Report: WWE House Show Touring “Not Coming Back”

One of the main side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for WWE stars was the promotion no longer touring, as fans weren’t able to attend shows, making house shows surplus to requirements.

This also brought with it further issues for WWE wrestlers, as a large part of their income came from these house shows, as they were paid on a per-appearance basis. Large amounts of merch are also sold at these shows, so there will also have been a drop in income from merch sales.

According to sources in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, stars who have been offered contracts in the past few weeks and months have been told that the “old way of touring” and doing house shows is not coming back, even when fans are allowed back into shows.

This report appears to have been confirmed by WWE decided to release 12 members of staff in the past week, many of whom were involved with the live events side of WWE’s product.

WWE achieved record profits, and this has led many to feel that touring for 300 days a year is unnecessary, even if it means the product won’t be viewed by as many people live.

Instead of having its biggest stars appear at house shows, the belief now is that House Shows could maybe be used to show off some of the lesser used stars.

Meltzer wrote:

“What they found out is that with no house shows, all of a sudden WWE shop merch numbers skyrocketed and the total merch sales ended up being almost identical to when there were shows, which shocked everyone.”

What are your thoughts on the above story? Let us know in the comments on Twitter or Facebook.

• house shows
• live events
• merchandise
• wwe

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