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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?
WHAT A RAW DEAL! Investors And Media Get Punk'd By WWE & USA Network
By Nikki Finke | Category: Networks | Thursday June 18, 2009 @ 2:23pm
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Title Studio Gross 1 Dear John Sony $30.5 M 2 Avatar Fox $22.9 M 3 From Paris With Love Lionsgate $8.2 M 4 Edge Of Darkness Warner $6.9 M 5 Tooth Fairy Fox $6.6 M 6 When In Rome Disney $5.5 M 7 The Book Of Eli Warner $4.7 M 8 Crazy Heart Fox $3.6 M 9 Legion Sony $3.5 M 10 Sherlock Holmes Warner $2.5 M 11 The Blind Side Warner $2.5 M 12 Up In The Air Paramount $2.3 M 13 The Lovely Bones Paramount $2.3 M 14 Alvin And The Chipmu Fox $2.1 M 15 It's Complicated Universal $2.1 M 16 The Spy Next Door Lionsgate $0.9 M 17 An Education SPC $0.8 M 18 A Single Man Weinstein $0.6 M 19 Extraordinary Measur CBS $0.5 M 20 Precious Lionsgate $0.5M SOURCE: HOLLYWOOD.COMBox Office Poll
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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.
I believe that it is possible for Vince McMahon to sell the RAW brand or any brand he wants to sell to someone else. For the record, all the RAW brand Wrestlers do is appear on their own show, house shows that aren’t televised, and Pay Per Views that feature all brands of WWE wrestling. Once in a while the brands may intermix with each other at the Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble events.
The fact that WWE “sold” RAW to Donald Trump shows that it is a work because Donald Trump is a big wrestling fan. Yes he did appear on WWE Television in an angle that resulted in the Wrestlemania 23 Hair vs Hair match, but he also hosted two Wrestlemanias in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s. This was before Vince McMahon had a run in with the federal courts.
I seen the press release and I stand by the fact that NBC Universal is the one to blame for the press release. They have about as much right to the WWE logo as they do to the Olympic Rings logo or the NFL Logo. Yes pro wrestling is fake, but NBCU is a rights holder as with the NFL and Olympics and has the right to publish their logos in press releases. The problem is that NBCU has committed slander and that will come back to bite them when the RAW and ECW contract rights come up for renewal.
BTW, I do know pro wrestling is fake and believe that 9/11 was an inside job and the President is an usurper. Also, Vince McMahon was presumed dead in a angle two years ago, but the real-life murder of Chris Benoit’s wife and kid and Benoit’s suicide scuttled those plans.
Seriously, anyone who thought this was real is a complete moron and idiot. I’ve been watching professional wrestling for over 30 years and Donald Trump has a long and storied history with McMahon having hosted Wrestlemania 4 and 5 in Atlantic City.
Come on. There is no crime here but the idiots in the media have to “blow up” the fun of enjoying the storyline once again, just like they did when Vince McMahon was blown up in the limo in Wilkes-Barre shortly before the Chris Benoit tragedy.
It’s pro-wrestling, it’s fiction. Why doesn’t fox news pick up Days of our Lives or Law & Order.
Great script and story writing, simple as that.
It’s entertainment folks, get over it already!
Wow, and “journalists” actually just regurgitated it, no questions asked? *facepalm*
Anyone who knows the slightest bit about pro wrestling knew this was a work.
It’s not like WWE doesn’t put out bogus press releases to prop up its storylines (ala the Vinnie Mac limo explosion or the McMillion Giveaway). I doubt they were trying to “mislead” investors, but clearly they gave the press too much credit.
Gotta admit I laughed my ass off at this one when I saw “reporters” falling for it all over the place. Say what you will about McMahon, but he knows his shit and how to get people talking about him and the WWE! Look how he managed to spin the screwup that was the Denver Nuggets’ double booking of their arena during the playoffs.
By the way, folks – the storylines are scripted; the results of the matches are planned ahead of time, and some parts of the matches are choreographed. But the physicality is about as real as it gets. I know people who have been in that ring, and I’ve seen the results first hand. And Owen Harte freaking died when a stunt went wrong – it’s like McMahon says – it’s scripted, not fake.
And, if you happen to be reading this, Vince – Triple H needs a haircut, and Jeff Hardy needs to lose the face paint. Just sayin…..
I’m with those who think the real morons are the so-called news outlets who couldn’t even bother to make a simple phone-call to do some fact-checking before just printing it.
BWAAA HAHAHAHA.
This is like when China ran stories from The Onion in state media.
Stupid gamblers.
FYI there were TV ads all over USA’s programming last night proclaiming The Donald now ‘owns’ WWE. As long as you’re tipping off the SEC about the press release mention the ads (they show Trump walking into the arena while what looks to be paper money rains down like confetti etc).
Really dumb promotion if you ask me.
Love the reference to Zimmerman in an earlier comment. That guy has a history of saying the wrong thing to the wrong people at the wrong time. Didn’t last long at Klores. WWE is like a last stop on the career train for PR people.
I believe the lack of responsibility lies in the media flacks at USA Network. If they hadn’t issued the “release” this story wouldn’t have blown up the way it has. I agree with others that mainstream media shouldn’t have run with the release with checking the validity. I will say it again…..Pro Wrestling is NOT reality TV
Its a wrestling tv show. Anyone who thought this was real didn’t bother actually looking into the story in any way. I would think even the news people by now would not fall for such a thing after getting burned by thinking wrestling stories were real such as Vince McMahon dying. Anyone who believed the WWE sold half their company to Donald trump is an idiot.
Ridiculous that no one in their right mind even attempted to fact check this Press Release in any way before going with it.
It just shows you how completely dead journalistic integrity is, and we have to now rely on folks more interested in re-posting crap from the AP before figuring out if it’s actually true.
I applaud WWE/USA for exposing the media as the unreliable sham they have become.
Walter Cronkite died yesterday, the irony is not lost.
I find the situation funny, since it’s clear to me that a surprising amount of stockholders in the WWE have never watched it. If they had, then prices would not have gone down 7%, as it would have been obvious that this was a storyline within the WWE.