Paul Walter Hauser BLASTS WWE's "Greedy", "Ugly" Ticket Pricing (WWE News)
Actor believes market leader is pricing people out with corporate greed.
Actor Paul Walter Hauser has torched WWE and TKO for "greedy" ticket pricing that's making it more difficult for people to attend events without breaking the bank. Hauser told TMZ's 'Inside The Ring' that the promotion's ticket pricing strategy shows "no real humanity from a corporate perspective", and is getting outright "ugly".
He even compared what's going on with the dastardly banker seen in vintage film It's A Wonderful Life. His money-grabbing behaviour made him the obvious heel of the piece, and Paul can see similarities on WWE's side in late-2025. During the appearance, Hauser also said that the market leader could do more for fans (way more) but is choosing not to.
That doesn't sit well with him personally.
Continuing, Hauser went on to pitch a peace offering from Netflix that'd show there's some humanity left in WWE's business dealings: "How about you do this? Netflix, how about you give a 30% off coupon for the full year to military veterans. These are things that people can easily do. They choose not to, because they don’t actually give a s***!".
Paul works closely with MLW these days, so he's passionate about independent wrestling and reckons events should be as affordable as possible to families/fans in general. However, WWE's ticket prices continue to get even more expensive with each passing year, and there doesn't appear to be any sign that this will stop soon.
In fact, it could be set to get worse before things get better.
TKO/WWE Have Defended Their Ticket Pricing Strategy
In May, TKO president & chief operating officer Mark Shapiro told onlookers that WWE's current ticket pricing model has a "tremendous upside". It certainly does...to shareholders and those reaping huge financial rewards by upping the cost of attending events like Raw, SmackDown and various PLEs like SummerSlam, WrestleMania etc.
Then, in August, it was revealed that WWE will keep scaling back on house show/live event tour loops (especially domestically in the United States). Previously, those offered a comparatively cheap and cheerful way for people to take their kids out to see some wrestling in smaller markets without paying over the odds for larger scale, televised events.
It looks like family friendly house show loops are a thing of the past.
WWE won't be dropping their ticket prices any time soon. Briefs for next year's WrestleMania are already soaring to bloated figures that'd have seemed ridiculous in years gone by. This has led to fan discourse about the lengths disgraced former boss Vince McMahon went to when pricing his events - McMahon generally favoured a lower pricing structure, but TKO see things differently.
That's led to significant criticism from the likes of Walter Hauser and others.