This one podcast I just recently started to listen to (won’t mention it here because I’m not sure if that is within rules) goes into the economics of wrestling, and one of the hosts ran a regression algorithm with all of the house shows this year, comparing the main eventers and the attendance. He said that the statistics he found showed that three men were a statistical positive draw (John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Samoa Joe) and two were a negative draw (Jinder Mahal and Dean Ambrose). He also mentioned that Monday SD house shows did pretty poor numbers because Raw was on, so those numbers dragging it down may be why you don’t see a guy like AJ Styles on that positive draw list.
Who do you think are the biggest draws and the biggest anti-draws to you when you are considering buying a ticket to a wrestling event? Even extend it to outside the WWE if you want.
Name of it is “Wrestlenomics Radio” and I’m sure they have their own feed but I get it through the Voices of Wrestling podcast family feed. Very interesting shows about NJPW and the XFL recently, they are pretty long, but I’m one of those weirdos that listens to podcasts at 2X speed, so not as big of a problem for me.
They’re algorithm is flawed because the top echelon only work the big house shows. They can pretend their numbers don’t lie, but you sure can manipulate them to fit an agenda…nobody learn anything from sports talk shows that rely on analytics?
Maybe you should listen to the show before bashing it? They go into detail about that. Also, I’m pretty sure Samoa Joe didn’t “only work the big house shows”
I think the main tent pole events are draws in themselves, usually. Maybe you can remove Survivor Series from that equation, depending on the town.
For house shows, beyond the hardcore audience, I think you need guys that you don’t see week in and week out. John Cena and Brock would probably be the top two and then, still, Triple H is a draw, especially in international markets. For regular guys, I’d say AJ and the New Day would be top draws and maybe Roman.
It’s hard to say since those guys are on the circuit full-time so at that point it’s probably the product as a whole that would or would not be a draw. I’d say the Raw crew is probably a better draw, which may be why New Day was moved to SmackDown.
Jinder Mahal seemed like a negative draw for Smackdown during his title reign. Generally Smackdown shows aren’t sellouts by any means but the crowds seemed drastically smaller than before.
WrestleMania and Royal Rumble are almost certainly there own draws at this point but I would argue that SummerSlam, no matter how hard WWE want it to be it’s own draw, isn’t, and can be removed along with Survivor Series.
I reckon it’s difficult to know for sure who’s drawing these days with so little off time and the fact that WWE as a brand does draw by itself. Cena taking time off recently has helped to prove that numbers do spike for him in the same way they have for guys like Brock, Rocky, Hogan and Taker in the past.
Merch numbers help of course, so I expect Roman and The New Day are definitely draws given how much merch they sell.
Generally speaking I don’t put too much stock into the idea that individual people draw THAT much. There are some exceptions, but I think the general state of the product is significantly more impactful than names. Your ad budget and efficacy, your TV contracts and your general quality and fan retention are going to draw fans. Individual people can only help or hurt to a certain degree. At least as far as I can see. Something something rising tide raises all ships