10 WWE PPVs That Were Doomed From The Start

4. WrestleMania 32

WWE Crown Jewel
WWE.com

Vince McMahon's 2018 Happy Birthday tweet to daughter Stephanie featured the pair of them sporting huge smiles by the huge AT&T Stadium pitch on the day WrestleMania 32 was officially booked for the 100,000 seater stadium.

It was perhaps the proudest they'd ever felt. McMahon was finally going to do away with the legitimacy row behind WrestleMania III's attendance and break his own record by drawing a six figure house for one of the biggest ever editions of the 'Show Of Shows'.

Soon enough though, his ego was his drowning pool as bodies hit the floor all over the shop. John Cena, Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Cesaro, Neville, Bray Wyatt and others were all natural card-fillers that were suddenly on the injured reserve list as the company scrambled to produce card that could satisfy their biggest ever seating allocation.

The element of surprise in announcing Shane McMahon as Undertaker's opponent remarkably helped spike sales (even if the match itself was the immediate living, breathing (heavily) example of 'diminished return') but the inevitable Roman Reigns/Triple H main event was doing little to drum up further interest.

Spun figures got them over the line - 101,763 was the announced attendance McMahon had to admit included every single wrestler, security guard, usher and arena staffer in the venue as the show took place.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett