WrestleMania going global thanks to 5bn Netflix deal

Tonight, 65,000 fans will fervently fill the aisles of the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

- ALEX PATTLE

Tomorrow, another 65,000 will do the same. For these people, the sleek, modern cauldron marks the final destination on their pilgrimage. These WWE worshippers will be at their unique Mecca: WrestleMania.

The professional wrestling showpiece has gone by many nicknames, most often “the granddaddy of ’em all” and “the showcase of the immortals”. It’s okay, you’re allowed to laugh. In a world as campy and at times farcical as pro wrestling, the taking-this-too-seriously of it all can be humorous. Yet there is an element that should be taken seriously.

If you still think pro wrestling or its flagship brand WWE is fake or for kids, you’ll have to tell that to the 130,000 souls striding down the Vegas strip this weekend. You’ll also have to tell the expected millions (“and millions!” to quote Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) watching around the world.

While pay-per-view figures for 2024’s WrestleMania 40 are hard to verify, its content achieved 660 million reported views on social media, while a press release touted “1.3 billion live minutes” of viewership for both nights combined. Wrestlenomics believes the latter works out to around 2.8 million Peacock accounts watching each night.

And while WrestleMania 41 will air on pay-per-view in the US, it will stream live on Netflix in the UK and most territories worldwide – for the first time ever. That factor alone almost guarantees more views than ever before.

This development follows WWE’s January debut on Netflix, which streams the company’s Raw and Smackdown shows in the majority of countries around the world, including the US in the case of Raw alone.