Source: F4Wonline.com
— What could become a major issue for WWE, sources say WWE and the USA Network haven’t been on good terms as of late. Bonne Hammer of USA has been sending 10-20 creative suggestions to WWE on a regular basis. Sources say Vince McMahon gets the messages, reads them and then passes them on to Stephanie and then Brian Gewirtz goes over them during WWE creative meetings and basically puts them down infront of everyone. WWE hasn’t considered a single angle USA has proposed, feeling insecure about someone else’s ideas working better than their own. Also, they feel if they do start using other people’s ideas, they will be pressured to use more and more.
WWE signed their deal with USA on April 4, 2005 which means their three-year deal would expire shortly after WrestleMania 24. Due to WWE’s strong numbers, there’s pretty much zero chance USA will cancel them but when Bonnie Hammer signed the deal in 2005, she was expecting and paying for ratings in the upper 4’s and low 5’s. WWE’s best numbers as of late have been low 3’s and this week they tanked with a 2.8. WWE has very little leverage for negotiations right now and they could end up re-signing a deal for a lot less than what they signed for three years ago. At a time when the company seems to depend on TV as a main revenue generator besides PPV, re-signing for less money could affect WWE overall.