WWE had around 13,000 fans at each Barclays Center event over SummerSlam weekend, the wrestling observer newsletter reports. The company had hyped up that they sold out three nights for the Brooklyn shows, with a capacity of near 16,000. WWE's version of the numbers were 15,589 fans for the NXT show on 8/22, then 15,702 fans for SummerSlam, and 15,597 fans for Raw. But those numbers are exaggerated. They actually only set up for 13,438 fans at each show. Some seats were opened up at the last minute, but the observer says that it wouldn't have added any more than a couple of hundred. Bear in mind as well, WWE undoubtedly gave away free tickets, especially with the WWE 2K16 promotional events coinciding. It appears the WWE policy is to add 2,000 to the attendance at any Raw or PPV sellout, giving an inflated view of their popularity. You have to wonder what the point is, given that the numbers are clearly impressive just as they are. NXT's ticket sales were particularly impressive, as they'd initially only banked on selling 5,000 seats. The brand is over without any major push on Raw and is one of the few big success stories of the WWE Network. Popularity has spread via word of mouth, to the point that WWE was able to fill NXT Takeover Brooklyn equally to SummerSlam.
