WrestleMania III, Silverdome Attendance Record Questioned in Vince McMahon Netflix Documentary

The professional wrestling world is buzzing as Vince McMahon, the former Chairman of WWE, is back in the news. While his legal troubles are mired in extensive investigation, a new Netflix documentary detailing his life has been released, and fans are seeing some strange stuff overall.

Filming for the 6-part docuseries began before McMahon was mixed into a federal trial in which he stands accused of numerous sexual misconduct and trafficking. The final interviews scheduled with McMahon were canceled as that news broke, news that eventually saw him step away from the WWE altogether.

Many things are discussed in the documentary, though the main idea of the series is to dive into the differences between Vince McMahon the man and "Mr. McMahon" the character.

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While Vince believes there are no similarities, those closest to him don't seem to agree.

Nonetheless, the series dives into the many highs, lows and controversies of professional wrestling under the leadership of McMahon.

Naturally, one of McMahon's greatest successes came right here in Michigan at the Silverdome in 1987 at WrestleMania III.

Everyone knows the story of how 90+ thousand screaming Hulkamaniacs watched Hulk Hogan lift the 7-foot-3, 600-lb Andre The Giant above his head for the "Slam Heard Around the World". It's one of the most significant moments in the history of professional wrestling.

But, like many wrestling storylines, there are cracks in the story. It wasn't the first time Hogan slammed Andre, and it may very well have not been 93,000+ fans in the Silverdome that night. McMahon, Hogan and others, of course, hold no reservations that the attendance for that night set records.

Dave Meltzer is a long-time wrestling journalist and trailblazer in that regard. He contends that there were only 78,000 there to watch the spectacle in Pontiac that night.

It's been long discussed, and honestly, it's not clear if anyone knows the true answer. The WWE has never hidden the fact that they inflate attendance numbers, but how much is the question.

A quick Google search of "WrestleMania 3" leads to the Wikipedia page which contends that the attendance was closer to 78,000.

However, the conflicting argument is that, at the time, the Detroit Lions could seat 80,000 without letting anyone onto the field and WrestleMania III, naturally, had tons of people at ringside on the floor of the Silverdome. Based solely on the set design, seating arrangements, obvious video evidence and the production space needed in 1987, the 93,173 number is quite believable, even for WWE.

In 2018, a Deadspin article looked to uncover the truth. According to that article, Meltzer himself reported in 1987 that 2,300 tickets were comped, implying the other 90,873 paid. Every relevant report about the attendance at the time had little reason to doubt the number and reported WrestleMania III's attendance at 93,173.

However, plenty of other indicators from Meltzer's reporting after the fact and many other outlets pointed to the number being closer to 88,000 - a number that would still be inflated by comped tickets and event staff, but still quite believable based on the evidence provided.

Nonetheless, the extensive Deadspin article couldn't track down the real number. In the end, no matter the real number, the visit from Pop John Paul II just a few months later broke the 'record' set by WrestleMania III in the first place.

Certainly, there are more important topics in the series. Given the public opinion of McMahon at the moment, Meltzer may just win out on this one. Regardless, we'll never know exactly how many people were there that day.