Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 5:33 PM EST

In the WWE announcement today of the company's second quarter results ending June 30, 2008, Pay Per View buyrates saw an increase for the four most recent events in April, May and June.

Backlash drew 200,000 buys, up from 194,000 last year. Judgment Day drew 252,000 buys, up from 242,000 last year. One Night Stand drew 194,000 buys, an impressive figure for a show many thought wouldn't do much of a number up from last year's 186,000 buys. And Night of Champions drew 273,000 buys, up from 243,000 last year. It should be noted that this year's WrestleMania fell into the first quarter results.

Not much to note from the conference call held earlier today. PWInsider's Buck Woodward has a recap up at this link. Two things that made the most noise was an investor repeatedly asking questions about the direction of the creative team on putting more emphasis on the main events and less on other divisions such as tag teams and the ECW brand. Linda McMahon avoided most of these questions saying she takes no role in the creative process. The other was a final caller and long-time investor who took the company to task on being "disingenuous" in their explanation of the $100 million expense of upgrading the production facility and the jump to High Definition programming. The caller said long-term investors deserved a better explanation and said the company was spending money like "drunken sailors." In response, Michael Sileck (Chief Operating Officer) said WWE hadn't upgraded its production facility in 20 years and that they had done a "damn good job" of bringing in revenue and that the total expense was justified.