Vince McMahon is one of the most well-known people in the world, and it's not because he owns the XFL or is the CEO and President of the WWE ($WWE). No, people know Vince McMahon, a billionaire wrestling mogul/icon/celebrity, because of one reason alone. He is most well-known for the plentiful GIFs made of him, which flood the internet day in and day out.
Unfortunately, this is not a great time to post a hilarious GIF of him dropping his pants, getting blown up in a limo, or being choke slammed by the Undertaker. McMahon's pet project, the XFL, shut down operations for the second time in its 20 year history and had to lay off all of its employees. There will be no 2021 season, and while we could have seen a rival league to the NFL prosper, the COVID-19 outbreak put a damper on live games returning any time soon.
"Given the uncertainty of the current environment, the XFL has suspended operations and is evaluating next steps." - WWE statement
So how is McMahon's family business going? Well, after Wrestlemania 36 was filmed in an empty venue, an employee tested positive for the Coronavirus. And now the WWE is cutting job openings right after the XFL closed up shop.
Job postings for the WWE fell 56% since March 6th, suggesting that we are now in a post-Wrestlemania state where not a lot is going on. Especially if both RAW and Smackdown stop traveling this summer since empty venues all look the same after a while, on camera.
As the company continues to grow, impressively so over the last two years, the stock price has just not cooperated. But as long as there are TV cameras and fans, we will never count out the WWE's popularity.
In fact, the WWE's Twitter following has continued to look strong, increasing by 123% over the last five years.
The only bad thing we could find in the social media data is the completely flat Likes gain (it's been stuck at 39 million since 2018) and the much lower 'Talking About' count around the time Wrestlemania happened. Previous years the numbers jump off the chart (early April), but the last two years did not have the same impact online.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.