John Cena’s Farewell Match Nearly Crashed WWE Ticket Queue With 50K Waiting

The ticket demand for John Cena’s final WWE match is officially off the charts—and now, Dave Meltzer says WWE may have seriously underestimated just how massive this event would be.

In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Meltzer confirmed that “at 10 a.m. on 10/15, the day tickets went on sale for the 12/13 Saturday Night’s Main Event show in Washington, DC, there were 45,000 people wanting to buy tickets and it actually shortly after hit 50,000.”

That massive number includes some fans using multiple devices, but Meltzer pointed out that most ticket buyers tend to grab two or three seats, so the actual demand could’ve packed an arena twice the size of Capital One Arena.

“This very clearly should have been in a Dome,” Meltzer wrote. For perspective, he compared the demand to AEW’s historic 2019 All Out presale when 74,500 people jumped into the queue—62,000 of them confirmed unique devices. Meltzer said that once AEW hit 10,000 tickets sold, “the place was sold out of everything and probably 52,000 or more were turned away.”

Cena’s farewell show is trending the same way in terms of demand—except this time, even fans further back in the queue could technically still buy tickets. The catch? The prices. According to Meltzer, “by that point nothing under $830 was available,” leading to more than 80% of fans walking away from the queue once they saw the cost.

WWE had already partnered with On Location to offer VIP packages, including the jaw-dropping $11,500 WWE Champion Package that comes with floor seats, a Cena meet-and-greet, ringside photo access, and exclusive merchandise. Premium seats ran between $6,500 and $9,500, while general tickets were priced from $250 to $3,000—until they sold out in a flash.

The surge of 50,000 fans trying to get in proves this event is far more than just another stop on the calendar. For WWE, this could be the most in-demand ticket since The Rock vs. Austin at WrestleMania X-Seven or WrestleMania 20 in Madison Square Garden.

WWE might have underestimated the moment—but the fans certainly didn’t.