The WWE Tribute to the Troops theme is over for now, but it appears it has a chance of returning in the future.
The original idea behind this special was to send wrestlers to American troops stationed in the Middle East and tour different bases where they would meet with soldiers, with shows being held in Iraq and Afghanistan before moving to various bases stationed in the United States in 2010.
The company held the event for years until 2019, when WWE opted to not to air it on TV, but rather held a house show at Marine Corps Air Station New River and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in 2019. They brought it back in 2020, taping it at SmackDown events through 2023.
Dave Meltzer previously noted that Tribute to the Troops was done, at least for this year, as there were too many other things going on. On a recent edition of a Backstage Pass Q&A, WrestleVotes reported that the company is looking to get back to its roots with the special. It’s unclear whether that means taking the show back overseas or going back to military bases here in the US. There’s no word on when it could return.
“Yeah, I tried to ask around about what happened to Tribute to the Troops. I did have a source say that it was likely that they want to get back to the roots of it. I don’t know if that means going overseas and stuff, but I think they wanted to get back into maybe the bases here in America and things like that, and they just didn’t have the organization to do that this time around. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it came back next year in more of a traditional military-based type of environment that we were used to before they changed to just the standard arena show.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit WrestleVotes Radio on SportsKeeda’s Backstage Pass Patreon with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
