10 Unbelievable Wrestling Coincidences
1. Two Of The Biggest Draws In WWE History Worked At The Exact Same Time
There are certain things that certain fans don't grasp about the modern cultural landscape.
It is impossible for wrestling to ever recapture the viewing audience it attracted throughout the Monday Night Wars because the entertainment sphere is atomised beyond recognition now. There is a surplus of packaged budget steaming options so endless that it's easy to waste half an hour just...scrolling through, not knowing which film or TV show that you've heard is good to actually pick. Every time a match slows down during a commercial break, it's too easy to look at moderately amusing sh*tposts and never look back up again.
And wrestling - which still does amazingly well by modern cable standards, better than it has in years and years now that WWE is facing fellow Nielsen-topping competition - isn't the only medium that has lost all those viewers over the years. Compare the ratings of the Seinfeld and Big Bang Theory finales. Both were hugely popular sitcoms; the former's last showing aired in 1998, with Attitude in full swing, where the latter aired when AEW Dynamite launched in 2019. The Seinfeld finale drew 76.3 million viewers; the Big Bang Theory finale drew 17.99.
Because viewing habits have drastically changed!
And nobody is banging on about how Big Bang has killed the comedy business because the jokes aren't actually funny. Well, they do because it's true, but its finale is considered a great number because it is, and the rating isn't debated in bad faith. Larry David isn't on a podcast bemoaning the Big Bang Theory because he's actually really talented and doesn't, unlike certain former promoters, need to do it for money as a grift.
Of course, the time period wasn't the only factor, not by half.
Those fans can't or won't grasp just how much of an insane coincidence it was that Steve Austin and The Rock were megastars at the exact same time. The Rock holds the record for most consecutive five figure gates in North American wrestling history, whereas Austin broke the WrestleMania buy record twice and was a bigger draw (albeit for a shorter amount of time) than Hulk Hogan.
The WWF had two Hogans at the same time. No wonder it was bigger than it was now, for f*ck's sake.