What’s the Story?
SmackDown’s pay-per-view, Battleground, will emanate from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2017, but attendance for the show may not be what the WWE would’ve wanted.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Battleground ticket sales are not yielding the results the WWE expects for a show in Philadelphia.
In case you didn’t know....
The Following is the official card for Battleground as of July 13, 2017:
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Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
John Cena vs Rusev [Flag Match]
Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Lana vs. Natalya vs. Tamina [Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match to determine the #1 Contender for the SmackDown Women’s Championship]
The New Day vs. The Usos(c) [SmackDown Tag Team Championships]
Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles(c) [United States Championship]
Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal(c) [Punjabi Prison Match for the WWE Championship]
The heart of the matter
The WWE regard cities like Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia as some of their strongest markets that bring in good money. However, despite this hardcore fanbase, the WWE seems to be having trouble selling tickets for Battleground and they are reportedly offering discounts on seats by as much as $20.
SmackDown Live experienced this same issue back in May when the card for Backlash was announced. Ticket sales for Backlash halted when Jinder Mahal became the number one contender and the total ticket sales were reported to be less than usual for an event in Chicago. The same could occur for Battleground if sales don’t increase.
Impact
One of the reasons for the decline in sales could be the fans’ displeasure with the overabundance of rematches on the card. However, there is also a strong chance that fans recollection of the Punjabi Prison matches of the past caused fans to lose interest in the next phase of the Mahal-Orton main event.
Author’s take
The company has 10 days to get more fans to buy the tickets to the show, but the fact that majority of these matches were predicted or anticipated by fans may mean that ticket sales won’t increase by much going forward.
