On the subject of WWE claiming "sold out" despite there being obvious empty seats, I was listening to Bruce Prichard's podcast the other day. He was arguing with the co-host about some show that was called "sold out" despite the attendance being much lower than how many seats were available.
Bruce was like "It was sold out! Once we tarped off the seats that were left and made them unavailable, the show was sold out!"
I'm sure he was partially just fucking with his co-host a little but I think that might be how WWE plays these things.