By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

The following are additional highlights from WWE Vince McMahon's quarterly conference call with investors on Thursday, February 10. Read additional coverage on...

-- WrestleMania 27 - launch for new stars
-- WWE TV Network update & plans

McMahon's Opening Statement

Vince McMahon opened the conference call highlighting WWE's "record operating performance" in 2010 before diving into business concerns from the fourth quarter and "difficult trends."

"In the fourth quarter, we had declines across most of our business operators," McMahon said. He noted domestic live event attendance was down 15 percent, international live event attendance was down 11 percent, PPV buys were down 15 percent, and home video sales were down 44 percent.

McMahon cited "areas of strength" as toy revenue with the Mattel partnership, which he said outpaced fourth quarter 2009 revenue (the final quarter with Jakks) by 113 percent.

Also cited is the development of key international markets in Mexico and India, as well as WWE signing new TV deals in Russia and Brazil.

McMahon discussed the "new talent initiative" launch at WrestleMania 27, recent talks with Verizon related to WWE TV Network plans, and "Tough Enough" relaunching after WrestleMania.

McMahon closed his opening statements by noting WWE has typically talked about "international growth and expansion" as their primary method to grow the business, but they're now looking at other methods to grow business following the fourth quarter business downturn.

Notable Q&A and Financial Break Down Highlights

-- McMahon said WrestleMania 27 ticket sales are moving faster than WrestleMania 26 last year in Phoenix/Glendale.

"We're ahead of last year both in terms of tickets and, because of the scaling of the house in Atlanta, we have much higher revenue," McMahon said.

-- Regarding celebrity involvement on Raw in the guest host/guest star role, McMahon said they will be more selective on how they use celebrities going forward.

"Once you get in the grind of weekly basis, you get into secondary stars and the audience goes, 'Wait a minute, that guy or gal isn't that big of a star,'" he said.

McMahon echoed comments by former WWE writer John Piermarini in PWTorch's "Torch Talk" with Wade Keller that it became burdensome to integrate celebrities into shows built around WWE's own stars and storylines on a weekly basis.

"We're going forward with bigger stars on select basis rather than have a weekly formula," he said. "It takes away time from developing your own stars."

-- When asked about evaluating WWE's dividend policy, which has come under scrutiny in light of WWE's business downturn and dividend payouts exceeding cash inflows, McMahon simply said, "We look at it from a quarter-by-quarter basis." He left it at that.

-- Despite double-digit decreases across the live event business in fourth quarter 2010, McMahon said he's "bullish" on live events due to his belief the development of new stars mixed with established talent will catch on with the audience.

"We'll have as many events domestically," McMahon said in response to the number of live events in 2011 vs. 2010. "We'll increase international events, in general."

-- The only significant discussion of WWE's PPV business downturn was related to McMahon's push for the "new talent initiative."

Management noted Mexico is now the #2 contributor for PPV buys behind the domestic U.S. market. Asked about international PPV struggles, McMahon acknowledged it's a mix of issues with the infrastructure in other markets and distribution of the PPVs.

-- Regarding the new WWE Studios film model, which resulted in fourth quarter and year-end 2010 losses on the first two movies released, WWE CFO George Barrios simply noted, "We will continue to evaluate our new film model."

-- Barrios noted a 35 percent decline in Smackdown vs. Raw video game shipments for the most-recent installment compared to the prior year version.

Related to the Consumer Products division, Barrios said potential growth areas are related to a new toy line coming soon from Mattel and the new "WWE All Stars" video game due out in March.

-- WWE's "net cash" decreased to $38.6 million at year-end 2010 compared to $116.4 on-hand at year-end 2009.

Barrios said it's due to three reasons: increased production costs for the back-to-back series of WWE Studios film shoots, taxes paid in cash, and a one-time $13 million cash receipt from a business partner in the prior year that is reflected in 2009's $116.4 million total.

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[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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