By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

WWE reported Thursday second quarter 2011 revenue of $142.6 million, as compared to $106.8 million in the prior year quarter (non-WrestleMania quarter) and $138.8 million in the second quarter 2009 (WrestleMania quarter).

Actual Q2-2011 revenue was above analyst expectations of $138.5 million based on the strong performance of WrestleMania 27, which contributed $35.9 million in revenue. WM26 last year contributed $28.8 million in revenue and WM25 in 2009 contributed $32.2 million in revenue.

WWE noted this year's second quarter revenue was impacted by another impairment loss in their Films division. WWE recorded a $3.3 million loss for the "That's What I Am Movie."

Regarding PPV business, WrestleMania drew over 1.0 million buys, but the rest of the second quarter PPV business "showed declines," according to WWE CEO/Chairman Vince McMahon. McMahon also noted live event attendance declined during the quarter.

“Through the second quarter, WWE has generated top-line growth across our four business segments led by the strength of WrestleMania. WrestleMania XXVII achieved more than 1 million pay-per-view buys worldwide and reached record levels of both revenue and profit,” McMahon said.

“Our earnings, however, were constrained by the performance of our movie business, adverse home video sales trends, and the status of our talent development. Key operating metrics, such as average live event attendance and pay-per-view buys showed declines in the second quarter when evaluated on a comparable basis to last year (excluding WrestleMania). But, while our key metrics were down, the gap to our prior year performance continued to diminish.

"We believe this trend demonstrates that we are making important progress on our talent development and creative initiatives. As we continue to evaluate the potential of different forms of distribution, such as a WWE Network, we are more confident than ever that we can create and monetize content in a variety of existing and new media, and thereby create meaningful incremental value for our shareholders.”

Caldwell's Analysis: WWE management will likely comment more about the "talent development" aspect in their conference call, and it will be interesting to see how they explain that in terms of tangible numbers, especially when two key metrics of live events and PPV buys "showed declines" during the quarter. Overall, WWE should be writing The Rock another big check since his presence helped cover for WWE's flat-to-underperforming business outside of WrestleMania 27 in the quarter.

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