WWE had more than 33,000 people inside U.S. Bank Stadium for SummerSlam Night Two, but the company never announced the attendance—and Dave Meltzer believes AEW may be a big reason why.
WWE normally loves putting a massive attendance number on the screen during its stadium shows. That didn’t happen on either night of SummerSlam, even after the final Night Two count climbed to 33,086. Meltzer addressed the silence during Wrestling Observer Radio and said he could not remember WWE handling a stadium event this way before.
“This is the first time I can ever recall a WWE stadium show where neither night they announced an attendance figure. I thought maybe Night One, they’re waiting for Night Two, and they’re going to say 70,000 people. But that tells you.”
Bryan Alvarez initially found a count of 32,091 for Night Two before locating the final afternoon update.
“Actually, they got it up to 33,086. That was the final update this afternoon—33,086 for Night Two.”
The number itself wasn’t terrible. More than 30,000 people at a wrestling event is still a major crowd, but Meltzer claimed WWE had distributed free or heavily discounted tickets after the count sat near 21,000 not long before the show.
“It’s better than it was. It was 21,000 not that long ago, and they papered it to get it to 32,000. Look, 30,000 for pro wrestling, even papered, is fine. It’s not a bad number.”
The bigger problem may have been how that number would look next to AEW. Meltzer suggested WWE didn’t want to celebrate an attendance figure in the low 30,000s when AEW could potentially draw a larger crowd for one of its own stadium events.
“I think partially it is because AEW’s beating their number. If you go in there and say—even if they went and said 40,000—AEW’s probably beating 40,000. So I think it’s probably like, ‘We can’t be saying anything.’”
That was Meltzer’s theory and not something WWE confirmed, but the company’s silence was still hard to ignore. WWE usually announces attendance figures when the number helps make an event feel bigger. Meltzer argued that if company officials were satisfied with the SummerSlam total, they would have made sure viewers heard it.
“If they were happy, we would have heard an announcement. The fact that we did not hear an announcement tells you that they are very much downplaying it.”
WWE also had to deal with the visual reality of running U.S. Bank Stadium, which can hold around 68,000 people. The company shot the building carefully and made the crowd look strong on television, but the distributed ticket count still left the stadium below half capacity.
“It looked good. They shot it well. They’re in a 68,000-seat stadium, so they’re well under half full.”
The comparison to the previous year didn’t help. SummerSlam Night Two at MetLife Stadium in 2025 had a listed attendance of 58,186, while the final count discussed for Minneapolis was 33,086. Meltzer pointed out that New York is a much stronger market than Minneapolis.
“Yeah, that’s New York. New York’s different from Minneapolis.”
Alvarez agreed, but noted that the gap was still massive.
“It certainly is, but that’s 58,000 versus 33,000 as well.”
Meltzer also compared the situation to WrestleMania. He claimed WWE wasn’t thrilled with that event’s business either, but the company still announced an attendance number.
“They weren’t thrilled with WrestleMania, but that one turned out okay. This turned out, I guess, less than okay because WrestleMania, at least they announced a number.”
WWE still put tens of thousands of people inside a stadium, but staying completely silent about the attendance was not normal. If Meltzer’s theory is right, the company may have decided that announcing 33,086 would only hand AEW an easy comparison to use against them.
Do you think WWE kept the SummerSlam attendance quiet because AEW could beat the number, or was there another reason behind the silence? Let us know what you think in the comments.
