WrestleMania 23 is the biggest pro-wrestling PPV in history, with 1,200,000 total buys and 780,000 domestic buys. The total company gross is $24.3 million, extended to $48.6 million in worldwide PPV gross. It did not match the domestic buys for WrestleMania XVII (998,000) or WrestleMania XVIII (880,000). The Wrestling Observer estimates from current TV ratings that WWE got about 14% of their viewers to purchase the event, compared to 61% of the UFC viewers who bought the Tito Ortiz vs Chuck Liddell event.
There is talk that the Cyber Sunday PPV will be scrapped in 2008 if it does not perform well this year. WWE is considering replacing it with a special edition of Raw in which the fan vote gimmick is used.
WWE 24/7 will be offered for free in September.
Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 14th May 2007 (click here for subscription information)
