WWE: 10 Lowest Drawing WWE Champions Of All Time
The belt doesn’t make the man, the man makes the belt. Or so the saying goes in the WWE. The distinction of being WWE Champion is something that wrestlers aspire towards all their life. In truth, it is just the start of the work and pressure. Being Champion means that you are the focus of the entire WWE, the man who is responsible for drawing the crowds. Succeed bringing money in and the bosses (and your peers) will love you, but fail on top and there is nowhere to hide. Watching numbers go down when you are the main attraction can be one of the most soul destroying things for a wrestler to ever go through – to the point that some champions have begged Vince McMahon to get the belt off of them.
This list will have some stark revelations. Ultimately a wrestler’s job is to engage the crowd. The sad thing is, some of the talent on this list are the best wrestlers in WWE, ironically the least interesting wrestlers if the numbers are to be believed. Whereas the like of Austin and Rock had a magnetism to their drawing ability, the more in-ring based talent have struggled to maintain sales in tickets, ppv buys and merchandise. It’s proof that Vince McMahon is correct in his selling of sports entertainment over pro wrestling. There is of course circumstances to take into consideration, some talent have cited that their run came in a down cycle. That’s fair enough, although irrepressible talent like Austin would have spiked numbers whenever the period you might argue.
All that matters as Champion at the end of the day is business generated. WWE is a company like anything else, the whole point is to make money. The measure of a Champion in the industry is buys. A true champ carries the company, ensuring everyone gets rich off their reign. With this in mind, Whatculture will list the worst drawing champions, determining the Champions who just didn’t cut the standard in WWE history.
In analyzing this, we need to look at guys who were given the mantle with a championship role in mind. Transitional champions (such as Mankind or Kane) never really had the belt long enough for us to judge – instead they were a prop in the bigger picture. The era also has to be considered. In the 80’s, the WWF was starting small and expanding. Growth was inevitable. The plateaus of the mid 90’s and post attitude era are going to be far more susceptible to crashes in drawing, the pockets of time that had to follow sustained periods of immense growth.
Ultimately the WWE title is a prop, and some guys just couldn’t do anything with it. So here it is, the 10 worst drawing WWE Champions of all time…
10. Chris Benoit – PPV Box Office Decline
He may have been excellent in the ring, but viewers were tuning out for Chris Benoit in 2004. Pay per view buy numbers had been steady in the WWE up until Benoit became the focus of Raw in March 2004. All of a sudden business fell off a cliff. The WWE lost around 100,000 PPV buyers from the year previous in the period that Benoit was Champion. Granted, we can attribute the loss of business to other factors too – Rock gone, Austin gone, injuries. But let’s not make excuses for Benoit, it was his job to maintain the level of sales and he failed.
In terms of numbers consider this. Benoit’s first event as Champion was Backlash 2004. It garnered 295,000 buys, down from 345,000 buys a year earlier. The decline under Benoit continued, Bad Blood 2004 was in at 290,000 buys, down from 385,000 in 2003. Such was the lack of faith in Benoit following dismal character performances on Raw, the WWE instead decided to put Triple H vs Shawn Michaels on last for the Bad Blood PPV- Benoit as Champion was just not getting over as an attraction.
His dull as ditch water personality is undoubtedly the main reason people didn’t buy into Benoit. His diminutive and unattractive appearance didn’t much help matters either. Call it superficial, but WWE fans are indeed a fickle bunch. Looks matter in peoples perceptions of a champion. Every PPV that ‘The Crippler’ appeared as Champion on was down from the previous year, WWE had taken a massive gamble and it hadn’t paid off. The decision was made to change gears, with a new era in mind, Benoit jobbed the title to Randy Orton at Summerslam 2004. Say what you will about the business being in decline, the fact is it accelerated under the World Title reign of Chris Benoit.
9. Eddie Guerrero – PPV Box Office Decline, Pressure Of Being Champion
It was a dream come true for Eddie Guerrero when he won the WWE championship in 2004 … but it quickly turned into a nightmare. The killer stat is this – 450,000 PPV buys achieved for No Way Out 2003 compared to just 265,000 buys for No Way Out 2004 built around Guerrero and culminating in his title victory.
The pressure of being champion was something that Guerrero could not cope with. This was exacerbated by a depleted Smackdown roster that saw Kurt Angle out injured and Brock Lesnar leaving the company. Having to carry the entire brand on his shoulders, Eddie felt very uneasy. It got to the point he went to Vince McMahon and asked for the title to be taken off of him. When JBL eventually captured the championship, Guerrero later spoke of his “relief”.
What was it about being Champion that Guerrero struggled so much with? It wasn’t really the championship, it was the responsibility. TV ratings were creeping down, and given the limited star power on Smackdown, Guerrero was the only man who could be blamed. Guerrero felt like it was his fault. It perhaps was. It’s hard to imagine the decline would have been as heavy if WWE could have kept Kurt Angle fit or retained Brock Lesnar. It was clear to see though, empty seats were increasing at house shows as fans didn’t see much value in attending the Smackdown brand. It was around this time that fans stopped viewing Smackdown as an equal to Raw, the blue brand very much becoming the B show.
Speaking to The Sun Newspaper in the UK, Guerrero admitted he had been a disaster as a drawing Champion – “It’s a great responsibility being champion, as you’re the one carrying the ball, and I found it very difficult. It was the first time I’d held the title and I don’t think I was ready. I was ready to win the belt, but not for what lay ahead of me. I wasn’t prepared mentally for what happens outside the ring – because I think that’s where the real challenges lie. I was taking things like attendances and ratings very personally.”
8. John Bradshaw Layfield – PPV And Ratings Decline
With Guerrero floundering as Champion, WWE had to do something drastic. The decision they made was to repackage the veteran midcarder Bradshaw into a new gimmick : JBL a multi millionaire heel bully. While Bradshaw was a laugh on the mic, and in my mind not actually that bad in the ring as a powerful big man, he failed miserably as Champion. Smackdown ratings continued to slump.
JBL’s proving ground would be No Mercy 2004. This Smackdown only ppv was his big chance to prove he could draw buys. His opponent was The Undertaker, so that should have helped him considerably. It wasn’t to be however. No Mercy 2004 pulled a paltry 183,000 buys. That was down from the previous month of 239,000 buys. A year earlier the No Mercy show had spiked 275,000.
Despite this dismal performance, the WWE persevered with Bradshaw in the championship role. They didn’t really have much choice. Kurt Angle was a fitness liability and John Cena was still some way from being ready for a bigger role. JBL would eventually be used to put Cena over at Wrestlemania 21, but to be honest, that lost all meaning in the face of HHH putting Batista over. JBL’s entire reign and usefulness was therefore hard to draw many positives from. Smackdown was never the same again, a year later it was bumped to the less valuable Friday Night slot. It then went through a period across different networks before today ending up on Syfy. That says it all. Smackdown is now on the same network that the third tier ECW operated on, to many fans it is simply awaiting its eventual cancellation. The death of Smackdown and tumble towards irrelevancy arguably all began with three little letters – JBL.
7. CM Punk – None Main Event Champion, Decline In Ratings And Buys
CM Punk was undoubtedly the best wrestler in the world during his 2011-2013 championship run. Whether it was in the ring or on the mic, Punk always delivered. Except some in the audience clearly weren’t as thrilled as others – viewers tuned out and ppv buyers stopped buying.
Again, you can argue that the WWE isn’t built around one guy drawing anymore. Lots of things can be attributed with that decline. However, the fact remains, as champion Punk did not draw. Steve Austin came along in a decline, cut a blistering promo and started drawing mega money. CM Punk came along in a decline, cut a blistering promo and started drawing average to underwhelming money. That’s just the way it is.
In analyzing Punk as a drawing champion, initially he started hot. You can understand why … the pipe bomb promo was one of the greatest sells ever for a PPV. Punk and Cena did 195,000 worldwide buys for Punk’s big moment in Chicago. Summerslam 2011 however, Punk’s first big match in his new main event role, saw a drop off in business. The 2010 event had drawn 349,000 buys whereas with Punk main eventing in 2011 it clocked in at 296,000 buys.
This unfortunately became a trend for Punk as a main event draw. You might however point to the fact that his rise in merchandise sales offset this, but then the drop in tv ratings offsets that counter. WWE quickly got the message, fans weren’t buying into Punk as the main event man. The decision was made that John Cena would still be the show closing main event for the majority of shows. It was a damning verdict from management on their faith in Punk as champion. If not for John Cena’s long term planned feud with The Rock, the ‘doctor of thuganomics’ would have had the title back much, much sooner.
6. Shawn Michaels – He Loses His Smile
“I know that over the, uh, the last several months I’ve lost a lot of things and one of them has been my smile. And, and I know it doesn’t mean a whole lot to everbody else, but it means a lot to me. So I have to go back and fix myself, and take care of myself, and I have to go back and I have to find my smile because somewhere along the line I lost it.”
Shawn Michaels now infamous “losing his smile” speech summed up perfectly the disastrous run he had as WWF Champion in 1996. He started off the reign as an enthusiastic good looking kid, and ended it as a broken disillusioned man. With his bearded scruffiness and red eyes during that 97 speech, Michaels was the visual embodiment of a man who had crumbled under the pressure of carrying the WWF. All his friends had left for WCW, who had then proceeded to own the WWF in ratings and buys … with an ego the size of HBK’s it was hugely painful to accept he just wasn’t that engaging as champion. Rather than pass the title on to Bret Hart or Steve Austin, he instead decided to go home. He had lost his smile.
It seemed like Shawn’s whole life was loaded with problems at this point. In addition to being unable to improve business, he was also struggling with drug problems and alcohol dependency. His personal relationships were in tatters. The locker room hated him and despite being ineffective as a draw Michaels was fighting with Vince McMahon to maintain his position as the number one guy. He had no choice but to take the high road and leave for a while.
The fact that Shawn had made such a big deal about being the number 1 guy over Bret Hart was probably what made his inability to draw so much harder to take. The crushing reality was that in 1996 both Wrestlemania and Summerslam buyrates went down with Shawn pushed as the man. Male fans just struggled to buy into the pretty boy male who was posing nude in playgirl. The grittier Austin and more technical Hart were more appealing … albeit Mr.Hart is still to make an appearance on this list and also didn’t cover himself in any glory during this period either.
The belt doesn’t make the man, the man makes the belt. Or so the saying goes in the WWE. The distinction of being WWE Champion is something that wrestlers aspire towards all their life. In truth, it is just the start of the work and pressure. Being Champion means that you are the focus of the entire WWE, the man who is responsible for drawing the crowds. Succeed bringing money in and the bosses (and your peers) will love you, but fail on top and there is nowhere to hide. Watching numbers go down when you are the main attraction can be one of the most soul destroying things for a wrestler to ever go through – to the point that some champions have begged Vince McMahon to get the belt off of them.
This list will have some stark revelations. Ultimately a wrestler’s job is to engage the crowd. The sad thing is, some of the talent on this list are the best wrestlers in WWE, ironically the least interesting wrestlers if the numbers are to be believed. Whereas the like of Austin and Rock had a magnetism to their drawing ability, the more in-ring based talent have struggled to maintain sales in tickets, ppv buys and merchandise. It’s proof that Vince McMahon is correct in his selling of sports entertainment over pro wrestling. There is of course circumstances to take into consideration, some talent have cited that their run came in a down cycle. That’s fair enough, although irrepressible talent like Austin would have spiked numbers whenever the period you might argue.
All that matters as Champion at the end of the day is business generated. WWE is a company like anything else, the whole point is to make money. The measure of a Champion in the industry is buys. A true champ carries the company, ensuring everyone gets rich off their reign. With this in mind, Whatculture will list the worst drawing champions, determining the Champions who just didn’t cut the standard in WWE history.
In analyzing this, we need to look at guys who were given the mantle with a championship role in mind. Transitional champions (such as Mankind or Kane) never really had the belt long enough for us to judge – instead they were a prop in the bigger picture. The era also has to be considered. In the 80’s, the WWF was starting small and expanding. Growth was inevitable. The plateaus of the mid 90’s and post attitude era are going to be far more susceptible to crashes in drawing, the pockets of time that had to follow sustained periods of immense growth.
Ultimately the WWE title is a prop, and some guys just couldn’t do anything with it. So here it is, the 10 worst drawing WWE Champions of all time…
10. Chris Benoit – PPV Box Office Decline
He may have been excellent in the ring, but viewers were tuning out for Chris Benoit in 2004. Pay per view buy numbers had been steady in the WWE up until Benoit became the focus of Raw in March 2004. All of a sudden business fell off a cliff. The WWE lost around 100,000 PPV buyers from the year previous in the period that Benoit was Champion. Granted, we can attribute the loss of business to other factors too – Rock gone, Austin gone, injuries. But let’s not make excuses for Benoit, it was his job to maintain the level of sales and he failed.
In terms of numbers consider this. Benoit’s first event as Champion was Backlash 2004. It garnered 295,000 buys, down from 345,000 buys a year earlier. The decline under Benoit continued, Bad Blood 2004 was in at 290,000 buys, down from 385,000 in 2003. Such was the lack of faith in Benoit following dismal character performances on Raw, the WWE instead decided to put Triple H vs Shawn Michaels on last for the Bad Blood PPV- Benoit as Champion was just not getting over as an attraction.
His dull as ditch water personality is undoubtedly the main reason people didn’t buy into Benoit. His diminutive and unattractive appearance didn’t much help matters either. Call it superficial, but WWE fans are indeed a fickle bunch. Looks matter in peoples perceptions of a champion. Every PPV that ‘The Crippler’ appeared as Champion on was down from the previous year, WWE had taken a massive gamble and it hadn’t paid off. The decision was made to change gears, with a new era in mind, Benoit jobbed the title to Randy Orton at Summerslam 2004. Say what you will about the business being in decline, the fact is it accelerated under the World Title reign of Chris Benoit.
9. Eddie Guerrero – PPV Box Office Decline, Pressure Of Being Champion
It was a dream come true for Eddie Guerrero when he won the WWE championship in 2004 … but it quickly turned into a nightmare. The killer stat is this – 450,000 PPV buys achieved for No Way Out 2003 compared to just 265,000 buys for No Way Out 2004 built around Guerrero and culminating in his title victory.
The pressure of being champion was something that Guerrero could not cope with. This was exacerbated by a depleted Smackdown roster that saw Kurt Angle out injured and Brock Lesnar leaving the company. Having to carry the entire brand on his shoulders, Eddie felt very uneasy. It got to the point he went to Vince McMahon and asked for the title to be taken off of him. When JBL eventually captured the championship, Guerrero later spoke of his “relief”.
What was it about being Champion that Guerrero struggled so much with? It wasn’t really the championship, it was the responsibility. TV ratings were creeping down, and given the limited star power on Smackdown, Guerrero was the only man who could be blamed. Guerrero felt like it was his fault. It perhaps was. It’s hard to imagine the decline would have been as heavy if WWE could have kept Kurt Angle fit or retained Brock Lesnar. It was clear to see though, empty seats were increasing at house shows as fans didn’t see much value in attending the Smackdown brand. It was around this time that fans stopped viewing Smackdown as an equal to Raw, the blue brand very much becoming the B show.
Speaking to The Sun Newspaper in the UK, Guerrero admitted he had been a disaster as a drawing Champion – “It’s a great responsibility being champion, as you’re the one carrying the ball, and I found it very difficult. It was the first time I’d held the title and I don’t think I was ready. I was ready to win the belt, but not for what lay ahead of me. I wasn’t prepared mentally for what happens outside the ring – because I think that’s where the real challenges lie. I was taking things like attendances and ratings very personally.”
8. John Bradshaw Layfield – PPV And Ratings Decline
With Guerrero floundering as Champion, WWE had to do something drastic. The decision they made was to repackage the veteran midcarder Bradshaw into a new gimmick : JBL a multi millionaire heel bully. While Bradshaw was a laugh on the mic, and in my mind not actually that bad in the ring as a powerful big man, he failed miserably as Champion. Smackdown ratings continued to slump.
JBL’s proving ground would be No Mercy 2004. This Smackdown only ppv was his big chance to prove he could draw buys. His opponent was The Undertaker, so that should have helped him considerably. It wasn’t to be however. No Mercy 2004 pulled a paltry 183,000 buys. That was down from the previous month of 239,000 buys. A year earlier the No Mercy show had spiked 275,000.
Despite this dismal performance, the WWE persevered with Bradshaw in the championship role. They didn’t really have much choice. Kurt Angle was a fitness liability and John Cena was still some way from being ready for a bigger role. JBL would eventually be used to put Cena over at Wrestlemania 21, but to be honest, that lost all meaning in the face of HHH putting Batista over. JBL’s entire reign and usefulness was therefore hard to draw many positives from. Smackdown was never the same again, a year later it was bumped to the less valuable Friday Night slot. It then went through a period across different networks before today ending up on Syfy. That says it all. Smackdown is now on the same network that the third tier ECW operated on, to many fans it is simply awaiting its eventual cancellation. The death of Smackdown and tumble towards irrelevancy arguably all began with three little letters – JBL.
7. CM Punk – None Main Event Champion, Decline In Ratings And Buys
CM Punk was undoubtedly the best wrestler in the world during his 2011-2013 championship run. Whether it was in the ring or on the mic, Punk always delivered. Except some in the audience clearly weren’t as thrilled as others – viewers tuned out and ppv buyers stopped buying.
Again, you can argue that the WWE isn’t built around one guy drawing anymore. Lots of things can be attributed with that decline. However, the fact remains, as champion Punk did not draw. Steve Austin came along in a decline, cut a blistering promo and started drawing mega money. CM Punk came along in a decline, cut a blistering promo and started drawing average to underwhelming money. That’s just the way it is.
In analyzing Punk as a drawing champion, initially he started hot. You can understand why … the pipe bomb promo was one of the greatest sells ever for a PPV. Punk and Cena did 195,000 worldwide buys for Punk’s big moment in Chicago. Summerslam 2011 however, Punk’s first big match in his new main event role, saw a drop off in business. The 2010 event had drawn 349,000 buys whereas with Punk main eventing in 2011 it clocked in at 296,000 buys.
This unfortunately became a trend for Punk as a main event draw. You might however point to the fact that his rise in merchandise sales offset this, but then the drop in tv ratings offsets that counter. WWE quickly got the message, fans weren’t buying into Punk as the main event man. The decision was made that John Cena would still be the show closing main event for the majority of shows. It was a damning verdict from management on their faith in Punk as champion. If not for John Cena’s long term planned feud with The Rock, the ‘doctor of thuganomics’ would have had the title back much, much sooner.
6. Shawn Michaels – He Loses His Smile
“I know that over the, uh, the last several months I’ve lost a lot of things and one of them has been my smile. And, and I know it doesn’t mean a whole lot to everbody else, but it means a lot to me. So I have to go back and fix myself, and take care of myself, and I have to go back and I have to find my smile because somewhere along the line I lost it.”
Shawn Michaels now infamous “losing his smile” speech summed up perfectly the disastrous run he had as WWF Champion in 1996. He started off the reign as an enthusiastic good looking kid, and ended it as a broken disillusioned man. With his bearded scruffiness and red eyes during that 97 speech, Michaels was the visual embodiment of a man who had crumbled under the pressure of carrying the WWF. All his friends had left for WCW, who had then proceeded to own the WWF in ratings and buys … with an ego the size of HBK’s it was hugely painful to accept he just wasn’t that engaging as champion. Rather than pass the title on to Bret Hart or Steve Austin, he instead decided to go home. He had lost his smile.
It seemed like Shawn’s whole life was loaded with problems at this point. In addition to being unable to improve business, he was also struggling with drug problems and alcohol dependency. His personal relationships were in tatters. The locker room hated him and despite being ineffective as a draw Michaels was fighting with Vince McMahon to maintain his position as the number one guy. He had no choice but to take the high road and leave for a while.
The fact that Shawn had made such a big deal about being the number 1 guy over Bret Hart was probably what made his inability to draw so much harder to take. The crushing reality was that in 1996 both Wrestlemania and Summerslam buyrates went down with Shawn pushed as the man. Male fans just struggled to buy into the pretty boy male who was posing nude in playgirl. The grittier Austin and more technical Hart were more appealing … albeit Mr.Hart is still to make an appearance on this list and also didn’t cover himself in any glory during this period either.
The Man WHO killed the Championship 
