Biggest Wrestling Attendances In History (WWE, AEW & NJPW)

Hamish Woodward

With AEW All In selling over 70,000 tickets, it stormed its way into being one of the biggest selling wrestling events in history.

Their debut in the UK has renewed interest for British wrestling, and fans cannot wait to see their favorite American stars again.

This comes on the back of a huge show last year by the WWE. They brought “Clash at the Castle” to Cardiff, Wales last year, and saw 62,000 fans watch Drew McIntyre take on Roman Reigns in the main event.

wwe clash at the castle poster
The New WWE Clash At The Castle Poster Has Been Revealed After Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar at Summerslam

WrestleMania 39 also claimed to have sold over 80,000 tickets for both its nice, although Dave Meltzer reported it was actually 67,000 fans at the event.

Impressive, but not quite enough to get onto the list of the biggest crowds in wrestling history. In this article, we’ll reveal the highest attendances in pro-wrestling history, which includes an absurd stadium show that drew nearly 200,000 fans.

WrestleMania 3 (78,300)

Often touted as one of the biggest wrestling shows of all time, WrestleMania 3 was truly a key point in wrestling history.

The WWE hit the mainstream when they pitted Hulk Hogan against Andre The Giant, in quite possibly the biggest match of all time.

The crowd numbers showed that too, with the show being touted as drawing in nearly 100,000 fans for years, an almost unbreakable record that they never expected to be broken.

WWE claimed WrestleMania 3 drew 93,000 fans, but the real attendance was closer to 78,300 instead. This would only be broken twice by the WWE, although they lied about the real attendance each time too.

Summerslam 1992 (78,927)

Summerslam 1992 was the biggest wrestling event in history when it aired, and became one of the most legendary shows of all time.

The main event saw hometown hero British Bulldog defeat Bret Hart, winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship in what Vince McMahon called “the greatest match he’d ever seen”.

WWE claimed 80,000 fans crammed into Wembley Stadium for the historic event. This would put it one of WWE’s highest paid attendances ever.

The real paid attendance for Summerslam 1992 was 78,927 (paid), which is still an incredibly impressive figure.

This was the last time the company put on a stadium show in the UK for 30 years, until 58,000 fans entered Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium for Clash at the Castle in 2022.

WrestleMania 32 (80,000)

In a fairly disappointing show, headlined by Triple H vs Roman Reigns, the WWE made history.

They had their biggest crowd ever, when the company took their yearly WrestleMania show

Despite WWE’s claim of over 100,000 fans attending, the actual crowd number was more around 80,000.

Still a ridiculous size, but they needed to inflate the number to beat the previously inflated crowd size at WrestleMania 3.

AEW All In (81,035)

With AEW’s first forray into the United Kingdom, its looking like their second All In could become the highest-paid attendance in wrestling history.

Since the show was announced in April 2023, tickets have flown off the shelves. As of May 2023, over 70,000 tickets have been bought for All In, smashing the previous AEW record by 50,000.

This is without any matches being announced for the show. Once stars like CM Punk, Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay have matches on the card, we can expect that extra tickets to be sold and take the crown as the biggest paid crowd in wrestling history.

During the show (which was main evented by Adam Cole vs MJF) Nigel McGuinness announced a record-breaking 81,035 paid attendences.

This is higher than any other paid attendance in wrestling history, a phenomenal achievement for AEW, in just their fifth year of operation.

However, there is still one more event that had more fans in attendance than All In, but there’s a catch – none of them wanted to be there.

NJPW/WCW Collision In Korea (165,000 +190,000)

The undisputed largest crowd in wrestling history, and one that will likely never, ever be broken, is the infamous 1995 Clash in Korea.

You may think that South Korea does not have a thriving wrestling scene – you’d be right. But this event took place in North Korea, the isolationist nation famed for their extreme human rights abuse.

After the death of Kim Il-Sung, his son Kim Jong-Il and Antonio Inoki set up a wrestling super card to showcase the world’s biggest stars in North Korea.

With huge personalties like Inoki, Ric Flair and Muhammad Ali all taking part, it had all the makings of a legendary show.

In the two-day event, a rumoured 355,000 fans were said to have attended, with the second day (headlined by Ric Flair vs Antonio Inoki), reportedly drawing 190,000 fans.

But, being North Korea, the fans were forced into the stadium, through threat of death, so it’s really hard to proclaim this the true biggest wrestling event of all time.

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