He headlined the two most bought and highest grossing pro wrestling PPVs of all time (2007 & 2012). Yet people don’t see him as the biggest draw.
Wouldn’t being able to get people to pay actual money to watch you, instead of just watching for free make you a legit draw?
As a current fan and one that watches WWE regularly, I’d say Cena is probably still up there as one of the top 5 draws in the business today. Love him or hate him he always gets huge reactions from the crowds and is appreciated for everything he has done in WWE. So yes whilst people will still pay to see him, buy his merchandise and he puts people in seats, I don’t think he’s considered the top.
I think there are current stars that are bigger draws, Cody Rhodes is still going strong and gets huge reactions. Roman Reigns, since returning has been doing great.
But I honestly think there is probably one name that’s a bigger draw than them all. The Rock. It doesn’t matter how long away from wrestling he’s been gone, when he returns he has the crowd eating out his hands. He can turn from good guy to bad guy in a minute and the fans go along with it.
100% the first person I thought of, as a non watcher of pro wrestling, was The Rock. That’s for sure partially a product of my age and childhood influence, but people who have only seen him in movies still know him as The Rock. It’s an influence that transcends pop culture. To this day people are still trying to figure what he was cooking…