Future Of Major WWE PLE's Confirmed After Mark Shapiro's Comments

The future of WWE's traditional major Premium Live Events is not under any threat, after concerns erupted surrounding the futures of the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, following comments from TKO President Mark Shapiro.

During a recent appearance on The Main Event With Andrew Marchand, Shapiro explained that WWE needed to move past events that had been created by Vince McMahon, leading many fans to believe that tentpoles such as the Rumble, 'Mania and SummerSlam were on the chopping block as TKO looked to further cement their own vision of the WWE brand.

WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble Are Not Going Anywhere

Shapiro mentioned the success of Wrestlepalooza in his interview with Marchand, highlighting how a new event could, in turn, become a 'superfranchise', which can then be sold to cities for a major site fee, in a similar manner to how 'Mania, the Rumble, SummerSlam and Survivor Series are.

“They’re open to new ideas. They never seem exhausted. They’re ready to take on a new shot, a new risk, a new opportunity. ‘Hey, Nick (Khan), let’s talk about launching a new event.’ Right now, a lot of our PLEs were created by Vince McMahon. We need to get in the business of taking that torch and moving past that, and Nick and Triple H created Wrestlepalooza, which is the launch event for our new ESPN deal, which did incredibly well and may turn into a superfranchise. Not to mention from a merch standpoint, I don’t need to tell you, securing the I.P. rights and then selling merch at Wrestlepalooza, let’s just say it was a real winner…” (HT Fightful)

Now, while former ECW owner Paul Heyman may have something to say about who technically created Wrestlepalooza, it turns out that Shapiro was not discussing WWE's longstanding events.

Despite the furor that was initially caused by the comments, it's unsurprising that the TKO President would not be thinking of moving past some of the most beloved shows on the WWE calendar, especially given the fact they have made hundreds of millions of dollars in taking them to Saudi Arabia in 2026 and 2027.

New Monthly WWE PLEs Could be on Their Way

However, this is not to say that new events, in the same vein as Wrestlepalooza, could not be added to WWE's schedule in place of established monthly shows. Fightful Select reached out to people within WWE, who clarified Shapiro's comments as being aimed in this direction.

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With WWE running more overseas-based events in the current era, such as Clash At The Castle, Crown Jewel, and Night of Champions, there are fewer standard monthly PLEs than there once were. Elimination Chamber and Money In The Bank are both now long-running PLE franchises, which play major parts in WWE's creative process each year. It would likewise be surprising to see them ushered out.

Perhaps, with relatively large gaps between PLEs from Survivor Series to the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber to WrestleMania (admittedly there are still Saturday Night's Main Events lodged into these spaces too) Shapiro and TKO have their eyes on bulking out WWE's calendar in these spaces, while Backlash, being the post-Mania PLE, could also be replaced for a newfound 'superfranchise' somewhere down the line.

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