The WWE lies about their Wrestlemania attendance every year. Before the COVID period they would announced a huge attendance number to break the arena record. The WWE Key Performane Indicators (KPI) gives this away every year. While some think that their KPI only shows paid attendance averages, it's interesting that the KPI, itself, doesn't say paid attendance. The WWE's second quarter this year had 55 shows with an average attendance of 6800. Then there is the 4900 average for the shows other than Wrestlemania, at least that's what I think that is supposed to be. Going off those numbers, not knowing what the actual average is, that would mean a total of 374000 fans for the 55 shows, and 259700 if you exclude the two nights of Wrestlemania. That would mean a total of 114300 for the two nights of Wrestlemania, and an average of 57150. The WWE announced 77899 for the first night, and 78453 for the second. Based on the KPI these numbers aren't just a little off. They are way off. The 156352 total for the announced attendance is well above the 114300 estimate from the KPI. In 2020 Wrestlemania took place at the WWE Performance Center. Last year only a small portions of the seats in Raymond James Stadium were available. Since they could get closer to capacity with this year's mania, they may have badly wanted to put out a huge number. If I assume that the averages listed in the KPI are to the nearest thousand if the 6800 was rounded down from close to 6850, and the 4900 was round up from 4850, it would still mean less than 120000 fans totals fans, and an average of a little under 60000. This past Wrestlemania took place at AT&T Stadium, which was home of the previous biggest lie for Wrestlemania attendance. The WWE claimed an audience of 101763 for Wrestlemania 32, but their KPI for that year suggest an actual attendance of about 79800. 79800 is a lot closer to the 80709, that the Arlington Police said attended that Wrestlemania, than the WWE's number. I don't know how much the mainstream respects the WWE's numbers, because the WWE values what they think. You can have a bunch of people using legit information, and knowing that the WWE lies about their attendance, but if ESPN, and other outlets keep treating their numbers as legit, they may mean a lot to their public image.
Source https://corporate.wwe.com/~/media/Files/W/WWE/press-releases/2022/q2-2022-kpi.pdf
