Ranking the 5 biggest box-office draws in WWE history

#3 – The Undertaker

Through all of his changing gimmicks, The Undertaker has been a constant in the WWE

Amongst the troves of Superstars who have plied their trade in the WWE over the years, no one single wrestler has ever highlighted constancy or consistency to rival that of The Undertaker. While the genesis of his career coincided with the change-over from the Golden Era to the Attitude Era, what is surely his final stretch has overseen the change-over from the PG era to the Reality Era.

Through the last 25 years, The Undertaker has been the most constant big money draw for the WWE, with his significance as a top draw assuming reserved importance in recent years thanks to the Streak. The importance of the Undertaker in keeping the hardcore wrestling fans on board during the trying PG era cannot be understated – The Streak began carrying Wrestlemania instead of it being the other way around.

Despite the Streak being broken, The Undertaker’s standing in the eyes of the collective WWE Universe has not wavered one bit and this also has to do with the inordinate amount of backstage influence that Mark Calaway has had on the WWE. A respected figure throughout his career, his role as the locker-room leader often goes unattributed towards the success that WWE attained as opposed to the failure that met WCW.

It was the hierarchy of the WWE versus the anarchy of WCW during the Monday night wars, and one of the reasons why the WWE eventually won was due to the fact that Vince McMahon ran a tight ship. Well, The Undertaker has always been the undisputed captain, with his consistency highlighting his drawing power over what has turned into a tremendously long shelf-life for a wrestler that earmarks his performances with conviction and credibility.

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#2 – The Rock

From being a WWE Superstar to becoming a global box-office phenomenon in Hollywood, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has been a trail-blazer for the company

WWE’s greatest success story as far as mainstream impact goes has been provided, indubitably, by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The stratospheric success that he encountered during the Attitude Era was significant of a subtler precedent that he represented, in that there had never before been an instance of an era that had room for two elite draws quite the likes of Stone Cold and The Rock.

If the rivalry with Stone Cold often appealed to fans beyond the scope of kayfabe or ‘babyface versus heel’, his quick thinking in displaying heelish behaviour to play to the uproar of audience support that Hulk Hogan was receiving in their Wrestlemania 18 classic, helped create one of the most iconic moments in WWE history.

From holding the verve of the audience in the palm of his hand, to having the brand extension named after one of his catch-phrases, The Rock has arguably been the most innovative user of the microphone that the WWE has ever come across. His legendary catch-phrases have elicited unanimous audience participation for the best part of 2 decades now and the trail-blazing nature of the connection that The Rock has forged with the audience is in a league of its own.

Despite ‘Once in a lifetime’ happening twice, one cannot argue with the sheer number of eyeballs that follow a Hollywood A-Lister. The Rock’s continued involvement in the WWE, even after taking Hollywood by storm, has engineered a scenario where the WWE’s mainstream status has been elevated.

In all probability, The Rock has not out-grown further active participation in the WWE and in time to come, could well go on to confirm his status as the greatest draw in sports entertainment history.