10 WWE Champions Who Didn't Draw
1. Diesel
And to whom did that ignominious record as "worst drawing WWE Champion" belong? None other than shameless self-promoter and master politician Kevin "Diesel" Nash.
Diesel won the title from Bob Backlund at a Madison Square Garden house show in November 1994 and went on to headline a WrestleMania that got 320,000 buys (down from 400,000 the previous year). Other shows had similar drops - King of the Ring went from 185,000 buys to 150,000, SummerSlam went from 300,000 buys to 205,000, and Survivor Series - where Nash finally lost the belt - went from 254,000 buys to an astounding 128,000, a drop of almost half.
TV ratings and house show numbers were similarly bad, all coming together to create a very poor year for the company financially. According to lore, Diesel once asked Gerald Brisco why he was the lowest-paid WWE Champion of all time. Brisco responded, "Because you're the lowest-drawing WWE Champion of all time."
Diesel lost the title in November of 1995, but he wasn't done doing horrible things as world champion. Three years later, he unseated the undefeated Goldberg for the WCW Championship, helping kill the promotion in the process.