Earlier this week, we first wrote about WWE cutting back on live events with the main roster working a maximum of 10 dates in February and a maximum of 14 dates in March. WWE has added a few combined SuperShows in place of some brand-exclusive shows which means that most of the wrestlers will be working less than the maximum amount of dates since they will only need a few wrestlers from each brand for those shows.
The good thing for WWE about doing less house shows is that it cuts down on their money losses since their non-televised shows have started to lose money.
This gives wrestlers some extra time at home and should cut down the injury rate but, as reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there are a good amount of wrestlers who had no idea about the live event cutbacks until they received the booking sheets for February.
The top stars are making more money these days but the rest of the wrestler’s income will be affected by these changes since they get paid a percentage of the gate. For the top stars, it will affect their merchandise sales. While one person told Dave Meltzer that there can be a happy medium with a few less shows per month, there are many unhappy wrestlers about how this went down.
In addition to the income from live events, some of the younger wrestlers would prefer to work more dates so they can get in more reps on the road and many wrestlers say that working the live events is fun since they don’t have the same restraints as they do when they work on TV.
