WWE's WrestleMania marketing push began months ago, but the event is just days away. In February, three days before the Super Bowl, WWE sought to steal some NFL attention from Las Vegas.
WrestleMania XL, a two-day event in Philadelphia that begins Saturday, was promoted at a press conference in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena, across from the Super Bowl stadium. It promoted Cody Rhodes and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who joined WWE's parent company TKO Group's board. The free, live-streamed event on Peacock sought to attract thousands of football enthusiasts in town and spectators nationwide
Although there was no wrestling, The Rock slapped Rhodes across the face, generating 15.7 million views on WWE's social media channels in less than 12 hours. WWE said the event was the most-watched outside the ring event ever with over 4.7 million viewers. In only 12 hours, the press conference received 100 million views.
It was Super Bowl day when WWE released WrestleMania XL. WWE's X account, formerly Twitter, had almost 5 million views of that video. The WWE's WrestleMania messaging excites fans because it resolves many of the year's storylines in the ring, according to Siegel+Gale's Jason Cielsak, president, Pacific Rim.
“It is a master class in marketing steeped heavily in storytelling and drama that many of the major sports leagues and even television writers could learn from,” Cielsak added. Given his WWE history and movie star fame, The Rock's presence in WrestleMania XL is valuable.
“The benefits to WWE are numerous and help position the organization as a credible entertainment entity, luring “future Rocks” seeking global stardom,” Cielsak added.
WWE has also been promoting WrestleMania XL with Logan Paul and Pat McAfee, two of its biggest social media stars. WWE's US champion, podcaster, YouTuber, and Prime beverage co-founder Paul released a video on X reacting to WrestleMania XL's press conference. Paul has 23.5 million YouTube subscribers and 6.8 million X followers.
McAfee, who rejoined WWE's Raw commentary team and co-hosted WrestleMania XL, interviewed The Rock on his ESPN show. The video on McAfee's X account had over 3 million views.
The WrestleMania promotion benefits the firm and the host cities. Applied Analysis found that WrestleMania 39 at SoFi Stadium brought in $215 million for Los Angeles last year. WWE reported that smashed its previous record of $206.5 million for Dallas/Arlington from WrestleMania 38. WWE claims that WrestleMania has brought more than $1.2 billion to host towns since 2016. Stamford-based TKO Group Holdings, Inc. shares are up about 7% this year.
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