Is Seth Rollins A Worse-Drawing WWE Champion Than Jinder Mahal
Rollins wasn't a business hit as Universal Champion.
WWE were lambasted for their decision to have Brock Lesnar successfully cash-in his Money In The Bank briefcase on Universal Champion Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules on 14 July, but it looks like they may have been justified from a business standpoint.
Rollins didn't draw well as Raw's top champion. At all.
Twitter user @nWoWolfpacTV has collated data from domestic house shows during Rollins' reign in order to compare them to other former World Champions. Shows that took place during his run drew approximately 53,350 fans over 16 events, coming in at an average of 3,334. A dismal number, and somehow worse than during Jinder Mahal's universally panned WWE Title reign, with his average (on a weaker brand, too) sitting at 3,497.
On top of this, Kofi Kingston is the four-lowest drawing WWE Champion ever using this metric: his average is 2,940.
While these numbers speak more to WWE's general attendance decline than anything else, they're still interesting. Even crowning a popular babyface like Rollins at WrestleMania 35 failed at stopping the rot. Their lack of money-drawing stars has never been so apparent, and it's hard to imagine this problem solving itself.