Why Wrestlemania 32 Will Not Likely Break The 100,000 Mark

Why Wrestlemania 32 Will Not Likely Break The 100,000 Mark
October 13, 2015
By Ryan Porzl

On April 3, 2016, The WWE will host Wrestlemania 32 at the AT&T Stadium and attempt to set a new indoor attendance record for a sporting event. It was at AT&T where the 2010 NBA All-Star Game got over 108,000 fans which broke Wrestlemania III's 93,173 attendance from 1987. However, the WWE should not be trying to break the 100,000 mark because it's highly unlikely they will. Basically the WWE has nothing huge going for them heading into Wrestlemania 32 and we'll take a look at all the obstacles that will prevent the WWE from setting a new record.



The first issue is the biggest problem which is they have no real mega matches or dream matches. Look at two of the biggest events the WWE ever put on: Wrestlemania III and Summerslam 1992. Wrestlemania III drew 93,173 people because they had plenty to offer. The main event was the biggest match in North American wrestling history as Hulk Hogan defended the WWF Championship against Andre the Giant. Meanwhile, the card also had "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat for the WWF Intercontinental Championship that was a red hot feud and finally, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper had what he thought was his retirement match as he took on Adrian Adonis in a hair match. Summerslam 1992 which drew 80,355 had England's own British Bulldog return to his home country to face Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Championship while Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior had a rematch from their Wrestlemania VII classic only this time it was for the WWF Championship instead of careers. The problem with Wrestlemania 32 is there's really no type of "Wrestlemania" match that I can see. It doesn't matter if it's the legends, current stars, or up and comers, there's no combination that's special. The WWE has over relied on legends to the point where they're not special anymore, the current stars are stale all the while squashing the up and comers, and the up and comers have been booked horribly. Sure, fans will flock because it's Wrestlemania and the name has a lot of value but relying on a name isn't going to get 100,000 fans to the stadium. Honestly, what's Wrestlemania 32's Hogan/Andre type main event? What's going to be it's red hot potential show stealer like Savage/Steamboat or Bret/Bulldog? If they do rematches then what will be it's Savage/Warrior? As of now, they only have a Roddy Piper like moment as the rumors are swirling that The Undertaker will probably retire but what else?

Rumors are circulating that the WWE wants the Rock vs. Triple H and we may get Undertaker vs. Sting. Rock vs. Triple H is ridiculously stale as these two wrestled each other dozens of time between 1997 to 2000 and even now, it's still not worth seeing more than fifteen years later. Even worse is no matter what the WWE and Triple H want him to come off as, he's never been a megastar or a game changer especially at Wrestlemania. Meanwhile, the WWE has played The Rock card a lot in recent years as he's already main evented two Wrestlemanias, one Royal Rumble, one Survivor Series, one Elimination Chamber, and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship so it's safe to say that The Rock isn't that special of an attraction anymore as he was five years ago. As for Undertaker/Sting, first of all, there's no guarantee that Sting will wrestle given his recent neck injury. Another problem is that the match won't be as special as it would've been fifteen years ago. By the time Wrestlemania 32 comes, Sting will be 57 years old while Taker will be 51 years old and both have been way past their prime along with broken down from injuries for a long time. Yet another issue is that both appearing won't be as special as it could've been. The Sting card was already played at 31 earlier this year and he's lost most singles matches he's been in since arriving in WWE. Meanwhile, Undertaker has made more appearances this year than he has in recent years. Instead of doing the yearly appearance at Wrestlemania, he's already main evented Summerslam and he'll main event Hell in a Cell so it's not like we've had to wait a year to see him.

Then there's the other wrestlers. The current stars like John Cena, Randy Orton, and Sheamus don't have anything going for them as they've wrestled just about everybody at this point especially Cena who has not only beat his current generation but won rivalries over Bray Wyatt & Kevin Owens while constantly scoring wins over Seth Rollins & Cesaro. Then there's the up and comers who the WWE has done a horrible job in establishing. Seth Rollins has been the worst booked WWE Champion in history as he's been made to look weak and inferior. Sure, he's a villain but villains need to look vulnerable not weak. Among his low lights include getting torn apart by Brock Lesnar while getting little to no offense and was on the verge of losing before The Undertaker came back which resulted in the WWE using their champion as a prop to reignite The Undertaker/Brock Lesnar feud that has been done a thousand times. He then has constantly lost to John Cena and all of the losses have been clean while his one win was due to interference from former Daily Show host Jon Stewart. Dean Ambrose is great but the WWE is clearly not behind him and he's lost pretty much every rivalry he's been since the Shield broke up around sixteen months ago. Roman Reigns has a lot of potential but the WWE hastily pushed him too fast and the fans turned on him so now he's back in the midcard getting rebuilt. Bray Wyatt is great but he's constantly lost momentum every few months whether it be due to losing the John Cena feud to The Wyatt Family breaking up briefly to losing to The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. While he scored a win over Daniel Bryan at the 2014 Royal Rumble, he's constantly been banging his head on the glass ceiling. Kevin Owens came on to the main roster like a ball of fire but ended up losing his feud to John Cena as he was both pinned and submitted. Cesaro had some momentum this year by winning the tag titles but after Tyson Kidd got injured, he's been rudderless and has even been beat up and lost to Big Show multiple times in the fall just to build the stale Show up so he can get torn apart by Lesnar. So the WWE has fumbled the ball with the up and comers while there's nothing fresh with the current stars. For an event they want 100,000 people to attend, they don't have any red hot, larger than life, possibly one time only matches.

An issue that many may not think but will be a problem for WWE is the fact they love to use huge sets for Wrestlemania and each of them take up tons of space. When you look at Wrestlemania III and Summerslam 1992, they had no set which resulted in them being able to use all bleacher seats and then add thousands of floor seats so this allowed the WWE to use pretty much the entire stadium. That won't be the case with Wrestlemania 32 as the WWE will likely use a huge set that will block off parts of the floor and a section of the stadium so they won't be able to use all the stadium which can cost them thousands of seats.

Another issue to consider is that when the WWE had Wrestlemania III and Summerslam 1992, business was doing great. Wrestlemania III came in the middle of the 1980s boom. Not to mention that the March 14, 1987 Saturday Night's Main Event (which aired fifteen days before Wrestlemania III) drew an 11.6 rating which made it the highest rated episode in the history of the series. Summerslam 1992 was held at a time when WWE was very popular in England. In fact, they were so popular that originally the event was to be held in Washington D.C. but moved to England to cash in. The problem is that the WWE and wrestling are not in a boom period and haven't been in years. To have an event as big or bigger than WMIII and SS92, you usually need to be in your peak or business has to be booming and it's not. The WWE and wrestling isn't red hot right now and it seems like WWE is banking on the Wrestlemania name to get fans from miles around to come.

While it's too soon to tell how the attendance will be, the example I've mention clearly show the WWE has a lot of work to do. With no big dream matches outside the possibility of two 50 something year olds, Wrestlemania 32 reminds me of what Jim Cornette said of the 1997 Royal Rumble which is it's a stadium that needs a show rather than a show that needs a stadium.