Jeff Jarrett has come out strongly in favor of WWE’s return to a more constant house show schedule this summer, telling listeners on the My World podcast that the wrestling industry “desperately needs” the live event experience and that New Day-vs-NXT-style matchups would be ideal for the format.
WWE announced earlier this month that it would be running 10 main roster house shows across July and August on Thursdays and weekend dates as part of a WWE Summer Tour, hitting markets in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Virginia, New Hampshire, Georgia, and South Carolina. Domestic house shows had largely been phased out in the post-pandemic era.
Jarrett, speaking on his My World podcast, backed the move.
“I applaud it. I love it. I think the business, yeah, I’m going so say it, the business desperately needs it because there is so much upside. If you break even on the P&L for the weekend, you can’t put a value on the marketing that you have, the ability to your fan base to come out and touch the product. If there are not house shows run by the major promotions, it leaves an opportunity for a lot of wrestling because wrestling fans want to go watch it live, just like music.”
Jarrett pitched a specific use case for the live event format.
“Can you imagine the New Day versus NXT wrestler one and two out in these live events? What they could learn? They may not be on RAW and SmackDown every week, but, out on the road, their brand names, they know how to get guys over, they know how to work with them. I’m curious to see how many NXT talent are put on these events.”
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods departed the company on May 2 and are subject to 90-day non-compete clauses that put them clear of WWE through late July or early August. Sami Zayn told Huge POP! that next-generation main eventers like Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, Bron Breakker, and Oba Femi specifically need the no-commercial-break reps.
JBL on Something to Wrestle called modern WWE producers “the most important thing in the business” because the current roster cannot yet call matches on the fly. Cody Rhodes has been one of the most vocal in-house advocates for the return of house shows and pitched the idea to WWE leadership.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the internal WWE justification for the schedule expansion combines younger-roster-reps with the favorable economics of running live events in markets that have not seen WWE in years.
The full WWE Summer Tour house show schedule:
- Saturday, July 11 — Pan American Center, Las Cruces, NM
- Sunday, July 12 — The Pit, Albuquerque, NM
- Thursday, July 16 — PPL Center, Allentown, PA
- Saturday, July 25 — Adventist Health Arena, Stockton, CA
- Sunday, July 26 — Dignity Health Arena, Bakersfield, CA
- Thursday, July 30 — Bank of Springfield Center, Springfield, IL
- Thursday, August 6 — EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, VA
- Thursday, August 13 — SNHU Arena, Manchester, NH
- Saturday, August 29 — Enmarket Arena, Savannah, GA
- Sunday, August 30 — North Charleston Coliseum, Charleston, SC
If you use quotes from this article, please credit My World with Jeff Jarrett and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
