By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

WWE COO Donna Goldsmith made some interesting comments during a corporate presentation at the Noble Financial Equity Conference yesterday. The following are some highlights of her statements to a collection of analysts, researchers, and potential investors with limited knowledge of the WWE product.

-- Goldsmith went through WWE's entire business model and repeated her line from the conference circuit that the term "professional wrestling" is a handicap in WWE's eyes.

"The reason that we show you all these assets is I use this to make sure everyone understands that we are not considered professional wrestling," Goldsmith said. "It doesn't give us the credibility we deserve. We are an entertainment company."

-- Goldsmith denied that WWE changed its TV programming to a PG product in order to deflect criticism from former WWE CEO Linda McMahon during her Connecticut Senate campaign.

Goldsmith said she was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal last week for a story on WWE's business. She said one positive from McMahon's Senate campaign is additional exposure for WWE.

"On the tougher side for her (McMahon) is that if you know our programming is PG now, in the past it wasn't. So, now people say to us, 'Did you change your programming because Linda went in the race?' And that is absolutely not the case," Goldsmith said. "We changed it way before Linda was involved in politics."

-- Goldsmith talked about the Raw guest-hosting concept and seemed to indicate the concept will stick around for a while to help WWE expand its "entertainment" reach.

"They come to our show now instead of Saturday Night Live or Jay Leno because we have the ratings and the reach," Goldsmith said. "People are coming to us to promote their new book, their new movie, or whatever their latest product is."

Goldsmith also talked about WWE having the advantage over other entertainment companies by "owning" the talent and their intellectual property. She said potential partners can come directly to WWE rather than having to go through a wrestler to do business.

"Complete ownership of our IP enables us to distribute content more easily than our entertainment peers," Goldsmith said. "One-stop shopping. You don't have to go to the talent to get their rights. You come right to us."

Link: The complete webcast of Goldsmith's presentation at yesterday's Noble conference can be viewed through WWE's Corporate website.

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE NEWS: Superstars SPOILERS - Results from Chicago Raw

WWE NETWORK: Monday, Oct. 12 Schedule - Raw pre-show, Sting DVD preview

WWE NEWS: Lana & Rusev reportedly engaged - follow the interesting 2015 timeline