Former WWE Tough Enough winner Maven did not hold back when asked about the rising cost of being a wrestling fan, referencing a $38,000 WrestleMania package. Speaking on TMZ Inside The Ring, Maven called out the current business model, stating it angers him because it prices out the loyal, multi-generational fanbase that the company was built on.
“It’s one of the things that angers me the most. I wish who can say what you want about Vince McMahon. Vince knew that the everyday family was where his bread was buttered. He knew that in order to create generational fans, he was going to have to make his product accessible, accessible on a weekly basis, accessible on a monthly basis, at an affordable rate.”
The Old vs. New Model
Maven contrasted the past with the present, recalling both his first show as a fan and the pay-per-view model of his era.
“Yeah, I remember the day when, you know, guys would be scrounging together, you know, you’d put bringing six to eight people together, you know, here I got $12 and then you could buy the pay per view. It’s not like that anymore. I remember also going to my first show when I was, I think, seven years old. I asked my dad, you know, how much that cost? He told me it was about $300 for everything, for the tickets, the parking, the food, everything, $300 for everybody, that was his whole investment man, that right now you’re not even getting one ticket, one good ticket for that, they’re pricing out oil fans.”
‘The Answer To Every Question Is Money’
Maven noted that this isn’t just a wrestling problem, but a broader issue affecting the live event industry, where corporate clients often take precedence over families.
“And it’s the one thing not, but wrestling isn’t the only one doing it. Football is doing it. Baseball is doing it. I used to work for the Brooklyn Nets and encouraged us to sell to corporations, don’t call families, because they’re not the one. They’re like, you know, our courtside tickets, you know, run 150,000 people, regular people, don’t have that kind of money for as disposable income corporations do, and it’s sad, it’s sad that we live in that society. But I’m a firm believer that the answer to every question is money, yeah.”
Maven’s comments come as WWE’s parent company, the TKO Group Holdings, continues to post record-breaking financial results based on this premium pricing strategy. Recent data have confirmed that average ticket prices for Raw and SmackDown have nearly doubled since the 2023 TKO merger, yet attendance has continued to grow, indicating that the high-price model is, for now, succeeding financially.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit TMZ Inside The Ring with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. You can listen to the full episode on podcast platforms.
