Hosting two sizeable events overnight in the US, TKO Group Holdings seems to have enjoyed a better night — numbers-wise, for the UFC than they did for WWE.
Returning to Canada for a pay-per-view flagship event, Dana White’s UFC 315 brought with it two championship events, as well as a notably impressive main card showcase.
For the professional wrestling outfit, WWE, the promotion hosted its latest PLE (premium live event) in St. Louis, Missouri. And on that card, record-setting 17-time WWE champion John Cena headlined against hometown hero, veteran rival, Randy Orton.
Retaining his championship following multiple ref bumps and an unnoticed belt shot, Cena went over the veteran in enemy territory — marking a successful night as defending gold holder since his WrestleMania title win.
In the Octagon, however, we saw a changing of the welterweight guard. Dropping his title in dominant fashion, Belal Muhammad was battered and bruised over five rounds in a decision loss to surging challenger, Jack Della Maddalena.
And according to Google Trends, for the past 48 hours, the UFC 315 topic beat out WWE Backlash by more than 300,000 searches as part of their number section.
Notable trends and search volume on Google Trends over the last 48 hours:#UFC315: 500K+#WWEBacklash : 200K+
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) May 11, 2025
Heralded for a surprisingly decent pay-per-view event — despite multiple decisions, it seems the allure of a Cena vs Orton clash — for the last time ever wasn’t enough to mount a charge on TKO partner, UFC overnight. At the very least.
When it comes to attendees at their respective events, WWE can at least take the high road when it comes to that discussion.
Landing their annual Backlash event at the Enterprise Center, the outfit turned in an impressive 17,155 attendees in St. Louis — just shy of a sell-out number, however.
At the Bell Center, the UFC recorded an impressive $6,003,345 live gate, as per UFC executive David Shaw, who spoke with assembled media following the event.
In their return to ‘The Great White North’ to boot, the arena hosted 19,786 fans in attendance in Montreal, Quebec.
And as confirmed by WWE Chief Content Officer and Hall of Famer, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, the Backlash event managed to topple any other gate for that particular PLE in the United States.
Featuring last year in Lyon, France, the PLE had managed to gross a higher gate than any other Backlash card hosted by the organization in their storied and littered history.
All in all, it seems to have been another profitable night for TKO Group Holdings when it comes to their flagship promotions.
