We are just a week out from WWE’s biggest event of the year, WrestleMania. Once again, the event will be a 2-night affair, a trend that’s expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
WWE’s decision to hold WrestleMania over two nights is based on several factors, most importantly, ticket sales and merchandise revenue. By splitting up the match card over two nights, WWE avoids a 7+ hour marathon show, which many fans found to be excessive.
The current plan is for each night of WrestleMania to run for five hours, according to the Wrestling Observer. This includes a 2-hour kickoff show (6-8pm ET) and a 3-hour main show (8-11pm ET). There’s a strong likelihood the main cards run over 3 hours.
WrestleMania Saturday and Sunday will be shown in movie theaters across the United States and Canada. Fathom Events, the company bringing WrestleMania to theaters, lists a 4-hour run time for the main shows.
The WrestleMania Saturday pre-show will air on the USA Network, in addition to it streaming on Peacock. As of this writing, we haven’t seen anything about the WrestleMania Sunday pre-show airing on television.
We’ve received a few questions about whether or not there will be a battle royal at WrestleMania. WWE has featured these in the past, as a way to get more talent on the card. As of this writing, there are no plans for a men’s or women’s battle royal. There has been talk of holding an Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal on WWE TV in the weeks ahead.
WWE continues to move tickets for WrestleMania, with approximately 60,800 and 58,500 tickets sold for Saturday and Sunday, respectively. The stadium will be configured for 65,000 fans, but WWE will almost certainly announce an attendance above 70,000.
For what it’s worth, the secondary market for WrestleMania tickets has been softer than usual. That is likely a function of there still being thousands of seats still available, starting at around $35.
Do not read too much into the fact that there are still a lot of tickets available for WrestleMania. This will be the most profitable WWE event by a long shot, in terms of ticket sales and merchandise revenue.
H/T to the Wrestling Observer for information used in this report. Visit f4wonline.com for subscription information.
