Regarding Shawn Michaels' "Drawing power" in the 90s

[Sweettre15]

Now first off I want to say that I'm a Shawn Michaels fan all the way BUT I will never say Shawn was the transcendent star that Austin and Rock became.

HOWEVER, I was interested when I looked over the attendance rates of the PPVs he main evented when he was on top during both title reigns he had and here's what I found...

PART 1 of 2

Wrestlemania 12 - Attendance at Arrowhead Pond/Honda Center: 18,853

Arrowhead Pond/Honda Center's Highest Seating Capacity: 18,900

Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart (c) for the WWF title - 60 minute Iron Man Match

In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies - Attendance at Omaha Civic Auditorium: 9,563

Omaha Civic Auditorium's Highest Seating Capacity: 10,960

Main Event: Shawn Michaels (c) vs Diesel for the WWF Title - No Holds Barred match

Now so far it would look like it was relatively smooth sailing for Michael's programs as far as drawing audiences to attend the PPVs but this is where things start to get a bit bad for Michaels' title reign

In Your House: Beware of Dog - Attendance at Florence Civic Center: 6,000

Florence Civic Center's Highest Seating Capacity - Concert (center stage) - 9,736

Main Event: Shawn Michaels (c) vs British Bulldog for the WWF title


King of The Ring '96 - Attendance at MECCA Arena/U.S Cellular Arena: 8,762

MECCA Center's Highest Seating Capacity: 12,700

Main Event: Shawn Michaels (c) vs British Bulldog for the WWF title


In Your House: International Incident - Attendance at General Motors Place/Rogers Arena: 14,804

General Motors Place/Rogers Arena's highest seating Capacity: 19,193

Main Event: Camp Cornette vs The People's Posse - 6 man tag match


Summerslam '96 - Attendance at Gund Arena/Quicken Loans Arena: 17,000

Gund Arena/Quicken Loans Arena's Highest Seating Capacity: 20,562

Main Event: Shawn Michaels (c) vs Vader for the WWF title


In Your House 10: Mind Games - Attendance at CoreStates Center/Wells Fargo Center: 15,000

CoreStates Center/Wells Fargo Center's Highest Seating Capacity: 21,315(with standing room)

Main Event: Shawn Michaels (c) vs Mankind for the WWF title


Survivor Series '96 - Attendance at Madison Square Garden: 18,647

Madison Square Garden's Highest Seating Capacity: 20,789

Main Event: Shawn Michaels (c) vs Psycho Sid for the WWF title


Royal Rumble '97 - Attendance at Alamodome: 60,525

Alamodome's Highest Seating Capacity: 65,000 (expandable to 72,000

Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs Psycho Sid (c) for the WWF Title

So from the looks of it, The downslope in his attendance drawing was becoming it's most lackluster during his program with Davey Boy Smith and had a slight increase during his once PPV match with Vader and his program with Psycho Sid. So is it safe to say that his title reign didn't help WWE against WCW due to these factors?:

- Lack of viable top heels

- Fans interest in WCW's product with the NWO

- Fans not buying Shawn's whitemeat babyface character

- Lackluster Television ratings, PPV buys, and lackluster Merchandise Sales for Shawn

Feel free to sound off and give your take below while I update with Part 2 of this post discussing Shawn Michaels' late 97 title pursuit and 1998 title reign's drawing power as far as attendance goes.

 

[SilverBullet1929]

In the mid90s, drawing power already started becoming less about who the champion was and more about the name value of the company. This wasn't the 1970s when people needed to know who the champion was to know if they were buying a ticket. I don't think anyone in 1996 said "Hey the WWF is coming to town, wanna go?" "Hmm, I dunno, who's the champ?"

I could be wrong, but I know for sure the champions drawing power is a total myth in todays product and I really feel it was around the mid 90s that this all started becoming a total fact.

You also noted that attendance went up during his matches with Vader and Sid... well those events were named Summerslam, Survivor Series, and Royal Rumble. Therefore, the event itself drew more by name value alone (Big 4 PPVS > 2 hr In Your House events), and not by who the champion was.

 

[Sweettre15]

PART 2 of 2

Now to cover Shawn Michaels' title pursuit and subsequent reign as a heel in 97-98's PPV attendances.

Badd Blood: In Your House - Attendance at Kiel Center/Scottrade Center: 21,151

Kiel Center/Scottrade Center's highest Seating Capacity: 22,000

Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker in Hell In A Cell match



Survivor Series '97 - Attendance at Molson Centre/Bell Centre: 20,593

Molson Centre/Bell Centre's highest seating capacity: 22,114

Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart (c) for the WWF title


D-Generation X: In Your House - Attendance at Springfield Civic Center/MassMutual Center: 6,358

Springfield Civic Center/MassMutual Center's Highest seating capacity: 8,514

Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs Ken Shamrock for the WWF title


Royal Rumble 98' - Attendance at SAP center/San Jose Arena: 18,542

SAP center/San Jose Arena's Highest Seating Capacity: 19,190

Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker for the WWF title in a Casket Match

Wrestlemania 14 - Attendance at FleetCenter/TD Garden: 19,028

FleetCenter/TD Garden's Highest Seating Capacity: 18,624

Main Event: Shawn Michaels (c) vs Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Title

It's worth noting that Shawn's program with Austin had Shawn kind of take the backseat to Austin/Mike Tyson so that's a definite contributor factor in that one but to me, it seems like his attendance rates did better than his 96 - 97 face run with the title BUT Stone Cold was the hottest thing going and he was physically and mentally more suitable for carrying the ball as WWF champ into the Attitude Era along with the improvements made in the product prior to his winning of the title.

Either way, feel free to give your thoughts on both parts of Shawn's run as "The Man".

 

[Sweettre15]

In the mid90s, drawing power already started becoming less about who the champion was and more about the name value of the company. This wasn't the 1970s when people needed to know who the champion was to know if they were buying a ticket. I don't think anyone in 1996 said "Hey the WWF is coming to town, wanna go?" "Hmm, I dunno, who's the champ?"

I could be wrong, but I know for sure the champions drawing power is a total myth in todays product and I really feel it was around the mid 90s that this all started becoming a total fact.

You also noted that attendance went up during his matches with Vader and Sid... well those events were named Summerslam, Survivor Series, and Royal Rumble. Therefore, the event itself drew more by name value alone (Big 4 PPVS > 2 hr In Your House events), and not by who the champion was.

Also do you think that during this time period, the booking of the undercard for these PPVs was also a potential make or break factor for audiences?

 

[SilverBullet1929]

Also do you think that during this time period, the booking of the undercard for these PPVs was also a potential make or break factor for audiences?

Nope, once the marquee said WWF wrestling, people who were wrestling fans went and bought tickets. If anything changed the ticket sales it was the name of the event. So basically a SummerSlam event would automatically sell more than say a house show. The cards had little to no effect on the ticket buyers. Im sure there was one or two diehards that may have looked at that but I just can't buy the champion or the lineup of matches having any serious effect on ticket sales.

Perfect example is how nowadays PPV tickets are now sold months in advance before a single match is announced. I know you aren't talking about the current product but its a similar concept.

 

[Sweettre15]

Nope, once the marquee said WWF wrestling, people who were wrestling fans went and bought tickets. If anything changed the ticket sales it was the name of the event. So basically a SummerSlam event would automatically sell more than say a house show. The cards had little to no effect on the ticket buyers. Im sure there was one or two diehards that may have looked at that but I just can't buy the champion or the lineup of matches having any serious effect on ticket sales.

Perfect example is how nowadays PPV tickets are now sold months in advance before a single match is announced. I know you aren't talking about the current product but its a similar concept.

So in the case of the points you have raised, Is it safe to say the the detractors that use Shawn's title reign as an argument against is unfair or pure conjecture?

 

[Rhodes2TheFuture3313]

I know they say the numbers never lie, but in HBK's defense he WAS the WWE at this time. WCW was on top with HOGAN, HALL, NASH, MACHO MAN, STING etc. WCW had the more household names in wrestling. It was a bigtime transition for WWE. McMahon basically put the company on Shawn's back literally. Shawn had been more comfortable as the Heel at this point in his career so McMahon put him in a spot to help him and the company better compete. It's a shame that HBK and Austin weren't able to continue their program. It's also a shame that we never got to see HBK/ROCK as that is a feud that surely would have put people in the seats and captivated those watching at home.

 

[SilverBullet1929]

So in the case of the points you have raised, Is it safe to say the the detractors that use Shawn's title reign as an argument against is unfair or pure conjecture?

To better answer this... what is it that the detractors you're talking about are saying? If they're using Shawn's attendance figures to say he was a poor champion then they're using a poor stat to go with. I don't blame attendance on a champion, period.

In my opinion, Shawn had a good reign as champion because he had good matches in that time period and he was clearly the top worker in the company at that point. Nobody else was putting on better matches in those months.

 

[Sweettre15]

To better answer this... what is it that the detractors you're talking about are saying? If they're using Shawn's attendance figures to say he was a poor champion then they're using a poor stat to go with. I don't blame attendance on a champion, period.

Usually using it as either "proof" that Shawn wasn't a good champion and/or using it to say nobody bought Shawn as champion. You know some do the same thing when it comes to title reigns of guys like Punk as well.

With that said, none of this is factoring in buyrates and TV ratings or Merch sales.

 

[peter_midnight]

One thing to note is that some of these figures are skewed. Exhibit A: Royal Rumble- Bret Hart in his book claims that the Royal Rumble was one of the most papered houses for a PPV in WWF history. Jim Cornette in the timeline of 1997 shoot interview also asserts that on top of papered attendance, Vince lowered ticket prices to fill the arena with more people. So these factors need to be taken into account of any HBK attendance figures before drawing conclusions.

As for the lack of good heels argument, all I can say is that Warrior and Hogan drew a legitimate 60,000 in skydome. Bret and Davey Boy drew 82,000 in Wembley stadium. Clearly lack of a good heel in the main event meant nothing to either of these houses.

 

[Gavschenko]

IMO shawn's babyface run was terrible is cause hes a prick hes not a likeable guy people only liked him towards the end as hes a legend and they dont boo people who have been there really long. His heel run did well as people wanted to see him get beat up as hes cocky and annoying. I dont think HBK is that big of a draw never bought a ppv or watched a raw to see what he was doing.

 

[Nate DaMac]

You don't seem to get the point of drudging up these numbers. Your just presenting them as stand-alone examples of Shawn's drawing power when really, the success of his run can be measured by comparing these houses to the houses drawn before and after his run atop the WWF.

Do that and we'll have something to talk about.

 

[Sweettre15]

You don't seem to get the point of drudging up these numbers. Your just presenting them as stand-alone examples of Shawn's drawing power when really, the success of his run can be measured by comparing these houses to the houses drawn before and after his run atop the WWF.

Do that and we'll have something to talk about.

Well as I said before, this doesnt factor in buyrates, Merch sales, and TV segment ratings...amongst other factors. Which also likely didnt work in Shawn or the company's favor.

 

[legendkiller1979]

I have always thought that Michaels' back injury was one of the best things to ever happen to him. I think the most important reason for this is that it saved his life. I truly believe Shawn would be dead right now if he had kept on the path he was on. It's well documented that he took everything under the sun back in the day. For the sake of this discussion, the second reason is that the time off did wonders for legend. If he doesn't get injured, Steve Austin blows right by him in legendary status and he gets pushed down the card. His drug abuse would continue it I believe it would have ended very badly.

I bring this up because the Shawn Michaels of 2002 on was a huge star and a legendary figure. Enough time passed that people really wanted to see him by the time he came back. Shawn might have been another Scott Hall if he hadn't hurt his back. Now we get the memories of some great matches and good times for HBK.

Another interesting fact is that the WWE machine never got behind Michaels during his initial hay day. If you look back at the glory days of Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Steve Austin and John Cena, The WWE promoted all these guys to the moon. They were the greatest thing since sliced bread during there big time. Shawn Michaels only had about 8 months at the top. He did win the belt back from Sid but gave it up so he wouldn't have to job to Bret at mania. He won the belt back in Montreal but was nothing more than a transitional champion.

I think Vince lost faith in Michaels fairly quickly. Maybe I'm wrong. And if I'm right, maybe this wasn't fair because of the NWO. But his run as "the man" was not that impressive.

I was looking at the attendance figures and the one that clearly jumps out is the 97 royal rumble. There's a youtube video of Jim Cornette talking about this show. He called it a "stadium in need of a show". 60,525 people were in attendance. Of those 47,514 paid to get in. 12,511 were let in for free. How bad would it have been have been to have 20% of the building empty.

In conclusion. Shawn Michaels was not a big draw during his initial run. It wasn't entirely his fault, but the fact still remains.

 

[robinkom]

Business just sucked all around during Shawn's run on top of the WWF. 1992 business started to wane. 1995 was the worst year for the business; From '95 until they declared the ushering in of the Attitude Era, numbers were down and Vince was soon in financial dire straits in the face of the bottomless pockets of Ted Turner and WCW. It wasn't entirely Shawn's fault, talent was just in short supply, period. Pretty much every promotion from WWF to the smallest indie show were struggling to find the next hot talent.

During that time, I attended a WWF house show in a high school gymnasium in my small hometown of Uniontown, PA which is an hour from Pittsburgh. The main event was Razor Ramon and Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental title while the rest of the card was the TV undercard and curtain jerkers. The only thing more sad than it being in a high school gym was that they didn't attempt to book it in Pittsburgh anywhere just an hour away.

Two other times, I was at house shows in the old Pittsburgh Civic Arena that they dubbed "Tours." One was the Hart Attack Tour, the other was the In High Gear Tour. They filled a little over half the arena both times. One of those advertised the Ultimate Warrior who obviously no-showed.

They even headlined MY high school's gym with Bam Bam Bigelow and Doink the Clown around the same time. So, I mean, when this the extent of their house show expenses, you can't blame everything on Shawn... just his terrible attitude and self-destructive nature.

 

[Wald]

I hate to link Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels again but they just can't be spoken about without the other one being mentioned, particularly when talking about the 1990s.

Anyway, people give Bret and HBK hell for the ratings during the New Generations time at the top, I've had rants on here about Michaels being the only guy that Vince put the full WWF machine behind that didn't get over as a top line superstar too, but one thing that is rarely mentioned is how much Vince dropped the ball during the early to mid 90s.

Look at the WWF roster from Summerslam 1992 to Summerslam 1997 and you'll see a whole host of bad signings, mishandled characters and guys Vince blew it with. Lets look at a few of the big ones though:

Macho Man: Following Wrestlemania in 1993 Vince decided Savage was finished as a wrestler and should become an announcer. Macho Man disagreed and the resulting argument pushed Macho out to WCW to join Bischoff and Hogan. Thinking about how Bret Hart was their only star attraction by the end of 1993 shows how idiotic this idea was. Macho had legs as a babyface or even as a heel who could have feuded with Bret over the WWF title in 1993 to 1995.

Ric Flair: Flair's star had fallen slightly from the 1980s for sure, but in 1992 he had still won the WWF Title twice and was still recognised as a top heel. Bret took the belt off him and was starved of decent opposition, he had no main event heels to work with until Yokozuna came along. Flair would have solved this problem nicely but instead Vince let him go back to WCW and Bischoff and Hogan.

Bret Hart: Bret was given the most stop start main event push Vince had ever given any superstar up until the last decade. He won the title on a house show, feuded over his jacket with a pirate, beat guys like HBK and Razor who weren't over enough to make the audience really care, lost the title to Yokozuna, feuded over a Kiss My Foot match with Lawler, won the title again, was booked properly in the Owen feud but pushed back to feud with Issac Yankem after losing it to Backlund, beat Diesel (who had beaten Backlund in 9 seconds) so he could hand it over to Shawn at Wrestlemania.

Anyone who criticises Bret not drawing as much as Hogan or Austin needs to look at the differences in how those three were presented to the audience. Austin and Hogan beat the hell out of everyone and never came up short, Bret got all of that up above. He never got the full Vince push to the top even when he was all Vince had.

Lex Luger: Speaking of stop/start pushes. Luger was clearly being positioned to take Hogan's crown after he slammed Yoko and went up against him at Summerslam. For whatever reason Vince went against booking logic by a) not having the Real American win, b) not having him lose to build heat on Yoko either and c) not allowing him a rematch afterwards.

No one, not Luger, not Yoko or the WWF came out of that mess well. Luger never recovered but that didn't stop Vince messing up the obvious storyline of Bret winning the Rumble to try to take back his WWF Title from Yoko a year after he lost it either.

Undertaker: He may not have been the Phenom yet but he was over and WWF needed top faces or heels to be positioned correctly. For much of the mid-90s though Taker was put in the Andre freak show role and came up against such nonsense characters as Underfaker, Giant Gonzalez and Kama.

Shawn Michaels: Michaels run at the top during 1996 and into 1997 was abysmal, lets get that out of the way first. He got the SuperCena push times ten and the fans hated him for it, but I don't think he should take the lion's share of the blame for it.

First off, his face turn the night after Wrestlemania 11 was one of the worst executed ever. Here was have a heel character who has played a cocky asshole for years acting like a whiny, cocky asshole to his bodyguard Sid after losing a match the night before and Sid turns on him and kick his ass.

Seriously watch it, I'm not sure how anyone thought this is how you turn a guy face:

[YOUTUBE]Bi5geLcu9hY[/YOUTUBE]

The crowd cheer the hell out of Sid because you'd assume it was Sid turning face, not Michaels. (plus Sid is awesome obviously)

He then won the WWF Title from a very popular face champion who fans weren't sick of yet. The crowd was split at Wrestlemania 12 and many felt disappointed that Bret lost. Not a great way to rally the audience behind your new number one face.

After that he took on the ultracool heel Diesel, who was basically playing as Kevin Nash from the Wolfpac at that stage, and got booed out of the building when he made an ultra unrealistic comeback after Diesel beat the hell out of him all match long. This underdog formula had worked well for the Hitman for the past few years but didn't work for Michaels because they used it too often (Diesel, Vader, Sid) and he wasn't as sympathetic a character as the hard working, down to earth Hitman character.

That ended up with HBK's famous tantrum in the middle of Madison Square Garden as the New York fans turned on him and cheered Sid beating him all night. After that HBK was finished as a main event face champion. People hadn't accepted him, he couldn't even sell out his home town despite a massive push by the WWF to do so and he 'lost his smile'.

[YOUTUBE]iGEISCc4F3s[/YOUTUBE]

A lot of it was his fault but Vince booked him poorly, just like he had done the entire company for years at that stage and that's the real reason why the WWF ratings, attendances and buy rates were way down.

 

[robinkom]

That ended up with HBK's famous tantrum in the middle of Madison Square Garden as the New York fans turned on him and cheered Sid beating him all night. After that HBK was finished as a main event face champion. People hadn't accepted him, he couldn't even sell out his home town despite a massive push by the WWF to do so and he 'lost his smile'.

A lot of it was his fault but Vince booked him poorly, just like he had done the entire company for years at that stage and that's the real reason why the WWF ratings, attendances and buy rates were way down.

The irony of that match with Sid and what happened during with the camera attack is Shawn really didn't want Jose around. It was a Bruce Prichard idea to bring Lothario in and try to play it up like the Stallone/Bergess Meredith relationship in the Rocky movies. Shawn was supposed to drop the title to Vader then win it back at the '97 Rumble in his hometown but Shawn put the kibosh on ever working with Vader again after he got pissy about Vader working so stiff with him. The poor booking wasn't entirely Vince's fault, it was Shawn being a childish politicking primadonna.

Vince McMahon has a habit of coddling his top guys and letting them get away with murder and Shawn was one of the worst offenders in the 90s.

 

[Kidpolean]

Shawn Michaels had nothing to do with the attendance numbers...you cant draw from fans that dont exist. Pro wrestling was not popular when he was the champ. If I dont like wrestling than there is nothing that a wrestler could do to make me want to watch it. The AE brought in a lot of fake wrestling fans that wanted to watch it because it became the cool thing to do and when it was over they stopped watching it. Popularity of wrestling is not dictated by wrestlers, it is controlled by the media. HBK was a great champion and put on some of the greatest matches of all time during his reign. WHAT DID YOU PEOPLE EXPECT HIM TO DO? How would he have possibly made wrestling the cool thing to watch? You also have to factor in that he had to go head to head against the greatest faction of all time, when they were red hot.

Everybody gives Austin so much credit for the AE but you have to acknowledge how popular wrestling was at the time. WWF would have got those numbers with or without Austin. Hell I tuned in for the mid card, at the time I didnt even like Austin. Everybody was watching wrestling at the time because it was the newest and coolest trend. Dont get me wrong, Austin was great but he was not the number 1 reason for the success of the WWF just like HBK was not the number 1 reason for the failure of the WWF

NOBODY and I repeat NOBODY could have significantly increased the attendance numbers at that time...not Hogan, not Austin, not Cena, Not The Rock

 

[sdelfin]

It was mentioned quite a few times and it seems accepted that the Royal Rumble show in 1997 was heavily papered. I say Vince was far too optimistic to think he could come close to filling that stadium at that time. I think a more accurate assessment of Shawn and the WWF brand's drawing power comes from looking at house show attendance and PPV buys. I had already soured on babyface Shawn due to his antics as IC champ, but he delivered for a while as world champ on house shows I attended. People liked Shawn but as his reign continued, he changed his babyface character more, doing the big Hogan-style comeback of invincibility, and doing strip routines after winning(for a mostly male crowd?). I can only tell you why I stopped going to shows, and that's because Shawn was becoming a really annoying champ in my opinion, and that was hurting the main events, and the overall quality of the shows outside of the main events was falling as well which wasn't Shawn's fault. If other people shared my opinion, then you might have an issue with attendance during his run as champ.

 

[rokuma]

Shawn Michaels is my favorite wrestler of all-time because as a kid watching in 1996, I loved watching him. As I grew older, I appreciated more about him: His in-ring style, his bold approach to Christianity, overcoming his drug addictions, etc. So naturally, I try and defend him somewhat. But the year 1996 in wrestling is remembered for only a few things:
1. The NWO being created and Hogan turning heel
2. Sting starting his dark transformation
3. Austin 3:16
3. (tied) Shawn Michaels' constant classics (vs. Bret Hart, Mankind, Diesel, British Bulldog, Owen Hart, Sid)

And that's it. Stone Cold Steve Austin wasn't at his peak yet and wasn't really all that popular until about Survivor Series 1996 against Bret and then Royal Rumble that next year he really began his climb. WCW was dominating the WWF at the time. The NWO was fresh, it was cool, it blurred the lines of "is wrestling fake" or "man, this stuff is real!" Hogan had never been a bad guy on the big stage, so it was crazy to see the hero embracing being a villain. The WWF literally had Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart (who left for 7 months of 1996), Sid Vicious, The Undertaker...and then a bunch of upper midcarders who weren't really supposed to be main eventing, but had to. WCW had Hogan, Sting, Savage, Flair, Hall, Nash, Luger...all of the familiar names. People tuned into see them. Nobody wanted to watch a pre-taped Monday Night Raw with a main event of Marc Mero vs Mankind. Really, who cared about that? Or Isaac Yankem, DDS vs The Undertaker when they could see something like Ric Flair vs. The Giant for the WCW World Heavyweight Title or The Steiner Brothers vs Sting and Luger for the WCW Tag Team Titles. To me, you can't just blame 1996 on Shawn Michaels and call it a day. The WWF was putrid at that point. That's like blaming TNA's failures on Sting. It's not all his fault and it wasn't all HBK's fault.

 

[Wald]

Shawn Michaels had nothing to do with the attendance numbers...you cant draw from fans that dont exist. Pro wrestling was not popular when he was the champ. If I dont like wrestling than there is nothing that a wrestler could do to make me want to watch it. The AE brought in a lot of fake wrestling fans that wanted to watch it because it became the cool thing to do and when it was over they stopped watching it. Popularity of wrestling is not dictated by wrestlers, it is controlled by the media. HBK was a great champion and put on some of the greatest matches of all time during his reign. WHAT DID YOU PEOPLE EXPECT HIM TO DO? How would he have possibly made wrestling the cool thing to watch? You also have to factor in that he had to go head to head against the greatest faction of all time, when they were red hot.

I agree with you to an extent but the fans were there, they just switched over to WCW during Shawn's reign.

Go check out this graph of the ratings war on the right side of the Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_Night_Wars

Following HBK's title win Raw won the next 6 weeks of the war (1 was unopposed) so it did spike a rating and people were interested in seeing what Michaels would be like as champion. After that initial honeymoon period ended he won 1 week out of the next 27 before he dropped the title to Sid at Survivor Series.

Was it all Shawn's fault? Nope, the nWo started up in July of that year and Vince's booking of him was pretty awful. He'd also ruined his roster with rubbish signings and terrible gimmicks. Is it proof though that people didn't buy into him as a champion? Yes I think it is.

I'm as big a Hitman fan as there is but honestly it's time both Bret and Shawn fans put behind the idea that they were screwed out of being the top dog in the WWF. Both were at certain points but neither delivered in the same way that Hogan or Austin did for different reasons. It's not the end of the world though, plenty of champions make their mark without conquering the world.

 

[Sweettre15]

And just so we're clear this isnt a "sour grapes" discussion on Shawn's title reign to necessarily vindicate but just the desire of an analysis of what the contributing factors were.

I noticed that as far as Attendance figures go...His heel title pursuit and run did better not necessarily because people liked him but because seeing Undertaker try to kick Shawn's ass seemed like a viable program. The DX In your house PPV was a dud though. So overall it seemed like he drew better as a heel champion but still wasnt what the WWE needed at the time because they needed a huge star that could sell merch, sell out venues for PPVs, and increase ratings as well as represent their product's direction without being on drugs or politicking backstage.

 

[theHeadliner]

You don't seem to get the point of drudging up these numbers. Your just presenting them as stand-alone examples of Shawn's drawing power when really, the success of his run can be measured by comparing these houses to the houses drawn before and after his run atop the WWF.

Do that and we'll have something to talk about.

Good point. I do know that as far as PPVs, I believe Shawn was more successful that Bret's run in the run-up to WM12 and the Iron Man match. Michaels had more to deal with in regards to competition than any other worker in my opinion, including Bret Hart.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

I can tell you what those numbers were:

Stone Cold Steve Austin drew better numbers and better ratings for his shows, which turned away audience members as opposed to resorting to giving away free tickets to many shows. The Alamodome number is even worse considering Jim Cornette stated in his books that 22 THOUSAND tickets were comped for the Royal Rumble show in the Alamodome, which meant a gate of 40,000 in a nearly 70,000 seat arena, which made money, but didn't sell out in his own hometown.

Hogan drew nuclear numbers when he was champion just by the money that was made and the attendance figures they had.

What it boils down to is HBK simply wasn't well liked and was his own worst enemy. He couldn't handle the pressure of being the top guy and folded like an accordion when it breaks down to it.

Shawn didn't do a bad job, but he's as bad as Cena at drawing numbers and isn't even close to Austin and Hogan in that capacity.

 

[Wald]

Good point. I do know that as far as PPVs, I believe Shawn was more successful that Bret's run in the run-up to WM12 and the Iron Man match. Michaels had more to deal with in regards to competition than any other worker in my opinion, including Bret Hart.

Not fully true, it was more like a 50/50 split to be honest

One way of measuring could be to look at that Summerslam 1994 drew almost twice the buys as Summerslam 1996.

In the run up to Wrestlemania 12 the buyrates were mix and match between the two, Bret drew the two best but Shawn was more steady

Survivor Series 0.57 (Diesel vs Bret )
In Your House 5 0.33 (Bret vs Bulldog)
Royal Rumble 1.10 (Undertaker vs Bret)
In Your House 6 0.75 (Bret vs Diesel)

with the 4 PPVs Wrestlemania 12 after being

In Your House 7 0.65 (Shawn vs Diesel)
In Your House 8 0.45 (Shawn vs Bulldog)
King of the Ring 0.65 (Shawn vs Bulldog)
In Your House 9 0.70 (6 man tag featuring Shawn, Vader, Bulldog, Sid, Ahmed Johnson & Owen)

So it was pretty inconclusive between them