>>5897886House shows are important for a lot of reasons.
It's a really good way to get your name out there. When bigger name musicians come to my city, it gets talked about on the news and in the media, plus signs are put up around town. Then people like myself who don't know them end up becoming aware. Maybe someone drags their friend or girlfriend along and they become a fan. Companies also make a bunch of contacts doing stuff like this and those people can do a lot for your company.
It's great for developing talent. All Japan Women ran 184 shows a year in the late 90's, and ran more when they were hotter. Can you imagine how much better someone like Jungle Boy would be on the mic if he had 100+ extra chances to do promos or how much better Skye Blue would be with all that extra work?
You also can't get the fans in smaller cities without running house shows. A place like California has 50 cities with over 100,000 people in them. While some people can probably come in for AEW's first trip to LA, you are leaving out a ton of fans who can't.
It's also a great way to scout and try out local talent. There's hundreds of indies in the US, yet even hardcore wrestling fans don't know them outside of a few. I know people who started locally that are in WWE right now. And if you are real smart, you run tryouts where maybe you do find the next superstar out of the front row. With the US being so big, there's bound to be someone who could make it.