Jonathan Coachman isn’t buying WWE’s messaging around “fan experience” anymore — and he says TKO’s own leadership is proving his point.
Speaking on 2 Count Tuesday, Coachman pointed to comments TKO President Mark Shapiro made during a recent earnings call, where Shapiro described the company’s two priorities as fan experience and profitability — in that order, according to Shapiro, though Coachman questioned whether that’s really how decisions are being made in practice.
Coachman cited WWE’s move of September’s sold-out AAA event from its original venue to the MGM Grand Garden Arena. In his view, the shift had nothing to do with improving anything for fans and everything to do with opening up a few thousand additional tickets to sell, especially given how vague WWE’s public explanation for the change has been.
If TKO was not chasing every last dollar… Mark Shapiro did an earnings call for TKO and he said they got two focuses—the fan experience and also profitability, and not necessarily in that order. His words, not mine.
Coachman didn’t hold back on his broader feelings toward WWE’s corporate leadership either, admitting he actively tunes out anything involving Shapiro because he sees every decision coming back to revenue rather than the wrestling product itself.
You’ve already sold out in Vegas… now they’re moving it to the MGM Grand Garden Arena… All they’ve told people is, ‘You’ll get more information.’ What does that even mean?… Why are we going to a place that only has a couple thousand more tickets? Make this make sense.
Coachman argued the show leaned so heavily on sponsor integrations and vignette-heavy pacing that it felt less like WWE’s second-biggest event of the year and more like an extended commercial break for viewers watching at home.
He also aimed what he sees as a broader unwillingness among WWE and TKO’s top decision-makers to acknowledge mistakes, pointing out that WWE has become the company’s biggest revenue driver yet rarely sees its top executives present at its largest shows.
The UFC is not your cash cow. WWE is your cash cow… At some point, when are we going to admit maybe we’ve made a mistake? They never admit it. Triple H won’t admit it. Shapiro won’t admit it.
Coachman’s overall message was blunt: as long as business priorities keep shaping WWE’s creative decisions instead of the other way around, he doesn’t expect the “fan experience” WWE keeps talking about to actually improve.
