TKO President Mark Shapiro has addressed the conversation around WrestleMania 42’s ticket sales decline relative to WrestleMania 41, telling Yahoo Finance in an interview recorded before the show that the back-to-back Las Vegas booking may have been a mistake, but one he stands by.
WrestleMania 42 took place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on April 18-19, 2026. It was the second consecutive WrestleMania at the same venue, with the company having held WrestleMania 41 in Vegas in 2025. The Vegas-to-Vegas back-to-back was widely flagged in advance as risky against WWE’s traditional rotation pattern of moving WrestleMania to a new market each year. Ticket sales for WrestleMania 42 came in noticeably below 2025 levels, with secondary-market resale prices softer in the weeks before the show.
Asked about the decline, Shapiro placed it inside the broader strong performance picture of TKO’s three sports properties.
“WWE, UFC, PBR, in today’s economic climate and obviously a lot going on from a geopolitical perspective and a lot going on at home from an affordability perspective, we’re still seeing massive uptick, maybe even more so, of families and fans that want to come out and escape the day-to-day. They’re doing it through the lens of our sports and entertainment properties. We’re seeing strong growth on our ticket yields, we’re seeing sellouts across the board on our UFC numbered events and our Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and Premium Live Events at WWE. PBR is having its best year in the last 5 years. That should tell you something in terms of demand, anticipation, and following and should bode well for years of long-term sustained growth.”
He then specifically owned the Vegas booking decision.
“I would tell you that Vegas is 2 years in a row for WrestleMania 42, so some of the challenges we had there is usually we move WrestleMania year after year to a new spot and that allows us to obviously grow and see the kind of economic impact we would expect. Maybe it’s a mistake I made because Vegas was so huge last year and such a winner for our fans and the product that I said to Nick Khan, ‘We’ve gotta go back to Vegas next year. We have to move New Orleans down the road and we got to come back to Vegas.'”
The New Orleans reference is to WrestleMania 42 originally being slated for the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. WWE moved the show to Vegas in 2024 and pushed New Orleans to a future WrestleMania spot. Industry conversation has placed that future spot at either WrestleMania 44 in 2028 or WrestleMania 45 in 2029, though there is no formal confirmation.
Shapiro defended Las Vegas as a venue for WrestleMania-scale events generally, despite the back-to-back ticket softness.
“Las Vegas, I don’t need to tell you, is the Mecca for great events. More and more events are moving there, music has residences, and more and more sports teams, as evidenced by the NHL and soon-to-be Major League Baseball, are popping up there with teams to come. Absolutely no regrets on going back there, but the only reason you’re hearing some of the, hey it’s not what it was last year, it’s because we’re not benefiting from the first mover experience.”
The Yahoo Finance interview was recorded before WrestleMania 42 went down. WrestleMania 43 in 2027 is officially set for Saudi Arabia, and will mark the company’s first WrestleMania outside North America. The Saudi WrestleMania will reset the rotation pattern entirely.
If you use quotes from this article, please credit Yahoo Finance and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
