1997 the best WWE yearAlso the worst financially
>>19962105Thank you Steve Austin and Mick Foley for breathing life into a dying promotion
>>19962105Thank you Nash and Hall for saving the business and forcing Vince to put on a decent show
Thank you Cornette for getting Vince to give us a few years where everything wasn't a nonstop humiliation ritual with occupational gimmicks and everything being based around one guy for years, if not decades.
>>19962105This is just false. WWF’s worst year financially was 95, the company almost went bankrupt. 96 was a little bit better but still bad, by 97 they were doing pretty well again
>>19962205>can’t pay their world champion and biggest draw so they say you gotta leaveYeah they were doing real well.
>>19962105There was no WWE in 1997
>>19962210>The Shitman>Biggest drawKek, shitman and sexy boy both never drew shit and that’s why the company was in the tank so bad in the mid 90s. Vince knew Austin was on the rise and by 1997 Shitman wasn’t worth the trouble anymore. That singular decision (which was the correct decision and led to massive business) doesn’t change the fact that the WWF almost went bankrupt in 1995 and they were doing much better by 1997. Attendance and buy rate numbers are all available online, I’m just telling you the objective facts bud.
>>19962235WWF Prospectus filed in Oct 1999 with SEC:https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1091907/000095013099005812/0000950130-99-005812.txtMay-Apr Fiscal Year - WWF Net Income (Profit/Loss):1994-95 - $87,352,000 (-$4,431,000)1995-96 - $85,815,000 ($3,199,000)1996-97 - $81,863,000 (-$6,505,000)
>>199622651994-95 - Bret gigaplummett1995-96 - Diesel gigaskyrocket1996-97 - Shawn gigaplummett
>>19962265Absolutely buried >>19962235Holy shit!
>>19962265>1996-97 - $81,863,000 (-$6,505,000)96-97 fiscal year is May 96-April 97, this number is 8 months of 96 and 4 of 97. May 97-April 98 fiscal year they did over 120M in revenue and over 8M in profit.
>>19962265WCW forced them to up their contracts by a huge amount at that time. They weren't actually running at a loss due to the money coming in that was good, but they at a loss from trying to lock people down. Doing so made the future uncertain as they didn't know how business would do in the future, which is why Vince backed out of Bret's 10 year. The WWF did so well in later years riding off the wave of everything set up in 96 and 97, even as the booking got worse and worse. RA was the same. 2019 WWE showed us the end game of that.
>push your homegrown new generation shitters = ticket sales and viewership declines>sign ex WCW and ECW guys like Foley and Austin = sales and viewership skyrocket, ushering in the biggest book period in WWE history reminds me of ex AEW guys like Cody and Punk coming back to WWE to save it.It's time to admit WWE can't create stars.
>>19962346What about Rock, Kane, Hardys, Edge & Christian, Angle.
For a brief moment in time they started booking for a male audience instead of for families
1997 built to 1998, so yeah. Sometimes you gotta break some eggs to make the omelette
>>19962372all after Austin and Foley saved WWF.Foley legitimised Shawn, Taker, Hunter, The Rock etc. Austin was getting over huge but once he started working with Foley and McMahon he became a genuine superstar and face of the company.Imagine what wwe would've become in the late 90s without Austin and Foley.
