Numerous subtle, yet noticeable changes have come into effect at WWE since the promotion became part of TKO Group Holdings. Among those alterations is a clear effort to cut down on the number of live events.
While WWE still hosts as many as three or four live TV broadcasts per week, they have become noticeably less focused on house shows.
TKO President Mark Shapiro described the change during a recent appearance at Goldman Sach’s Communacopia + Technology conference, mentioning that he feels there is less of a need for the “marginally profitable” shows currently.
“We’re cutting events at WWE,” he said. “We’re taking our low-margin, marginally profitable events, untelevised events that Vince [McMahon] put in place to grow the brand. You’re taking the show on the road and we gotta go to every city we can get to grow the WWE brand. Well the WWE brand, while we still have to grow it, it’s on fire right now. We don’t need to carry these marginally profitable events … What was 300 [events] last year will be roughly 250 this year. And next year, we’ll be close to 200.”
While WWE has historically hosted as many as three or four untelevised live events per weekend in the past, nowadays they have done significantly fewer shows. Take for example the rest of WWE’s 2024 schedule, which includes just 11 house shows in total.
