One MIND-BLOWING Secret From EVERY WWE WrestleMania

39. WrestleMania 3 | Historians Have Actually Worked Out The REAL Attendance

78,000, or 93,000? What was the WrestleMania 3 attendance, actually? 

Even though this should be an objective fact, the answer varies. If you love WWE, you’ll happily go along with the 93,000 number. You want your favourite thing to be as big as possible. If you once loved WWE, but your wrestling fandom veered in another direction after some instance of bad booking or other, you probably like the idea that they lied to you all along. It vindicates your cynicism. 

It isn’t an objective fact, though, because WWE isn’t in the business of telling the whole truth. Embellishing the attendance of live events is a known company quirk that Vince McMahon has actually told shareholders about. This is itself a hint, isn’t it? It’s a bit convenient that WWE would have broken the pro wrestling attendance record, no? 

Dave Meltzer believes so. He was the man to dispute the 93,000 number, arriving at 78,000 after promoter Zane Bresloff himself - backed up by the turnstile count - told Dave that the WWF faked it because they simply wanted to claim that they had outdraw the Pope. 

Interestingly, journalist David Bixenspan - who doesn’t appear to be a big fan of WWE, so has no reason to lie - conducted his own investigation of sorts. The WWF, never known for its truthfulness in this regard, could barely keep its story straight, insisting that 88,000 people were set to attend in a press release issued days before the show. That is still more than 78,000, and as Bixenspan points out, is consistent with the venue set-up for football games. 

Working on the hunch that 78,000 felt too low a number - the beautiful vista of the Silverdome really does seem endless - Bix probed further. He eventually determined, using research materials uncovered by wrestling historian Cory Gibson in the Amusement Business trade journal, that stadium director Mike Abington revealed the number. Abington disclosed that 88,100 tickets were sold to the public. A further 5,000 people worked in the building that night between concessions staff, WWF personnel, and the like. Interestingly, this has been double-sourced. 

Upon being interviewed by Keith Elliot Greenberg for his WrestleMania 3 book, Basil DeVito - the WWF marketing guy responsible for the 93,000 number in the first place - conceded that the number did in fact incorporate those working in the building. 93,000? 78,000? 

It really does seem like 88,000 is the actual number at long last.