10 Things Keeping WWE Alive Right Now
6. International Tours
Its no secret that in the last year or so, attendance at North American WWE live events has been down. Luckily, thanks to increased ticket prices, they havent lost any money on the lack of butts in seats at smaller shows and SmackDown tapings.
In contrast to that, whenever WWE runs their International tours, they make A LOT of money in the process. Markets that are starved of seeing their favourite WWE stars that they watch on TV each week means the arenas are sold out for the most part and millions of dollars are spent at the merchandise stand as well.
Along with the two European tours in April and November each year (which are massive revenue streams for the McMahons), WWE also run tours in countries like Australia, India and Mexico where the events are similarly successful. These markets don't get to see WWE live every week, so when the muscle-bound heroes do make it to an arena near them, tickets go sharply.
Next week, the NXT brand hits the UK for a tour, which is interesting as Dave Meltzer has pointed out that the NXT talents dont get big paydays for these shows as its still considered part of their developmental deals to get experience of what itll be like on the main roster. So you have an all-but sold out tour making large amounts of revenue that all goes back into the company.