WWE Chief Creative Officer Paul Levesque spoke to the media after Saturday’s Money in the Bank PLE.
Before taking questions, he paid tribute to John Cena, who earlier announced his retirement run.
He is calling his own shot on how he ends it. Most people don’t get to do that. Most people could do that and then choose not to. I don’t know why that is in our business, but I think that’s the best way.
I think, for an athlete, for a professional, for an artist — for whatever you wanna call and label what we do — to be able to call your shot in and out, to be able to walk out healthy, happy, content, to me that’s where it is. And I’m happy that John’s able to do that. And I think it’s gonna be an exciting 2025. I can’t wait to watch it unfold, but it’s gonna be an incredible year.
He also stated that the company had sold over 45,000 tickets over the weekend in Toronto between SmackDown, Money in the Bank, and NXT Heatwave.
The gate for Money in the Bank was a Canadian arena record, he claimed, at 19,858. He did not put a dollar amount on that, however. He also stated that “it looked like” a viewership record for Money in the Bank “across platforms”.
Levesque also reiterated that “80% of the globe” would have access to Raw, SmackDown and the WWE PLEs on Netflix from January 2025, with the remainder of the global market (largely the US) joining that figure over time.
He then took questions. When asked whether Toronto could expect another “big event” in 2025, he said:
Toronto might be tough. I’m not 100% sure on that from a PLE standpoint. I’m sure from a TV standpoint, obviously we look at coming here a lot because of the reaction that was here tonight. I’m sure Canada will get another massive event before the end of the year. Where exactly, we’re still working on.
On John Cena’s eventual Hall of Fame induction, he said:
I’m of the opinion that John has earned the right to say when John wants to go in the Hall of Fame, when it works for his schedule — he’s a busy man — when it works for his schedule, when it works for his time, when it’s right for him as a person.
Sometimes performers want to put some distance between what they did so that they can separate from it and then have a return sort of moment and feel that again after it’s subsided.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics asked the following question regarding the ongoing legal issues facing Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and the company:
About a year ago, WWE disclosed that it was cooperating with a federal investigation involving misconduct allegations involving Vince McMahon. There’s a civil lawsuit now that’s been put on hold pending that investigation. Can you tell us, is WWE still cooperating with that federal investigation?
Levesque’s brief reply was: “I can’t talk about legal stuff at the moment.”
