TKO President Mark Shapiro’s Urgency of Moving past Vince McMahon-Created WWE PLEs Sparks Fan Outrage

Mark Shapiro has expressed the need to take the torch from the Vince McMahon-created WWE PLEs and move past them.

TKO President Mark Shapiro’s Urgency of Moving past Vince McMahon-Created WWE PLEs Sparks Fan Outrage

Mark Shapiro and Vince McMahon [via- F4WOnline and WrestlingInc]

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There was no way one could defend Vince McMahon on any grounds, especially in the later stages of his WWE tenure. Almost a couple of years removed from McMahon’s previous association with WWE in any shape or form, his successors seem hellbent on curbing Vinnie Mac’s contributions to pro wrestling. That being said, TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro recently elaborated on it.

Shapiro sat down with Andrew Marchand of The Main Event and outlined that those at WWE are open to new ideas. The former CEO of Dick Clark Productions praised the company’s higher-ups for always being up for a new risk or challenge. Shapiro also highlighted WWE President Nick Khan‘s readiness to launch a new event whenever the ask and demand are there.

The TKO executive then noted that most of the WWE events right now are a brainchild of its previous head honcho, Vince McMahon. And for some reason, Mark Shapiro feels the need to move past them. This hasn’t sat well with the fans at all.

Shapiro also affirmed that Nick Khan and Triple H created Wrestlepalooza. That claim is factually incorrect, as Wrestlepalooza came into existence in 1995 under the ECW banner.

WWE revived the name for its debut on ESPN’s DTC streaming service in September. Shapiro said that the PLE did incredibly well, which is a contradiction to the actual criticism it garnered. In fact, Wrestlepalooza received a C grade from an ESPN official himself in his official review of the event. The major selling points of the night were Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena and AJ Lee‘s return to a WWE ring in over a decade.

Mark Shapiro previously questioned Vince McMahon’s style of family-friendly ticket prices

The skyrocketing ticket prices for WWE events have been one of the most deflating aspects for wrestling fanatics since WWE came under the TKO umbrella. While the prices didn’t shoot up right away, the gradual hikes have taken them to a point where they’re basically double what the prices were for a weekly WWE event in 2023.

Mark Shapiro and Nick Khan at WrestleMania 41
Mark Shapiro and Nick Khan at WrestleMania 41 [via- WrestleZone]

As per Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics, a $60 ticket prior to the TKO merger is now touching $120. A while ago, Mark Shapiro’s stance on it stirred widespread anger among the fans. Shapiro made a farcical statement regarding Vince McMahon’s mentality when it came to keeping the WWE ticket prices affordable. The TKO COO said that McMahon was pricing for the families instead of maximizing profits.

That alone worked as ammo for an already piqued WWE fanbase, and they slammed Shapiro for his ignorance. Shapiro revealed that TKO would double down on the prices in the future to match the ticket yield of the UFC. In a major setback to the fans who were expecting some sort of respite, Nick Khan has vowed to remain bullish on the increased ticket prices of WWE events.

Despite the unreasonable pricing, WWE hasn’t seen a drastic dip in its attendance, especially for the PLEs. However, the weekly tapings viz., Raw and SmackDown have shown a semblance of declining turnouts. For instance, the Halloween edition of SmackDown in Salt Lake City barely touched the 7,000 mark. The company officials were very disappointed with those figures, as per Fightful.

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