Wrestlemania 7 Location Change

[DiBiase is Good]

As we all know, Wrestlemania 7 was originally scheduled to be at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
However, it was changed to the much smaller Sports Arena.

WWE stated at the time that it was for security reasons (as there was allegedly a threat issued against them concerning Slaughter's portrayal of an Iraqi sympathiser or something like that) but the general feeling is that ticket sales were very slow so rather than have a Coliseum with loads of empty seats, they moved it to the Arena.

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.

The listed attendance for Wrestlemania 7 is just over 16,000. As stated earlier, WM6 and WM8 both did huge attendance figures, so going on the theory that a lot more than 16,000 people bought tickets for Wrestlemania 7, does anyone know what happened to the people who bought tickets for the Coliseum and had to be turned away due to the much smaller capacity of the arena?

Would they have been given the PPV free of charge? If so, would that possibly explain a large amount of PPV "buys"?

I'm not saying I believe the whole "security reasons" line the WWF gave at the time. But I find it hard to believe that a show so successful on PPV only managed 16,000 ticket sales.

[nisidhe]

I would think that they would give away the PPV to those turned away from the arena after purchasing tickets for the Arena. From a business standpoint, it makes sense to provide that kind of compensation to a relative few ticketholders rather than risk a loss with a half-empty venue. It's a relatively small loss in potential revenue with a smaller actual loss, for a higher-value product and damn-near free advertising for WWF/E when those ticketholders invite their friends and guests to turn a night of TV into a party. When you make it right to such an extent, customers tend to return with others to buy from you.

[Clarence "Showstealer" Mason]

I'll say this much and this is just my opinion on it. The security line is a bunch of....well crap. The whole "Evil Iraqi Sympathiser" gimmick was pretty much played to the point noone cared before he even got the title. The Buyrate was a 2.8, compared to SS '91 2.7 and the Royal Rumble 2.4 it was pretty pathetic and had been DESTROYED by a Mike Tyson-Razor Ruddock fight the previous week. While I don't think it was all because of poor ticket sales and I'm sure they could've sold more than the 16.000 they had in the arena. I do believe the only "Bomb Scare" they had was to the bottom line when they realised it wasn't going to be a sellout

[soultsukino]

Wrestlemania 7 was a successful pay per view? I know numbers adjust themselves but didn't they only do about half the buyrate than Wrestlemania 6 or did the ppv ranking numbers adjust themselves that drastically in one year?


As for the attendance figures. They would have never reached 40,000 people. As I've been told over the years they were struggling to reach 25,000 by mid February even when the main event was announced. When they switched venues I've read that a lot of people just got refunds and some just didn't show up (back then Wrestlemania tickets were cheap as hell).

[Clarence "Showstealer" Mason]

VI did a 3.8
VII as I said did a 2.8

[soultsukino]

The number I got for WM 6 was 4.5

[Clarence "Showstealer" Mason]

Dec 27, 2010 23:33:37 GMT -5 soultsukino said:

The number I got for WM 6 was 4.5

Could be right, but I've always believed VI was 3.8, same number as they did for Summerslam '90

[agent817]

I've heard from some people that there was either going to be a bombing or a sniper at the event. Though it was said best in the Wrestlecrap Induction of the Iraqi Sympathizer Sgt. Slaughter. That the fact that Vince thought that the event would bomb so it was moved. Great pun, by the way in that induction.

[Deleted]

Hogan/Warrior II.

I don't know if that would have sold out the LA Coliseum, but probably would have done a lot better than pushing a dull Slaughter down everyone's throats.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Yeah WM 7 was failer because the card itself couldn't sell. WM 8 did better and sold better because it had 2 MEs that fans card about Savage vs. Flair and Hogan vs. Sid that was built around Hogan's possible last match. Plus you had stuff like Piper vs. Hart in the under card. Newly turned face undertaker vs. Roberts.

WM 6 the year before had Hogan vs. Warrior two mega faces both book at unstobbles. facing off. WM 7 had Hogan vs. Slaughter as champion facing Hogan. And Savage vs. Warrior (Which I bet was what fans brought in more to see then the title match.) The thing is fans hated Slaughter but not ME hated. He was pushed down everyone throats but fans where not buying into it to pay money to see him loss. Had Savage and Warrior been the title match. Which Warrior was champion at the Rumble. Hogan faces someone else that was more over as a heel in away fans would pay to see it.

Plus the undercard wasn't that strong either.

[vipe]

Slaughter at that point was a terrible Hogan foe and had no business in the main event. He was neither a super heavyweight (ala Earthquake, Andre), a physical rival (Warrior), or a high flyer/speed demon (Savage). He looked and wrestled more like a doughy guy in his mid-40s. Kayfabe-wise, he wasn't a very threatening opponent and just didn't look like a legit threat to Hogan. I don't know how he was in his "prime" but he just didn't cut the mustard as a legit WM main-eventer.

[johnnyk9]

Ones things for sure aboug WM7 the crowd whether small or large was hot the entire event

[FUNK_US/BRODUS]

BTW random point: find the Wrestlemania 7 intro video on YouTube. Slaughter's grunt after McMahon announces him is hilarious.

[ICBM]

I have heard that they papered WMIII after the 70-78,000 tickets range to get the purported 93,000 they have always claimed. If true they could have papered WM7 and kept it in the coliseum. Cover the empty area with a giant WM7 tarp and do the show from there. 16,000 sold inside for the biggest show of the year? Hmmm...Vince could not have been happy

[Ginger Beer Man]

Dec 28, 2010 21:32:31 GMT -5 FUNK_US/BRODUS said:

BTW random point: find the Wrestlemania 7 intro video on YouTube. Slaughter's grunt after McMahon announces him is hilarious.

Thank you for bringing that my attention, that is ace, cant stop laughing now

[bigjohnstudd]

Dec 28, 2010 22:27:09 GMT -5 ICBM said:

I have heard that they papered WMIII after the 70-78,000 tickets range to get the purported 93,000 they have always claimed. If true they could have papered WM7 and kept it in the coliseum. Cover the empty area with a giant WM7 tarp and do the show from there. 16,000 sold inside for the biggest show of the year? Hmmm...Vince could not have been happy

Difficult if your actual tickets sold is less than half of that massive stadium.

In order to be sure the papered portion of the tickets fills the building, you'd probably want ~60% of the tickets sold a couple months in advance. Then you can give thousands away via contests, radio, at house shows, etc. etc.

It leads me to believe that there was probably at least 60,000 tickets left when the venue switch was made.

Giving away 50,000+ tickets will fill some extra seats, but there will be no-shows, so there will be a lot of empty seats, and probably all over the Coliseum. Plus, once word gets out that you're handing out free tickets by the bucket, your ticket sales will totally stop. I don't think Vince would chance having a quarter-empty stadium for his biggest show of the year, especially since he had included the 100,000 number in WMVII promos. He needed a full venue, if for no other reason than ego & propaganda reasons.

It seems like Vince was planning on Warrior/Savage being the main event, but balked at having it close out the show. Hindsight, seems like it would have been the better of the two because there was really no hot feud for Hogan as he'd eaten up all the heels by that point.

Slaughter had to face Hogan because his character had to get beaten by an American hero, so basically, your options are Hogan, or a total gong-show with Duggan. A Duggan-Slaughter match could've been coma-inducing.

I'm not sure what Vince had in mind when he booked the L.A. Coliseum a year in advance, but obviously he thought Warrior would pick up where Hogan left off, and I really don't think that was possible at that point. Wrestling has natural peaks and valleys in terms of popularity (generally speaking) and it was obvious the business had started into a valley at that point.

Let's not forget that Vince papered the bejesus out of the Hoosier Dome for WMVIII. I believe I heard once that Vince had his lackeys out on the streets handing out tickets on the day of the show to fill the upper levels of the stadium (and was obvious by the empty seats at the start of the show).

[ICBM]

^I never knew that about WM9

[bigjohnstudd]

Dec 28, 2010 23:06:41 GMT -5 ICBM said:

^I never knew that about WM9

You mean WM8? Yeah, the announced attendance was in the 62,000 area, but it's been reported in the past that at least 15,000 were freebies.

[ICBM]

Ah sorry I jobbed the number. good catch

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Dec 28, 2010 23:13:57 GMT -5 bigjohnstudd said:

Dec 28, 2010 23:06:41 GMT -5 ICBM said:

^I never knew that about WM9

You mean WM8? Yeah, the announced attendance was in the 62,000 area, but it's been reported in the past that at least 15,000 were freebies.

I always thought it was because people in Indiana were so dumb, they forgot to change their clocks and were late, which is why the top was empty.

That's what Heenan said anyway during the opening......