Matt Hardy Weighs In on WWE’s Rising Ticket Prices Under TKO – Matt Hardy has shared his perspective on WWE’s rising ticket prices, a subject that has sparked debate among fans in recent months. The TNA World Tag Team Champion used his podcast, The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, to analyze TKO’s new approach, comparing it to Vince McMahon’s more “family-oriented” strategy and questioning whether the current model can last long term.
The conversation comes after TKO executive Mark Shapiro argued that WWE had left money on the table under McMahon’s leadership and that the company is now following UFC’s more aggressive pricing structure. Hardy acknowledged that, for now, the strategy is working since WWE continues to sell out arenas, but he pointed out what he believes are the key differences between the old and new philosophies.
“I feel like Vince wanted to make as much money as he could possibly make, but I don’t feel like he wasn’t as layered as these people,” Hardy explained. “I feel like Vince was a little more family-oriented when it came to those events. He wanted people to bring their kids out. And I don’t think he tried to take them for everything they could possibly pay. I think he tried to charge what he thought was fair, and he wanted to fill the house up. And he did want parents to bring their kids. And even when they changed the thing from the Attitude Era after they got out there and then kind of went back to a PG product that was to attract kids, because they know, whenever you have kids that demand, they want to come out and they love WWE and they want to see their favorite superstars, and that means the parents have to come with them too. So he obviously had a strategy there. I think these guys TKO is much more focused just on maximizing the profit and optimizing it to the highest level.”
Hardy also noted that the success of TKO’s pricing model depends heavily on WWE continuing to deliver strong creative output. If the quality of storylines or characters were to decline, he believes the higher ticket costs could deter fans in the future.
“Well, they damn sure better make sure the creative is as good as possible, that they have a bunch of compelling, enthralling storylines and characters that people are going to pay top dollar to see. Because if they don’t, it would certainly be problematic,” Hardy warned. “As of right now, there isn’t any worry… fans are so into what WWE is doing currently, they’re willing to pay top dollar to attend these events. It’s going to be really interesting to follow the dissension and the nascence of WWE as they… have become such a mainstream act in many, many ways. It’s going to be interesting to see how high they can descend, and if this becomes a problem for them in the future, down the road, a couple of years from now, whatever, two, three years from now, how long can they keep up this momentum?”
Matt Hardy Weighs In on WWE’s Rising Ticket Prices Under TKO
