Who was the largest draw of all-time?

[MikeJordan23 0]

Austin is the biggest drawing wrestler ever in NA wrestling history. This cannot be argued. Go read some back issues of the Observer. Like the guy above said he drew the WWF more money in a 5 year span then Hogan did for over a decade. Now the WWF didn't have as many PPV's either, so you might wanna consider that, though I doubt Austin still wouldn't lead in this. Austin's merchandise sold FAAAAAAAAAAR more as well.

 

After Austin it's probably either Hogan or the Rock.

 

And Superstar Billy Graham sold out 19 out of 20 MSG shows.

[Guest krazykat72]

'm pretty sure Billy Graham holds that record. I was reading the peices Metlzer did on the W/WWF Title, and he mentioned how Graham holds the record for MSG sell-outs while in the main event. Apparently, Rock was getting close, but because of his career, never quite made it. I think Graham's record is 19 sellouts out of 20 main events.

You're off here.

 

Bruno and Backlund have way more MSG main even sellouts due to their far longer reigns. (anywhere from 30-50). Graham's was impressive because he sold out almost every one he was in, but wasn't on top long enough to challenge the all time numbers by the top 2.

 

 

-Paul Jacobi-

[Guest LooneyTune]

I think it's a little hard to compare people of old like Hogan to new like Austin, taking in account how much wrestling has changed, with PPV's every month, BETTER merchandise, inflation of prices...If it's all balanced out to an even plane...I still don't know because thats hard to decide.

 

But Let's also consider Hogans mainstream success (OK, it's not that great) in movies and other television outside of wrestling. I still think it's not possible for Austin to be a bigger draw than Hogan when combining their overall totals over the spans of both careers. Maybe Austin did better in PPV buys for the obvious reason, but Hogan has got to be smoking Austin when it comes to live attendance gates for non-PPV shows.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I would argue Bruno over Graham in MSG sellout's as well, especially because I remember reading (I believe it WAS the observer) that stated that Sammartino has well over 50 sellouts of MSG. There was a reason why Bruno held the title from 5/5/63 - 1/18/1971. I would say easily that Bruno sold out more MSG shows....even on top of the cards than Grahan did.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

Didn't that match that Flair had in North Korea have like 150,000 people in attendance?

Inoki was the draw for that show, not Flair. Weren't the fans held at gunpoint to watch it anyway, or am I thinking of something else?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Re. MSG Sellouts: Bruno did indeed sell MSG out more times than Graham, but Graham sold out a higher percentage of his main events, but that was because he had less main events to sell out. I think I misinterpreted a line in the aforementioned Observer piece about Graham's MSG record, when it talked about Graham's last MSG sellout, which was for a match against Butch Reed in 1987. I actually e-mailed Dave about the top guys for MSG sellouts, for the actual figures, and here are the numbers for the top three:

 

Bruno sold out around 45 of 127 main events

Backlund sold out 42 of 67 main events

Graham sold out around 19 of 20 main events

 

I'm figuring that's the top three.

 

Re. The Korean shows. Nobody really 'drew', as the people there were basically forced to attend, so it didn't really matter who was on the show, it was going to have a huge attendance.

[Guest Loss]

I don't know if HBK even drew one MSG sell-out during his run as WWF Champion. I know he headlined some really poor MSG crowds during his big run, like in the 7,000 range.

05/19/96 -- the night of the "curtain call", which I now see you've already pointed out.

 

:-)

 

Austin has drawn more money than Hogan, but Hogan has had far more longevity. I'd probably give the edge to Hogan, only because he's largely responsible for both the WWF boom of the 80s and the WCW boom of the 90s, and he has also pulled great numbers in the AWA and NJPW.

 

Austin has only drawn in WWE. In terms of attendance, I think Hogan has the advantage (though I'd have to verify that) while Austin headlined in the PPV era and thus made more money. It's hard to say who's drawn more on a worldwide scale in dollars and cents, as well as in butts put in seats.

[Sass 0]

It would have been interesting to see how well Austin could have drawn outside of the US and England during the Attitude era. Hogan managed to draw good gates around the world for over a decade and he is known around the world. Austin's only strong gates outside of the US came from England where he was a headliner. But that country has been a "gimme draw" for over a decade for the WWE with gates being easy to get.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

I rank Hogan above Austin for the simple fact that he was a proven draw in NJPW, AWA, WWF and WCW throughout a time span of, atleast, 15years, while Austin only drew for the WWF in a short 4 year time span(1997-2001).

 

Plus for live gates Austin could never touch Hogan. Where were these 12, 35'000 people attendances for Austin in all his peak years? The average the PPV crowd in Austin's peak was 18'500 people which is what most of the arena's hold as their maximum capacity.

[MikeJordan23 0]

I rank Hogan above Austin for the simple fact that he was a proven draw in NJPW, AWA, WWF and WCW throughout a time span of, atleast, 15years, while Austin only drew for the WWF in a short 4 year time span(1997-2001).

 

Plus for live gates Austin could never touch Hogan. Where were these 12, 35'000 people attendances for Austin in all his peak years? The average the PPV crowd in Austin's peak was 18'500 people which is what most of the arena's hold as their maximum capacity.

The fact is Austin drew so much more money then Hogan in 5 year shorter span that's pretty easy that Austin is the biggest draw.

[Guest Loss]

That's up for interpretation. Are we looking at money drawn through all mediums? What gets more credit -- large attendance or a big gate? I think it's only fair to compare attendance, as that's the only thing that was the same in both eras. PPV was basically created on the sweat of Hogan's brow and wasn't near the market it is now, and when it became a huge market, he drew big money in the Monday Night Wars. Hogan's attendance figures are typically stronger than Austin's, just because Austin did so few dome shows in his prime.

[MARTYEWR 0]

It would have been interesting to see how well Austin could have drawn outside of the US and England during the Attitude era.  Hogan managed to draw good gates around the world for over a decade and he is known around the world.  Austin's only strong gates outside of the US came from England where he was a headliner.  But that country has been a "gimme draw" for over a decade for the WWE with gates being easy to get.

Sass, are you counting "Canada" and "house shows" as far as everywhere else outside of the U.S. and England goes? Because he did great at house shows up here during the Attitude Era, if I recall correctly.

[Sass 0]

Austin did draw very well in Canada. The WWE even sold out the Skydome for a '99 RAW where Austin had a Gauntlet match against the Corporation. I remember that show being listed as a great gate.

 

Inflation over the years might give Hogan the edge over Austin. Maybe, I'm not sure about this one (any math majors can take a crack at this). Plus, Hogan had nearly 2 decades of longevity compared to Austin who had only a really hot run for about less than a quarter of that time. Andre wrestled for nearly 30 years and was a big draw wherever he went. Inflation over that time could possibly make Andre a bigger draw than either Austin or Hogan. Again, maybe.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Austin has drawn more money than Hogan, but Hogan has had far more longevity. I'd probably give the edge to Hogan, only because he's largely responsible for both the WWF boom of the 80s and the WCW boom of the 90s, and he has also pulled great numbers in the AWA and NJPW.

Loss, good job....I thought that was a really great point and people tend to miss it.

 

It could be a safe assumption to say that Hogan was a bigger draw than Austin, because during Austin's period on top there were other draws associated in there, so Austin wasn't the SOLE draw. It could be said though that Hogan was THE sole draw during the majority of his tenure in the WWF. The only time Hogan was on top with another huge draw was of course Andre. Other than that, he wasn't paired with a particular draw. Not to discredit Austin as a draw......just food for thought.

[strummer 0]

Andre and Jim Duggan sold out MSG in 1988. That alone should show how popular Andre really was and that he could do good business without Hogan. Andre's 87-89 heel run gets crapped on a lot because he couldn't do anything in the ring anymore, but he was still a draw. It would have been interesting if Andre was in a headline position for most of his career, to see how he would have drawn. Instead, he was in the ambigious "side show" attraction role, thus making it difficult to say if he really sold out arenas or not.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

It would have been interesting if Andre was in a headline position for most of his career, to see how he would have drawn.  Instead, he was in the ambigious "side show" attraction role, thus making it difficult to say if he really sold out arenas or not.

He would have drawn less and less with each visit, just like Hogan did. A great deal of Andre's drawing power was down to his novelty value, as he never really appeared in one place for a long time in one go. As big a draw as Andre and Hogan were, they drew the most when they didn't visit too often. This is borne out by the fact that, while Hogan's first meeting in house shows against the latest top heel drew strong numbers, the second and/or third visits, while sill drawing strong, drew a lot less than the first time out. This fact tends to get forgotten by a lot of people when talking about Hogan's drawing power.