point on Tuesday? The USA Network (which is part of NBC Universal and in turn publicly traded GE) issued its apology today, acknowledging that “there is no actual ‘sale’.” The phony release was supposed to promote “an ongoing story arc” on the wrestling show. But the release sure looked real, including both companies’ logos as well as real contacts and phone numbers at WWE and USA Networks for reporters and investors to call. The release also included a quote from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon saying that Trump made an undisclosed offer that “I couldn’t refuse”. And Trump was quoted as promising to reward the RAW’s fans by airing the next show this Monday “live and commercial free”. News organizations took it at face value; TV Guide posted a story based on the press release shortly after it was issued. And FoxBusiness.com posted the release itself. Doesn’t the SEC consider it a crime for public companies to mislead investors?
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Yet everybody who fell for it isn’t an idiot? IT’S A TV SHOW! When true blood had their ads did people get mad when tru blood wasnt being sold at 7-11?
Any coincidence here that the current head of pr at WWE is Robert Zimmerman, who ran hype-happy Fox News pr from 1998-2004? And whose press release announcing his wwe hiring boasts that he’d repped howard stern and o’reilly, both groundbreakers in bogus news?
OK stupid thing for WWE to do, but Foxbusiness.com and TV Guide are idiots for accepting a press release as “news” or “fact” without checking it out first. I can issue a press release with an NBC logo on it. I’m sure if they’d made one call to the numbers on the release or NBC or Trump they would’ve discovered the truth immediately. It’s typical, just believe repeat what a CEO, government official, or any random authority figure says to you without question.
Sorry Nikki, but I think the real people to blame aren’t the WWE/USA Public Relations folk, it’s people in news orgs who like to call themselves journalists, but don’t feel the need to do any actual legwork, like making sure they have their facts straight. My Journalism professors would have had my head on a silver platter for this BS.
I would think that even if you have never seen RAW or a moment of WWE programming, if you were to stop and think on this for just a moment, you’d realize it makes no sense: How does a full-fledged entertainment company sell off a single asset like that? It’s like CBS saying, “We own CSI and CSI New York, but CSI Miami has been sold to Rupert Murdoch.”
Isn’t it just assumed at this point that if an entertainment company is breaking the law that the Feds will simply look the other way? I mean, after oil, entertainment is America’s only profitable industry.
THIS is why wrestling has become a joke of itself.
McMahon, at the height of the Attitude Era, not only took it upon himself to leave the commentator’s booth to become an on-air talent (fair game, as he was a bad-ass heel)..
But then went and injected his talentless son, daughter, and wife (who would otherwise have NO place in the wrestling business if they weren’t related to the boss) into storylines..
And thus turned the WWE into a full-blown soap opera, resembling something more akin to “Dallas” and “Dynasty” than the traditional professional wrestling product.
EXAMPLE: A week before the Chris Benoit tragedy, the major storyline on WWE TV was McMahon’s limo “exploding”…Whodunit! Who cares…
And now he’s blowing millions more (read: millions he’s NOT paying to wrestlers for health care/retirement that they AREN’T offered) to once again bring back the Donald, a ratings-killer if there wever was one.
Why you ask?
Cause McMahon is OBSESSED with moguls, and being considered a mogul. He doesn’t care about the product on his own TV shows. He just wants to be mentioned in the same sentence as Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, et al…
At the height of the Monday Night Wars 10 years ago, McMAhon had a full-blown obsession with Turner (who owned McMahon’s then-competition, WCW), and envied all the legitimate press coverage Turner received for his endeavors.
McMahon, you see, has failed at every other business venture he’s ever attempted outside of wrestling, including a restaurant, a hotel, a bodybuilding federation, a football league, and a film division that puts out movies starring WWE wrestlers that nobody sees.
He’s a billionaire, to be sure, but because of the “circus sideshow” fakery that sticks to pro wrestling like a Scarlet Letter, he’s largely considered a national joke outside of the doors of his self-made empire.
The same media that indulges his hi-jinks every year for Wrestlemania is the same media that rolls its collective eyes every time another wrestler drops dead of an enlarged heart in their 30s and Vince shows up on TV with his corporately-prepared talking points emphasizing the company’s “drug testing”…
..Drug testing that still manages to avert its eyes at the fact that its top star, who’s married to Vince’s daughter, is at least 70 pounds heavier than when he first joined the company back in ’95..(but we always knew you were a true gym rat, eh, Paul?)
So why did Vince pull another carnival-esque gimmick and drag the mainstream media into it?
The same reason Vince initially blocked the producers of “The Wrestler” from advertising the film on his shows, but then reneged when he saw how much mainstream press the film and Mickey Rourke were receiving…
Even if the film was a dead-on depiction of how 95% of the wrestlers who made him a multi-millionaire back in the 80s ended up in the real world, try this equation on for size:
Movie + Heavy buzz + Decent box office + Lead actor’s creative resurgance + WWE + Lots of press = More money in Vince’s pocket.
At the end of the day, that’s all that matters to the wannabe-Donald.
This is professional wrestling. NOTHING said on their airwaves is ‘real,’ and anybody that’s not a retard understands this.
Issuing a press release is definitely pushing it, though. However, anybody that knows anything about the way WWE is structured can tell you that it’s simply not possible for anybody to purchase just one of the ‘brands’ as they are not run as stand-alone companies.
Ummm… It’s wrestling. The same people who believe it’s real also believe that out President wasn’t born in this country and the government bombed the WTC. And besides, didn’t Vince McMahon die last year?
I think what’s the most shameless is that the industry media actually promoted this obvious falsehood as a real item. C’mon, it’s freakin’ wrestling! Stuff like this where people ‘buy’ promotions and wrestlers is an everyday freakin’ occurance. I’m betting everyone at WWE pretty much thought this was another joke nobody would pick up, but the media? Not so much with knowing a hoax press release from a mile away anymore.
The press release was the fault of NBC Universal alone. There was no press conference nor a press release from the WWE nor Donald Trump. If there were to be a press conference, we would have known of it beforehand. In short, we would have known of the real sale before this past Monday’s RAW if it was real.
You want to know who thinks wrestling is real? The people that hate wrestling. I’m a big fan of pro wrestling and I knew this angle was a work.
Ah, this is why I like Trump. Despite the bad hairpiece and all the bad taste, he can goof off on a show that targets minimum wage earners and adolescents. It’d be like if he wrote an editorial for Mad Magazine. It ain’t my cup of tea now, but I get the joke.
What ever happened to journalistic due diligence?
I think the story is in the non fact checking media who just print what comes across their desk without verification.
Back home we have a word for them: SUCKERS!
Just a shameful way for a company that’s trying to save face after all the craziness of the past year. This company is a joke and for BOTH these media conglomerates to issue a phony press release on a half-ass angle used purposely to drive up ratings is just shameful. When the hell does Mr. Crazy Hair Trump have the time to run a two-bit circus like WWE and didn’t these two assclowns get into the ring at a Wrestlemania for a hair vs. hair match? The SEC seriously needs to level fines against WWE & USA and Bonnie Hammer has been the one trying to drive up ratings on this show, that seems to be tanking little by little each and every week. Smackdown is hurting on MY network TV and who watches this nonsense anymore?
Sounds like an SEC violation. But, if this story alone has driven the stock price down 7%, it could be a good time to buy. I’m no fan of wrestling, but if there’s one thing that is certain, there will never be a shortage of rednecks who want to watch people beating each other up.
If you remember the documentary, Idiocracy with Luke Wilson, you will recall that for every baby an educated, responsible couple have, two uneducated and irresponsible people will have five. Since liberal couples on the coasts don’t have many children and folks in the south have dozens, it assures audience growth for professional wrestling for decades to come.
Haha. At first glance I thought this story was about Ari and the boys over at WME. Too bad their chosen name brings pro wrestling to mind.
NO COMMERCIALS
I love Ric Flair
What’s the most shameful is anyone of you idiots who believed it. Hello? Everyone always talks about how “fake” WWE is yet they turn around and believe them? Talk about ignorance to the fullest.
Patrick you are one of the idiot’s that “Idiocracy” makes fun of… a society lacking in morals and values with it’s creation of radical liberal policies will lead to the fictionalize world in “Idiocracy.” For an example of this… look at beautiful Southern California.
Now I’m a huge wrestling fan and all. Even though its vastly vastly inferior nowadays. But I cant defend stunts like that. Whenever they do stuff like this, like the Pepsi center fiasco last month, it backfires.
This will also backfire as well.
Hey Nikki, do me a favor.
Either run stories about WME, or stories about WWE.
The bastards have got me so confused I need your help!
XO
I agree with another post, where are the real journalists of today??? Too few these days, before they run with a story do a little background checking on it.
Definitely an SEC violation. Vince and his powerful women in the EVP roles at WWE just don’t get it. Short-term gimmicks won’t bring WWE back to the six and seven ratings it got a decade ago. They aren’t even getting 4′s anymore. If I were a shareholder, I would be pissed off big time.