Bully Ray: WWE WrestleMania 42 Ticket Sales Are Down Because Las Vegas

Initially slotted in New Orleans, Louisiana, WWE WrestleMania 42 later underwent several changes, with Las Vegas, Nevada notably being announced as its new location. Beyond that, the creative plans surrounding the premium live event faced multiple re-writes. In the eyes of WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray, it’s the former move that originally set WWE up for the subpar ticket sales and hype that it is now enduring in the lead-up to this year’s WrestleMania.

“Right off the bat, we said ‘Ugh, going back to Vegas?’ [in response to the location switch],” Ray recalled on “Busted Open Radio.” “You know what we call that in pro wrestling? Burning out the town. WWE has learned over the years to not burn out a town. You know why? Because they’ve burned out towns before. It’s typical pro wrestling stuff, but the WWE hasn’t burned out a town in a long time. You go to a town, it sells out, you do monster business. What are we going to do? ‘Let’s come back three months later.’ No, you don’t go back three months later. You go back six months or a year later. You don’t burn out the town. Vegas is getting burned out because TKO made the decision.”

WWE WrestleMania 41, also centered in Las Vegas, boasted record-setting numbers in financial and historical fashion. With that in mind, TKO (WWE’s parent company) reportedly believed it could replicate, if not surpass, the revenue generated by running WrestleMania in the same city in 2026. Furthermore, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors…