WWE Ticket Sales Update: SmackDown Struggles in London Against England’s World Cup Match

WWE will be taping an episode of SmackDown on Tuesday, June 23rd in London, England at the O2 Arena. It’ll take place one night after Raw airs live on Netflix from the same building. Typically this wouldn’t be a problem for WWE since the London fans are quite dedicated, but there’s something even bigger going on that night that will demand their attention.

The World Cup is starting this week, and that’s an event that demands attention across the world, especially in England. English football (soccer for us Yankees) fans love their team and will stop whatever they might be doing whenever the team is in action. Unfortunately for WWE, England’s second World Cup game will have an overlap with the SmackDown taping. England & Ghana will play at 9:00 BST, which coincides with when SmackDown will be taping at the O2.

Needless to say, ticket sales are somewhat down historically for this night of action. WrestleTix reports that 4,483 tickets have been sold for the SmackDown taping, which is an addition of 583 tickets over the past week. This is still way down from the last time WWE ran the O2, back in March 2025 for a Raw taping. 16,276 tickets were sold then for John Cena’s last WWE appearance in the UK.

Raw ticket sales the night before are faring much better, suggesting that the combination of the World Cup and the SmackDown brand name not meaning as much as Raw’s is leading to a tougher sell than usual.