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Real Reason WWE Made Major U-Turn On Its Calendar

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Triple H - Image via WWE.com

The real reason that WWE has made more changes to its calendar could well have been revealed.

Ever since Vince McMahon stepped aside and Endeavor completed its takeover of WWE, major changes have taken place. Behind the scenes staff cuts, a vastly reduced calendar, and wrestler releases have all seen the new bosses try and cut costs despite the company generating record revenue.

Domestic house shows have become a thing of the past for the main roster, meaning that they are now wrestling a lot less than previous generations. NXT house shows were even reduced for a spell, but now many of the vaunted “Coconut loop” shows are back, and for a very good reason.

WWE Backtracked On NXT Calendar

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the modern WWE calendar and why those in NXT needed to get their house shows back:

The thing that’s interesting this year is that everybody wrestled so much fewer matches because they basically eliminated house shows, and for a while, they cut way back on the NXT shows. But now they’re back to about four [NXT] house shows a month, so they’re doing more. I think they’ll end up doing more than that, even because there was a realisation that the developmental wrestlers weren’t getting enough matches, and they need to get more.

Meltzer then added:

There are people in NXT getting 30-40 matches minimum, but even that’s low. I know when they set up developmental, the idea was to get people 100 matches a year, 2 matches a week essentially. That’s less than guys worked in the past but I think that’s a number where you could progress pretty good rather than the 30-40 mark.

I think progression is slowing. The other thing is when you go to the main roster, for a lot of the younger wrestlers that have moved up, they’re actually working less on the main roster than they are in developmental.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit original source and h/t with a link back to TJR Wrestling for the transcription.