WM 7 VS 27 Crowd attendance - Whats up with that!?

Recently in his blog JR speculated that pre ticket sales for WM27 were already over 50,000 and expecting a sell out, with that in mind we can say that mania 27 will probably have an attendance of over 65,000.

NOW, wrestlmania 7 had only an incredibly poxy attendance of 16,000, i know that the main event of Hogan vs Slaughter has been criticised over the years as not drawing as they had hoped but just look at some of the talent on the rest of the card.

WM 7 - 14 Matches including....

The Rockers
Kerry Von Erich
British Bulldog
Bret Hart
Jake Roberts
Rick Martel
Jimmy Snukka
Undertaker
Ultimate Warrior
Randy Savage
Demolition
Big Boss Man
Mr. Perfect
LOD
Piper
Ted Dibiase
Hogan
Slaughter


How in the HELL did that only drawn an attendance one fifth of WM27, for many people that is a dream line up of wrestlers in the biggest show of the year, compare that to this years wrestlmania and the only "BIG" names wrestling are 888 and taker, and so far we only have 8 matches announced as oppose to the 12 at WM7, and although the Rock and SCSA will be there it will only be in a cameo, in addition IMO best hyped match so far is between two announces and yet the event expected to have an attendance of nearly 70,000 in the middle of a recession. Can someone attempt to explain to me why this is so, and why WM 7 crammed with some of the best wrestlers of all time had such a low attendance?

Wasn't WM7 moved from an open venue to another due to Sgt Slaughter receiving death threats for playing an iraq sympathiser?

Think this could have something to do with it.

Wrestlemania 7 only had a crowd of 16,000 because the venue could only hold around 16,000. It was originally meant to be in the Los Angeles Coliseum, which could hold about 100,000 but because of poor advance ticket sales they concocted a story about moving it to a smaller venue because of a bomb threat against Sgt. Slaughter.

WM7 was originally slated to take place in the LA Colosseum, a huge outdoor stadium with a capacity of about 100,000 I think. However, ticket sales were extremely poor so they invented a story about having to move to a smaller arena due to a bomb threat.

These are some of the reasons it didn't do big business:
- Business was down overall in wrestling. The WWF had peaked in the late 80s and was in a steady financial decline. House show attendance in late 1990 was poor, as wrestling began to go out of fashion. By early 1991 the WWF just didn't have the same glamour and invincibility about it any more that had existed four or five years earlier.
- Ultimate Warrior hadn't drawn as the top star. His title reign was something of a bust. This wasn't entirely his fault, as business was suffering anyway, but he failed like so many after him to recapture the magic of Hulkamania.
- The Hogan-Slaughter feud had not been particularly successful. In addition the Iraq War was pretty much all over by the time Wrestlemania came around.
- Savage had been pushed so poorly since losing the world title two years earlier, and Warrior was so one-dimensional, that what should have been a major career match just didn't capture the public's imagination.

You talk about the great line-up, but most of them were not selling points. Jimmy Snuka, Kerry Von Erich, Ted Dibiase and Roddy Piper were years past being big draws. Bret Hart, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels were years away. Rick Martel, Big Bossman and British Bulldog never were draws. In addition, 14 matches is not a selling point, it is an over-saturated card.

I liked this Wrestlemania but it definitely had an air of a company losing its aura. It seemed like the WWF was no longer a juggernaught. The card definitely looks better in hindsight than it did at the time.

The two early main events for WM7 where Warrior vs Hogan II or Warrior vs Savage, both would have been for the title, inexplicably though Slaughter was given the belt and he and Hogan, the feud no one wanted to see became the main event and to make sure it was complete Wrestlecrap the Gulf war ended before Hogan could become the American Savior

I've heard both reasons why the attendance was down both Slaughters health & poor ticket sales but which is true?

Any credible sources for poor ticket sales?

No one wanted to see Slaughter Hogan so hardly any tickets where bought, the WWF then changed venues and claimed there was a bomb scare due to Slaughter being an Iraqi Sympathiser, which was denied by the police at the time

Brady12 wrote:I've heard both reasons why the attendance was down both Slaughters health & poor ticket sales but which is true?

Any credible sources for poor ticket sales?

There was a quote from the guy who ran the box office at the L.A. Coliseum. The WWF put out a press release stating the reason for the move (threat against Slaughter) and when the press went to the guy at the Coliseum and asked why the event was moved he said "Only 16,000 tickets had been sold".

Also I'm positive Slaughter worked all of the 14 day date UK Rampage tour immediately after WM so that would rule out illness

Not sure why Slaughter's health would have affected ticket sales?

Cant think why that would be an issue either

Sorry poor choice of words was at work at the time & had just sneaked on my iPhone with everyone out of the office.... 'threat to Slaughters well-being' I meant, poor security in the LA Coll.

Yeah the 'well being' story was just Vince trying to save face because no-one wanted to see Hogan/Sarge

Without any credible source though I'm kind of sceptical... Who's to say it wasn't the LA Coll guy making up a story due to him being bitter WWF had turned there back on him.... The business may of been in decline bit they still filled a stadium (Hoiserdome) for 8 1 year later

Well Dave Meltzer reported that the police confirmed there was NO Bomb Scare, thats credible enough for me since he was reporting on it at the time, also and this is just a personal opinion, if an actual Bomb Scare had occured you'd be able to find plenty of info about it online

Ok Meltzer gives it credibility

I prefer Wade Keller myself but for 80s and early 90s Meltzer did have a good hold of the ins and outs

However..........What I don't understand about all this is that Wrestlemania 7 was a massive success on PPV. I know it was announced during the show that it was the most watched PPV broadcast ever and you could argue that was Gorilla exaggerating slightly. But I have read from several sources that this is one of the most successful shows ever in terms of PPV buys.

I've heard people state that several viewers switched off from WWF during 1990 because of the Warrior's disappointing title run. But if that was the case, why were the PPV numbers so high for 7?

One year before, Wrestlemania 6 was attended by 65,000+ fans and later, Wrestlemania 8 had an attendance not that far behind WM6. I think the Memorial Coliseum had a capacity of around the 90,000 mark. Going on Wrestlemania attendances from the same period, is it too much to think that maybe 40,000 people bought tickets for the show? Although this would have left large gaps in the seats, still a decent attendance. With some comps they could have bumped the attendance up even further.

On the DVD 'A true story of Wrestlemania McMahon says only 16,000 tickets were sold so far so the decision was took quickly to move to the arena before anymore were so no one would be disappointed again completely plausible

WrestleMania VII was sold to SKY in the UK and from what I read The WWF used all of SKY subscribers in their figures so maybe that would explain why it was called "the most watched PPV"

In my opinion had the gone with Warrior/Hogan II or Warrior/Savage had headlined for the title they would have did a big crowd

WM7 did a 2.8 buyrate, which was down from 3.8 the year before, but higher than WM8's 2.3. Buyrates are hard to judge though because they are a percentage of the available audience; with PPV being relatively young in the early 90s it might just have been that more people owned it. So they may have been right that it was the most watched of all Wrestlemanias to that time.

Think about it like this: If ten million people had PPV access in 1990, that means 380,000 people bought WM6. If twenty million people had PPV access in 1991, that means 560,000 people bought WM7 (these numbers are examples!). A smaller proportion of the audience but a larger number overall.

Thankfully now they judge buyrates on the number of PPVs sold, not the percentage of the available audience.

As for why WM7 could only sell 16,000 tickets, when WM6 and WM8 sold far more, it's the same reason WWE can sell out domes today at the same time TV ratings are bad: Making a big deal out of Wrestlemania. The brand is obviously more established now than it was then, but the secret is quite simply to make it look like the biggest show on earth. They make every effort possible to put forth a hot product in the month or two leading up to the event. In 1990 and 1992 they did this. In 1991, the product just wasn't hot. They'd gone with Warrior as Hogan's replacement, only to bring back Hogan before Warrior had established himself (and before the fans were baying for Hogan's return). They put the belt on Slaughter in a cheap PR stunt. Savage had been damaged by his feud with Dusty Rhodes. The Roberts-Martel and Dibiase-Virgil angles were ok, but nowhere near enough to sell Wrestlemania. It just didn't have the glamour about it that had been seen before.

Now the company is (almost) in a position where Wrestlemania tickets sell themselves. Back in 1991 it was just another big wrestling event.