Cody Rhodes Sets A Major WWE WrestleMania Record

The American Nightmare set a new record at this year's WrestleMania.

Apr 11, 2024 April 11th, 2024

With WWE WrestleMania XL being a huge success across the board and by any metrics, Cody Rhodes was someone who had a particularly impressive week, and that's not talking just about his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship victory over Roman Reigns.

As per Fightful Select, an internal memo sent to certain members of WWE notes how the American Nightmare sold over $1 million of merchandise across 'Mania weekend. It was added that this is a new WrestleMania record, breaking the record previously set by Cody at last year's Showcase of the Immortals.

This comes at a time when WWE has been selling out venues, hitting big TV ratings, and signing mammoth deals such as the ten-year, $5 billion agreement with Netflix. And as for those TV numbers, this week's episode of WWE Raw averaged an impressive 2.36 million viewers and scored a 0.83 in the key 18-49 demographic. That viewership number is Raw's highest in over four years, and this latest red brand offering peaked at a staggering 3.2 million with its third quarter-hour - a quarter-hour that featured Cody Rhodes and The Rock.

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Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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