Are “draws” dead?

Wanted to take a day off from “what if” to lead a discussion I find interesting.  Are the days of individual wrestlers being “draws” over?

If you read this blog regularly, you may have seen me state the opinion that “the WWE brand is the draw.”  By this I mean that the importance of individual wrestlers driving business is essentially negligble, and business is driven entirely by the WWE name.  No individual on earth can draw or move needle the way Austin or Hogan could back in the day.  The E has such a diversified revenue stream now as opposed to 15 years ago (advertising dollars, corporate partnerships, TV revenue, merchandise,  gates, ppv, etc.) that putting all your eggs in the basket of one superstar is just to risky for them.  It’s really fucking brilliant, eliminate as much possible risk (top guys leaving, injuries, etc) in your core product so all the other cash streams that feed off of it can constantly rack up revenue. This is why instead of promoting Rock and Brock as special outside attractions and special “draws” they did their best to ingratiate them back into the WWE universe.   Do you agree, and to what extent?

To ask it another way, if they build up Heath Slater, Ryback, and Curtis Axel for 6 months then give them Cena, Bryans, and Punks spots, how much does overall business drop?  If they take guys like Cena and Taker off WM, does it still do around 800k – 1 million?  I think it does.

– How much do individual wrestlers matter in today’s landscape?

– Are they just interchangeable parts with little bearing to the overall product?

– Will we ever see the days of a massive “draw” again?

This is just scratching the surface to the topic.  Go in any direction you like.

*If you haven’t read the Lydon Murtha piece on cnnsi.com, I highly suggest it.  First person account by a guy who played with Incognito and Martin on the situtation.  It completely paints Incognito in a different light then the media has.