10 WWE PPVs Which Drew Lower-Than-Expected Buyrates (And Why)
4. WrestleMania 13 - 237,000 Buys
When it comes to bad WrestleManias, WrestleMania 13 is still the gold standard. Though the show would end up launching the Attitude Era with the Bret Hart-Steve Austin submission match, the rest of the card was an absolute waste - including the Sycho Sid-Undertaker main event. To this day, it's the only WrestleMania that wasn't a sellout, with 1,737 tickets given out for free.
With all that in mind, it's no surprise that the show earned a record-low 237,000 buys, but at the time, it was unheard of for a WrestleMania show to do so poorly. Uncensored 1997, a run-of-the-mill WCW PPV that same month, got 325,000 buys.
The poor performance was a combination of things - WWE was falling way behind WCW and wasn't considered hot, and the WrestleMania card was weak on paper. Also, back then, the WrestleMania name wasn't an automatic draw. Still, 237,000 buys is awful - keep in mind that this show did fewer buys than WrestleMania II, which took place in an era when far fewer people had access to PPV.