WWE Executive Sees ‘Tremendous Upside' In Current Ticket Pricing, Reduced Live Event Schedule
If you aren't a fan of WWE's currently high ticket prices, don't expect them to go back down anytime soon.
TKO president & chief operating officer Mark Shapiro recently spoke at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications conference in Boston. During his talk, Shapiro believes WWE currently has tremendous upside on ticket pricing as well as defending the decision to cut a considerable number of house shows off the yearly schedule.
Advertisement
'We cut those house shows down to where now we're doing 200 events a year,' Mark Shapiro said. 'We cut them 75%, the number of house shows that we do. We feel that's a good place to be and we'll continue to prune as we go through.
'WWE has tremendous upside on global partnerships. Tremendous upside on ticket pricing. Tremendous upside on site fees, dynamic pricing, yield management. All areas we're really focusing and pushing in on as it related to live events. As you saw on our first quarter, our margins significantly expanded as it relates to WWE live events.' [H/T: Fightful]
READ MORE: WWE RAW Netflix Global Viewership Decreases On 5/5
What do you make of Mark Shapiro's overall comments? Do you see the 'tremendous upside' with the current ticket pricing of WWE events? Let us know your overall thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
The post WWE Executive Sees 'Tremendous Upside' In Current Ticket Pricing, Reduced Live Event Schedule appeared first on Wrestlezone.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
27 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Contract Set To Expire For Fan-Favorite WWE Superstar: Report
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. WWE Raw superstar Karrion Kross is currently in a contract year, with his agreement reportedly set to expire this summer. According to a recent report from Fightful Select, there has been no significant progress on a new deal. This uncertainty comes at a time when Kross is prominently featured in a significant storyline on Monday Night Raw. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful had previously noted earlier in the year that Kross was in the final year of his WWE contract. Fightful recently asked sources close to the situation and Kross himself for an update on his contract status. The outlet reported that, based on the information they received, WWE has not yet approached Kross regarding a contract extension or renewal. Furthermore, Fightful has not heard indications that the company has expressed interest in doing so at this time. This lack of movement on a new deal is particularly noteworthy given Kross's current role on WWE Raw. He has been deeply involved in a compelling storyline, delivering cryptic promos and psychologically targeting Sami Zayn. He plays a key part in the narrative surrounding Zayn's potential character shift towards a more aggressive persona. His consistent on-screen presence makes his contract status a keen point of interest for many WWE fans. The WWE logo is seen on the front of the WWE wrestling world headquarters on January 28, 2024 in Stamford, Connecticut. WWE founder Vince McMahon resigned from the WWE and its parent company TKO as... The WWE logo is seen on the front of the WWE wrestling world headquarters on January 28, 2024 in Stamford, Connecticut. WWE founder Vince McMahon resigned from the WWE and its parent company TKO as executive chairman and its board of directors following allegations of sexual assault made public in a lawsuit in Connecticut. A former employee Janel Grant accused McMahon, 78, of sexual assault and sexually trafficking her. MoreMore news: WWE News: Steve Austin Reveals Real-Life Vince McMahon Confrontation The report from Fightful Select also provided insight into WWE's recent practices concerning expiring talent contracts. While the company typically notifies talent about a month before their deals are up if they do not intend to renew, a more recent trend has seen WWE keep performers on television right up until such notifications are made or extension talks officially begin. As it stands, there are reportedly 'a few months remaining' on Kross's current WWE deal. This situation creates a degree of uncertainty around his future with the promotion, especially as other recent departures and contract non-renewals (such as those for R-Truth and Carlito) have been reported. Kross, often accompanied by Scarlett, made an impactful return to WWE in August 2022 under the new creative leadership of Triple H, following a previous release in November 2021. His second stint has seen him involved in various feuds across both SmackDown and Raw. His current dark and manipulative character work is drawing significant attention and is often praised for its intensity. WWE fans will be watching closely to see how his contract situation unfolds in the coming months. More WWE News: For more on WWE, head to Newsweek Sports.
Forbes
31 minutes ago
- Forbes
Exporting Trust: How Blockchain Finance Can Redefine Trade Agreements
Programmable contract on blockchain While the spotlight in Web3 remains fixed on ETFs, token listings, and stablecoin frameworks, a quieter but equally consequential evolution is taking shape at the edge of global commerce. In the last six months alone, the Bank for International Settlements expanded its cross-border wholesale CBDC pilot, Project mBridge, to include over 26 observing members. Meanwhile, the Monetary Authority of Singapore extended Project Guardian, testing tokenized trade finance and digital asset settlement with banks including JPMorgan, DBS, and Standard Chartered. Hong Kong Monetary Authority also launched Project Ensemble to develop innovative financial market infrastructure enabling seamless interbank settlement of tokenised money, initially focusing on tokenised deposits to support the growth of Hong Kong's tokenisation market. On the protocol side, DeFi-native projects like Centrifuge are tokenizing invoices and short-term credit, while firms like Enclave Markets are developing encrypted execution environments for confidential trading. These aren't isolated experiments - they're signs of a maturing thesis: that programmable finance can redefine the foundations of international trade. Today's trade infrastructure is a patchwork of legal fictions and trust intermediaries - letters of credit, bills of lading, third-party guarantees - many of which exist solely to simulate trust. Each one adds friction, cost, and settlement lag. Blockchain-based systems flip that dynamic by anchoring records on cryptographically secure, shared ledgers. This is more than just a technical upgrade. As David Wells, CEO of Enclave Markets, puts it: 'When counterparties from different jurisdictions can rely on cryptographically secured records rather than opaque intermediaries, the trust barrier that typically adds friction and cost to international trade diminishes significantly.' He adds that, 'At Enclave, we use secure enclave technology to enable privacy-preserving verification. This means counterparties can validate critical deal terms or performance metrics without exposing sensitive business data. It's a foundational shift - you get transparency and confidentiality at the same time, something legacy systems just aren't built for.' Where platforms like the now-defunct TradeLens stumbled due to governance limitations, decentralized or privacy-preserving infrastructure offers an alternative. Enclave, for instance, uses secure enclave hardware to enable private yet verifiable trades - part of a broader movement that includes confidential computing platforms and zero-knowledge middleware. Beyond data transparency, programmable finance introduces automatic enforceability. Smart contracts don't just log terms - they execute them. When conditions are met (e.g., delivery confirmed via oracle or IoT sensor), payment flows instantly. If conditions fail, penalties or reversions execute without legal intervention. This mechanism is already live in parts of the DeFi world. MakerDAO and Centrifuge have deployed real-world asset vaults tied to tokenized invoices and short-term credit. As reported, Maker's RWA vaults now account for a significant share of its fee income. Denis Petrovcic, CEO of Blocksquare, frames it this way: 'Banks shift from paperwork gatekeepers to liquidity nodes, and insurers underwrite only risks the code can't cover.' He continues: 'In our real estate tokenization work, we've shown how anchoring legal agreements - like mortgage registration or loan collateralization - on-chain creates enforceable economic rights that are provable in real time. This reduces the need for buffer escrows and limits disputes. When you apply this to cargo or trade finance, it's easy to imagine similar benefits.' His company recently completed one of the first legally notarized tokenized real estate deals tied to a national land registry - a model that could extend to warehousing, shipping hubs, and other trade-linked assets. The Dubai Land Department (DLD) has also launched the MENA region's first government-backed tokenized real estate platform, Prypco Mint, which enables fractional ownership of Dubai properties by minting real estate title deed tokens. This is supported by Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), marking the first time a government real estate authority in the Middle East has implemented a public blockchain-based tokenization of property title deeds, pioneering a more accessible, transparent, and efficient real estate market. Perhaps the most profound shift is this: trade agreements, once enshrined in legalese and negotiated by diplomats, are now being expressed as code. Project mBridge envisions programmable cross-border CBDC rails. MAS' Project Guardian is piloting asset tokenization and real-time DvP with institutional players. And emerging trade finance platforms are layering compliance, risk, and audit rules into smart contracts rather than spreadsheets. This isn't hypothetical. 'We're already seeing smart contracts do things that used to take banks days or weeks to handle,' says Nicolas Vaiman, CEO of Bubblemaps. 'Instant escrow, peer-to-peer lending, collateral management. The technology simply offers more. And we're just scratching the surface - as more data sources and real-time proofs come online, I think blockchain-based finance will become the default operating system for trade, not an optional enhancement.' The results: fewer intermediaries, faster time to cash, and real-time visibility across jurisdictions. For decades, the global trade system relied on institutional credibility: the issuing bank, the national regulator, the trusted auditor. But programmable finance rewires that system to depend on logic, not legacy. To be clear, this transition is still in its early innings. Regulatory coordination, technical standards, and enterprise integration remain uphill challenges. But the pieces are aligning: on-chain attestation, tokenized RWAs, fiat-backed stablecoins, and decentralized identity protocols are rapidly evolving into an interoperable trust stack. The result isn't just digitized trade. It's a new form of enforceable, exportable trust—written in code, and verified on-chain.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Vince McMahon Sells Significant Amount Of TKO Shares
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has continued to divest his holdings in TKO Group Holdings, selling another significant block of stock valued at approximately $250 million. This latest transaction, detailed in an SEC filing made on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, saw Endeavor purchase the shares from McMahon. Endeavor, the majority owner of TKO, was taken private by equity firm Silver Lake earlier this year. The filing indicates that Endeavor acquired 1,579,080 shares of Class A common stock from McMahon at $158.32 per share. This sale reduces McMahon's remaining stake in TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of WWE and UFC. According to Wrestlenomics' Brandon Thurston, assuming no other transactions since September 2024, McMahon now holds 6,442,325 shares of TKO, which represents approximately 3% ownership of the company. More news: WWE News: Steve Austin Reveals Real-Life Vince McMahon Confrontation It's important to note that McMahon has no voting rights within TKO. This $250 million sale is part of a larger pattern of divestment by McMahon. Fourteen months ago, around April 2024, he initially listed all of his TKO stock, then over 8 million shares, for sale. Between late 2023 and the spring of 2024, McMahon had already liquidated over $1.5 billion in TKO stock through five distinct sales transactions. Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, Vince McMahon, attends the World Wrestling Entertainment "Denver Debacle" press conference at the Hard Rock Cafe, Times Square on May 21, 2009 in New York City. Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, Vince McMahon, attends the World Wrestling Entertainment "Denver Debacle" press conference at the Hard Rock Cafe, Times Square on May 21, 2009 in New York new sale to Endeavor now pushes his total TKO stock sales well beyond the $2 billion mark since the TKO merger in September 2023. McMahon resigned as TKO Executive Chairman and from the TKO board in January 2024. His departure followed the filing of a lawsuit by former WWE employee Janel Grant, which includes serious allegations of sexual assault and sex trafficking against McMahon, which he has denied. He also remains a defendant in the "ring boys" lawsuit, alleging negligence related to past abuse, and a shareholder lawsuit concerning the TKO merger process. Amidst these legal challenges, McMahon has been establishing a new sports, entertainment, and media investment firm named 14TH & I, signaling his focus on ventures outside the company he led for decades. There have been rumors that McMahon is interested in buying back WWE, and if he is, then that's great. However, not only does he not have the cash to do so, but also, Endeavor is not looking to sell WWE, which is making them major cash right now. More WWE News: For more on WWE, head to Newsweek Sports.
