Why did the WCW Georgia Dome show sell so many tickets?

[Kadaveri]

I was reading an old Observer looking for something else, and noticed this paragraph where Dave Meltzer says that the 1998 WCW Georgia Dome show was set to sell out before the Goldberg vs. Hogan match was announced, so it wasn't really that which was the draw. He doesn't go into any more detail though. Has this been explored in more detail anywhere else? Was WCW just so hot then it didn't really matter who was in the main event? Excerpt below.

[sek69]

WCW was probably at their absolute peak at that time, that's most of the reason. Factor in that Atlanta was more or less their home town, all the signs were there this was going to be a sellout. 

[Ricky Jackson]

It was also the first time in the Georgia Dome, I believe, so the novelty was a big factor 

[tcg91]

Yeah, Hogan famously offered to do the job so he could take credit for the house. The Rodman/Malone stuff brought a lot of mainstream attention that month, I think BatB had 600k buys or something. WCW was still very hot despite sandbagging Sting, botching Bret Hart's debut and the whole nWo split fiasco.

[David Mantell]

41 minutes ago, tcg91 said:

Yeah, Hogan famously offered to do the job so he could take credit for the house.

He did the job in exchange for - when the time came - being the one to end Goldberg's streak.

Later Hulk got world title withdrawal symptoms and traded his future win over Goldberg to Kevin Nash just to get "his" belt back, even throwing the Fingerpoke into the bargain to keep Nash strong.

[ohtani's jacket]

Some interesting info from reddit:

"This show had an interesting backstory.

Tickets went on sale in late May and sold about 14,600 the first day with no announced matches.

WCW announced a Hogan/Goldberg non-title dark match to the local Atlanta media in mid-June, advertising that the only way you could see Goldberg/Hogan was live in person at the dome.

By late June they had sold about 27,000 tickets.

On July 2nd they announced Hogan/Goldberg would be for the title and on TV and they moved another 10,000 tickets in four days."

Y'know what made a huge difference? The remaining tickets cost $10 and $15 respectively.

[PeteF3]

On 5/24/2026 at 3:43 AM, David Mantell said:

He did the job in exchange for - when the time came - being the one to end Goldberg's streak.

Later Hulk got world title withdrawal symptoms and traded his future win over Goldberg to Kevin Nash just to get "his" belt back, even throwing the Fingerpoke into the bargain to keep Nash strong.

That may have been how it was pitched to Nash but the Fingerpoke couldn't have made him look worse if they'd tried (which knowing Hogan he may well have been). Just losing a match would be far better for Nash than looking like a subservient bitch in a way he never came across in 1996-97.

[David Mantell]

1 hour ago, PeteF3 said:

That may have been how it was pitched to Nash

"You don't even really lose, brother!"

No disagreements with the rest of your post.

[David Mantell]

2 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

He did the job in exchange for - when the time came - being the one to end Goldberg's streak.

Which to be fair is in the scanned text in the opening post.  And indeed a few other places like The Death Of WCW book.