10 Step Investigation: Just How Successful Is WWE In 2017?
3. Merchandise
Merchandise revenues hit $30.6M last year, a major number that sheds light on why the company has for years resisted overtures to turn John Cena heel: his garish garb earns his company a fortune.
Now that Cena has finally reduced his schedule, he has been replaced by Roman Reigns, per Dave Meltzer, as WWE's top full-time merchandise draw. He isn't as universally despised as some would have you believe. Those part-time stars, the ones many diehard fans resent for stymying the main event progress of Seth Rollins et al., draw considerable revenue also.
An argument could be made that Rollins, if the rocket was strapped to his back, could potentially shift more units than a Goldberg, or a Brock Lesnar - but the argument is immaterial. It would represent a risk - and WWE is in thrall to shareholder expectations. Risk has to be minimised, and if the current model is so successful - and it is, at $792.2M in revenue, 2016 was a record-breaking year - why would WWE change it?
The trickle down effect is less successful. That every wrestler wears their own t-shirt is probably a bit lame - bands don't rep their own merch for that very reason - but the trend has been in vogue since the Attitude Era. It's not even a trend anymore so much as it's the norm.
But should every wrestler wear their own t-shirt? Contrast Bray Wyatt and the Undertaker, and consider how bizarre the Dead Man incarnation of the act would have looked, had he been forced to advertise his brand. It would have undermined the act and its aura entirely.
Wyatt looks less like a supernatural destroyer and more like a walking advertisement, but again, it doesn't matter. Money is everything to a publicly-traded company. 'Taker, retired, is a relic of a bygone era.