10 Things Learned From Bruce Prichard's Something To Wrestle With Podcast On Owen Hart
2. WWE Weren't Selling Out Every Show In 1998
A minor tidbit from the show but an interesting one came when Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard co-host Conrad Thompson shared the attendance from a mid-1998 WWE show in Indiana. What made this little nugget of information so notable was the fact that the World Wrestling Federation only drew 3,500 fans to the arena in Hammond.
In 1997, this number would not be surprising. In fact, it would probably have been the norm, but considering that by mid-'98, the WWF had retaken the lead from WCW and Monday Nitro in the Monday night ratings battle, it's curious. Curious that, in some areas of the country, WWE was still booking smaller venues like the Hammond Civic Center and the promotion was not quite the hot, sell-out commodity it would become just a few months later.
The WWF was everywhere by 1999 and 2000, but even before then, the company saw a surge in popularity that began in 1998. For Owen Hart to be involved in a non-sold out show that drew fewer than 4,000 fans in the middle of the Attitude Era was something of note.