9 months ago
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While it now feels like two and a half years ago, it was only two and a half months ago when WWE held their annual Survivor Series PLE in Chicago, Illinois, as well as an episode of "WWE SmackDown" the night before. The PLE got plenty of notoriety at the time, both for the returns of Randy Orton and CM Punk, and the financial success of the event, touted by WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H following the show.
As it turns out, he wasn't kidding about the success. Wrestlenomics and Pollstar report that the 2023 Survivor Series generated a gate of $2,240,645 with 16,579 tickets sold. Meanwhile, "SmackDown" from the night before is said to have drawn a gate of $982,272, with 15,777 tickets sold. Both numbers are in line with previous figures provided by WrestleTix, which had estimated Survivor Series distributed 17,102 tickets, while "SmackDown" was said to have distributed 15,937.
The numbers would seem to confirm that the 2023 Survivor Series was the highest-grossing event in the history of the PLE, as well as the highest-grossing WWE event in Chicago since WrestleMania 22 in 2006. All told, the 2023 Survivor Series grossed over $1 million more at the gate than both the 2022 and 2021 Survivor Series PLEs, which took place in Boston, Massachusetts, and Brooklyn, New York respectively.
While WWE's financial success has continued since Survivor Series, the promotion cannot seem to keep itself out of controversy at the moment. In addition to the onscreen drama revolving The Rock, Cody Rhodes, and who gets to challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 40, WWE continues to be caught in the scandal revolving around Vince McMahon, as both have been named in a lawsuit accusing McMahon of sex trafficking and abuse.
