Jarrett has analyzed SummerSlam’s poor ticket sales and pointed to the major reasons for the lack of interest in the show.
On his “My World” podcast, Jarrett said that pro wrestling has its ebbs and flows in popularity and said that “consumer confidence” is low for WWE right now. He put down the lull in ticket sales to some questionable decisions WWE made, one being the finish to John Cena’s match at the end of last year. He feels that momentum played an important part in ticket and merch sales for the events surrounding Cena last year, arguing that one interesting storyline can carry the company.
“You know, my old man subscribed to the fact, and lots of territory promoters lived on this — get one program hot. That’s all you got to do. It carries you underneath. You can ebb and flow. You can build stars. You can create a set of circumstances where your main event, essentially, that’s who you really have to take care of from a financial perspective, and you can turn over talent,” he said. “I think it’s, unfortunately — and man, I hope I’m wrong — but the boom, if you will, you know, how far on the backside of it, everything that goes with it. But I’ll just kind of go into consumer confidence, that the cumulative effect, I get that Unreal is pleasing your partner in Netflix, I understand that maybe it was John Cena, maybe it was a collective creative decision [that drove sales].”
He also said how WrestleMania hasn’t been “favorable” to WWE lately, to highlight the downturn in interest in the product.
Jarrett questions decision to have two-day show
Jeff Jarrett contrasted WWE’s limited number of matches on its PLEs with AEW’s cards, which often feature more than 10 matches, as another factor behind the low ticket sales. He then questioned the logic behind holding a two-day event in Minneapolis and if there was enough data to support the demand, despite hometown hero Brock Lesnar featuring on the card.
“Minneapolis — I’m not going to say that is a bad town by any stretch — I think it’s a very good town, but back-to-back stadium nights, where is the data?” he asked. “And I’m not going to say that they didn’t get huge rights fees. Where’s the data to back that up and say, ‘Yep, Minnesota back-to-back stadium nights will work’? Where is the data that Brock Lesnar is a needle mover more than other markets in Minneapolis just because he’s from there?”
Lesnar will be going up against Oba Femi at the show, in what many believe could be his final WWE match. Jarrett added that former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon didn’t believe the hometown hero should always win in his hometown, stating that McMahon would often ensure that person lost.
The latest ticket sales report has revealed that the show continues to struggle to move tickets, with both nights selling under 23000 tickets.
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