Jonathan Coachman and Vince Russo went after WWE’s current Premium Live Event strategy, arguing the company is cramming too many major shows together and destroying the importance of every event in the process.
While speaking on The Coach and Bro Show, Coachman broke down WWE’s recent event schedule and questioned how the company can realistically build meaningful storylines when major shows are stacked almost back-to-back. Coachman pointed directly to the timeline surrounding WrestleMania, Backlash, Saturday Night’s Main Event, Clash in Italy, and Night of Champions.
“We had WrestleMania on—what was the date?—April 17th, I think. Then Backlash was on May 10th, so three weeks. And now we have this Saturday—Saturday Night’s Main Event. Then two more weeks after that, Clash in Italy. Then two weeks after that, Night of Champions.”
Coachman then brought up another issue he clearly was not happy about — Roman Reigns being featured in advertising for Night of Champions despite reportedly not being scheduled for the show.
“Roman Reigns is on the poster, but isn’t going to be at the show. So they sold tickets—and they’re sold out, by the way, kudos to them—but they sold them, and people thought Roman Reigns was going to be in the main event.”
From there, Coachman questioned how WWE can properly develop feuds and make events feel important when there is barely any breathing room between them.
“So now we’ve got four shows in about five or six weeks. How do you build when you’re trying to put these together?”
That immediately led to Russo blasting WWE’s overall philosophy under TKO Group Holdings, claiming the company’s obsession with taking every available dollar has completely watered down the product.
“When you’re laying that out to me, immediately I’m saying to myself—none of these shows are going to mean anything. They’re all running into each other. There are no standalone events.”
Russo then directly blamed WWE’s constant event schedule on corporate greed and continued hammering the point home by arguing no show can truly feel special if WWE keeps stacking them so closely together.
“What does that go back to? Having your hand out and taking money from everybody that’s going to give it to you. That’s the reason why nothing means anything anymore. “No event is going to mean anything if they’re this close together.”
Russo also compared WWE’s current approach to older eras of the company when WrestleMania season was built more slowly and carefully.
“I remember there was a time—I don’t know if they did this while you were there—but there was a time where we didn’t have any pay-per-views before WrestleMania.”
Coachman confirmed that strategy and explained WWE intentionally used long builds to maximize anticipation: “There were no pay-per-views because we wanted an eight-week build.”
Russo then contrasted that with today’s rapid-fire schedule while pointing out how expensive older pay-per-views still were despite happening less frequently: “Eight-week build, and they were $79. Now we’re getting a two-week build. What are you going to do in two weeks?”
The criticism comes at a time when WWE is aggressively expanding its live event footprint under TKO, including more international Premium Live Events, specialty shows, and crossover branding opportunities. While the strategy still leads to strong ticket sales and massive revenue, Coachman and Russo believe the nonstop pace is hurting the storytelling and making once-major events feel less meaningful.
Do you think WWE is running too many major shows too close together, or does the constant stream of events keep the product more exciting? Leave your thoughts below.
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