WrestleMania 28 results: WWE breaks gate and attendance records in Miami

Last night (Sun., April 1, 2012), WWE brought WrestleMania 28 to Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida, for an event that, quite frankly, blew the doors off "The Sunshine State."

And broke the gate and attendance records in the process.

That's the word from WWE, at least, in a press release issued immediately following the show.

WWE® WWE +0.34% announced tonight that WrestleMania XXVIII set three records. With a sellout crowd of 78,363 fans from all 50 states and 36 countries, the annual pop culture extravaganza became Sun Life Stadium's largest attended event and highest grossing entertainment event in history. Grossing $8.9 million, it was also the highest grossing live event in WWE history. The event was broadcast around the world on pay-per-view in more than 105 countries and 20 languages.

The previous Sun Life Stadium attendance record was 77,912 for the BCS National Championship in 2005. Its highest grossing entertainment event was U2 on June 29, 2011, grossing more than $7.5 million. WrestleMania XXVIII surpassed the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania in Houston, which grossed $7.2 million. This marks the third consecutive year WrestleMania broke the gross entertainment event record of the host venue.

"WrestleMania XXVIII in Miami-Dade County was an incredible event for WWE. WWE would like to thank our loyal fans, as well as the public and private sector partners for their tireless efforts to help make WrestleMania Week such a success," said John P. Saboor, Senior Vice President of Special Events, WWE. "We now look forward to building on these achievements as we head to MetLife Stadium for WrestleMania XXIX next year."

Are there some numbers being fudged here? Most likely. But there's no denying that WrestleMania 28 was a smashing success for WWE as a live event. Whether or not it will break the record for pay-per-view buys won't be determined until later but by the time the show started, buzz was incredibly high.

At the very least, WrestleMania 28 was a great show that saw a huge audience and plenty of social media buzz. Which should be more than enough for company officials, who were said to have been greatly pleased with the outcome of the biggest event of the year.

For complete results and a running live blog from WrestleMania 28 click here and to listen to the Cageside Live post-show podcast click here.