It’s WWE WrestleMania weekend and one of the biggest topics on the “Road to WrestleMania” has been ticket sales — more precisely, the lack of ticket sales. While initial sales were solid, they stalled even with WWE and secondary markets lowering prices. They’ve held multiple sales with the 3:16 sale being the most effective. WWE is even bringing John Cena in as host to help boost sales. Last Friday after Pat McAfee cut another promo about how the product isn’t good, he announced a sale with 25% off of Saturday tickets.

Did the tactic work? According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, only somewhat.

“The Saturday show was at 42,715, meaning with the discount they moved 3,370 tickets. The Sunday show was at 43,934, meaning without the discount, they moved 2,217 tickets this past week.”

According to Dave Meltzer, the company won’t come close to hitting maximum capacity at Allegiant Stadium, but it wouldn’t be accurate to say that sales have been “bad.” They’ll still be among the most profitable events in company history, and could even beat last year’s WrestleMania in revenue, despite the lower sales. 

As for current ticket prices, Meltzer noted that the “get-in” price hasn’t changed much in recent days, but it seems WWE has been steadily dropping costs for some of the higher-priced seats.

WrestleMania 42 was originally scheduled to be in New Orleans, Louisiana. However after the announcement had already been made, WWE made the decision to have it in Las Vegas for the second consecutive year. For the first time ever, WrestleMania will air on ESPN. The first hour of each show will air on the traditional ESPN channel. The remainder of Night One and Two will air on their streaming service.

There are a lot of hostilities that are coming to play between “The OTC” Roman Reigns and “The Best in the World” CM Punk. And in less than 48 hours, the world will learn who reigns atop the island of relevancy in WWE. But in Punk’s eyes, the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion doesn’t believe the fans deserve to have to witness or bear through seeing a “part-time” wrestler as their new world champion.

“I think anybody would be a fool to not look at Roman and respect the fact that he puts his family above everything else. I love that,” the champion told Corey Graves before tearing his opponent a new one ahead of their very personal match. “His priorities are in the right spot. But it’s real hard to sit back and look at a man who will do that and be a part-timer and think that’s okay. Because there is a responsibility that comes not only with being a WWE Superstar, with being a champion. This is about pro wrestling versus cinema.”

He then proceeds to give examples of other men who are balancing the art of fatherhood with their flag bearing responsibilities in the business, including Cody Rhodes and his other least favorite co-worker, Seth Rollins, to which he circles back by asking, “Why can’t Roman?”

Punk let his shield down on this past Monday’s go-home edition of “WWE Raw,” by telling Reigns that he was envious of all of his monikers, like holding the WWE Universal Championship for a historic 1,316 days, for example. However, the remarks he made about burying Reigns next to his late father, Sika, among many other disses, has created enough wrath and fury for Reigns to potentially decimate and end Punk’s golden reign. The clock is ticking for their main event showcase in Las Vegas.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “WWE” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.