WWE official reveals plans for the company to unravel major setup Vince McMahon created

The new era of WWE is set to hit a major milestone. Thursday will mark one full year since Endeavor merged WWE and UFC to form TKO Group Holdings. Many are of the impression that officials have ushered in remarkable improvements to the product and operations since then, but now it's been revealed that historic changes are planned to major practices from the Vince McMahon era.

Mr. McMahon built World Wrestling Entertainment into a global entertainment juggernaut, and the infamous touring schedule was a big part of that growth. WWE has held live events and TV tapings around the world, several nights a week, for multiple decades. The company did cut back in recent years but still hosted 150 live events, 18 premium live events, and around 150 TV tapings in 2023. This is compared to 345 live events, 21 PLEs, and around 120 TV tapings in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.

TKO executive Mark Shapiro first talked about officials wanting to cut back on dates this past December at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.

Endeavor is reportedly moving forward with major schedule changes for next year, as revealed by Shapiro at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference in San Francisco today. The President/COO for both TKO and Endeavor said the company continues to trim "marginally profitable" non-televised live events that McMahon used to expand the brand in any market he could.

Shapiro noted that while they ran 300 events last year, and the company will put on around 250 this year, he expected that number will drop to around 200 in 2025. It wasn't clear if this includes NXT.

"We’re cutting events at WWE. We’re taking our low-margin, marginally-profitable events, non-televised events that Vince put in place to grow the brand [by going to every city possible]. Well, the WWE brand, while we still have to grow it, it’s on fire right now. We don’t need to carry these marginally profitable events. ... What was 300 [events] last year will be roughly 250 this year, and next year, we’ll be close to 200," Mark Shapiro said. [H/T - POST Wrestling]

Shapiro also joked about yelling at WWE employees for not raising ticket prices when they're quickly selling out as they are right now, according to F4Wonline.com. He noted that the company did not have the tools needed for dynamic pricing in the past, adding that tickets are still under-priced. The concert industry is wrapped up in the controversial trend of higher ticket prices amid increased demand, and it was indicated that this could be an issue for the WWE Universe soon.

Officials reportedly feel "incredible" ahead of the Peacock deal for PLEs and archived content coming up in 2026, and Shapiro sees the 12 monthly PLEs schedule as exciting. The company sees itself as being in a "really strong" position for the PLE deal, and the plan is to do a lot of listening to many potential streaming partners.

The Netflix partnership starts in January, and Shapiro praised the streaming giant as a "battleship" that will help grow the brand and audience. He also said the WWE Universe is largely made up of entertainment fans, casual sports fans, lots of women, and "very, very young" fans.

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Updates on Vince McMahon non-WWE docuseries for Netflix

The Mr. McMahon docuseries is set to hit Netflix on Wednesday, September 25. All six one-hour episodes on the career of Vince McMahon will be released that day.

Ringer Films first announced the series in 2020, but the recent sexual misconduct allegations against Vince McMahon will be mentioned in the premiere, and then fully covered in the finale. Several project details recently leaked, including WWE's involvement, stars that were interviewed, and the scandals that will be covered.

World Wrestling Entertainment sources recently revealed internal reactions regarding the docuseries, including the trailer's viral opening line from McMahon. A statement from Janel Grant was included in the report, explaining how producers reached out to her.