10 Ways WWE Can Make Live Events Matter Again
With ticket sales plummeting, WWE needs to act fast to save its live events...
Over the past few years, attendance at WWE's non-televised live events (or house shows as they're commonly known) has been declining rapidly. Now, the company has decided to decrease the number of shows it holds on a monthly basis, and that came as no great surprise after the Q4 2019 earnings report was released.
In that, it was revealed that revenue from these live events had declined from $34.4 million in 2018 to $27.4 million, while revenue in the United States also dipped by $1.9 million. A $500,000 increase in international tickets revenue helped offset that to some extent, but it wasn't good news for WWE and Vince McMahon's promise to overhaul these shows has so far come to naught.
Fewer live events also means a drop in merchandise sales, so it's clear that something needs to be done to fix them. After all, ratings also remain a problem for WWE, so if its non-televised shows also suffer, it's hard to escape the feeling that it will be all downhill from there for the sports entertainment giant.
The question is, what can WWE do to make these live events matter again?
10. Make What Happens Matter To RAW And SmackDown
One of the biggest problems with these live events is that nothing fans see there actually matters. Last week, for example, WWE held a show in Oakland, California, featuring Superstars from RAW and SmackDown. Samoa Joe made his in-ring return, The Fiend defeated Daniel Bryan (again), and Royal Rumble winner Drew McIntyre picked up a huge victory over Seth Rollins.
Was any of that mentioned on RAW this week? After all, Joe returning to the squared circle after his injury scare is a big deal, while you'd think McIntyre would have something to say about MVP about earning a win over the former Universal Champion (who just so happened to beat Brock Lesnar at last year's WrestleMania).
By acknowledging at least some of what happens at these events on RAW and SmackDown, fans would know that by attending live events, they would get to see something noteworthy that also has an impact on what they're watching on TV. With exclusive matches at house shows and references to those to further storylines elsewhere, there's no way ticket sales wouldn't start to rebound.