10 Fascinating WWE SummerSlam 1998 Facts
1. It Was The Most Bought SummerSlam Ever
Well-executed hype + two big stars in the main event + professional wrestling as a mainstream fad = financial success. SummerSlam 1998 can't be considered anything but a major victory for WWE, and the evidence is in the numbers.
The 1998 SummerSlam was good for 700,000 buys. That's a whopping 198 percent higher than the 1997 edition of the show, which only did 235,000 buys, so yeah, business picked up for damn sure in 1998. That 700,000 is more than 12 different WrestleManias from the pre-Network era, and more than any Royal Rumble or Survivor Series, as well.
In fact, only one non-WrestleMania PPV ever pulled in more buys than SummerSlam 1998: the InVasion pay-per-view in 2001 did 775,000 buys. Unlike InVasion, however, the 1998 SummerSlam isn't looked back upon with such "they coulda done so much more" disgust.