For The First Time, UFC Defeated WWE In Gate Attendance
For the first time ever, the Ultimate Fighting Championship topped the WWE in a key statistical category.
According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, the UFC had more events that brought in over 10,000 fans than the WWE did. This is significant because the WWE runs several more events per year than the UFC.
“This is nowhere close to the worst year for attendance numbers for WWE,” said Meltzer. “The mid-90s were much, much worse than now. But it’s the first time that UFC had more shows that did over 10,000 than WWE, and they almost doubled them.”
Both the UFC and WWE have overcome rough patches, and both appear set to make big, big impacts in 2020. The UFC will feature Conor McGregor and Jon Jones in early pay-per-view events, while the WWE has Royal Rumble to build towards WrestleMania.
Each of the UFC’s final six cards of 2019 drew over 10,000, with the highest being 20,143 in November to see Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz battle at UFC 244. That card took place from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Replay of Jorge Masvidal’s ‘BMF’ title win at UFC 244 available on ESPN https://t.co/WwlBOugGSA
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) November 18, 2019
According to reports, the final WWE big event of 2019, WWE TLC, had a gate of 8,500 fans.
.@WWEAsuka & @KairiSaneWWE picked their THRILLING match against @MsCharlotteWWE & @BeckyLynchWWE from #WWETLC for their @WWENetwork pick of the week! pic.twitter.com/ImfnQEIXir
— WWE (@WWE) December 20, 2019
More Key Pieces To Paul Heyman’s 2020 WWE Plans
As previously mentioned right here, Paul Heyman has big plans in 2020 for both Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy. But, that is not all.
Heyman is also targeting strong pushes for Charlotte Flair, Drew McIntyre and Ricochet in an attempt to build them into big-time superstars, according to Dave Meltzer.
Flair, of course, is the daughter of the legendary Ric Flair. The 33-year-old is a one-time NXT women’s champion, one-time Divas champion, four-time Raw women’s champion and five-time SmackDown women’s champion.
All total, her 11-title reigns are a record for the women’s division.
✈️ #MSG #WWE pic.twitter.com/Qe72wiN8RQ
— Charlotte Flair (@MsCharlotteWWE) December 26, 2019
McIntyre, 34 years old, is a former Intercontinental champion and also has held the Raw tag team titles twice. The native of Scotland had runs in Evolve and NXT before making it to the WWE main roster.
Feels damn good to be back home in Scotland where my journey began 19 years ago. Everyone told me making @WWE was impossible, nobody from Scotland had ever been signed….aside this guy right here which encouraged me to keep pushing. I haven’t changed a bit @JakeSnakeDDT pic.twitter.com/2WX3PHk6SY
— Drew McIntyre (@DMcIntyreWWE) December 21, 2019
Ricochet, a 31-year-old from Illinois, has held the WWE United States title, along with the NXT North American championship. He also won the 2019 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic alongside Black.
Let me state that this was something that I was happy about. So to everyone trying to turn it into something that it isn’t. Please stop. ?? https://t.co/NjtyfM7msk
— WWE’s resident Superhero ? (@KingRicochet) December 25, 2019
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