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Fans and industry insiders loved WrestleMania. A free month in February and anticipation for the big show drove WWE Network subscripstion numbers to a new high, and the company announced a ton of new content for the streaming service today.
Wall Street was unimpressed.
The share price for company stock fell more than 14% on Monday, March 30th - the day after Seth Rollins crashed the 'Mania main event to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It closed at $14.08 per share, down from an opening price of $16.78.
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via Yahoo Finance
Analysts intially reported that the reaction was because the Network subscriber numbers didn't increase as much as some had hoped with a free trial month leading into the company's showcase event. Those were followed with more bullish takes claiming that the market was confused because WWE reported 1.1 million viewers for WrestleMania 30, so 1.3 million subscribers was seen as a small increase.
However, the 1.1 million figure included pay-per-view, which the 1.3 million number revealed today does not. Subscriber numbers, year-to-year, have nearly doubled (from 667,000 post-Mania in 2014). The analysts trumpeting this version of events are claiming the stock will rebound when PPV numbers arrive for last night's show.
If it's any consolation for WWE, this is becoming something of an annual trend - and today's drop is not as bad as the 19% fall the stock took on April 7, 2014.