Why WWE’s Calendar Cuts Has Not Helped Injury Crisis
WWE’s reduced calendar has been under the spotlight, but why have fewer shows not meant fewer injuries for the company’s stars?
WWE has made a slate of changes since being taken over by Endeavor in 2023. Among the most obvious is the extent to which WWE has cut down its calendar. House shows have all but been eliminated in the United States, and the effect that has on the stars of the company has been laid bare.
A report from Wrestling Observer has laid out how many matches, wins, and losses each WWE star had in 2025. It may surprise some fans and make wrestlers who competed over 300 times a year in the eighties and nineties extremely envious to find out that the star who wrestled most times for WWE in 2025 only had 64 matches.
WWE’s Calendar Did Not Reduce Major Injuries
While some fans might expect that fewer matches might mean fewer chances to get injured, that hasn’t proved to be the case. Seth Rollins only competed 19 times in 2025, but he was still forced to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship due to suffering a serious injury at Crown Jewel after a wild spot in his match with Cody Rhodes.
Now, a former WWE star has explained why fewer matches don’t mean fewer injuries in wrestling.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, former WWE Intercontinental Champion Lance Storm gave his thoughts on the situation and noted that with fewer opportunities to impress, today’s wrestling stars are taking more risks:
I think with fewer dates, the big thing is guys have more time to think of stuff to do. If you’re not gonna wrestle for several weeks, you want to get all of your stuff in. If you’re wrestling every single day, there isn’t that panic to get all the ideas and get all the cool things you thought of on TV first. Obviously, match standards as far as physicality and creativity are at an all-time high.
With the pressure to stand out with your quality of match, you’re gonna do more, and if you know this might be your only match this month, you wanna do everything you possibly can. But if you have 30 matches that month, you’ll think I’m gonna spread this around, or I’m gonna end up broken.
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