00:00A report has found that TKO have doubled WWE ticket prices over the last few years.
00:06A return date has been set for a Smackdown superstar.
00:10And all of us getting more adverts on Netflix.
00:13WTF!
00:13Find out more in this news video right now.
00:16So we'll kick things off with Netflix.
00:18What a halcyon world we live in over here in the United Kingdom.
00:21NordVPN.
00:22NordVPN forward slash Cultaholic.
00:24If you're not in the United Kingdom and want to watch on Netflix.
00:26But it's not as good as it used to be, Sam.
00:28Because it looks like we're all getting more Netflix adverts now.
00:31We'd been hearing that certain markets were starting to see adverts.
00:34And it was a bit like, but I'm paying for Netflix.
00:37Why am I getting adverts?
00:38We're supposed to be getting...
00:39I think we were initially promised, like, when it cut away to adverts,
00:43we'd either see the continued bits of matches or inter-match interviews.
00:48But instead, it's apparently just going to be rolled out internationally generally.
00:53So it's common already in the US on streaming services.
00:57But international audiences have largely avoided them so far.
01:01And WWE, apparently, according to Body Slam, they're going to be rolling it out on Raw,
01:07on Netflix, commercials, internationally, full stop.
01:11Makes you wonder what will happen to the in-between segment promos.
01:14Because if you're watching on Netflix over here in the UK, we've got accustomed to these.
01:18Well, some of them are wonderful.
01:19Some of them are just, you know, just generic wrestling promos.
01:22But they'll have an interview in the crowd, basically, for the live audience and the Netflix audience
01:25who aren't in the United States of America.
01:27And you'll have promos cut on the storylines that you're watching on Raw.
01:30It's breeded some fantastic moments.
01:31And I hope, at least for the live crowd, at least they stick around.
01:34Yeah, it might not be that we get every single slot possible filled with adverts straight away.
01:39That will be what ends up happening.
01:41But I think maybe in the initial phase, we might still see some of these interviews
01:45or at least continued bits of matches or even picture-in-picture.
01:48No, I think what will make for a better show is to watch slow-motion footage of your favourite superstars
01:52with, like, some royalty-free drum and bass over the top.
01:55Drum and bass? Why have I got drum and bass?
01:56Lo-fi, I meant. Lo-fi.
01:58I wouldn't mind it if they advertise things like they do on pay-per-views
02:02where they're all stood around going,
02:03Oh, this pizza's so good!
02:05And they're all holding, like, a slice with no bite out of it
02:07and not a single bite.
02:09Not one of them takes a bite out of it.
02:10But they're like, it's the best pizza ever!
02:12If you had that, I wouldn't mind watching the ads.
02:15Like The Miz when he's going,
02:16I've got bad B.O. me, I'm The Miz.
02:17Let's get Old Spice up because I'm 75 years old.
02:21Fantastic adverts all the same.
02:22Anyway, it looks like commercials are going to be more frequent
02:25for everyone outside of America as well.
02:27It's all over the ring.
02:28It may as well get further all over the eyes there.
02:31That must be what they're thinking.
02:32Now, the Hokey Cokey is a fantastic dance for all ages
02:35to enjoy at many different settings across the world.
02:39Santos Escobar is in his own version of the Hokey Cokey
02:41in terms of his degree career in recent times.
02:43He was in, then he was out, now he was back in.
02:46And a return date for him has been set for smack diddly down, Sam.
02:50Yeah, so this one coming from PW Insider reporting
02:53that the 41-year-old is currently scheduled
02:55to make his return to WWE
02:57on the October 27th edition of Monday Night Raw
03:00live in Anaheim, California.
03:03It is really weird because it was very much in-out
03:06and it was rumored that it was creative frustrations
03:11or things hadn't quite gone the way that he had expected
03:14or anticipated them to go.
03:16But then they apparently went back to him and were like,
03:18no, no, no, we have creative plans.
03:20And it was like, oh.
03:21And then he has a bit more money.
03:23Oh.
03:23Yeah, the money's the thing I've probably got him signed on
03:25because obviously if you're watching NXT a couple of years ago,
03:28you would have seen a Guarda del Fantasma
03:29be one of the staples,
03:31their feuds against the D'Angelo family
03:32and stuff of that ilk.
03:33We can see that Santos Escobar can be a leader of a faction
03:36who can sort of be a cornerstone of a show.
03:39Yeah.
03:39But since going to the main roster with Angel and Berto,
03:42they haven't really been given the ball to go with.
03:43They've just been kind of cast afloat, haven't they?
03:46It's just like, there you go.
03:47And whenever they get an air in,
03:49it's like, great, okay, what are we going to do with it?
03:51It ain't nothing.
03:51And it's like, we need something more to sink our teeth into.
03:55And if they're paying them more money,
03:56you've got to think we're going to get something.
03:57Yeah.
03:57And he's got a role by the looks of things as well,
03:59which is a slightly longer show,
04:01which means more TV time for people to be involved in.
04:03Yeah.
04:04So hopefully this could be a good thing.
04:07But I don't know if it will be,
04:08just based off the evidence we've seen over the past couple of years
04:10since he went to the main roster.
04:12Speaking of NXT, we have NXT deadline date and location news.
04:18It's the next big event.
04:19Sol Rook has had to sort of give up a title.
04:21My goodness me.
04:22Yeah, she's come out and kind of said, you know, that's it.
04:23I'm out.
04:24Unforeseen circumstances.
04:25So Zari is going to be doing the fighting for Hermshire.
04:27That will end well.
04:29Not saying that.
04:30That made me sorry.
04:31I thought Zari is fantastic.
04:32I thought Zari, yeah.
04:33Yeah.
04:34I mean, in terms of storyline,
04:35obviously you're going to have Zari a book to lose, aren't you?
04:37Yeah.
04:37Just set the cat among the pigeons.
04:38Yeah.
04:39That's probably what you're going to have to do.
04:40But what about deadlines, Sam?
04:42Well, deadline is set for this December.
04:45Fightful Select reporting that it's scheduled for Saturday,
04:476th of December at the Techport Arena in San Antonio, Texas.
04:52Big Sean's home, isn't it?
04:53Oh, yeah.
04:53Oh, big homecoming for Sean.
04:56But the venue's got a capacity of around 3,000,
04:58and it's centered currently around the Iron Survivor Challenge matches,
05:01which have quickly become quite a popular stipulation match in WWE,
05:05and the winners typically earn a shot at the NXT title.
05:08You can say that again, Sam.
05:09Yeah.
05:09You want to start the match because that means you've got more time in the match,
05:12but you want to avoid pinfalls because that means you have less time in the penalty box, Sam.
05:16It's a fantastic concept that I'm shocked has not been taken to the main roster as of yet.
05:20It'll get stolen soon, I imagine.
05:22We're going to have to spice up Survivor Series a bit more once more games get a bit played out.
05:27Yeah.
05:27Chef Michaels is a genius.
05:29Anyway, that's when deadline is happening.
05:30And now we move on to the headline news today, TKO's ticket price.
05:33I'm going to read this verbatim.
05:34It comes to us from Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics.
05:37I don't want to get anything wrong.
05:38He's put, using data obtained from Polestar, WrestleNomics, turn the page, Ross,
05:44discovered that Derry Weekly TV event tickets have roughly doubled in price,
05:48is the quotation mark there.
05:49When you adjust the figures for inflation,
05:51the average price was sitting around the $60 mark in 2020.
05:54As you progress forward towards September of 2023,
05:57when the TKO merger happened,
05:58prices immediately began to skyrocket,
06:01sitting around the $118 mark now.
06:04There is a little bit of a caveat for that though, isn't there?
06:06It is the sort of average ticket price being taken into account there.
06:10But essentially, when you look at concerts and other live sports,
06:15there has been an increase in ticket prices over those years.
06:18So when you break, it's a really interesting article.
06:20So do go dig it out because they've got all these graphs and charts and everything.
06:23But essentially, between 2023 and 2024,
06:26everything else in the entertainment sphere appear,
06:28it's just kind of plateau.
06:30So it's all kind of reached a new level there and leveled off.
06:33But the article does suggest a reason for the increase could lie in WWE's focus on more
06:39international events and less house shows domestically in the US,
06:43meaning less events for the American market as a whole,
06:45which creates scarcity, which drives demand and then increases prices.
06:50The president of TKO has gone on records in recent history saying that ticket prices are nowhere near
06:56where we want them to be when you look at UFC.
07:01So it's one of those where we are expecting this trend to continue.
07:05But WrestleNomics, interestingly, at the end of the article,
07:07they look into data from AEW and it suggests that their pricing trajectory is going in the opposite direction.
07:13So it dropped from an average price of $58 to $49 from 2022 to 2025.
07:19And long may that continue.
07:20Because quite frankly, look at the prices.
07:22I mean, I paid out the arse for Clash at the Castle 2022.
07:25I don't like it was when money in the bank,
07:27because I knew I wasn't going to be going on the trip.
07:29And I was like, oh, like I've never been to like a UK based WWE pay-per-view or anything.
07:34So I was like, I might try and go down.
07:35And then it was, okay, you can buy tickets now, but you have to buy for SmackDown as well.
07:39And then I was like, well, I just want to do money in the bank.
07:41I can't afford to do both.
07:43And then it was like two weeks before, it was like, right, the single tickets are left now.
07:47And they were all like 400 quid.
07:49And I was just like, and then I've got to get to London and I've got to get a hotel.
07:53And I was like, oh, man.
07:54It's just becoming a place where only the really, really rich can really afford.
07:57Because when you go to a wrestling show, you don't want your only option to be the very back row.
08:01No.
08:02Which I think for WrestleMania next year, a lot of people's only option, if you've got
08:04kids, if you've got a significant other.
08:06I think for us, it's weird because for us, it's like, it's, it was always expensive, but
08:12now it's getting like holiday or taking your family to Walton Towers expensive.
08:16So it's like a once a year thing.
08:18But then again, we only have Raw and SmackDown usually once, twice a year.
08:22Then we might get an event.
08:24So it's like, I understand why international markets might be high ticket prices.
08:27But it's got to be hard if you're an American who likes to go to Raw, the majority of the
08:32tapings are happening there and the average prices are just going, because it's hard enough
08:36for us to get like pay-per-view events.
08:38But if they're selling out, they're just going to keep increasing the prices.
08:41Keep doing it, aren't they?
08:41So stop buying the tickets.
08:42Stop.
08:43It'd be interesting to see.
08:44It's a shame that they don't run as many house shows.
08:46Obviously, it's a good thing for the talent because they get the rest of it a bit more.
08:48But in terms of just this report here, what the ticket price difference would be if they
08:52were still doing house shows compared to obviously 2020 when this report starts here.
08:56Yeah, it's one of those where I just don't know what that top end looks like because surely
09:02UFC's ticket price.
09:03I'd like to look at that actually.
09:05Are UFC's still climbing?
09:06Because if they're still climbing, then it's just infinite scale.
09:08There was a report a few months ago saying that was at the profit margins, I think,
09:12of UFC compared to UFC's is a lot bigger.
09:14Yeah.
09:14And that's why I think that's a driving force of TKO going, oh, if people are going to pay
09:18that for the UFC, obviously, they're going to pay that for the other combat sport.
09:22I just don't know where it ends.
09:24I don't know what the absolute tap out point is because I think it'll come.
09:28But will they care?
09:29You think it would, just the way the world's going, just in terms of the cost of living
09:32crisis we're all going through right now.
09:34There's got to be a breaking point for fans, but there isn't looking like there's one
09:37to be anytime soon, is there?
09:38No, it doesn't look like that.
09:40But we might be back later on with some more news if anything else breaks.
09:44But keep it with us here on the channel.
09:46But in the meantime, we've got some delicious things up over on Patreon, don't we, Ross?
09:50Oh, yes.
09:50Two WTF Moments episodes are now live.
09:52Crown Jewel.
09:52Sorry it was late.
09:53We were ill last week, me and Richard.
09:55My goodness me.
09:55It was terrible.
09:56And also WrestleDream is live as well.
09:58And me and Sam will be on Twitch later, twitch.tv, forward slash Cultaholic at 5pm BST
10:02to watch episode, what is it, eight?
10:04I think it's episode eight of Loaded.
10:06WCPW Loaded.
10:07WCPW.
10:09Stop it.
10:09No, I'm Flashbacks.
10:11Thanks for watching.
10:12We'll see you soon.
10:13Goodbye.
10:13Bye.
