It was ‘The Ultimate Thrill Ride’ on ‘The Grandest Stage of Them All’, ‘The Show of Shows’, ‘The Showcase of the Immortals’, ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Sports Entertainment’. Adding to the list on an annual basis, this year’s WrestleMania had almost as many taglines as spectators. Almost – but not quite.
For WrestleMania 33, which took place at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, boasted yet another record attendance figure. Stepping out prior to a main event pitting The Undertaker against Roman Reigns, it fell to The New Day to claim that 75,245 were watching on from someplace within the vast audience.
The number surpassed the venue’s previous record of 74,635, conveniently set at a previous WrestleMania – XXIV back in 2008, when an already ageing Undertaker main evented versus Edge, Roman Reigns was nary a twinkle in Vince McMahon’s eye, and the stadium was still known as the Citrus Bowl. So by breaking the venue’s attendance record, WWE were merely bettering a record they already claim to have set, but of course an announcement of this sort always makes things extra special.
WWE has become infamous for grossly inflating its WrestleMania attendance figures, but this was more of a stretch than most. Camping World Stadium is supposed to have a capacity of around 65,000, and according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, just 63,100 fans paid for WrestleMania 33 seats. That leaves 12,145 people strangely unaccounted.
Perhaps they came as druids, and gathered in a hovel underneath the ring, staring up in awe at the canvas as The Undertaker trod and breathed his last? Perhaps it is these invisible thousands who are responsible for the cheers which always seem to be piped in whenever Roman Reigns makes an entrance? Perhaps the 12,145 were dead souls rather than mere mortals, bolstering the attendance figure mostly in spirit? Or perhaps WWE counted the cockroaches transposed onto the mat by the morbid mind, the ‘Eater of Worlds’, Bray Wyatt?
Whatever, in the world as it exists according to WWE, the record stands, and who will dare to dispute it? A fake attendance figure boosts their ego and hardly affects their stock price, and that – to steal a phrase – is the bottom line. While The Undertaker completed his final descent into darkness, for WWE attendances, the only way is up, up, up.
