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WWE Breaks Live Gate Record with Upcoming WrestleMania 39 Show

The upcoming WrestleMania 39: WrestleMania Goes Hollywood has already broken the record for highest gate at a WWE live event, despite having no announced matches.

Published Mon, 09 Jan 2023 09:37:10 -0600

by Jude Terror

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Though no matches have been announced yet, WrestleMania 39 has broken the all-time live gate record for WWE previously held by WrestleMania 32, the company reported in a press release Monday morning. The show, which will take place at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles, is titled WrestleMania Goes Hollywood and has at times been rumored to feature Roman Reigns defending his Undisputed WWE Intergalactic Heavyweight Championship against The Rock, with other rumors calling for Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes, or even Reigns vs. Sami Zayn in the main event, though that third is wishful thinking. However, ticket sales have surpassed all other WrestleManias in gross revenue despite a completely blank card.

Screencap from WWE Smackdown featuring Roman Reigns, who will surely main event WrestleMania 39 this year. — Whoever his opponent, Roman Reigns will main event WrestleMania 39 in April. [WWE Smackdown screencap]

Of course, WrestleManias in the current era benefit from taking place on two nights instead of one, doubling the number of tickets WWE is able to sell. WrestleMania 32, which took place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was a one-night event that featured Roman Reigns defeating Triple H in the main event, as well as Charlotte Flair defeating Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks, Brock Lesnar defeating Dean Ambrose, and The Undertaker defeating Shane McMahon to secure a secret lockbox the younger McMahon was holding against his father, ominous in light of recent events. Funnily enough, WrestleMania 32 featured a match by The Rock, who defeated Erick Rowan in six seconds during a surprise impromptu bout.

No final tally is available yet (because some tickets are still on sale), but the previous record was $17.3 million, so WrestleMania 39 has made more than that. WWE touted increases in sales dollars at many shows last year in the press release:

The record gate comes on the heels of unprecedented ticket sales demand for WWE in 2022, in which it produced the highest-grossing gates of all-time for Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and Extreme Rules.Clash at the Castle in Cardiff, Wales, which marked WWE's first major stadium show in the U.K. in 30 years, was the highest-grossing U.K. event in company history.

Additionally, WWE set in-market gate records for SmackDown and Raw events in more than 20 markets for the year, including the December 30 SmackDown, which took place in Tampa, Fla. and heralded the return of WWE Superstar John Cena.

WrestleMania 39: WrestleMania Goes Hollywood will take place on Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2, and will stream on Peacock in the US and the WWE Network everywhere else.

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