Do individual stars or do shows & concepts draw in WWE or AEW?: Figure Four Daily w/Lance Storm~!

Lance Storm and Bryan Alvarez discuss the success of AEW Revolution and what, if anything, still "draws" in today's wrestling. [March 13, 2021]

[AndreWakefield]

Revolution is only the 2nd PPV that I've ever bought and personally the reasons why I bought it were (in no particular order):

1) The exploding barbwire match is something that I've never seen before so I was very curious to see how it would go. I like both Kenny and Moxley but if it were 2 other guys in there instead, I would be equally as interested.
2) Sting is my all time favorite wrestler so I wanted to see him wrestle again
3) I like Ladder matches, so I was interested in seeing that
4) I was very curious about the mystery signing, although paying $50 to see it doesn't really justify it since you can just see who it is on Twitter immediately after it happens
5) I'm a big fan of AEW's weekly product and I just wanted to support them by buying the PPV

[Vesperitis]

Put it this way, before the pandemic, not even the film industry knew what was and wasn't a draw. You could have $100 million budget movies with big marquee stars that would flop, and well made smaller movies that got franchise deals.

[Breadman-gceo]

The last time WWE had a wrestler as the true PPV draw was Lesnar when he was champion from 2015 to 2020. This excludes Wrestlemania though, because the draw in WrestleMania *is* Wrestlemania.

IMO the one feud that outdrew Wrestlemania itself was Rock vs Cena at WrestleMania 28 and 29.

Outside of WWE the biggest one I could think of that's recent would be Omega Vs Jericho feud at NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 12.

[cambone]

A Draw today is just not comparable to the Draw of yesteryear. There are no mega stars.

[Mizhaps]

Personally i follow individual wrestlers alot of me watching aew is seeing whats up with pac and kenny and fenix that kind of thing.

[AKGermany]

The draws of today don‘t make much of a difference when it comes to the ratings of the big TV shows. On a small show like Impact they still can make a difference like we just saw when Kenny brought the AEW belt initially. That didn‘t last either though, altough I‘m sure their PPVs with Kenny or other big names from outside sell much better. It all depends on the scale you‘re looking at.

[UncleDeadly]

Niche stars, in a niche product, in a niche industry. Just how it is nowadays

[gspvideo]

Actual GOING to a show, the wrestlers themselves are the main attraction. If not star names, why go.

Watching on TV, the show is the draw.

[fixpacifica]

People saw Maki Itoh on the Revolution buy-in, and they signed up for Revolution. Maki puts butts in the seats.

[moonsaves]

Lance Storm looking more and more like he's streaming from his meth-cooking RV in New Mexico each day.

[tauseef]

That Rock and Austin time is gone today we have so much talent in Wrestling and smart fans.

[welowee]

Lance background reminds me of Skyrim library

[mr.mirchenstein]

Why is Lance Storm being held prisoner in a dungeon?? 😂

[jtom]

Quality talent placed on a quality card together can draw. Singular draws aren't a thing. I don't think wrestling is big enough for that to really be possible

[yellowscarlightningscream]

Kenny Omega has clearly proved that he is a major major draw. He single handedly raised the bar of NJPW. Almost every show he was part of before AEW has broken records like no other

[AviFagan]

The argument against Kenny Omega being a draw ends when you look at what he's done for ROH in the past and Impact now. ROH featured Omega on a handful of shows a few years back and set attendance records. Impact is currently featuring Omega and instantly saw huge and sustained spikes of viewership and PPV buys.
Yes, NJPW was stacked with enough talent and a good enough overall product to not suffer without Omega. Yes the same can be said for AEW. But people watch shows for Omega. People buy tickets for Omega. People buy PPVs for Omega. The argument Storm is actually making here is that Omega isn't THE draw for AEW, which is true. But what he's trying to say is that Omega isn't A draw, which is demonstrably not true.

[thameem]

I mean When you really think about it
Since Rock and Austin not alot of people can be termed as certified draws

[taneilvickers]

I don’t think a single persons draws anymore when Brock leaves wwe the rating don’t go down if Roman left the ratings won’t go down edge was announced for nxt and the rating went down
The only think I can say for sure is that around Wrestlemania season the ratings will be up and around the fall and end of the year the ratings will go down

[xymes]

The draw is the promotion. AEW has their own brand and fans, WWE has their own brand and fans. Nobody buys anything for specific people anymore (besides merchandise like a T-Shirt), they do it because of the brand behind it.

[vinaypathak]

It's sucks.. Nobody is not giving proper credit to jon moxley.. I mean he is sure a bigger draw than Kenny Omega.. That's why he was the second aew champion..