MR. TITO: Wrestling Fans Need to Stand-Up to the Price Gouging and Uncaring TKO-Owned WWE
This Saturday, the WWE will have their Wrestlepalooza premium live event (PLE) and it shall be the first streaming event on the new ESPN+ streaming service (unless you take Stephanie McMahon’s advice and utilize VPNs to watch it on Netflix). It’s an event that features big match-ups such as Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena, mixed tag match with CM Punk/AJ Lee vs. Seth Rollins/Becky Lynch, the Usos returning as a tag team, and other matches… Seems pretty exciting, right?
Well… If you’re ready to now pay $29.99 for the “starting” price of the ESPN+ app, which is above the $7.99 to $16.99 options you once paid for Peacock.
And that’s among the list of many things that wrestling fans are complaining about the WWE recently.
– Brock Lesnar’s return after being named in Vince McMahon’s lawsuit.
– Increasing ticket prices to attend WWE live events.
– Increased merchandise prices (though to WWE’s credit, more choices than ever).
– Lots of micro-transactions in WWE 2K video games.
– WWE selling out Royal Rumble 2025 and Wrestlemania 43 (2026) to Saudi Arabia.
– Putting cities against each other in bidding wars, such as moving from Minneapolis to Las Vegas and recently New Orleans to Las Vegas for Wrestlemanias. Prices are only going up, as cities have to doll out more cash to WWE.
– Making things difficult for you, as a fan of BOTH WWE and AEW, by placing random PLEs against AEW’s top events.
Let’s assume that you want to watch every WWE show right now on a monthly:
– Obtaining USA Network on basic cable is between $50 to $100, depending on provider
– Netflix can be between $7.99 with ads or $17.99 to $24.99 for various packages without ads
– ESPN+ = $29.99
– Watching NXT on the CW Network could be free via their app and/or digital antenna in your area.
Prior to 2025, you could possibly watch Smackdown for free on FOX (digital antenna), while paying $50 to $100 for basic cable packages, and $7.99 to $16.99 for Peacock to watch PLEs. It’s potentially a $30 difference, as Netflix and Peacock could wash year-over-year and the ESPN app is the difference with Cable/Satellite prices being there for either year.
In other words, you’re paying $360.00 more per year.
BUT I would argue that the quality for that higher price is dropping… And I believe that the WWE peaked through Wrestlemania 39 and has been riding on the fumes of that peak for another year through Wrestlemania 40 while never being as good ever since.
And things are only going to decline further from here. As you can see by Virtue’s X/Twitter post, the WWE Main Event scene has a lot of guys in their late 30s or throughout their 40s. The older you get, the more prone to injury that you become while also having some diminishing athletic ability. I’d argue that WWE hasn’t performed a good job with their developmental of MALE WRESTLERS since the final days of FCW where the likes of Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and a few others were signed. No top stars are ready to take the places of Roman, Seth, Punk, Cody, Brock, Drew, and other greats at the top of the WWE right now.
Why should you pay higher ticket prices to see a WWE product in decline?
Why should you pay higher streaming prices to see a WWE product in decline?
Why should you get price gouged on merchandise for a WWE product in decline?
The simple answer is don’t!
ALL of you are complaining right now.
This is the SAME WWE that disappointed you heavily during the 2010s, particularly the latter half of the 2010s when Brock Lesnar was too dominant and Roman Reigns was overpushed as an inexperienced and NOT over babyface.
YOU painfully supported and showed loyalty to the WWE product DESPITE the UTTER CRAP that the WWE fed you during the late 2010s.
And yet your reward is HIGHER PRICES, at a rate HIGHER than overall inflation, for the same streaming services, ticket prices, and merchandise that you bought before?
For my readers who actually try to go to every Wrestlemania annually… Have fun traveling to Saudi Arabia to keep that streak going! It’s not easy, brotha… Saudi Arabia is not the easiest place to fly to and isn’t as fun and flexible as other North American cities are before attending the event for things to do.
Maybe it’s time for you, as a wrestling fan, to GROW A SACK and make the WWE pay for their corporate greed?
Ticket prices are too high? Then STOP going to events. The big cities who host WWE are overpaying them, and therefore pushing higher ticket prices onto you in addition to how TKO wants to price gouge you to attend events. Besides, the HD television product is way better than seeing stuff live now and that includes other sports leagues.
ESPN+ is too expensive at $29.99 per month? Only buy it for bigger WWE event months, like Rumble, Wrestlemania, and SummerSlam. Now, you’re only paying $90 per year… Don’t let yourself pay for Disney’s ridiculous $40 debt and for the overpriced NFL and NBA contracts that they have in place.
Cut cable… Comcast, Dish, DirecTV, YouTube, Sling, etc. are all price gouging you and are pushing their debt onto you through higher prices for their services. And the channel’s debt. ESPN remains one of the most expensive channels and the cost of them hosting NFL, NBA, and now WWE is getting pushed onto the consumers via higher prices.
Gotta give up that merchandise fix… Sorry, but spending hundreds of dollars on title belts is a waste of money. It just is… $40+ t-shirts too.
Honestly, watch Netflix… They are going after the NFL contracts during 2029, which is conveniently when WWE’s 5-year out clause happens. Netflix reportedly put in a bid for Warner Bros., too, which is up for sale and in a possible bidding war with Skydance/Paramount. Netflix is about to get expensive…
Folks, I’m NOT here to encourage you to find ways to watch things illegally… I believe that if the art or entertainment is good, it’s worth the TIME and the MONEY. WWE’s product isn’t good right now, so therefore it’s not only not worth the money, but not worth the time as well. Rather than wasting your time watching illegal streams, just don’t watch it all.
Instead, enlist in the “Tito Plan” for being a reasonable wrestling fan through 2025:
(a) Only purchase streaming services for the big 3 WWE events. I’ve only had Peacock for 3 months this year, Rumble, Wrestlemania, and SummerSlam. I usually bought on the day of the event to allow me to catch a second PLE.
(b) Don’t watch RAW or Smackdown AT ALL. Watch clips on YouTube or Social Media, and that’s it. These shows are infomercials for the PLEs, so why watch?
(c) Don’t attend WWE live shows, period, until they cut their prices. I thought WWE’s ticket prices were too much during the late 2010s when floor ticket prices were around $100 to $150. Those are nosebleed tickets now with bright lights in your eyes for the entire night.
(d) Don’t buy the overpriced merchandise. Learn to do without…
(e) Bookmark or follow a good wrestling website, such as NoDQ, and keep up with news and results.
If you take out Royal Rumble 2025, which was expensive but I purchased reasonably priced tickets on the week before the show, my total WWE bill for 2025 was $16.99 * 3 and the $129 that I paid for WWE 2K25 only to review it for the NoDQ website and maybe streaming it with NoDQ later (oops). Thus, removing the Rumble tickets, my overall bill was LESS than $200 to feed my WWE hobby and if you take the exception of the WWE 2K game, under $60 for just the 3 months of Peacock subscription.
AND all of the time that I’ve saved by not watching hours of this crap, particularly the RAW and Smackdown shows.
You might suggest “does that make him LESS of a fan?” or “does that make him a credible columnist?”, and the answer is an obvious NO.
Why? Because I forget more wrestling in 1 hour than most fans have stored for their entire life. FACT!!!
Watching EMPTY CALORIE wrestling shows, such as RAW and Smackdown, does NOT and I repeat NOT make you more of a fan. Watching many EMPTY CALORIE PLE shows also doesn’t make you more of a fan than me. I’ve been a fan for almost 40 years now and I know how this stuff works, what is good and what is bad, and have a pretty idea how things play out compared to you.
Only difference between YOU and ME is that I have more money in my wallet by not paying for overpriced WWE products or subscriptions to streaming platforms while I also have more time.
TIME = MONEY, folks, and when WWE owns YOUR time, they can utilize it to negotiate bigger deals with NBC/Comcast and Netflix. The surge in interest for the WWE product caused Netflix to pay $500 million per year, yet for you as a fan, where are you seeing that THANK YOU from the WWE? Any discounts applied to your Netflix service? No, the prices keep going up.
And poor-ass WWE is putting sponsors all over the ring… I used to think nothing of it, but as WWE receives all of these massive deals from streamers, cities, and now countries… NONE of these boosts in their revenue are translating to CHEAPER costs for the loyal wrestling fans.
That’s why you have to make WWE pay…
When you stop going to WWE events, their arenas will look empty and they’ll get mocked for not filling arenas again.
Lower viewership for WWE Smackdown will cause NBC/Comcast to not renew or not overpay for their next deal in 2029.
Lower viewership for WWE RAW will cause Netflix to opt-out of its 10-year deal.
Lower merchandise sales will cause WWE to be forced to lower its prices to move unsold inventory.
Go ahead, WWE, make our day by going to Saudi Arabia more often to make up the difference. Eventually, they’ll see the light and stop overpaying for your product when they see that we’re underpaying for it.
And think about this while we’re on the Saudi Arabia topic. There’s talk of multiple legendary superstars appearing on Wrestlemania 43, such as Stone Cold, the Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and the Rock. I want you to THINK about that as you ponder why the Rock didn’t appear at Wrestlemania 41 even though logic dictated that he should have instead of Travis Scott.
I would LAUGH if Wrestlemania 43, in Saudi Arabia, gets Roman vs. Rock happening. That would be icing on the top of this corporate greedy cake that TKO has served to you.
You have the choice here, folks… You can continue to be WWE marks and therefore solidify yourself as TKO marks by getting constantly price gouged by WWE itself or the streaming services that it forced you to join (Netflix and ESPN), or you can be a man and stand up for yourself as a consumer.
It’s your choice.
I’m promising you this… I’m NOT watching WWE Wrestlepalooza. No thanks… I can do without and I’ll be OK.
For those who are watching WWE Wrestlepalooza, enjoy it, as WWE and ESPN rushed their relationship to happen at the last minute and it’s causing Cable and Satellite companies to be LATE on providing ESPN+ services, free of charge, to those who subscribe to ESPN as a cable/satellite channel. Therefore, you’re essentially paying DOUBLE for ESPN this month (kudos to the Stevie Richards Show for pointing this out). Bend over and take it from your corporate masters!
Instead of me lecturing you on what a foolish wrestling fan that you may be, thanks to YOU overpaying WWE or ESPN to be a fan, I’ll make this into an official wrestling column by providing you my predictions for Wrestlepalooza? How about that?
Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE Wrestlepalooza Predictions
– CM Punk/AJ Lee defeats Seth/Becky, with AJ Lee getting the pin on Becky to set-up singles matches or even mixed tag rematches. WWE is going to milk this couples feud for a while.
– Brock Lesnar defeats John Cena, and I predict we’ll get a mini-run of Brock Lesnar again to set-up Lesnar vs. Gunther for WM 42.
– Usos over Bron and Bronson
– Stephanie Vaquer over Iyo Sky, as Iyo was just champion and I think WWE thinks highly of Stephanie and her obvious look.
– Cody retains over Drew, though I’d enjoy if Drew snuck in a title victory over Cody.
There you go… Thanks to ESPN, you’re now paying $6.00 per match to watch it on streaming!
As for AEW All Out Predictions… I predict that Dave Meltzer will give out many, many stars over performances that he personally loves. How about that?
Think about this… What if Netflix buys Warner Bros.? Unless that’s just the properties like Bugs Bunny, DC Comics, Hanna Barbara, etc., along with years of television and movie, if Netflix owns TNT and TBS, things could get really interesting for AEW.
Anyway, I need to get prepared for a Friday evening WITHOUT wrestling (not watching Smackdown) and a entire Saturday WITHOUT wrestling (not matching WWE Wrestlepalooza or AEW All Out). What a weekend!
NoDQ will have full coverage of both WWE Wrestlepalooza and AEW All Out… So sit back and enjoy Aaron Rift conveniently doing the hard work and delivering results right to the device of your choice. What a guy!
Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ