When WrestleMania comes around every year, thousands of fans from all over the world visit whatever town is hosting the event to see the show. WWE packs stadiums full of fans every single year for WrestleMania and some years feature record-setting attendance numbers. Most notably the WrestleMania III attendance was said to be 93,173, and that record was not broken until WrestleMania 32 took place back in 2016, which set a new record at 101,763 fans. However, the accuracy of the attendance figures that WWE gives out each year are always called into question each year with some believing that the company exaggerates the numbers each year. Recently though, some information on the actual numbers was provided.
Wrestlemania attendance, 2008-2018. WWE’s announced attendance vs. what their own financial reporting implies.
Data: https://t.co/qfUxsviNJz pic.twitter.com/CPzlHPlxga
— Brandon Howard Thurston (@BrandonThurston) March 16, 2019
After years of debate and curiosity, some news on the actual attendance figures for some past WrestleMania shows was finally made public. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics did some digging on Google Drive and came across some KPI documents featuring the actual attendance numbers for their WrestleMania events from 2008-2018. These documents show that the company does indeed tend to raise up the actual attendance figures by at least 10,000 people, but they’ve raised it up to over 15,000 people in recent years.. WWE reportedly considers the staff, wrestlers, and security when they develop their numbers. WWE will be returning to the Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey for WrestleMania 35 this year.
KPI documents (originally published on WWE’s corporate website) referenced in the data sheet are archived here: https://t.co/JSjCBojFu7
— Brandon Howard Thurston (@BrandonThurston) March 16, 2019
How we know these numbers:
Each year since 2008 for the quarter containing Wrestlemania, WWE reports in its KPI document an avg attendance number including and excluding WM.
Doing the math shown in the spreadsheet we deduce a range of what the paid attendance must have been.
— Brandon Howard Thurston (@BrandonThurston) March 16, 2019
John Cena’s status for WrestleMania is currently up in the air, but he has been keeping himself busy with tons of projects outside of the ring lately. One of his newest endeavors is helping to relaunch the “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” game show. The show is being rebooted by Nickelodeon and it will feature the 16-time world champion as the host. A new Craigslist ad is showing that casting for the new show has officially begun already. Applicants are encouraged to have passion and large personalities if they hope to make it onto the show. They must also be at least 18 years old in order to take part in the fun. For those who may be interested in learning more about the casting for the show, click here.