WWE will find a way to tout WrestleMania records no matter what

Normally around this time, we’d have heard about the attendance records WrestleMania 36 broke. In a few months, we’d get a press release from WWE about how much money the show generated for the Tampa area.

But nothing’s normal now, and that included WrestleMania. The show happened over two days (April 4 - 5), mostly from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. There were no fans in attendance, and any economic impact was caused by the company booking hotel rooms and wrestlers ordering room service.

That won’t stop WWE from touting some records, though! First, we got this one earlier in the week... WrestleMania 36 was their most social event ever!

“This year’s WrestleMania is officially the most social event in WWE history as new champions, a jaw-dropping Boneyard Match, a mind-bending Firefly Fun House Match and non-stop action ignited the conversation throughout.

WrestleMania saw a total of 13.8 million total social media interactions on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which was up 57 percent from WrestleMania 35 and the most in WWE history.”

Fans also consumed a record amount of WWE content while staying at home.

“WWE set WrestleMania Week viewership records with more than 967 million video views across the company’s digital and social platforms including WWE Network, WWE.com, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, an increase of 20 percent year-over-year.

Additionally, a record 46 million hours of content was consumed during WrestleMania Week, an increase of 28 percent year-over-year.”

It’s good that the company is getting this spin out earlier, at least if Wrestling Observer’s numbers are right. Dave Meltzer reports that Google searches were “way under expectations,” with about one million on Saturday - about the number a UFC PPV without a top star like Jon Jones might do. Sunday was much worse, with 270,000 - most of which were for individual talent rather than the event itself.

The television numbers for the Kickoff shows were also substantially down. The hour of the WrestleMania 35 version which aired on USA Network drew 0.5 rating and 749,00 viewers. This year’s versions were on a network that’s in many fewer homes, FS1. Still, 0.1 rating and 106,000 viewers for Saturday’s show with Drew Gulak vs. Cesaro, and the same ratings number and an audience of 112,000 for Sunday with Natalya vs. Liv Morgan.

WWE usually releases a subscriber number for the Network shortly after ‘Mania, since sign-ups surge for the event. We’re still waiting for that.

In the meantime, congrats on the social thing, I guess.