August 30, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF Summerslam, Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart first match, more

Jesse Ventura’s return to pro wrestling drew the mainstream attention which probably led to a lot of curiosity buys, and WWF made the most of it putting on one of the better PPV shows of 1999.

The show on 8/22 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, was paced by five title changes out of six titles at stake, included the main belt in the main event, plus a shockingly good Shane McMahon vs. Test match which was almost unanimously the best match on the show. The show, which sold out within 90 minutes of tickets being put on sale months ago, drew 17,370 fans (announced as 19,404 on television), of which 15,973 paid $557,129 and another $168,456 in merchandise sales. It’s too early to get PPV estimates, but it was generally expected going in to be either the first or second most buys for a wrestling PPV show in history. The all-time record was approximately 800,000 buys for Wrestlemania (the real number as opposed to the announced 875,000) this year.

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