AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
Anyone remember the E-stans attacking AEW's attendance
figures from AEW and even the independent WrestleTix and
Wrestlenomics last year after ALL IN? Social media was
flooded by the thousands by tweets and posts with claims the
number was fabricated, inaccurate, that the Khan family
bought all the tickets, and on and on.
In the end, 81,035 tickets were purchased with 85,258
tickets distributed (remember that term for later), making
the show the legitimate highest verified number of tickets
purchased for a professional wrestling show, verified by the
Brent Council, the local government council on greater
London.
Bubba Ray Dudley snarked yet again this past week about
Brandon Thurston filing a public records request to the
Texas Governor’s office and City of San Antonio regarding
the Alamodome contract that would reveal details related to
the site fee for Royal Rumble 2023 in San Antonio; as well
as his questions on this year's Wrestlemania attendance.
WWE in turn, filed suit against the Texas Attorney General
over its ruling in January in response to Thurston's request
to the City of San Antonio that the contract must be
released to Wrestlenomics.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics obtained final records
from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission for this
year's Wrestlemania, including the real attendance and
gates, not the fictitious numbers WWE is legendary for
posting every year, the most infamous of which was
Wrestlemania III's alleged 93,173 attending.
Dudley again tried to claim AEW made up its attendance
numbers (which were obtained in a manner similar to what
Thurston did from a local government council official).
Well, if Dudley didn't like what Thurston reported
before...he REALLY won't like what follows.
Thurston reported numbers obtained from the Pennsylvania
State Athletic Commission on Wrestlenomics this past week.
In the numbers, Night 1 of Wrestlemania (April 6) at
Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field sold 56,147
tickets, according to documents WWE submitted to the
commission. 3,889 tickets were comped; making the actual
tickets distributed (remember the number listed by
WrestleTix last year through the build-up to ALL IN?) count
for Night 1 to 60,036. There is no available number
for suite attendees (which would have legitimately counted
as paid attendance, the same as with ALL IN) or credentialed
media (which wouldn't). WWE fictitiously announced the
attendance as 72,543 on the broadcast.
Night 2 (April 7) sold 56,758 tickets with 3,445
tickets comped, for a total of 60,203 tickets
distributed. WWE again fictitiously announced 72,755 on the
broadcast for Night 2.
As has been reported by Wrestlenomics, WrestleTix and many
other sources, Wrestlemania 40 holds the all-time pro
wrestling gate records for the #1 and #2 highest ticket
gross ever. Night 2 is the leader with a gate (without
ticket fees) of $18,433,325.39. Night 1 is #2 with a gate of
$17,656,964,.62.
In Pennsylvania, existing state law and State Athletic
Commission regulations require wrestling promotions (all
promotions) to submit a record of legitimate gate receipts
as the governing body collects a 5% tax on ticket sales.
Tre's nothing WWE can do about that information being out in
the public eye. That requirement is at least one way the
Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission isn't favoring WWE.
The Commission has been notorious for favoring WWE over AEW
recently, as well as WCW and independents in the past. But
here, everything was above board. But the numbers didn't
speak favorably about WWE's honesty. So much for a new era.
Oh and Bubba? I'm sure Tony Khan will be happy to accept
your apology.
Speaking of AEW...
This past Friday's Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported
that Rogers in Canada has acquired rights to WBD programming
starting in January. Rogers owns the Sportsnet channel which
will lose all of its WWE programming at the end of 2024 due
to the Netflix deal. SportsNet aired four wrestling shows
per week. TSN currently only airs Dynamite weekly, and airs
Rampage and Collision only if they are taped in Canada. A
potential move to Sportsnet could also enable AEW to get all
of its shows weekly, plus Sportsnet promotes the WWE shows
currently far more than TSN promotes AEW.
Rogers has the national Rogers Sportsnet One, Sportsnet
National, and Sportsnet 360 feeds as well as four regional
feeds are Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet West, Sportsnet
Ontario, and Sportsnet East, which air NHL gaes for local
franchises, MLB and other sports and other sports.
Now, it wasn't 100% confirms in the Rogers press release
which WBD channels Rogers was picking up. All that was
stated was "lifestyle and factual channels". So we'll have
to see if this pickup includes TBS and TNT
To conclude....again, from last week...
Well-known East coast wrestling photographer Christine Coons
recently suffered a major stroke; and Tanya Christine Coons
has organized a GoFundMe for her. Here are the particulars:
"Christine Coons is going through it right now! She has
suffered a stroke. She has very limited movement from her
right side. She is currently in the hospital awaiting news
of where she will go for rehabilitation for the stroke. On
top of the stroke, her heart issues have also come back. So
she is fighting the fight. Frustrated but day by day she's
fighting.
She will be in the hospital/rehabilitation for some time. No
one is sure when she will be able to go back to work. And
she already has hospital bills piling up. Anything anyone
can donate is appreciated. Just reading this is
appreciated!!
Please continue to share and donate. We have to do a lot of
repairs and updates at Christine's house in order for her to
go back home and continue to get better. Every dollar
counts. We will continue to update her process.
To donate, please go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-
christine-overcome-her-health-battles?
attribution_id=sl:d85b78af-db54-449b-b609-
ffea1a231e22&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_ft&utm_medium=custo
mer&utm_source=facebook
Until next time...
