WWE Moves Show Due To Poor Ticket Sales

WWE was forced into some changes.

On October 1st, NXT will move to the CW Network, and the show will feature a special appearance from CM Punk. On the episode, Punk will be the special guest referee when Ethan Page defends his NXT Title against Trick Williams.

The confirmation came after Punk made several appearances on the September 17th edition of the show.

Meanwhile, it had already been announced that Randy Orton would appear on the October 8th episode in St. Louis, Missouri. However, before his match with Je’von Evans was announced it had already come to light that the taping had been moved to the much smaller Enterprise Center.

WWE Moves NXT Taping

Reporting in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer confirmed that taping on October 8th was moved due to poor ticket sales. The event was a long way short of getting even close to a sell-out of 14,000.

The second of the two NXT tapings for CW, on 10/8, which was scheduled for the major arena in the market, the Enterprise Center, was m moved to a smaller building in nearly Chesterfield, MO, due to disappointing ticket sales. They had 2,196 tickets out in a building which would hold 14,000.

Meltzer added that the new venue is significantly smaller, and as such will end up packed to the rafters. He added that WWE’s choosing to switch venues instead of tarping off vast sections of seating is the opposite of AEW’s current strategy.

They had pushed it as the second taping on CW and with Orton, from St. Louis, as the guest star. The new building The Factory at The District, could hold about 2,300 for the taping but right now is only set up for 1,715 and tickets now out are 1,129. It should end up packed.

Meanwhile, it’s been reported that NXT Level Up will be scrapped when NXT moves to the CW Network.