WWE smashes 37-year record with historic Royal Rumble feat as John Cena’s final appearance confirmed
WWE is big business right now with things only likely to boom further as we head into WrestleMania season.
Professional wrestling’s biggest company is enjoying a surge in popularity that’s bordering on Attitude Era levels thanks to the quality of the on-screen product and the integration of mainstream names including Logan Paul.
But while measuring popularity can be a subjective matter, there seems no doubt that WWE is fast moving towards being its most profitable and lucrative era thanks to a string of key sponsorship and broadcast deals.
Far from the bottom of that list would be the $5bn Netflix have forked out for the US rights to Monday Night Raw and pay-per-view events, as well as pretty much everything else offered in International markets.
Ticket prices, too, are certainly helping WWE’s bottom line. Earlier this month, tickets for the company’s showpiece annual event, WrestleMania, had reached eye-watering sums.
Las Vegas - for the first time - will host the ‘Mania, and fans who don’t already have a ticket for the 41st instalment face a daunting task to get one for the two-night affair, with ‘nosebleed’ section tickets a minimum of $700 aas of late January.
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Conversely, the most expensive single-night ticket was available for an unimaginable $15,000.
Those figures would have the 2025 Rumble as having the biggest attendance in the event’s sizable and illustrious 37-year history. The first, back in 1988, played out in front of a not-too-shabby 18,000 in Ontario Canada.
Knocked back down into second place by this weekend’s event will be the 1997 Rumble, watched by just over 60,000 in San Antonio, Texas as hometown favourite Shawn Michaels claimed the WWE title.
Interestingly, it’s reported just 40,000 of that figure were paid attendees, with said to have boosted the gate further.
It seems highly unlikely WWE will need to hand out too many freebies come Saturday night, the event serving as the first of a major coup for the Indianapolis area.
The city will also host a future SummerSlam and WrestleMania in what WWE called a ‘first-of-its-kind partnership’ that will see the three mammoth stadium shows all staged there.
Saturday’s Rumble, which looks comfortably on course to sell out its 62,000+ capacity, is shaping up nicely as Cody Rhodes defends his Undisputed WWE title against Kevin Owens in a ladder match.
There will also be the multi-wrestler matches that give the event its name, with Liv Morgan, Nia Jax, Bayley and a returning Charlotte Flair all confirmed for the women’s outing, while John Cena headlines the list of confirmed men’s entrants as he begins his ‘farewell tour’ in WWE.
Cena has vowed to claim victory in the event, which will be his last ever Rumble before he calls time on his career later in 2025.
Eyeing a bout at WrestleMania as the prize, he told fans at the Raw debut on Netflix: “Crazy idea, but maybe I can win the Royal Rumble… it’s my last Rumble.
"There is no ‘maybe next year’ and I’m up here talking about thank yous, well, hell; the best way to say thank you to you is win the Royal Rumble and make history at WrestleMania, right?”
Cena faces stiff competition, as CM Punk, Jey Uso, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre are all also slated for the men’s bout on Saturday.