It looks as though 2011 will not see WrestleMania and a UFC PPV scheduled for the same weekend, as was the case this year. WWE WrestleMania 27 will be held on April 3 in Atlanta, GA. The nearest UFC PPV is at present expected to be on March 26 at the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada. That event will be UFC’s first in Ontario, should mixed martial arts become sanctioned in the province as expected. It is also expected to beat the current UFC attendance record of 21,390, set at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for UFC 83.
The UFC 111 PPV was held on March 27 this year, the day before WrestleMania 26, with 850,000 buys on PPV. It is thought that this event ate into the WrestleMania 26 buyrate as that event came in far below expectations, with 885,000 buys. That was below the 960,000 buys for the less well-promoted WrestleMania 25 event, despite the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber PPVs on the Road to WrestleMania improving on their 2009 buyrates.
The previous time UFC and WWE ran PPVs in the same weekend was a resounding win for UFC. WWE Survivor Series on November 22, 2009, did just 235,000 buys, while UFC 106 on November 21 did 375,000. Vince McMahon decided not to run the Survivor Series concept again in 2010.
