WWE announce SummerSlam 2021 broke multiple records

Bengaluru, August 25: WWE SummerSlam 2021 was indeed a star-studded event with the biggest professional wrestling stars performing in it. The Wrestlemania-caliber event has now become the most-viewed and highest-grossing SummerSlam of all time.

WWE has officially announced that the bygone pay-per-view from the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada set records for live global viewership, gate receipts, indoor attendance, merchandise sales, sponsorships, and social engagement.

Brock Lesnar making his return to the WWE at SummerSlam 2021 following a one-year hiatus has now become WWE’s most-watched Instagram video of all time with four million views. The video surpassed the video of John Cena’s most recent return at Money In The Bank 2021 PPV on July 18.

At a glance the accomplishments mentioned by WWE with the historic SummerSlam 2021 are as follows:

* More people watched this past Saturday’s event, live across Peacock (in the United States) and WWE Network than any other SummerSlam edition in the company’s history. The seven-figure global audience marked a 55% increase from 2020 and a 29% increase from 2019.

* The sell-out crowd of 51,326 broke records in SummerSlam history for indoor attendance and gate receipts. (The venue Allegiant Stadium was an outdoor venue but it did have a retractable roof) Tickets were purchased by fans from all 50 USA states, Saturday’s live gate was more than four times greater than the last SummerSlam held with fans in attendance in 2019 from Toronto, Canada.

* Merchandise sales witnessed an increase of 155% from 2019. Last year, the Biggest Party of the Summer was hosted inside ThunderDome sans the fans.

* SummerSlam 2021 set a new sponsorship record, growing by 25% from 2019 and 18% from 2020.

* With more than four million views, Brock Lesnar’s return to the WWE became WWE’s most-watched Instagram video of all time – surpassing the video of John Cena’s return at Money In The Bank. In total, SummerSlam videos have gathered more than one billion views across all WWE social platforms for the past few days.

WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns featured in the main event of SummerSlam 2021 who defeated John Cena to retain his title. Following the announcements by the WWE, The Tribal Chief took to Twitter with a reaction that was short yet significant, “Legitimate needle moving.”

This “moving the needle” talk began last week when Roman Reigns took a jab to CM Punk (who also made a return to pro-wrestling a day before SummerSlam 2021 on AEW Rampage) for how over he really was in WWE.

WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan then made a reference to “the needle” in a weekend interview with Ariel Helwani while former WWE star Mickie James also continued “the needle” talks. AEW star Chavo Guerrero also made reference to Reigns’ comments towards Punk for not moving the needles in the WWE.