WWE Making MORE Cuts To House Show Schedule?
WWE's house shows have been dramatically scaled back since the pandemic.
A high-ranking official has suggested that WWE could make further cuts to its live event schedule.
Per WrestleNomics, TKO COO Mark Shapiro, when speaking at Monday's UBS media conference, claimed that "through a margin perspective, [house shows] are dilutive," indicating a reduction in value without increasing assets.
Said Shapiro:
"While there's a reason to have them because it's good for the brand, we're building [an] audience, we're putting them on in C and D counties, so we're really stretching the brand, and we're amassing a greater array of eyeballs from all demos so it's good for our long-term growth. Through a margin perspective, they are dilutive. So there's probably an opportunity as we go through our efficiencies and our synergy opportunities to cut back on some of those non-televised events, which will push our margin up so we are going through that exercise now."
WWE's new parent company, Endeavor, has been steadily cutting costs since formally acquiring the market-leading wrestling promotion in September, including over 100 corporate redundancies last week.
The company's road schedule has reduced significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. In 2019, it held a total of 343 untelevised events across the main roster and NXT brands, falling to 147 by 2022.