WWE cancels long-running tradition after more than two decades ahead of Netflix move - Reports
WWE is currently promoting their move over to Netflix next month. However, it seems that this has taken attention away from the fact that the company has seemingly canceled a long-running Vince McMahon tradition.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, the annual Tribute To The Troops show has been canceled after not featuring on the 2024 schedule.
The show originally debuted back in 2003 and has been a Christmas tradition for the company ever since with many of the recent years being pre-recorded ahead of time.
“No more. It’s done. Obviously, the year being up, I think in the last month people were kind of asking when they’re taping it. It just was not being taped. They had too many other things going on. I don’t know if it’s done for good, but this is the first year that they haven’t done anything with that. I think that in 2019 I believe they didn’t do a television show, but they still did events and they still taped stuff. But this year, nothing. It was a Vince McMahon thing, and it’s not Vince’s company anymore. It’s not something that you’re going to advertise that we’re not doing this anymore, but it quietly went away this year.”
Tribute to the Troops was JBL's brain child and began back in 2003 when the company would make trips to The Middle East to provide entertainment for the troops over there during the holidays.
It seems that with all of the pre-records for RAW and SmackDown in recent months there has been no time for WWE to continue this tradition, and it could have left with Vince McMahon.
Will Tribute to the Troops return to WWE in the future?
There will always be troops out on service during the holidays and if WWE finds a way to bring back the annual show then it would be welcomed back by fans. Triple H appears to be happy for stars to have the festive season off and spend it with their family.
This could be one of the reasons why the show is no longer a part of the company's annual calendar.