FlairFan2003
Mid-Card Championship Winner
Hogan was one man who carried a company
Austin won the belt at WM 14, two weeks later the WWF beat WCW in the ratings and never looked back, so you could certainly say he was a great draw as champ.
Fact is that HBK wasn't the draw he could have been, same as Diesel and thats wholly down to the fact that they weren't able to act like the heels/tweeners that they were. Nobody was interested in seeing a manufactured babyface Diesel or Shawn and Vince wouldn't get that concept until Austin
It should be noted that Austin only held the belt for a couple months before dropping it at S-Slam, then missed most of 1999 with an injury. A lot of this boom period here where WWE overtook WCW for #1 spot domestically was actually done with Austin either NOT champ or not wrestling at all.