By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

During a mainstream presentation Tuesday, WWE CFO George Barrios shot down UFC as competition for WWE, noted the WWE Studios performance was a "disaster" in 2011, and said WWE is currently in the middle of "heated" negotiations concerning the WWE TV Network launch.

-- Barrios, who presented WWE's business model at the annual ROTH OC Growth Stock Conference in Laguna Niguel, Calif. on Tuesday, provided the update on WWE Network negotiations after noting he still cannot disclose the revenue model for the Network.

"We're in the middle of some fairly intense negotiations and I don't want to do anything that would cause us to lose leverage in those negotiations," Barrios said. He said once they formulate a plan for distributing the content, WWE will "just have to execute."

Barrios went back to three years ago when WWE decided they needed to "monetize more content" and the decision was made that a Network was the best option - and they still believe it is.

Barrios said cable TV distributors are looking for content that can "draw eyeballs" and WWE believes they are positioned well because they own the content, have a far reach, and the price of content is going up, which should generate more revenue for WWE. Barrios also noted WWE plans to spend $35-45 million more on the Network in 2012.

-- Barrios said about UFC, "We actually blow UFC out of the water in terms of ratings," in response to one person's long rant about WWE's business failures. This came during the Q&A portion of the presentation.

After citing WWE Raw's weekly TV viewership and Smackdown recently outperforming UFC on Friday nights, Barrios added, "It's a misconception (about UFC affecting WWE's business). They're primarily a PPV business. We're primarily a TV business."

-- Also during the rant, the person concluded that WWE's films business "sucks." Barrios acknowledged the complaint and admitted last year was a "disaster" for the Studios division. Barrios noted WWE is getting away from the second model - when they took quarterly loss after quarterly loss - and returning to the old model to see if they can find sustained success.

"Yeah, the films was a disaster in 2011," Barrios admitted. "Even though it was non-cash charges, we took a $30 million year-over-year earnings hit." He added that it was an "absolute execution disaster" under the second model.

Barrios offered standard defenses for why WWE believes they should remain in the movie business, noted they plan to spend another $15-20 million for 6-8 projects in 2012, and talked about partnering with other companies to create new movies and distribute the risk.

"We have to prove it. I've heard it a lot (criticism) that people are concerned about us in the films business," Barrios said. "It was an expensive lesson we learned."

Barrios also confirmed the forthcoming "Marine 3" movie will have a WWE star in lead role. He did not make an announcement on which WWE star will be in the lead.

-- Outside of the Big Three topics discussed, Barrios noted WWE has been asked why they do not have multiple tours going around the world to serve different areas where they have television. Barrios offered WWE's standard defense that international audiences want to see the same stars they see on TV each week, but WWE is trying to rotate international stars in the spotlight on TV. For example, when Great Khali was featured on TV in the past, ratings "went through the roof" in India.

"We can't just launch tours. What we make sure we do is we make sure our roster is global in nature," Barrios said.

Later, Barrios was asked why big stars are not being created to replace the likes of Shawn Michaels, Edge, and eventually Undertaker and Triple H on the roster. Barrios said they are in the process of turning over the roster following injuries and retirements, but they do not know who the next big star is right now.

"We spend a lot of time recruiting talent, developing them, and the fans will pick who the next guy is," Barrios said. Barrios listed Alberto Del Rio, Sin Cara, and Jinder Mahal as three potential future stars with an international flavor.

Barrios also stressed the importance the WWE brand, itself, which is evident in WWE's business model essentially being "John Cena + WWE brand" in the current era. Barrios then used WWE's international reach to state, "The brand today is as strong today as it as ever has been."

-- Barrios noted one area of international growth they're targeting is consumer products in India, where he said they are generating $0 in revenue despite a "tremendous TV contract." Barrios said their partnership with Mattel should allow them to push consumer products in India once a better infrastructure is established.

Link: Barrios's full presentation can be heard at this link on WWE's Corporate page.

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