Backstage news on WWE possibly moving on from live events after COVID-19 pandemic

The decline of WWE house shows has been going on for years even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, WWE released close to a dozen employees including long time ring announcer Tony Chimel. A number of those employees worked in the live event department.

Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that several WWE stars were told during recent contract negotiations that the “old way of touring” and doing live events is not coming back after the United States bounces back from the pandemic.

The releases of employees last week is another indication that WWE is possibly moving on from house shows. The days of WWE generating a significant portion of its revenue are over as TV deals is how the company makes most of its money.

With WWE getting big money from TV rights, the company is moving towards the idea that it no longer needs to tour for 300 days a year and how running live events was often “a money loser.”

WWE has also found out that no longer running house shows doesn’t impact merchandise sales or the exposure to wrestlers. In fact, WWE Shop merchandise numbers have seen a great increase and total sales have been identical to when there were shows.