February 8, 2021 Observer Newsletter: WWE breaks revenue records, AEW/NJPW deal
As was widely expected, even with the pandemic, the increase in television revenue led to the WWE’s most successful year financially in history, with $974,207,000 in revenue and $131,892,000 in profits, the first time the company has ever topped $100 million in profits during a given year.
The profit margin would have been higher but there was money spent from a contract in 2019 regarding leasing new headquarters, a loss of $4.4 million from an equity investment and normalized profits would have been $141,600,000.
Of that income, $868,200,000 came from media, which would be mostly rights fees for content and WWE network revenues. $19.9 million came from live events in the early part of the year before the pandemic and $86.1 million came from consumer products.
As far as profitability went, the media department had $409.9 million in profitability in the division while the live events department, because of the lack of shows, lost $14.0 million and the consumer product department had $28.8 million in profits.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.