As WWE continues to break gate records, we now know John Cena’s retirement show drew the biggest live gate for an arena event in company history, and likely the highest such gate in all of pro wrestling history, even when taking inflation into account.
Ticket sales for the Saturday Night’s Main Event show on December 13 in Washington, D.C., totaled $6,553,883, according to live event trade publication Pollstar. By a wide margin, that surpasses the earlier record set at the beginning of 2025 when the premiere of Raw on Netflix sold $4,898,365 at the Intuit Dome just outside Los Angeles.
Data newly obtained from Pollstar revealed gates for additional events put on by WWE in 2025.
The Crown Jewel event in Perth, Australia, on Oct. 11 last year at RAC Arena, also reached the rarely crossed $4 million threshold. It sold 11,682 tickets, generating the equivalent of $4.16 million in U.S. dollars, or $6.42 million in Australian dollars. The average ticket price for that event was $338. That event also featured one of Cena’s last matches, as he faced AJ Styles. Seth Rollins defeating Cody Rhodes for the WWE Crown Jewel Title was the main event.
With 17,121 tickets sold in the Capital One Arena for Cena’s final match, a loss to Gunther, the average ticket sale was $383, a figure that likely doesn’t include ticketing fees fans paid. The average ticket sale for the launch of Raw on Netflix was an even $300. Only WrestleMania events in recent history have had higher known average ticket prices.
As reported earlier, WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas last year had by far the most expensive tickets in wrestling history, with an average cost likely more than $600, including vendor fees, for a single night of either of the two-night event. WrestleMania in Philadelphia in 2024 had an average ticket price of $341. In 2019, when WrestleMania was in New Jersey, the average ticket price was $268, which is equivalent to $338 in today’s dollars. WrestleMania the year prior, in Orlando in 2018, had an average ticket of $235, or an inflation-adjusted $303.
Until 2025, when taking inflation into account, no WWE arena event and possibly no arena event in wrestling history had surpassed the gate of WrestleMania V. That event, headlined by Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in 1989, drew a gate reportedly worth $1.628 million at the time, which is today equivalent to $4.209 million. That event was the second of two consecutive WrestleManias held at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, in association with Donald Trump’s nearby hotel and casino.
Cena’s retirement was presented by WWE in association with Events DC, the local organization tasked with attracting events to the area, which suggests WWE may have also received financial or other incentives for selecting Washington, D.C. as the location for Cena’s last match. (This reporter is a plaintiff in an ongoing FOIA lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court, seeking an order compelling Events DC to produce records that may disclose information about incentives WWE received related to this event. Events DC denies it is subject to the DC FOIA law.)
Ticket revenue was extraordinary across Cena’s final dates
While ticket prices have strongly increased across the board for WWE events, Cena’s retirement show was far from the only event on his final tour to generate remarkable sales.
Of his 38 appearances for WWE in 2025, we have data for 20 of them. The credit for drawing those crowds can’t solely go to Cena, and any notion about who drew what in modern times raises the inevitable question about how much credit must go to WWE’s brand before any wrestler. That said, it’s worth noting that those 20 events alone during Cena’s retirement tour drew more than $80 million in ticket sales. That sum doesn’t include revenue associated with stadium-sized events for Royal Rumble in Indianapolis, Elimination Chamber in Toronto, Clash in Paris, SummerSlam in East Rutherford, and Survivor Series in San Diego — events we don’t have ticket sales data for. Though we do know that SummerSlam and Survivor Series came with millions in incentives for WWE, according to previous reports.
Soon after Cena’s heel turn at Elimination Chamber on Mar. 1, he appeared on a succession of Raw in Europe in non-match segments. WWE drew $1.77 million (€1.63 million) in Brussels on Mar. 17, $2.63 million (£2.03 million) in Glasgow on Mar. 24, and $3.58 million (£2.76 million) in London.
Gates for events in Las Vegas, where he appeared, were reported previously: $2.50 million for the SmackDown before WrestleMania, about $33 million for Night 2 of WrestleMania, and $3.48 million for the Raw the next day.
On Apr. 25 in Fort Worth, Texas, SmackDown drew $1.49 million, which Cena built toward an eventual match with Randy Orton.
Cena’s match with R-Truth in Tampa on May 24 was before a crowd paying $2.52 million in the Yuengling Center for that night’s edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event.
The June 9 Raw in Phoenix generated $1.73 million and included a non-match confrontation between Cena and CM Punk.
On July 18 in San Antonio, fans paid $1.76 million to attend SmackDown, with an angle between Cena and Cody Rhodes, which would lead to the SummerSlam rematch of their earlier meeting at WrestleMania.
After SummerSlam, in Montreal on August 8, after turning back face, he teamed with Rhodes against Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre on SmackDown. The show drew $1.36 million in U.S. dollars ($1.87 million Canadian).
On August 22, in Dublin, Ireland, WWE drew $2.61 million (€2.25 million) for a SmackDown event. The next week in Lyon, France, SmackDown sold $1.46 million (€1.25 million) in tickets. Both events featured angles building to Cena’s match against Paul.
Outside Chicago, in Rosemont, Ill., on Sept. 5, Cena wrestled Sami Zayn. That SmackDown event drew $2.68 million.
Wrestlepalooza on Sept. 20, with Cena’s match against the returning Brock Lesnar, sold $3.26 million in Indianapolis, for the first WWE PLE on ESPN’s new streaming app.
A few weeks later, at the next PLE, Crown Jewel, on Oct. 11, Cena faced AJ Styles in Perth, Australia, generating $4.16 million U.S. ($6.42 million Australian), as mentioned earlier. Two nights after that, on Oct. 13 for Raw, still in Perth, drew $2.08 million ($3.19 million Australian). Cena didn’t appear on the Oct. 10 SmackDown, ahead of Crown Jewel, also in Perth, which drew another $2.00 million ($3.05 million Australian), bringing the three-show run in Perth to a total of $8.24 million ($12.66 million Australian) in ticket sales.
Cena’s last match in his hometown of Boston drew an even $3.00 million gate for a Raw at TD Garden on Nov. 10; 15,719 tickets were sold at an average price of $191. On that show, Cena had a rematch with Styles.
