How so? That IS the point of CM Punk. Kinda like how it was with Jeffy Hardy, as well.
It is the point of CM Punk. However, it's NOT the point of this thread. Thus Sanka really didn't have a good point at all.
Rocca, Rogers, Thesz and Samartino were hardly larger than life - they did OK.
Surely I don't have to point out the flaw in this post...
Austin's character was larger than life NOT HIS LOOK.
Yes, Austin's LOOK was larger than life as well. Everything about Austin was larger than life. Austin was a bonafide superhero.
Punk is not. That has nothing to do with Punk's skill or mic ability, but it is going to hamper him in his ability to get people to want to pay to watch him.
Most casual fans are very aware of who HBK is, I haven't met a casual wrestling fan who DIDN'T know who HBK is, not one and any wrestling fan I knew was a big fan of watching HBK and a lot of that was because of DX.
I think you should do a survey. Go out and randomly ask 100 people who Shawn Michaels is and see what they say. Then ask them if they know who Andre the Giant is.
My bet is more people will know the guy who was dead before HBK ever entered the main event.
People watch wrestling because its WWE, they aren't going to lose a bunch of fans because Cena isn't there.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Cena.
All they have to do is insert another dude into that spot and they're off to the races again.
Yeah, people keep saying this and they always seem to forget that one glaring bit of logic.
If it's really that easy, how come they just don't do it anyways? If it's really that easy to replicate a big moneymaker, why don't they just churn out 3 or 4 of them a year?
They made CM Punk their top guy
No, he made him their champion. There's a difference.
and now he's the top merchandise leader
No he's not. Why do people think that the sales of one shirt months ago means he's the top merchandise leader? Are people really this bereft of logic?
which is really where John Cena has made WWE its money in regards to his character, not his ability to get great ratings and buyrates.
Actually, that's not really true either. Cena does usually get good viewership for his segments, which the WWE then can parlay into more premium advertising. Furthermore, PPV revenue (not counting this year, since all buyrates have not been officially released) has stayed relatively stable, even despite the economic downturns in 2008 and this year. Finally, the Raw house show circuit does much better attendance than the Smackdown show, and you'd be foolish to think Cena is not a major reason for that.
But, again, we're not talking about Cena. I only mention this to help illustrate all the ways a top guy influences business. And if Punk cannot attract anyone other than wrestling fans who are already going to watch the show regardless, that's simply not going to be good enough to replace the fans who will quit watching the show because Punk doesn't appeal to them.
With WWE today its not the wrestlers that draw the people in its the machine behind it.
Correct, but only to an extent. A show with Cena, Punk, Orton and Big Show is going to do far better than a show headlined by Santino, R-Truth, Nahal and Kingston. I don't think anyone would argue with that.
Austin, Hogan, Rock were bigger than the WWE, Cena is not bigger than the WWE, if he left wrestling in 2 years he would be an afterthought and no one would give a shit about him.
Nah, that's not true, but again, we're not talking about Cena.
