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The world of wrestling has seen countless events held to honor the great sport and make it a global success. The WWE has been at the forefront when it has come to hosting some of the biggest events and has done so over the years very successfully.
Records have been broken yearly by the company to achieve more and more success while taking sports entertainment forward, and producing the greatest stars in the world of wrestling. Today, Brock Lesnar, The Shield, AJ Styles, and The Undertaker are some of the biggest draws when it comes to wrestling events.
Previously, we’ve seen names like Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold, The Rock, and Bret Hart walking into stadiums filled with supporters who went wild cheering for them.
WrestleManias have generally been the biggest events for WWE, and have broken all records for the attendance figures by a single promotion. WrestleMania 32 saw the 100,000 attendance mark breached for the first time, while WrestleMania III too saw itself almost cross that mark.
While WrestleManias have been the most popular and most attended shows of the WWE, which non-WrestleMania events have had the highest attendance? Take a look at the top 5 non-WrestleMania events which have had the most attendance.
#5 Greatest Royal Rumble 2018
The event will go down in history as the first ever pay-per-view held in Saudi Arabia. Part of a larger deal between the WWE and the Kingdom, the Greatest Royal Rumble opened the doors for the company to the Middle-Eastern oil-rich country.
The event was huge and had the biggest Royal Rumble in the history of the business which involved 50-men. Therefore, the name of the event was the Greatest Royal Rumble, which saw Braun Strowman become the inaugural winner.
The male-only event saw 60,000 fans show up to fill the King Abdullah International Stadium in Jeddah Saudi Arabia.
The mega event saw great matches which included John Cena vs Triple H, The Undertaker vs Rusev, and Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship. The event was headlined by the Greatest Royal Rumble match which saw the winner win a trophy and a brand new green belt.
#4 Royal Rumble 1997
San Antonio, Texas is fourth on this list with 60,447 showing up to one of the biggest Royal Rumble events in history which featured iconic matches.
The Royal Rumble match saw Stone Cold Steve Austin enter at Number 5, and eliminated Bret Hart last to win the match to a loud pop from the crowd. It can be said that the pop was the loudest ever in Royal Rumble history.
Vader, with Paul Bearer by his side, faced The Undertaker in a match in the mid-card and defeated him. The main event was for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship which was between the champion Sycho Sid and the challenger Shawn Michaels. Michaels defeated Sid to win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship amid controversy.
Michaels later vacated the WWF World Heavyweight Championship on the Thursday Raw Thursday special, where he gave his now-infamous "lost my smile" promo, citing knee problems as his reason to abdicate the title.
#3 Super Show-Down 2018
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is famously known as one of the largest cricket grounds in the world both in terms of its field and seating capacity. That must have been the reason why the WWE decided to hold its first massive pay-per-view in Australia in Melbourne.
70,309 wrestling fans showed up to fill the massive stadium which can house up to 100,024 spectators. The event received a lot of promotion as it was another big step for the WWE in a new region, and they received quite an encouraging response.
The event had some top-tier matches which were highlighted by Triple H and The Undertaker’s rematch billed as ‘The Last Time Ever’. With Shawn Michaels by his side, Triple H defeated The Undertaker in the No Disqualification match which saw Kane take The Undertaker’s side.
Other matches included The Miz vs Daniel Bryan, The Shield vs Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, and Braun Strowman, and AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe for the WWE Championship.
The IIconics, a female tag team from Australia, also got a chance to shine at the event as they won their match to the applause of the crowd. Buddy Murphy, another Australian native, also won his first CruiserWeight Championship at the event.
#2 The Big Event 1986
As the name of the event suggests, The Big Event has been one of the biggest events in the history of sports entertainment. Set in Toronto, Canada, 74,000 people gathered to watch one of the greatest events ever held in the country.
Even though the WWF at the time announced an attendance of 64,000 people for the show, the attendance was much larger and reports suggest a figure as high as 74,000 people. A smaller figure was announced to avoid fines and legal trouble from the city authorities during that period.
The main event of the show featured Paul Orndorff challenging Hulk Hogan for the world title
The undercard featured stars such as Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts, Harley Race, and King Kong Bundy. However, everyone was there to watch Hulk Hogan, as Hulkamania was at its peak during those periods.
Hogan went on to defeat Orndorff by disqualification in the main event, which was used as a stage to set up a steel cage match on Saturday Night’s Main Event, followed by an iconic bout at WrestleMania III.
#1 SummerSlam 1992
The biggest non-WrestleMania event in WWE’s history came in 1992. SummerSlam 1992 was attended by no lesser than 80,355 individuals in London, England.
The highest attended SummerSlam of all time was headlined by Bret Hart and The British Bulldog for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. At that time, the Intercontinental title was one of the biggest prizes in the company and was kept relevant by being battled for in main events too along with the other championships.
Not only did the event host one of the greatest main event matches in the company’s history, but also set a merchandise record, as over $1.4 million in sales were recorded with the live gate sales of $2.2 million.
Being one of the biggest main events ever held outside North America, WWE ensured that almost every major superstar of the era featured in the event making it even more successful.
The British Bulldog won the main event by pinning Hart to win the title as the crowd roared in appreciation.
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