The road to WrestleMania 41 takes the scenic route this year as WWE has headed to Europe for a short tour, with the next three weeks of “WWE Raw” and “WWE SmackDown” taking place in Spain, Belgium, Italy and (my homeland) the UK, starting this past Friday with a raucous show in Barcelona.
How much importance should we place on the tour? European shows have proven highly lucrative for WWE in the post-pandemic era, with a number of records being set — and then topped — for gate revenue over the past two years. For 2024’s Premium Live Events (PLEs) in France, Scotland and Germany, even nosebleed seats went for upwards of $200, making these relatively weaker shows competitive with major US events like SummerSlam for gate revenue.
Now, WWE is taking its international revenue strategy to the next level by bringing its weekly shows on the road — as well as some cleverly rebranded house shows — to cash in on the evident enthusiasm among European fans. But will it work?
It’s true that ticket prices in some of the smaller markets don’t look particularly impressive. Checking the resale websites this past Thursday, you could’ve gotten a ticket for Friday’s debut “SmackDown” in Barcelona for less than $100, for example — the kind of price range you’d expect to see in a smaller U.S. city and not the sort of sum which would justify a wrestling promotion decamping over an ocean.
But that’s in stark contrast to the UK, where even basic house show tickets are over $100, and a standard “Raw” seat will cost you more than $400 on Ticketmaster. When the London tickets first went on sale, you had to buy a $700 combination package for both shows to guarantee yourself a seat. These kinds of prices might not be popular with all fans, but they explain why WWE has hosted three UK PLEs here in as many years.
Of course, higher prices raise expectations, which begs the question: Will this “Road to WrestleMania” tour live up to them? For obvious reasons, this time of year tends to be WWE’s hottest creative period — and that’s before we factor in the return of perhaps the two biggest stars in modern wrestling, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena. If you’re going to deliver some of those blockbuster weekly outings we had in the run-up to Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes in 2024, this is when it would happen.
It makes sense, then, that WWE is already teasing some seriously big moments on this European tour, including the first meeting between Rhodes and post-turn Cena on Monday’s “Raw.” You only have to look at the spike in Netflix viewing figures (which jumped 19% the night after Elimination Chamber) to see how much anticipation there is for heel Cena.
Incidentally, with Cena also booked for the Glasgow and London editions of “Raw,” this marks the first time in five years we’ve seen the former world champion appear on three consecutive shows. And given his shocking conversion to the dark side, we can safely assume he isn’t just there to greet the local fans like he did during his surprise appearance at Money in the Bank in London back in 2023.
Cena isn’t the only big name being advertised. CM Punk, Reigns, and Randy Orton are all being billed for certain shows on this tour, as are Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley on the women’s side. Given that it’s WrestleMania season, you might well say “big deal,” but Reigns, in particular, has been a rarity on WWE shows since this past summer.
Having big names is one thing, but WWE needs to put them to good use. The sheer novelty of having televised shows here will always make them feel a bigger deal to European fans. But the whole “Road to WrestleMania” branding seems like a big hint from WWE that these aren’t going to be just your average weekly shows. They won’t be PLE-level, of course, but it would be nice to see something like WWE’s events at Madison Square Garden, which usually get a bit of special treatment.
To be honest, that shouldn’t be difficult to achieve. Ever since the Netflix premiere, we’ve had a lot of hints and teases about the direction for WrestleMania 41 — now it’s time for some of that to start taking shape. Is the anticipated three-way match between Reigns, Punk and Rollins really happening, for example? And how does Rhea Ripley get back into the Women’s World Championship scene? Who makes the first move to set up Jade Cargill vs. Naomi?
By the time those WWE planes are back on American soil, we should have some answers to those questions. If these shows are going to be worth the price tag, they need to not just flesh out those WrestleMania 41 matches but also make us want to see them more than ever.