With the Royal Rumble in WWE’s rearview mirror, the company is looking ahead to WrestleMania, which is sure to be another blockbuster event.
Merchandise sales play a huge part in generating revenue at such premium live events, and according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the company looks to be riding high on the road to WrestleMania. In addition, he revealed the top four merchandise sellers in the company to be Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, and Sami Zayn.
“I presume that it will do amazing merchandise numbers because that’s the other thing that’s going on right now is the merchandise numbers are really strong. A lot of the big characters are very, over when it comes to selling merchandise right now. Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, I’m sure Sami Zayn. They’re hot. That’s the deal. Things look good for them going into WrestleMania season.” (h/t WrestlingNews.co)
In addition to Cody Rhodes who won the men’s Royal Rumble, all eyes were on other top merch sellers Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn following the main event between Reigns and Kevin Owens. Reigns instructed Sami to accompany him to the ring while The Usos and Solo Sikoa were made to stay in the back, testing the loyalty of the Honorary Uce once more.
After the bout, Reigns wanted to continue his destruction, being joined by the rest of The Bloodline in the ring as the beatdown of Kevin Owens continued. Eventually, he handed a steel chair to Zayn and instructed him to attack his longtime friend – but to the shock of both the Tribal Chief and those in attendance, Zayn chose to hit Reigns in the back with a chair instead.
Reigns, Jimmy Uso, and Solo Sikoa gave Sami a brutal beating for his actions, but Jey Uso shocked everyone when he walked out of the arena, not wanting to be part of The Bloodline’s destruction any further.
WWE Broke Merchandise Records At The Royal Rumble
WWE’s impressive merchandise sales broke records inside the Alamodome in San Antonio with sales up 135% from its 2022 event. The company sent along the following press release, highlighting the many records broken in San Antonio:
WWE® SMASHES ALL-TIME GATE & VIEWERSHIP RECORDS AT ROYAL RUMBLE®
STAMFORD, Conn., January 30, 2023 – WWE® (NYSE: WWE) today announced that the 2023 Royal Rumble, which emanated from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, became WWE’s highest-grossing and most-viewed Royal Rumble in company history.The event set a new all-time gate record at more than $7.7 million, far surpassing the previous Royal Rumble high in 2017 by more than 50 percent. Viewership of the event saw a 52 percent increase versus the previous record set in 2022.
In addition, the 2023 Royal Rumble broke all-time venue merchandise and sponsorship records. Merchandise sales were up 135 percent versus the record set in 2022. Royal Rumble sponsorship revenue was up nearly 200 percent versus 2022 and featured the first-ever sponsored match (MTN DEW PITCH BLACK) and sponsored countdown clock (Applebee’s).
On social, the Roman Reigns-Sami Zayn videos generated 20 million-plus views across all WWE platforms and became the most-viewed WWE clip of 2023. Additional highlights include Logan Paul and Ricochet’s high-flying collision amassed 26.5 million views across WWE and Paul’s platforms, and the launch of Reigns’ TikTok account netted 100K followers in the first 24 hours.