Bigger Draw: The Rock or Ultimate Warrior

[RJJ]

You have to remember that this was during the Invasion Era where Vince practically was burying everything that was WCW. Obviously he wasn't gonna let the WCW Title main event above the WWF Title. Also along with that Booker T. was not really a draw at the time like Kurt Angle was, which is why the feud seemed secondary, Booker had a hard time adapting there at first and it wasn't until he was paired with Goldust that the fans really started to react to him. Rock
was already a huge draw in '99, he actually was #1 on the top drawing stars list in 1999, Austin was #2, I know it sounds baffling but it's true. Here's the list:

http://wfigs.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=prowrestling&action=print&thread=198109

And you can't say it's because "Well that's the year Austin's absence began" because he left in mid November 1999, which is way too late in the year for him to be bumped to #2 because of that. 1998 was the only year Austin was the undisputed #1, He was #1 in 2001 but that was because he had the belt almost the entire year and Rock took off for 4 months. I know that the list looks funny because Hogan and Sting weren't at the top of the list in 1997 when WCW peaked but you have to remember that Hogan hardly wrestled that year while Sting didn't wrestle almost at all, which is why Hogan was only at #9 and Sting isn't on there at all. Same for '98 with Kane at #3 above guys like Hogan and Goldberg. Hogan wrestled a bit more and Goldberg was the biggest draw for WCW that year but WCW on a whole was a huge mess at the time so there was no consistency on where people were positioned in the card. Also Kane was a lot more popular in '98 than people think, he drew against Austin and especially against Undertaker, who is #2 for '98.

Nice find. I always thought rock was equal to austin in terms of draw power, matter of fact i always thought rock was as big as austin was, if he had stayed couple of years in the company, he would've been the greatest to ever step in a wrestling ring. Imagine, at 30yrs of age he quit wretling. He became a nine time world champion(the 1st 7 times wwe champion), he had alot of great matches and rivalries, and all that was in only 6yrs.

 

[Tastycles]

I'm glad an unsubstantiated post on a wrestling forum is being taken as gospel truth here. I'd like to think that my posts get used as categorical fact elsewhere in future. Anyway, the question really depends on what you mean by draw. Warrior performed to more people on Saturday Night's Main event than The Rock ever did on Raw, and maintained Hogan's audience better than anyone else who followed him.

However, what Warrior never achieved was growing the audience, while I wouldn't go as far as Xfear in saying the house show numbers tanked when he came on top, they certainly didn't get any bigger. The Rock was certainly a huge part of the WWF's ascent in the late 90s and was their most consistent draw into the 2000s. He is probably more responsible for drawing fans to the WWF than Warrior ever was, and in a more hostile TV market, but based on raw numbers, more people tuned in to see Warrior. If I was starting a wrestling company tomorrow, I'd certainly pick the Rock as my first name on the roster over the Warrior.