Total revenues for the quarter were $88.1million (EUR90.2m) as compared to $90.7m (EUR92.8m) in the prior year quarter, while net income fell to $2.5m (EUR2.56m) versus $12m (EUR12.3m) in the first quarter last year.
"This was a difficult quarter as we experienced softness in our key drivers, particularly in our television ratings and pay-per-view buys," said chief executive officer Linda McMahon.
"During the past few months we focused on establishing two separate and unique brands and introduced a number of new talent and roster changes to both our SmackDown! and Raw brands. As we blend our talent into increasingly more compelling story lines with longer story arcs, we expect to see a positive impact on our attendance, ratings and pay-per-view buys."
On the international touring front, WWE said it continues to build on the momentum established earlier in the year. "We recently held our Global Warning Tour in Melbourne, Australia and set a new attendance record at Colonial Stadium where we played to an extremely enthusiastic crowd of approximately 56,700 who attended our first live event tour on the continent in nearly two decades," added McMahon.
Of the total revenues, live and televised businesses for the quarter were $67.8m (EUR69.4m) as compared to $72.4m (EUR74.1m) in the same period last year.
Live Event revenues, however, increased 28 percent to $19m (EUR19.5m) from 87 events, including four international events, during the quarter. This compares to 43 events, including one international event, during the same period last year.
Pay-per-view revenues declined 24 percent to $19.2m (EUR19.6m) versus $25.4m (EUR19.6m) in the prior year quarter.
Total domestic pay-per-view buys for the quarter were 1.1m (EUR1.1m) as compared to 1.6m (EUR1.7m) in the prior year quarter.
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has been hit by falling revenues and net income in its first quarter results ended July 26, 2002.
