TKO President Mark Shapiro is now openly admitting that bringing WrestleMania back to Las Vegas for a second straight year may have been the wrong move financially, even though he still stands behind the decision.
Speaking with Yahoo Finance before WrestleMania 42 took place, Shapiro addressed the conversation surrounding ticket sales coming in lower than WrestleMania 41, which was also held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas the year before.
WrestleMania traditionally rotates to a different city each year, but WWE broke that pattern by returning to Vegas in 2026 after the success of WrestleMania 41 in 2025. Leading into the event, industry chatter focused heavily on softer resale prices and weaker ticket movement compared to the previous year. While discussing TKO’s overall business performance, Shapiro pointed to strong numbers across WWE, UFC, and PBR despite broader economic concerns.
“We’re still seeing massive uptick, maybe even more so, of families and fans that want to come out and escape the day-to-day.”
Shapiro later directly addressed the decision to run Las Vegas two years in a row and admitted it may have hurt WrestleMania 42’s business momentum.
“Maybe it’s a mistake I made because Vegas was so huge last year and such a winner for our fans and the product that I said to Nick Khan, ‘We’ve gotta go back to Vegas next year.’”
According to Shapiro, WWE’s normal WrestleMania rotation system helps the company capitalize on the “first mover” effect by bringing the event to a fresh market every year. Returning to the same city back-to-back removed some of that momentum.
The decision also resulted in WWE pushing New Orleans out of the WrestleMania 42 slot. The event had originally been planned for the Caesars Superdome before WWE pivoted back to Las Vegas instead. Even with the softer ticket discussion, Shapiro still strongly defended Las Vegas as a destination for major wrestling events. He also argued that comparisons to WrestleMania 41 created unrealistic expectations for the second Vegas event.
“Absolutely no regrets on going back there. The only reason you’re hearing some of the, hey it’s not what it was last year, it’s because we’re not benefiting from the first mover experience.”
WrestleMania 43 is already set to dramatically change WWE’s rotation strategy again, as the company prepares to bring WrestleMania to Saudi Arabia in 2027 for the first WrestleMania event ever held outside North America.
The move marks another major shift in WWE’s business strategy under the TKO banner as the company continues focusing heavily on global expansion and destination-style premium events.
Do you think WWE should avoid hosting WrestleMania in the same city back-to-back moving forward? Let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments below.
