TKO Executive Takes Responsibility For Controversial WWE Decision: “Maybe It’s A Mistake”

This top TKO executive has just admitted to a possible mistake for WWE’s WrestleMania 42.

WWE WrestleMania 42 was held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, the same venue that hosted WrestleMania 41 last year. This year saw some major matches and huge title changes. Roman Reigns defeated CM Punk in a scintillating bout to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Cody Rhodes shockingly retained his WWE Title by defeating Randy Orton, who was gunning for a record 15th WWE World Title in his career. Oba Femi defeated Brock Lesnar in a shocking squash match.

In the Women’s division, Rhea Ripley was crowned new WWE Women’s Champion when she defeated Jade Cargill, and Liv Morgan won the Women’s World Heavyweight Title from Stephanie Vaquer after a heated feud. The Women’s Tag Team Division also saw a major surprise when a returning Paige teamed up with Brie Bella in place of Brie’s injured twin sister Nikki to defeat three other teams and win Tag Team Gold on the night.

Although the in-ring action was solid and well-received on both nights, the build-up to the event was far more controversial.

With WWE’s creative team coming under fire constantly for their booking decisions and inclusion of celebrities in top title feuds, things were quite messy leading up to ‘Mania 42, to say the least. Ticket sales weren’t doing very well either, with the numbers not reaching the numbers of last year’s event.

The ticket sales situation became extremely apparent, and WWE was forced to incorporate the problem into the WWE and World Heavyweight Title storylines. Many analysts and fans pointed towards the lack of creative development for the matches as the primary reason for low ticket sales, while many others pointed to a far more obvious-seeming reason, which was location fatigue.

WrestleMania is an event that is known to be held at different locations yearly to generate first-mover economic impact in new markets.

TKO board member and WWE Legend, The Rock, announced WrestleMania 42’s location as New Orleans in February last year. But two months later, WWE decided to have the event at Allegiant Stadium once again.

TKO President Mark Shapiro Addresses Repeat Venue For WWE WrestleMania 42 As A Possible Mistake

In an interview with Brian Sozzi on the Power Players podcast for Yahoo Finance, Mark Shapiro addressed the decision of the venue change for ‘Mania 42.

I would tell you that Vegas is two years in a row for WrestleMania 42. So, some of the challenges we had there is usually we move WrestleMania year after year to a new spot, and that allows us to obviously grow and see the kind of economic impact we would expect.

Maybe it’s a mistake I made because Vegas was so huge last year and such a winner for our fans and the product that I said to Nick Khan, who runs the WWE, ‘We’ve gotta go back to Vegas next year. We have to move New Orleans down the road and we got to come back to Vegas.’

While Shapiro did admit that repeating the venue may have been a mistake, he said in the same interview that he had no regrets about it.

Absolutely no regrets on going back [to Las Vegas for WrestleMania 42]. The only reason you’re hearing some of, ‘Hey, it’s not what it was last year,’ it’s because we’re not benefiting from the first mover experience.

Also read: TKO Executive Breaks Silence On The Rock’s WWE Status