Worst Drawing World Champion 2010-2019

[The Rick Jericho]

There were too many champions to list, so who do you feel was the worst drawing champion this decade?

[Starshine]

Matt Taven has to be up there. Just look at how quickly those ROH crowds suddenly dwindled under his reign.

[Malibu Albino]

In WWE it has to be Jinder right? His whole push was an attempt to move into the Indian market only for him to lose to Triple H when they finally did a show there.

[Deleted]

I'd say for what it was intended to be it has to be Jinder. It was supposed to be their huge breakthrough into the India market but went so poorly there they had to cancel one of their shows and they ended up having him lose, while SmackDown's ratings pretty much cratered (granted they were already on a downward trend before that) and really never got better.

[Mister Pigwell]

It's impossible to gauge this sort of thing anymore, especially when WWE's numbers have been declining regardless.

[Deleted]

Wasn't it reported this year that it was during post-WM season? Granted, it wasn't the fault of Kofi and Rollins as the product as a whole was down but I thought reports said that they were champions when tickets drew the least.

Actually, I think it's probably right now with Lesnar and Wyatt as champions. It's just been going down heavily.

Wrestling statistician and Twitter user @nwowolfpactv recently compiled and analyzed data regarding average domestic live event attendance during the Universal title reign of Rollins and the ongoing WWE Championship reign of Kingston. He found that domestic house shows headlined by Rollins averaged just 3,334 fans, lower than Jinder Mahal's universally panned 2017 WWE title reign. Similarly, Kingston-headlined events had, as of July 18, averaged just 2,940 fans per show, which would make him "the fourth worst drawing in company history in this regard" behind Kurt Angle, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero.

However, Kingston and Rollins are probably not the actual problem as both stars rank among WWE's most popular acts and its biggest merchandise sellers. The issue with the decreased attendance during their world title reigns stems from larger problems with WWE's creative process and its live event event strategy, which is something that needs to change. According to WWE's Q1 Key Performance Indicators, domestic live event attendance dropped 11% between Q1 2018 and Q1 2019, averaging just 4,800 fans in the first quarter of 2019, a massive drop of 25% from the 6,400 per show it averaged in the second quarter of 2017. Attendance was down yet again in Q2, as were TV ratings for both Raw and SmackDown. Vince McMahon raised some eyebrows when he blamed WWE's disappointing Q1 2019 results—which included significant drops in Raw ratings, SmackDown ratings and the WWE Network subscriber count as well—on "superstar absences" because stars coming and going has always been and will continue to be a reality.

www.forbes.com/sites/blakeoestriecher/2019/07/26/kofi-kingston-and-seth-rollins-are-two-of-the-worst-drawing-champions-in-wwe-history/#51b1a54b42cb

They were just unfortunately the champions when numbers were declining. That whole "hey the champion's the only one who draws" old school mindset just doesn't work. It doesn't matter how dope (Kofi's reign) the champion was, if the midcard and tag divisions suck then why would anyone wanna go to see 1 match?

[Push R Truth]

It's soon going to be The Fiend

[Deleted]

Dec 17, 2019 19:54:37 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

It's soon going to be The Fiend

Doubtful because Bray is selling a LOT of merch.

[rnrk supports BLM]

They've spent years doing everything they can to ensure the WWE brand is the main attraction, and the individual performers are disposable. The last guy who had the opportunity to grow into a significant enough draw to have a sustained effect on profits was probably Cena; I'd be interested to see more detailed numbers, but my guess would be that nobody since then has really moved the needle beyond the slow but steady downward trend of WWE as a whole.

The worst drawing champion was everybody, and nobody.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

It doesn't matter who's champion; it matters who's actually on the shows.

There's an interesting data exercise there, to look through and see whose TV time most strongly correlates to viewers and merch sales, correcting for just general decline.

[Deleted]

we all know its actually Jinder

[Deleted]

Dec 17, 2019 18:34:30 GMT -5 @kn said:

Wasn't it reported this year that it was during post-WM season? Granted, it wasn't the fault of Kofi and Rollins as the product as a whole was down but I thought reports said that they were champions when tickets drew the least.

Actually, I think it's probably right now with Lesnar and Wyatt as champions. It's just been going down heavily.

Wrestling statistician and Twitter user @nwowolfpactv recently compiled and analyzed data regarding average domestic live event attendance during the Universal title reign of Rollins and the ongoing WWE Championship reign of Kingston. He found that domestic house shows headlined by Rollins averaged just 3,334 fans, lower than Jinder Mahal's universally panned 2017 WWE title reign. Similarly, Kingston-headlined events had, as of July 18, averaged just 2,940 fans per show, which would make him "the fourth worst drawing in company history in this regard" behind Kurt Angle, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero.

However, Kingston and Rollins are probably not the actual problem as both stars rank among WWE's most popular acts and its biggest merchandise sellers. The issue with the decreased attendance during their world title reigns stems from larger problems with WWE's creative process and its live event event strategy, which is something that needs to change. According to WWE's Q1 Key Performance Indicators, domestic live event attendance dropped 11% between Q1 2018 and Q1 2019, averaging just 4,800 fans in the first quarter of 2019, a massive drop of 25% from the 6,400 per show it averaged in the second quarter of 2017. Attendance was down yet again in Q2, as were TV ratings for both Raw and SmackDown. Vince McMahon raised some eyebrows when he blamed WWE's disappointing Q1 2019 results—which included significant drops in Raw ratings, SmackDown ratings and the WWE Network subscriber count as well—on "superstar absences" because stars coming and going has always been and will continue to be a reality.

www.forbes.com/sites/blakeoestriecher/2019/07/26/kofi-kingston-and-seth-rollins-are-two-of-the-worst-drawing-champions-in-wwe-history/#51b1a54b42cb

They were just unfortunately the champions when numbers were declining. That whole "hey the champion's the only one who draws" old school mindset just doesn't work. It doesn't matter how dope (Kofi's reign) the champion was, if the midcard and tag divisions suck then why would anyone wanna go to see 1 match?

That list disappointed me cuz I wanted to see what Great Khali drew 😝.

[Deleted]

Dec 17, 2019 23:48:06 GMT -5 @jdogindy said:

Dec 17, 2019 18:34:30 GMT -5 @kn said:

Wasn't it reported this year that it was during post-WM season? Granted, it wasn't the fault of Kofi and Rollins as the product as a whole was down but I thought reports said that they were champions when tickets drew the least.

Actually, I think it's probably right now with Lesnar and Wyatt as champions. It's just been going down heavily.
They were just unfortunately the champions when numbers were declining. That whole "hey the champion's the only one who draws" old school mindset just doesn't work. It doesn't matter how dope (Kofi's reign) the champion was, if the midcard and tag divisions suck then why would anyone wanna go to see 1 match?

That list disappointed me cuz I wanted to see what Great Khali drew 😝.

    a picture of a dog

[A Platypus Rave]

wouldn't be surprised if it was Brock or Jinder.