Why is WWE SummerSlam happening on Saturday?

WWE SummerSlam 2022 will take place on Saturday, July 30th at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. Because of this, WWE has moved its premium live events from Sundays to Saturdays.

The WWE SummerSlam is here, taking place on Saturday, July 30th. Eight matches are on the card, including Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar in a Last Man Standing Match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

WWE fans may have noticed the trend for a majority of their premium live events to take place on Saturdays instead of Sundays as in the past.

Why is WWE SummerSlam held on a Saturday?

Back in November 2021, then-President and Chief Revenue Officer and now Co-CEO Nick Khan spoke on the company’s third-quarter financial results conference call about changing their approach to pay-per-view events. That included holding shows on Saturdays and placing them in stadiums for the 2022 schedule.

The quote can be read below, h/t combative:

“One area we’ve explored over the past year is our strategic approach to pay-per-views. We’ve looked at all parts of this business and are making adjustments that we believe will improve our results by making every pay-per-view a special event, not just as content, but in all things surrounding every event. As promised last quarter, we recently announced our 2022 pay-per-view calendar. The dates, cities and venues.

“For the first time in our history, we’re hosting at least four nights of pay-per-view at a stadium in the United States. First, the Royal Rumble on January 29th at the Dome at America Center in St. Louis, a Saturday night with no real competitive program on the sports calendar. We usually did Royal Rumble a week later during Pro Bowl weekend. This year we wanted to support our NBCU partners and not compete against the Winter Olympics. Ticket sales so far are off the charts, track as well as this year’s SummerSlam where we ended up having a goal four times the size of SummerSlam 2019, a clear sign of the importance of taking our tentpole events to the major venues across the world right side to bring night. Next, in terms of stadium events, a two-day WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Saturday April 2nd and Sunday April 3rd. In 2016 we had over 100,000 fans at ATT&T Stadium at WrestleMania. Let’s see what two nights bring to our Super Bowl. Our follow-up stadium event, Money in the Bank, a Big Five pay-per-view, will return to Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium for the weekend of July 4th. Over 400,000 people will travel to Las Vegas this weekend to celebrate the fourth. We expect to see many of them at Money in the Bank. About a month later, SummerSlam again at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, on a Saturday, July 30th. Were you in Nashville for a weekend this summer? It’s booming and growing and we’re expanding SummerSlam with it. As we saw at this past SummerSlam in Las Vegas, not a single ticket was purchased in Tennessee by the 50,000+ attendees. not one. So many similarities between these two cities on the weekends, not much overlap between these two cities on the weekends. A robust ticketing market in each that we can tap into and grow in.”

Most of WWE’s premium live events took place on Saturdays. There were a few exceptions, such as Night 2 of WrestleMania 38 (April 3), WrestleMania Backlash (May 8), and Hell in a Cell (June 5).

There are four remaining Premium Live Events in the calendar year after SummerSlam. They all take place on a Saturday. You can find the dates in the following list:

• Clash at the Castle, Saturday 3 September
• Extreme Rules, Saturday October 8th
• Crown Jewel, Saturday 5 November
• Survivor Series, Saturday, November 26th

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