December 12, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF slightly tones down product, Vince Russo on WOL, more

After a week of bad publicity which sent sponsors running and sent its stock plummeting, the kinder, gentler WWF came back with a toned down Smackdown and a slightly toned down, although you’d have to examine to closely to notice, Raw show.

Exactly what this means for the long run is more uncertain. After getting as low as 14 13/16 on the morning of 12/7, the stock, artificially low due to the bad publicity, returned to just below the bottom of the former normal levels, closing at press time at 19 1/2.

The only sponsor that has returned to this point after the toned down Smackdown was Burger King, but nobody really expected sponsors to come back for a few weeks. L. Brent Bozell, whose writings on behalf of the Parents Television Council led to numerous sponsorship drops on Smackdown, a few of which remained buying the rest of the cable package and a few of which pulled out in entirety.

Current subscribers click here to continue reading.