WWE News: WrestleMania 28 Reportedly Sets New PPV Buyrate, Gross Sales Records

The WWE went all out for WrestleMania 28. 

The Rock was brought in, and so was Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker wrestled his first match in roughly a year, and Chris Jericho returned for a great WWE Championship match and feud with CM Punk. 

All this done was done for one reason: to make WrestleMania 28 the most successful pay-per-view of all-time. 

There have been varying reports on how many buys the PPV generated, including that ridiculous 1.9 million buys rumor, but now, it appears as if we have the first realistic reported buyrate for the PPV. 

And it broke records. 

From WWE.com: 

"

WWE announced that WrestleMania  XXVIII, held April 1 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, set new records for pay-per-view buys and gross sales.

Preliminary estimates show that WrestleMania, featuring the historic “Once in a Lifetime” Match between The Rock and John Cena, garnered 1.3 million pay-per-view buys with global gross sales in excess of $67 million including the live event. 

"

Well, I guess The Rock wasn’t lying when he tweeted this earlier today, huh?

Everyone within WWE has to be ecstatic, because the WWE pulled out all the stops for WrestleMania 28. To be honest, I think that anything short of breaking the WWE’s previous PPV buyrate record (held by WrestleMania 23) would have been considered a major disappointment. 

It undoubtedly cost the company some serious dough to bring in The Rock, HBK and Jericho, but the return on those three investments was always going to have to be a successful WrestleMania. 

Thankfully, the WWE got one. 

While this is obviously great news for the WWE, it’s also got to be a little disheartening to know that the company’s most successful PPV came when it centered largely around three part-timers (The Rock, Triple H and Undertaker) and another superstar in his 40s (Jericho). 

I mean, what does that say about the current full-time roster and the future of the company? 

At least to me, it’s a telltale sign that we’re going to continue to see former names—like Brock Lesnar—brought back because they draw, which might be a bad sign for young up-and-comers looking to take that next step to the main event level.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-to-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring or Twitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.