WrestleMania 28 took place just this past Sun., April 1, 2012, from Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida, and featured a main event more than one year in the making pitting The Rock vs. John Cena. But certain folks are claiming to already know how many buys the show did on pay-per-view (PPV).
Gus Ramsey, who works behind-the-scenes at ESPN, put out a tweet that flew under the radar yesterday claiming to know the number of buys the event did. And if he's right, the show blew away expectations.
"Rock and Brock each sign 1 year deals. WM28 did 1.9M buys. WWE was targeting 1.5M."
If Ramsey seems like an odd source for information like this, that's because that's exactly the case. He later clarified when asked that he hasn't "seen anything in writing. so maybe the number is wrong, or I misheard it, but pretty sure that was the number and WWE (is) very happy."
If true, WWE would be more than happy. They would be through the roof ecstatic because that would smash any and all previous records for PPV buys. In fact, it would be significantly higher than the 1.6 million buys UFC 100 brought in back in July 2009, a record for mixed martial arts (MMA).
Naturally, these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt -- perhaps even more than that. But we'll know more once WWE releases its quarterly earnings report. And you would think if the number was really this high, they would be quick to shout it from the rooftops.
We'll pass word along once we know for certain how many buys WrestleMania 28 did.
UPDATE: Ramsey has gone into full blown damage control on Twitter now that his information has been posted all across the Internet.
"Re: WM28 buy rate. 1- I work at espn, not a reporter. Not the same thing. 2- I heard the number but have no confirmation. I thought the number was already out there. I wasnt trying to break any news. Just tweeting to my small following in case they missed it. I trust who I heard it from, but again no confirmation. Just something I heard. I'm not a reporter. Just a guy who likes wrestling and knows some people. Could very well be wrong."
No, he's not a reporter but when he's tweeting potential news, especially something that big, it's going to get picked up. He made a crack about the Rob Lowe situation when he reported Peyton Manning was going to retire. Surely he must remember how even the biggest of NFL websites picked up on Lowe's tweet and passed it along.
It's the new information age, folks. Learn to love it.
Again, though, there's no confirmation until WWE releases its own reports.