Amidst a lot of talk of budget cuts and photos of empty seats at live events, there’s been rumors of WWE reducing the number of pay-per-view (PPV) events in the coming year.
PWInsider’s sources have provided them with “the current plan” for 2018, and it does feature two fewer shows. But that’s not the big takeaway. No, that would be the lack of Great Balls of Fire on the schedule.
Oh, and also that Money in the Bank will be a Raw and SmackDown show, as a lot of fans had hoped it would be this year.
Here’s the reported schedule:
Royal Rumble, Jan. 28 - Philadelphia
Elimination Chamber, Feb. 25 - Las Vegas (Raw)
Fastlane, Mar. 11 - Columbus, OH (SmackDown)
WrestleMania, April, 8 - New Orleans
Backlash, May, 6 - Newark (Raw)
Payback, May 27 - Baltimore (SmackDown)
Money in The Bank, June, 17 - Chicago
Battleground, July 15 - Pittsburgh (Raw)
SummerSlam, Aug. 19 - Brooklyn
Extreme Rules, Sept. 16 - San Antonio (Raw)
Hell in a Cell, Sept. 30 - Nashville (SmackDown)
TLC, Oct. 21 - Boston (Raw)
Survivor Series, Nov. 18 - Los Angeles
Clash of Champions, Dec. 16 - San Jose, CA (SmackDown)
2017 featured six brand-specific shows each for red and blue, plus the ‘Big 4’. This would reduce that slightly to five Raw, four SmackDown and five co-branded.
In addition to either having MitB contracts be something which are competed for by Superstars from both brand or doubling the number of briefcases in play, making Money in the Bank a bigger deal could also give them the option of making it weekend which also includes a NXT live special. TakeOver: Chicago went down before Backlash this past May. Tacking in on to a now higher profile main roster show at roughly the same place on the calendar could establish the fifth TakeOver in booking plans and fans’ minds.
But there’s lots to mull over here while you’re mouring the alleged loss of Balls and Roadblock: Whatever-subtitle-they-might-have-tacked-onto-next-year.
What do you think of these plans, Cagesiders?