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The WWE has seen some great days. Hulkamania, Attitude Era, Ruthless Aggression. But, not everything is always rosy. Vince Mcmahon would make poor decisions or performers would just be inept and not get over with the crowd, leaving WWE with some limited options as champion. In this article, I will bring forth to you the 5 lowest drawing champions in WWE history
#5 The Undertaker
The run I’m going to be focusing on is Undertaker’s 1997 run as champion which came at a weird time for WWE. Bret Hart was talking to WCW and Shawn Michaels asked for a release and so, Vince McMahon was worried.
So, the Undertaker was seen as a safe pair of hands by the chairman and was made the champion. The Deadman drew dead crowds and holds the distinction of actually drawing the least buy rate for a WrestleMania ever with his match against Sycho Sid.
Ironic because the man is synonymous with WrestleMania. Coming in at barely 237,000 buys for WrestleMania 13, Undertaker will forever have the distinction of being the worst draw at a WrestleMania.
Amazingly he held the title until SummerSlam of that year, despite business arrowing down quicker than a lead weight. The Summerslam buy rate came in at 177,000 buys, again down from the previous year. Taker jobbed to Bret Hart in that match and business improved in the proceeding months. All in all, 1997 was a year to forget for the Deadman and it came as a shock to most when his run was analyzed.
#4 Sycho Sid
Sycho Sid was an anomaly. He bounced back between WCW and WWE and stank up the joint wherever he went. He basically ended up in WWE because he was a big man in the right place.
Shawn Michaels as champion hadn’t worked and Vince wasn’t sure what to do. So, Sid ended up being the benefactor of TWO title reigns. When Michaels was defeated, the pop was huge, but then Sid happened. Sycho Sid main evented WrestleMania! (internal screaming). We have already touched on the Wrestlemania 13 main event with Undertaker, a stupendously low buy rate of 237,000.
I’d blame Sid more for the buy rate than Undertaker because of Sid. His buy rate for the Rumble was also a measly 244,000. A rumble hasn’t performed that bad ever since. Sid ultimately ended up champion again because Michaels didn’t want to lose to Bret Hart at WrestleMania, causing a huge booking mess. The big man went on to show more underwhelming box office hits with WCW in the dying days of the Atlanta brand. The summary is clear – he couldn’t draw a dime.
#3 The Miz
The Miz could have worked as a heel, but as WWE champion, he just couldn’t be taken seriously. He needed Riley in every single match to win and then feuded with Jerry Lawler and needed a heel Michael Cole’s help to beat a sixty-year-old man.
The Miz main evented WrestleMania and won! Which should be a good thing and would be, except the entire match was meant to set up The Rock vs Cena at the following WrestleMania. It became clear that the Miz wasn’t the man who the company relied on for drawing, Cena and the Rock were the major attractions.
The damning evidence for Miz is that Raw ratings were sitting around the 3.5 mark before he became Champion, but struggled to stay over the 3.0 mark after his win. Pay per view numbers ended up down on the previous year.
Miz may have the second highest drawing Mania of all time to his name (THANK YOU ROCKY!), but the fact that WWE hasn’t touched him in a main event capacity since tells you all you need to know about his wider drawing performance – the company knows he drives main event value down not upward.
But that COULD HAVE been the argument until 2016. After WrestleMania 32, he went on the most memorable Intercontinental title run in years and established himself as a main-event calibre star. After flopping back and forth between RAW and SmackDown, The Miz has always been a prominently featured star, and it won't be surprising to see him earn a WWE title run before he retires.
#2 Bret Hart
Sid, Taker and Michaels all struggled as champion, but they were following up the Hitman with his disastrous runs in 1992, 1994 and 1995. He was the transition guy from the cartoon era to a more realistic athletic era, but the fans just didn’t get on board for the ride.
Attendances, PPV buys and merchandise all took a nosedive with Hart leading the company. When Hulk Hogan came back in as champion things recovered for a short while. The indication was clear, bigger guys sell, smaller guys don’t.
Bret sees things differently. He is the first man to stand up and say how hot a performer he was, blaming everything from Creative to Shawn Michaels for his failings in the WWF. Regarding his ability to draw, Bret has stated that business fell off a cliff after his reign transitioned to Shawn Michaels.
What Bret needs to consider is this, the baton he handed Michaels was so weak that HBK was already in a losing race. WCW and Hogan were way more in tune with the mass audience than Hart and the WWF.
#1 Diesel
The worst drawing WWF/E champion in history... Big daddy cool, Diesel. With Bret Hart failing, Vince chose Diesel as his replacement. Oh dear... things went from bad to worse as ratings hit the gutter.
Diesel wasn’t helped by having to feud with Mabel and beating him at SummerSlam. In fact, Diesel’s reign was such a disaster that over the same period of time, Bret Hart made more in royalties than the champion.
The drop-off in pay per view business was at its very hardest. WrestleMania lost 80,000 buyers from the previous year, SummerSlam was 95,000 buys down and Survivor Series ‘95 posted 128,000 buys – down from 254,00 in 1994.
That marked the end of Diesel as champion, dropping the title to Bret Hart on that November night. Everything had gone down in his run – ticket sales, PPV buys, merchandise,etc.
Conversely, as Steve Austin was revolutionising the business on Raw, Nash was now on WCW and killing their product; arguably one of the very main factors in WCW’s demise.
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