More than 145,000 people packed Lincoln Financial Field over the weekend, as Philadelphia hosted WrestleMania XL – the biggest professional wrestling event of the year.

Considering the sea of promotional products, it was more like MerchMania.

Before Cody Rhodes finished his story by ending the 1,316-day reign of WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, wrestling fans flocked to the Pennsylvania Convention Center for WWE World at WrestleMania, a five-day interactive fan experience that included the largest WrestleMania Superstore ever.

WWE partnered with Fanatics Events, the live and special events division of sports merchandise provider Fanatics, to host the convention.

  • As WWE’s official retail partner, Fanatics handles global e-commerce, licensed merchandise and memorabilia and enhanced in-venue product offerings at all of WWE’s 300-plus events each year.

“Fanatics has a phenomenal ability to customize offerings for fans and we’re excited to partner with them on this first-of-its-kind experience for the WWE Universe at WrestleMania XL,” said Scott Zanghellini, co-head of revenue strategy and development at WWE.


Branded Merch Battle Royal

The WrestleMania Superstore served as a treasure trove for branded merchandise, featuring T-shirts, hats, championship belts, bags, pendants, flip flops, jackets, hoodies, vests, golf polos, masks, Funko Pop figures and more.

WWE reported that merchandise sales at WrestleMania XL were up more than 20% compared to the previous record set at WrestleMania 39 but didn’t disclose how much total sales were.

Contenders Clothing, an apparel licensee for media and entertainment brands, offered an exclusive collection of boxer briefs, mesh shorts, T-shirts and hoodies emblazoned with the logos of WrestleMania, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan.

Custom Lids, a division of athletic headwear retailer Lids, set up a booth for attendees to design and decorate their own personalized baseball cap with various fonts and patches representing WWE Superstars.

In addition to participating in a private shopping experience at the WrestleMania Superstore, 19 children from Make-A-Wish America received personalized Mitchell & Ness bomber jackets embroidered with their fantasy WWE personas and custom title belts.

Ever the creative bunch, wrestling fans were also decked out in custom outfits, even cosplaying as their favorite warriors of the ring.

 

WrestleMania’s Economic Impact

WWE has reported that WrestleMania XL is the highest-grossing event in company history, breaking the previous record set by WrestleMania 39 by 78%.

More than 90,000 tickets were sold for these events just hours after they went on sale in August 2023, setting a new WrestleMania record for first-day ticket sales and surpassing WWE’s previous all-time gate record of $21.5 million.

  • WWE estimates that more than 200,000 people, with 15% to 20% coming from outside the United States, attended WrestleMania Week events.

With that kind of drawing power, it’s no surprise that WrestleMania has a history of generating massive revenue for its host cities, which bid on the annual extravaganza.

  • WWE says WrestleMania has generated more than $1.25 billion in cumulative economic impact for cities that have hosted the event over the past decade.
  • WrestleMania 39, held at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, generated a record $215 million for the region.