A Concern About WWE's New PLE Strategy

 

During a recent interview WWE CEO Nick Khan spoke on the WWE PLE schedule currently and going forward. With highlights being Wrestlemania won't be returning to any open air East coast stadiums anytime soon. And will not be scheduled to go against the NCAA Final Four tournament. 

I've seen many folks online suggesting Mania may move to May. I personally don't see that it, I think it'll stay in March or April with the dates fluctuating as they always have been. Next year the Final Four is scheduled for April 5th and 7th, so Mania could possibly be the following weekend April 12th and 13th. Or the weekend before March 29th and 30th. They factor in alot when scheduling the dates for Mania, host city availability. When does Easter fall that particular year, other events etc. I don't think they will just change when Mania is held so fast.

The other big talking point was that the big five events (Royal Rumble, Mania, Money In The Bank, Summerslam, Survivor Series) will remain in North American. While the other PLE's will be held overseas. I'm honestly ok with that as it help solidifies the first "W" in World Wrestling Entertainment. For years WWE did overseas tours, maybe a handful of exclusive Pay-per-view events for those countries. More often than not America got all the Pay-per-views, mostly due to time difference issues and the technology not being there yet.

My issue with that though is regarding the big five. WWE has gone big over the past few years with the big five and stadiums, utilizing stadiums for Wrestlemania which they started in the early 2000s. Summerslam, and more recently Royal Rumble and Money In The Bank. Survivor Series is will likely always be an arena show due to the time of year its held during football season. 

Since WWE has went all in essentially on stadiums, they eventually will run out of stadiums to host the PLE's from. Especially since Royal Rumble and Mania will need to be in warm weather/domed cities. Those two already can only rotate between a certain amount of cities. 

While Money In The Bank and Summerslam the playing field opens up. I still think they may end up backing themselves into a corner. Especially if rumors from a couple years ago are true, that WWE wants cities to bid on all their PLE's. They will then still be running against the same set of cities.

While Khan has proven to be a shrewd businessman. And WWE has done big business with every stadium show held. I still think the stadium route for four of the big five is still a slightly flawed approach that needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis.

We shall see how it turns out, while I think its flawed, I'm hoping for a Summerslam in Baltimore soon.