CM Punk Trolls WWE Over Moving Money In The Bank To Smaller Venue

WWE announced it would be moving Money in the Bank in Las Vegas, Nev. from the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium to the 17,000-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena. Fans who bought tickets to the July 2 event received an email notifying them of the change.

CM Punk wasted little time trolling his former employer about moving to a smaller venue. The top AEW star, who will challenge Hangman Adam Page for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship this weekend at AEW Double or Nothing, took to his IG stories to mock WWE’s announcement.

Punk posted the WrestleMania VII poster, sarcastically writing “another bomb threat smh.” Punk’s joke was in reference to WWE moving WrestleMania from the Los Angeles Sports Coliseum to the 10,000-seat LA Memorial Coliseum in 1991. Though WWE cited “bomb threats,” amid rising tensions of the Gulf War, many outlets reported slow ticket sales as the real reason.

AEW President Tony Khan got in on the fun, joyfully tweeting about breaking the news of Money in the Bank’s move to UFC President Dana White. Money in the Bank will go head-to-head with UFC 276, which Khan believes is part of the reason the event was unable to sell out.

In another potentially major change to the WWE pay-per-view, top stars Ronda Rousey and undisputed WWE champion Roman Reigns are no longer advertised as of this writing. Reigns is also not expected to compete at WWE Hell in a Cell as WWE continues to scale down his full-time duties as its ace.

WWE recently announced it would be booking more stadium shows, with the goal being to increase ticket revenue rather than sell out the stadium entirely.

“The scalability of large stadiums is very beneficial when it comes to having live attendance over 15k,” read a report from Andrew Zarian of Mat Men (h/t Wrestling Inc).

“The event doesn’t have to be a sell-out of 50k+ but now you have room to do 20-35k shows more often leading to much higher revenue & higher level of excitement for the event.”

WWE President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan is reportedly behind WWE’s new philosophy on booking stadium shows. With Money in the Bank moving to a smaller venue, it’s fair to question if WWE will have contingency plans for all stadium shows moving forward. WrestleTix recently estimated the event has sold 17,924 tickets and forecasted Money in the Bank will sell over 25,000 tickets when all is said and done.

As part of WWE’s plans to book more stadium shows, it’ll be interesting to see if relocating to smaller venues will also be a part of that plan moving forward. After selling over 15,000 tickets for a large stadium show—as was indicated in the aforementioned report—WWE moved to a smaller venue.

Will relocation become part of the norm?

WWE has already run three stadium shows in 2022. WWE Royal Rumble aired from The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, selling over 44,000 tickets. In April, WWE ran two nights of WrestleMania inside AT&T Stadium where it sold an estimated 57,000 to 60,000 each night. WWE now has two stadium shows remaining for 2022, in addition to Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia on November 5, which is a paid show where WWE will not be tasked with selling tickets.

WWE SummerSlam on July 30 takes place at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn. while WWE Clash at the Castle emanates from Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales on September 3. While Clash at the Castle has not sold out just yet, WWE’s pay-per-view return overseas moved 40,000 tickets in its first week. WWE officials are said to be very happy with these early returns.