5 Ways TKO Is Causing Long Term Damage to WWE Business from Celebrities to Discarding Wrestlers Fans Bonded With to Too Many Streaming Services to Follow Product

We are in an interesting period of WWE where if you hold stock in the company, you are likely very happy with your investment and the decisions being made.

As a person who has worked for multi-million and billion dollar companies, I have a different perspective than many others. I’ve always been able to recognize the business decisions made in professional wrestling when, as I fan, I may have other opinions. At a time when the fanbase was behind Brian Danielson, there were long-term business plans being interrupted. The company chose the vocal fanbase and what they wanted, moving the long term plans aside. You can’t do that for every performer, but there are times that Wallstreet doesn’t see what the most loyal fanbase sees. When you only make the long-term money decisions, and ignore the loudest in your audience, it erodes the heart of the product.

WrestleMania had critics who called the show “soulless.” It’s hard for me to disagree with that sentiment. Commercial time versus wrestling time was frustrating, especially after paying more for live tickets or to view at home than we did last year. It’s getting to the point where TKO’s WWE is asking a lot of their fans.

The feelings of being taken advantage of start to set in, and when that happens, you start to think about the value of what you’re getting. When the value ceases to be something the customer will continue to spend, I have seen many companies collapse quickly. Gaining trust takes years, while losing trust doesn’t take very long.

With a publicly-traded company, the more they make, the more the shareholders receive. There isn’t a rainy day fund for when business slips. Will TKO push WWE into slippery business results? If it happens, will they acknowledge the decisions they made to bring business down?

Too Many Subscriptions

Professional wrestling is part of what is keeping cable companies alive. It’s the best value if you want to watch it all. You can cut the cord and (legally) watch most of the shows outside of WWE SmackDown, but that will add up. Especially since many cable packages come with access to ESPN Unlimited. You still need Netflix to watch Raw on Monday’s, but other than that, you’ll have access without all the individual subscriptions one has to attain to watch everything.

I do realize that it is 2026 and much of wrestling is watched in clips on YouTube. Not everyone watches everything. What can become potential loss is losing those that do. The superfan watches every show, attends when they are in their town, and travel for big shows. When there is so much content, and the budget and time is getting tight, they’ll drop a show. Once you drop one show, you realize life goes on and you skip a second show, and just watch highlights. Eventually, you can lose the dedication they’ve shown over the years.

Sticking Their Noses Into Creative

Celebrities have had their place in professional wrestling for years. Even before WrestleMania and all of the stars brought in, you had football players join a battle royal and Andy Kaufman making Jerry Lawler a household name on Letterman’s show.

Celebrities bring eyeballs and can make an angle seem like a bigger deal when done right. When forced into a larger story that has been building for years, that’s not doing it right. The Rock’s attempt to become the main event again, Travis Scott’s entrance that lacked any urgency, and Pat McAfee being the man behind Randy Orton have all been choices that went against the narrative they spend all year building.

When left to booking wrestling without interference, Triple H showed in the early years of NXT developmental that he can book a very good series of wrestling television shows. He is then hired to be the creative guy, then second guessed at the most important times.

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Lack of Care of Fans

It was not all that long ago that we saw many shocking releases. This took away Kari Sane in the midst of what seemed like a story to create a new mega-babyface in their women’s division. The Wyatt Sicks were all released after video games, documentaries, and amusement park attractions had been fully monetized. Not only is this sad for the talent being released, these were cases of WWE not caring about their fans’ engagement with the product they sell.

Wrestling has a long history of dropped storylines. Who was driving the white Hummer? Who was behind GTV? Was that woman really Beaver Cleavage’s mother? Many stories are dropped due to injuries, lack of fan interest, or an old man who ran the company decided he was bored with it. But in the middle of a long term, successful story when there were no behavioral or physical issues is almost unheard of. Fans loved the Wyatt’s and the legacy of Bray being remembered. The pops for Karion Kross were massive all the way up to his release.

All of this happens after the company has decided that they made the money they can. And make money they do off of us fans. Constant ads, merch stores, limited edition this, fan expo there, tickets for another two-day stadium event, at prices that are constantly rising.

Lack of Care for Talent

As mentioned before, the releases were plenty and a little brutal on who was chosen from a fan perspective. It’s also been commented on by current and former talent. The loss of R-Truth from the locker room, that the company was forced to course-correct. Even worse in many fans’ eyes, cutting talent pay. We’ve heard the rumor and innuendo that New Day left after being asked to take a reported up to 50 percent deduction on their contract pay.

A contract should be more concrete for the performers. They are planning their life based on the salary they were presented. You’ve signed the talent, now it should be on the company to use them properly. The New Day’s heel turn didn’t fall apart because of the performers, but the lack of creativity to keep it going. Other wrestlers reportedly took the requested pay cut, which also isn’t fair.

Then you have legacy talent not getting the treatment they deserve. Kevin Nash is a loud, outspoken voice who speaks up about treatment for the legends. At the Hall of Fame Ceremony, there was a lack of food in comparison to other years. Other reports of catering changes, and every other position behind the scenes that can be cut is being cut. All while the top two executives made more and more. When is having enough good enough?

The Young Fan

As ticket and merchandise prices  rise, it is the superfan that is willing to pay them, not the parent of a kid who watches on television. That’s multiple seats at hundreds of dollars. The action figures are $25 average. Video games are over $100 to enjoy the entire experience and roster. I’ve already mentioned how many apps one has to subscribe to. When kids don’t get the live and hands-on experience, they lose the nostalgia that will bring them back.

Every business has to create new fans. I’m here to see if TKO will continue to create them, or if they will slowly lose what made the company magic.

(Griffin is a lifelong fan of wrestling, superheroes, and rebellious music of all forms. He is the owner of Nerdstalgia, and you can shop online, learn about visiting the store in Colorado Springs, or catch him at a comic con in the Rocky Mountain area by going to http://nerdstalgia.shop.)