What’s the story?
According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WrestleMania 33 grossed 3.7 million dollars in merchandise sales. That figure is the second highest in wrestling history, slightly behind last year’s WrestleMania.
In case you didn’t know....
This year’s WrestleMania helped the WWE Network gain a total of 1.95 million subscribers. That is the largest number of subscribers to date, and an impressive seven-percent increase from the following year.
The heart of the matter
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Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that WrestleMania 33 grossed 3.7 million dollars in merchandise sales. That number does not even include NXT nor Axcess sales, as they have yet to be recorded.
If rumours are true that the event drew 60,000 to 65,000 people, WWE made around 57 to 62 dollars per head. Meltzer said that would make WrestleMania 33 the largest figure he’s ever heard of for a wrestling event.
What’s next?
WWE is planning to maintain its success in its post-WrestleMania period, hoping that the NXT call-ups and roster shakeup will elicit interest in the seasonal WWE fans that just tune in for the bigger shows.
It is also hoping that it can maintain its record-high subscriber numbers and then hit the 2.0 million landmark during the Summerslam season. Lastly, the company plans on recapitulating its success at next year's WrestleMania which will take place in New Orleans on April, 2nd 2017.
Author’s take
Similar to last year’s WrestleMania, WWE’s booking and match selection for the card generated a tonne of negative reactions amongst its hardcore fan base, but the show ended up being a record-shattering event.
This reveals that in spite of the hardcore fan base's vocal frustrations with the overall direction of the company, the majority of them are still watching and paying for the product and perhaps even attending the shows too.
Surely, it still can be argued that WWE could make even more money if it catered to a portion of their audience instead of neglecting them, but by the looks of it, there is no need for WWE to do that right now. The company is still making millions of dollars each and every year, so Vince McMahon and his lackeys are doing what they want to do and still making millions of dollars doing it.
They are ultimately having their cake and then eating it too.
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