WrestleMania 41 was WWE’s most-watched and highest-grossing event ever

Viewership for the flagship wrestling showcase more than doubled from last year.

4/23/25 10:40AM

The 41st annual WrestleMania event took place in Las Vegas over two nights on the weekend, with WWE legend-turned-actor John Cena crowned world champion for a 17th time — more than anyone else in WWE history — after pinning opponent Cody Rhodes with some help from, er, Travis Scott.

While Cena will be glad to have scooped one final belt before he retires from wrestling for good, WWE itself, which has sat in the wider TKO Group corporate stable alongside UFC since 2023, will also be basking in Sunday night’s glory...

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According to WWE, WrestleMania 41 set an all-time record for revenue, with on-site merchandise sales up more than 45% from the previous year and e-commerce revenue up 86%, making it the company’s highest-grossing event ever. It was also WWE’s most-watched event of all time: the live stadium matchups brought almost 125,000 fans through the gates over both nights and viewership was up 114% from 2024 across streaming partners Peacock and Netflix.

World Wrestling Entertainment, which has roots as far back as 1953, when Vincent J. McMahon founded the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, penned a $5 billion deal with Netflix last January to make the platform a major international home for livestreamed events like WrestleMania. Since then, WWE’s live events division has boomed, accounting for nearly $340 million in revenue in 2024, almost 3x the amount recorded just two years prior.

Still, media deals accounted for the majority (62%) of WWE’s knockout $1.4 billion annual revenue last year — and with Peacock’s streaming deal with the brand set to expire next March, the heavyweight figures are only likely to add strength to the wrestling company’s position in renewal discussions.

Cut above the wrestle… On the business side, TKO Group has also upped the ante on sponsorship. Per WWE, WrestleMania 41 featured a record 28 partners in total, and sponsorship brought in $83 million in revenue last year.

Nia Warfield

14h

Fox and News Corp slide as investors digest $3.3 billion Murdoch succession settlement

Fox and News Corp shares dropped on Tuesday after Rupert Murdoch’s heirs agreed to a $3.3 billion settlement to resolve a long-running succession drama.

Under the deal, Prudence, Elisabeth, and James Murdoch will each receive about $1.1 billion, paid for in part by Fox selling 16.9 million Class B voting shares and News Corp selling 14.2 million shares. The stock sales will raise roughly $1.37 billion on behalf of the three heirs.

The new trust for Lachlan Murdoch will now control about 36.2% of Fox’s Class B shares and roughly 33.1% of News Corp’s stock, granting him uncontested voting authority over both companies for the next 25 years. Originally, the Murdoch trust was designed to hand over voting control of Fox and News Corp to Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James after his death.

Investors are weighing the trade-off. Clear leadership under Lachlan may resolve conflict internally, but the share dilution, executed at a roughly 4.5% discount, means long-term investors now hold slightly less clout than before.

Both companies’ stocks were trading close to all-time highs prior to the announcement.

385 ✈️ 434

Max Knoblauch

14h

Boeing on Tuesday announced that it delivered 57 commercial jets in August, its best total for the month in seven years. That brings its year-to-date delivery total to 385 planes, eclipsing its full-year 2024 figure by about 11%.

The August figure marked Boeing’s second-highest delivery total of 2025 and represented a 43% jump from the same month last year. Through August, Boeing has boosted its deliveries by 50% from last year.

The plane maker is still trailing its European rival Airbus, which delivered 61 planes in August and 434 year to date.

Nia Warfield

9/8/25

Tariffs finally crept into retail's latest earnings results. Who were the winners and losers?

The long-awaited levies took a toll on nearly every retailer, but execution separated who could steer through the costs.