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WWE had four negative same-event, same-market comparisons so far this month. There were still six positive such comparisons in November, but these are the first negative comps for WWE since July. More meaningfully, there had only been two double-digit negative comparisons (-10% or worse) so far in 2023, both of which were back in January.
WWE live events trends have been on a hot streak throughout the year. Raw tapings and house shows, even, are still on track in November 2023 to record higher averages than in November 2022. Smackdown is currently down 4% to-date for the month, though, which would be the first negative year-over-year comparison for Smackdown since September 2022 was down from one of the first months of the the return to touring.
All data references here is based on estimates of tickets distributed from WrestleTix.
The recent negative cases were Smackdown in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 10 (-20%); a house show in Roanoke, Va. on Nov. 12 (-12%); Smackdown in Evansville, Ind. (-29%); Raw in Grand Rapids, Mich. last Monday on Nov. 20 (-17%).
Additional details are in the table above that compares the given event to the last time the same event type took place in the same city.
Opinion: This isn’t a cause for alarm but could be an early indication that live event business for WWE is plateauing. I would want to see continued frequent examples in the weeks and months to come of such negative same-market, same-event comparisons to definitively assert that WWE live events have plateaued or cooled off.
Brandon Thurston
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.