What’s the story?
WWE Superstar Randy Orton claimed the Super Bowl doesn’t compare to WrestleMania, in an interview with Carol Maloney of NBC 4 Sports in Washington, D.C.
The interview came from the Washington Auto Show, where Orton was interviewed about his Royal Rumble victory, his personality in and out of the ring, as well as how WrestleMania and the Super Bowl compare, to which Orton responded with the following.
“WrestleMania is the Super Bowl of wrestling. Winning the Royal Rumble is getting into the Super Bowl of wrestling. Screw the Super Bowl, we’re talking about WrestleMania. Super Bowl ain’t got s**t on WrestleMania!”
Does @WWE Superstar @RandyOrton like the Super Bowl? Well, as he told @carolmaloney4, not really... #NBC4DC @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/dgs8bfb6I9
— NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) February 3, 2017
In case you didn’t know...
Orton won the 2017 edition of the Royal Rumble in front of 50,000 people at the Alamodome to make himself a two-time winner. The only men to have won the match twice are John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Batista, Hulk Hogan, and Triple H. Stone Cold won it twice in 1997 and 1998 but would win again in 2001 to break the Royal Rumble victory record at three wins.
This year will mark the 51st Super Bowl and the 33rd WrestleMania. The Super Bowl will take place tonight at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, with a seating capacity of over 71, 000. WrestleMania 33 will take place at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, with a previous attendance record of 74,635 from WrestleMania 24 in 2008.
The heart of the matter
The statistics of both shows indicate that both programs have strengths and weaknesses over the other. WrestleMania tends to have an advantage in live attendance with The Grandest Stage of Them All having larger attendances than the Super Bowl in most years, except WrestleMania 30.
On the other hand, the Super Bowl beats WrestleMania in overall viewership with more than 100 million people watching the big game every year, while ‘Mania averages a little more than 1 million viewers each year.
What’s next?
While the Super Bowl has already come and gone and the New England Patriots have won the Super Bowl to now have 5 rings as a team, WrestleMania won’t happen for a few more months. The Super Bowl has taken place in NRG Stadium in previous years so it’s track record for live attendance and viewership indicates that it has the potential to break records again. The live attendance didn’t match most of the previous WrestleManias, but it completely dwarfed the WWE in viewership with more than 111 million people watching the big game.
Sportskeeda’s take
In many ways, WrestleMania and the Super Bowl can’t be compared to each other. The differences in live attendance, viewership, advertisement revenue, and satisfaction of viewers yields so many results that declaring a definitive victor is somewhat difficult.
It’s easy to claim that the Super Bowl wins based solely on TV viewership, but the Super Bowl is free for TV viewers, while wrestling fans have to pay their cable providers for Mania and can now view it on the WWE Network.
If the conversation was just about viewers and profits, then the Super Bowl would easily be declared better. But with so many other categories to consider, it ultimately boils down to what the fan prefers.
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