Business Numbers Prove WWF Is Rolling; ECW Not Far Behind

It is no secret that the World Wrestling Federation is by far the number one promotion in the world. Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, recently released the January business comparisons for the WWF, WCW, and ECW.

For the month of January, the WWF’s estimated average attendance was 11, 801, up 5.4 percent from last year. On the hand, WCW’s average attendance was reported at 3,593, down 58.5 per cent from January 1999.

During the month of January, the WWF’s estimated average gate was $316,259, up a whopping 36.6 per cent from January 1999. WCW’s average gate was only $86,575, down an alarming 55.9 per cent.

The WWF sold out sixty per cent of their house shows, while WCW could only manage one sell out in the same month of January. ECW sold out 62.5 per cent of their events for the same month.

"Raw" earned an average of 6.47 rating for the month, "Heat" posted a 3.28 average (not including a 5.0 for "Halftime Heat"), and UPN’s "Smackdown" scored a 4.98 average for January.

On the WCW side, "Nitro" did a 3.12 average rating and TBS’s "Thunder" posted a 2.51 average. By comparison, "ECW on TNN" earned a rising 1.16 average rating for the first month of 2000.

WCW’s ratings number were expected to improve 15 to 20 per cent with the change in times and length. "Nitro" moved back to a two-hour format, no longer competing with "Raw’s" red hot second hour. "Thunder" moved to Wednesday’s, conceding Thursday nights to "Smackdown." The March 1st episode of “Thunder” scored an all time rating low of 1.95.

The top revenue events for wrestling companies are pay-per-views. WWF’s "Royal Rumble" earned an estimated 1.58 buy rate, or translated $7.34 million. WCW’s January offering of "Souled Out" received an embarrassing 0.26 buy rate, or $1.22 million for the struggling company.

WCW’s pay-per-view revenue dropped 66.7 per cent from the same month last year. ECW’s "Guilty As Charged" earned a 0.21 buy rate or $755,000. Meltzer also reported last week that WCW’s “SuperBrawl” received an abysmal 0.10 buy rate, or 45,000 buys.

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