Mark Shapiro On WrestleMania 42 Ticket Price & Creative Complaints: ‘These Are Not New’

Mark Shapiro says that TKO pays attention to all feedback, but is not concerned about lower ticket sales for WrestleMania 42. This year’s WrestleMania was down in ticket sales, a matter believed to be due to the high price, lacking creative, and the show running in Las Vegas for the second year in a row. The creative also drew a lot of pushback from fans, particularly in terms of the number of celebrities involved such as Pat McAfee, Jelly Roll, and more.

Shapiro weighed in on the complaints around WrestleMania 42 on TKO’s Q1 earnings call. He noted that there were some questions from investors about the matter and chalked up the ticket sales specifically to running Las Vegas again, while saying that there will “always be periodic” issues from fans with creative. You can see the highlights below (per Fightful):

On WrestleMania Ticket Prices:

“We fielded some investor questions about WWE demand and the state of creative, driven by online commentary and the year-over-year WrestleMania ticket sale performance. We are not concerned about the ticket performance whatsoever. It was unrealistic to expect year two growth in Las Vegas. Even with that, WrestleMania 42 was still one of the highest gates in WWE history and easily outperformed anywhere else we could have staged it.”

On the Creative For the Show:

“As it relates to the creative, there will always be periodic fan dissatisfaction around creative execution, commercial load, and celebrity usage. We listen to all the feedback. We do not turn a deaf ear, but these are not new criticisms.”