WWE WrestleMania 32 Is “Real Attendance Record Holder” Following AEW All In Turnstile Count
The 32nd WrestleMania in Dallas remains the record holder in terms of attendance following some news regarding AEW All’s actual crowd.
At AEW All In London on Sunday, August 27th at Wembley Stadium, the announced paid attendance by the company was 81,035 people. However, some recent developments have put that number in doubt.
Earlier this week, a Freedom of Information was made to Brent Council – the local authority in which Wembley Stadium is situated – regarding the All In attendance with this statement.
“The actual numbers registered entering the Stadium through the turnstiles was 72,265 – this is reflective of what attended on the night and not the total number of tickets sold or no-shows etc.”
It was a story originally broken by Wrestlenomics on Wednesday, which left fans wondering what happened and why AEW would announce a fake number similar to what WWE does. That’s a reference to WWE announcing a higher number than what is the actual number because, in Vince McMahon’s eyes, it’s all part of the entertainment.
WrestleMania 32 remains the “real attendance record holder” for major pro wrestling shows following AEW All In news
In 2016, WWE held WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas for the first time. At the show headlined by Roman Reigns beating Triple H to become WWE Champion, The Rock announced that there were 101,763 people in attendance for a new WWE record. The actual number was reportedly 97,769 according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer while Fightful reported it was 80,709 people who went through the turnstiles, which is official since they learned it from the Arlington, TX police department.
This week in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer wrote about the WrestleMania 32 or All In story while noting that the WWE show should be considered the record holder.
“The actual turnstile count for the AEW All In show at Wembley Stadium was 72,265 according to an article by Wrestlenomics from a response they had received asking for the Freedom of Information Act from the Brent Civic Centre in England. Other sources have since confirmed to us that Brandon Thurston’s drop count number is accurate. The number would be significantly lower than WrestleMania 32, which had 80,709 in the building, so that inside the building all-time record was not broken, and in fact 8,500 short of the record.”
“The all-time inside the building record would still be the two New Japan shows in North Korea, but since very few of the people attending paid, WrestleMania 32 should be considered the real total attendance record holder.”
As he continued, Meltzer would go on to explain the turnstile count metric.
“The turnstile count is a different metric from paid attendance and total tickets distributed. AEW has said that for their events, the actual drop count is 80 to 90 percent of the paid attendance, and this number falls into the category at 89.2 percent, if the paid number of 81,035 is accurate.”
“A number of people involved with the promotion have privately stated that the decision was made for historical reasons to release only the paid number and an accurate one. Generally speaking in wrestling the paid plus comps number is the one used or the number is just completely made up. The number in the building for events today as compared to paid attendance is very different since the rise of secondary markets, where people purchase tickets to unload them and not all tickets get unloaded.”
“AEW’s numbers would be similar to that of other entertainment events, and even higher than many sports which have season ticket holders who don’t attend every game along with higher secondary market purchases. Many college football stadiums and major league baseball drop counts are about 20 percent of paid tickets. The 10 to 20 number is the usual level in this day and age for stadium events, whether they be sports or concerts.”
The next two WWE Premium Live Events are NXT No Mercy on September 30th along with WWE Fastlane on October 7th while AEW holds WrestleDream on pay-per-view on October 1st.