It hurts to say, but is an obvious fact.
The WWE’s biggest draw is the WWE brand. It shouldn’t sting as much as it does, but wrestling has been a star driven business for the longest time and the pivot to “ECW,” “ROH,” and “AEW” chants from audiences at shows always furrowed the brow. Stars still matter — very much so — but they matter in a different way than they used to.
We are the brand. Love the brand.
WWE has cultivated subliminal-esque messaging about their brand in the form of specialty PSA’s, events like Tribute to the Troops, and other marketing efforts to further the brand of the business and make that brand the forefront of the presentation. The company has planted that messaging inception style into the brains of fans for years now to avoid the pitfalls that come along with heavy reliance on wrestling talent and their “me first, get mine” mindset.
Tuesday night in New York City, the WWE took a trip down memory lane. In an old school outing that was built on the back of a star, WWE sold out the mecca arena of the fight game and former WWF stronghold, Madison Square Garden.
The star was CM Punk. Punk returned to the WWE after an infamous hiatus at Survivor Series in November, but wrestled his first match since returning on the WWE Holiday Tour circuit that invaded The Garden on Tuesday night. Before the show started, social media videos streamed in from fans inside the building documenting “CM Punk” chants and an overall buzz that is typically saved for top level episodes of Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, or PLE’s.
MSG history
WWE’s history is stocked with nights like this one. Bruno Sammartino sold out MSG a record 187 times during his runs as the world champion for the company. Hulk Hogan was a massive star and draw at The Garden and the glue that held together the first-ever WrestleMania event in that venue — an event that now is bid on by cities around the country due to the strong economic impact it provides them.
Bob Backlund was the flag bearer for WWE and Madison Square Garden after Sammartino and held down the spot with feuds against “Superstar” Billy Graham, Sgt. Slaughter, Greg Valentine, and others.
So, in a world where the brand is the draw, CM Punk put himself in pretty good company Tuesday night. He was the draw of that show and the top reason why fans ascended on the most famous arena in the world just a day after Christmas. Punk is a star and his first match back in the company he walked out on ten years ago was a big deal. It’s an equation covered in dollar signs.
It’s all in the numbers
The numbers were there for Punk on Tuesday night. According to Wrestle Ops, the show set the highest recorded attendance for WWE at Madison Square Garden in over eight years with a sellout of nearly 16,000 tickets. Fightful reported that the show was the highest-grossing domestic non-televised event in WWE history.