WrestleMania Changes & Locations, More International PLE’s

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Cities all over the world compete for the opportunity to host major WWE events. WrestleMania 40 proved to be another financial success for both WWE and Philadelphia, which may see upwards of $200 million added to the local economy.

WWE President Nick Khan spoke at the World Congress of Sports convention on Wednesday and provided some new details on the company’s outlook for future locations.

Key takeaways:

• The location for next year’s WrestleMania 41 has not been finalized, but Las Vegas is one of the finalists under consideration.
• WWE is looking to run more stadiums that have hosted the Super Bowl, but fewer stadiums on the East coast.
• WrestleMania will probably move to a different weekend to avoid competition with the NCAA basketball tournament

The WWE CEO recommitted their plans to hold more International premium live events. Their goal is to have the ‘big five’ shows in the US and all the others in other countries like we’ve seen for Elimination Chamber Perth and Backlash France.

“We sat down together a few years ago and decided, so the big five premium live events ... should be in the United States or Canada. All of the other events, the goal is to have them from international locations.”

WWE fans have needed to set their alarms to different times in the past so they can watch a premium live events. Shows in Saudi Arabia air in the afternoon for fans on the East Coast, and Australia's Elimination Chamber event started at 4:00 AM EST. This will become more of a trend as the company continues announcing more PLEs.

NBCUniversal secured a $1 billion streaming agreement with WWE, designating Peacock as the exclusive platform for all pay-per-views, specials, and library content. Their streaming agreement with Peacock is set to expire in 2026.

With Peacock as the company's primary streaming partner, it does not matter to them if fans watch the PLEs live. The money is still coming in for WWE, as fans in North America can watch at their leisure whenever they like.

I think it is a great idea to have some premium events in other countries, gives the fans a real joy there to be able to see them. Yes, they take there TV shows to other countries but premium events are larger.