WWE’s Current Mindset for House Shows & Touring Post-COVID-19

WWE has not held any house shows or tours since late March of this year due to the on-going global coronavirus pandemic.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE officials recently informed some of their talent during contract negotiations that the company’s old way of touring won’t be coming back even when things return to normal after the pandemic.

Meltzer reported that the company recently revealed this new mindset towards touring following the wave of layoffs last week of around a dozen employees who mainly worked in their live events department. Besides longtime ring announcer Tony Chimel, another notable name released was Derek Casselman, who was the head of WWE’s arena merchandise division and had been with the company since 1993.

Meltzer also reported that WWE’s house show division had been losing a lot money in recent years and the company managing to set record profits this year despite the lack of house show events had changed their economic mindset over its future status.

Another contributing factor towards this new mindset is the skyrocketing merchandise revenues being generated by their online store during the pandemic, which reportedly shocked WWE officials. Meltzer reported that total merchandise sales from their online store this year have managed to almost be equal to what the company was generating previously when they were touring.