Friday, April 25, 2014

Wrestlemania Buys 1985-2013

People are always wondering about Wrestlemania Buys.  Here's my best attempt to provide an estimate from WM1 to WM30.  I've noticed the "source of truth" that I used - usually a combination of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (primary) and Pro Wrestling History's PPV Spreadsheet (secondary).  Some of these numbers were also cross-referenced with posts by Dave Meltzer and John Lister.  I used the "main event" descriptions from Jason Campbell's Pro Wrestling History spreadsheet.  The numbers in yellow are estimated, but I believe these are generally the accepted Wrestlemania figures.  We don't have a full picture of WM30 yet - we know WWE Network Subscribers and estimated US Households.  Historically, the "North America" number was both Canada & United States & Puerto Rico while the International number was all other terriotires.  The big bump at WM21 was driven by adding the PPV in the UK Market.

-Chris Harrington (@mookieghana)

Buyrate = percentage of homes capable of ordering PPV that ordered PPV (where 1.0 = 1% of homes)
CCTV = closed-circuit TV; the major way people saw early WM PPVs
Source = PWH (Pro Wrestling History), WO (Wrestling Observer)



SHOWMAIN EVENT (from PWH )DATEBUYRATECCTVTOTAL North America Int'l SOURCE
WM1Hogan/Mr. T vs. Piper/Orndorff3/31/19851.10 398SMALL SMALL N/A PWH
WM2Hogan vs. Bundy; Battle Royal;
Piper vs. Mr. T (boxing)
4/7/19867.00 319250 250 N/A PWH
WM3Hogan vs. Andre3/29/19878.00 450400 400 N/A PWH
WM4WWF Title Tournament3/27/19886.50 175650 650 N/A PWH
WM5Hogan vs. Savage4/2/19895.90 N/A767 767 N/A PWH
WM6Hogan vs. Warrior4/1/19904.50 N/A550 550 N/A PWH
WM7Hogan vs. Slaughter3/24/19912.80 N/A400 400 N/A PWH
WM8Hogan vs. Sid4/5/19922.30 N/A390 390 N/A PWH
WM9Bret vs. Yokozuna4/4/19932.00 N/A430 430 N/A PWH
WM10Bret vs. Yoko; Razor vs. Michaels;
 Bret vs. Owen
3/20/19941.68 N/A420 420 N/A PWH
WM11Bigelow vs. LT; Michaels vs. Diesel4/2/19951.30 N/A340 340 N/A PWH
WM12Michaels vs. Bret3/31/19961.20 N/A290 290 N/A PWH
WM13Undertaker vs. Sid; Bret vs. Austin3/23/19970.77 N/A237 237 N/A PWH
WM14Austin vs. Michaels3/29/19982.30 N/A730 730 N/A PWH
WM15Austin vs. Rock3/28/19992.32 N/A800 800 N/A PWH
WM16HHH vs. Rock vs. 
Mankind vs. Show (4-way)
4/2/20002.08 N/A824 808 16 PWH
WM17Austin vs. Rock4/1/20012.40 N/A1,040 970 70 2/14/05 WO
WM18Rock vs. Hogan3/17/20021.68 N/A860 705 155 2/14/05 WO
WM19Vince vs. Hogan; Rock vs. Austin;
Angle vs. Lesnar
3/30/20031.08 N/A560 431 129 2/14/05 WO
WM20Lesnar vs. Goldberg; Undertaker vs. Kane; Angle vs. Guerrero; HBK vs. Benoit vs. HHH3/14/20041.59 N/A1,020 734 286 4/15/13 WO
WM21HHH vs. Batista;  Undertaker vs. Orton
JBL vs. Cena; HBK vs. Angle; 
4/3/20051.68 N/A1,085 650 435 4/15/13 WO
WM22Cena vs. Triple H; Vince vs. HBK 
Orton vs. Mysterio vs. Angle; 
4/2/2006N/AN/A975 6363394/6/09 WO
WM23HBK vs. Cena; Batista vs. Undertaker; Trump's hair vs. Vince's hair4/1/2007N/AN/A1,250 8254254/6/09 WO
WM24Flair vs. HBK; Show vs. Mayweather;
UT vs. Edge; Cena vs. HHH vs. Orton
3/30/2008N/AN/A1,041 6973442/23/11 WO
WM25HHH vs. Orton; Cena vs. Show vs. Edge;
Undertaker vs. HBK
4/5/2009N/AN/A975 6053703/5/12 WO
WM26HBK vs. UT; Bret vs. Vince;
 Cena vs. Batista; Jericho v. Edge
3/28/2010N/AN/A885 4953903/19/13 WO
WM27Cena vs. Miz; Undertaker vs. HHH;
Rock host
4/3/2011N/AN/A1,124 6794453/3/14 WO
WM28Rock vs. Cena;
HHH vs. Undertaker (cell)
4/1/2012N/AN/A1,219 7155043/3/14 WO
WM29Rock vs. Cena; HHH vs. Lesnar;
Undertaker vs. Punk
4/7/2013N/AN/A1,104 6624423/3/14 WO
WM30
Bryan vs. HHH; Bryan vs. Orton vs. Batista; Undertaker vs. Lesnar
4/6/2014
667,287 WWE Network + nearly 400,000 US Homes + ???
WWE Press Releases

See also:

Chris Harrington (chris.harrington@gmail.com)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Lot of Domestic(north american) buys figures listed are wrong. Post AE, the three most successful domestic numbers have been -

WM 21 (720,000) - Batista vs Triple H
WM 23 (825,000) - Donald Trump
WM 28 (713,000) - Rock/Cena, HHH/taker HIAC

Source is Meltzer.

WM 20 domestic did not reach anywhere near 700K, neither did WM 18.

Re-check the figures please.