WWE non-televised live events, commonly known to the wider pro wrestling industry as house shows, are a staple of the fan experience. For those who live in smaller markets, they’re sometimes the only way to see top WWE talent without making a drive of several hours.
Even for people who live closer to places where Raw, SmackDown and premium live events are held regularly, house shows still offer a different (and often more affordable) way to see WWE do its thing up close. Some of the more memorable interactions between wrestlers and fans, the kinds of things you often see go viral on social media, take place in these settings.
But this is a new era for WWE as part of TKO, and some things are bound to change. As TKO president Mark Shapiro explained during his talk at the UBS media conference this week, one of those changes could be less house shows.
As noted by Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, Shapiro said that while live events are good for growing the brand and “our long-term growth,” there are places where they are “dilutive” and don’t really add much to the bottom line.
Shapiro says they want to cut back on WWE house shows. He says they're "dilutive" from a "margin perspective" which is wonderful corporate speak for unprofitable. Seemingly he's especially referring to house shows in smaller markets or "C and D counties".
In the course of this… pic.twitter.com/yQf8tI44CL
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) December 5, 2023
“From a margin perspective, they are dilutive,” Shapiro said. “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 live events, which of course will push our margin up.”
Shapiro added that “we’re going through that exercise now,” suggesting that no changes will be made until TKO has time to evaluate where and how much to cut back.
It’s no surprise that this kind of examination of things that were once routine for WWE is taking place under the Endeavor umbrella, so it will be interesting to see how many live events TKO decides is the right number. In the meantime, if there’s a house show coming up in your area soon, you might want to take the opportunity and go in case it doesn’t come around as often in the future.