6 Things You Need To Know About ECW's Wrestlenomics

5. Attendance

The rebooted ECW tried to run separate WWECW live events during the latter part of 2006. The fact it only lasted from late June to early November should say a lot about how the tertiary brand fared as a house show entity. In total, there was just 38 solo shows before WWE pulled the plug on ECW-only house show tours. They started in ECW's stronghold - June 24, 2006 the first ECW show was at the €œNew Alhambra Arena€ (formerly been known as the ECW Arena). It was clear that touring just on nostalgia was going to be a lot harder than originally anticipated. After disappointing house show receipts, the idea of ECW as an independent touring brand was struck down. As WWE€™s 2006 annual report stated:

€œWe produced 38 Extreme Championship Wrestling (€œECW€) branded events in the transition period which had an average attendance of 1,100 and an average ticket price of approximately $25.00. ECW events were held in smaller venues which generated lower attendance and revenues per event as compared to our Raw and SmackDown brands. Going forward, ECW€™s live events will be combined with SmackDown until the brand is large enough to tour independently.€

Drawing over a thousand per show would be considered strong results for an independent organization, but not for a branch of the mighty WWE. By contrast, the original ECW grew from a regional promotion which drew about 600 per show (average attendance from about 40 annual shows) in 1994-1995 to 1,500 per show (average attendance from about 110 annual shows) in 1998-1999. In their final year, the promotion was drawing almost 2,000 per show (average attendance from about 60 annual shows). It's noteworthy that the company didn't collapse due to lack of audience and in fact, the original ECW outdrew the later incarnation as an independent touring brand. Still, while it€™s clear that the original ECW drew more fans to their shows, it€™s more fair to compare the promotional drawing strength against the other major players at the time. In the late 1990s, ECW was a distant number three promotion behind WWF and WCW. This was made abundently clear when from 1998 to 1999, the World Wrestling Federation averaged attendance over 10,000 for live events. Also during that same timeframe, World Championship Wrestling averaged attendance above 7,000 for live events (though the latter half of 1999 took a serious downturn). ECW shows drew rabid fans. However, they were only about 15% of WWF€™s average attendance and 20% of WCW€™s average attendance. In the mid 2000s, ECW was a pretend "division" of WWE. WWE's closest American rival for pro-wrestling was Dixie Carter's TNA. By 2006, TNA was often filling the €œImpact Zone€ at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL but that was for tv tapings with free admission. Under that model, drawing 900 people wasn't that impressive of a feat. By contrast, the ECW of 2006 appeared as a stronger live event draw than TNA of 2006. Still, ECW's 1,100/show average was not considered adequate for WWE standards when Raw & Smackdown or co-branded shows regularly drew an average of almost five times as much.