More information has been provided on the status major WWE events following comments made by TKO executive Mark Shapiro that caused some confusion.
During a recent interview appearance on The Main Event with Andrew Marchand, TKO President Shapiro spoke about the future of Premium Live Events in the company. One quote that caught the attention of fans was that they were looking to move past events that were created by Vince McMahon as part of the era under TKO ownership:
“They’re open to new ideas. They never seem exhausted. They’re ready to take on a new shot, a new risk, a new opportunity. ‘Hey, Nick, let’s talk about launching a new event.’ Right now, a lot of our PLEs were created by Vince McMahon. We need to get in the business of taking that torch and moving past that, and Nick (Khan) and Triple H created Wrestlepalooza, which is the launch event for our new ESPN deal, which did incredibly well and may turn into a superfranchise. Not to mention from a merch standpoint, I don’t need to tell you, securing the I.P. rights and then selling merch at Wrestlepalooza, let’s just say it was a real winner…”
The quote quickly spread online, with many speculating that long-running events such as SummerSlam, Survivor Series or even WrestleMania could be retired in place of a new annual show. However, according to a follow-up report, this will not be the case.
WWE Big Shows Not Going Anywhere
Providing clarification, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select stated that one WWE higher-up believes that the strategy is for the “b-show” events as opposed to the big 4 that have been in place for decades. It was also added that the name value of WrestleMania was a huge factor in the Saudi Arabia deal:
“Saudi Arabia isn’t paying for WrestlePalooza, they’re paying for WrestleMania, and the value of that name and brand is the reason for that.”
It was also added that WrestlePalooza, which was the first show to be broadcast on the new ESPN platform, could also become an annual fixture.
Featured image: WWE
