Post a Comment On: Indeed Wrestling

One of the great advantages of WWE being a public company is that it's possible to decode their financial filings into concrete numbers regarding attendance, TV Rights fees and PPV buys. Alas, things are never quite as clear for poor WCW (World Championship Wrestling)

[Image]
That isn't to say there isn't any information out there -- it's just scattered and sometimes contradictory.

Attendance
Dave Meltzer collects monthly stats on major wrestling federations which supplies us with WCW House Show Attendance 1991-2001:
[Image] TV Rights Television Rights Fees were much less of "a thing" for pro wrestling back in the 1990s as compared to today.  Still, WCW was owned by a media network (Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.) and they were trying to grow the product base and make money through additional broadcasting.  They added a third hour to Nitro in 1999, launched Thunder, held internet-only audio broadcasts and created other specialized broadcasts such as WCW Live all which no doubt were designed to gain money through advertising and promoting the PPVs.  
Sadly, information from public filings only scantly mention World Championship Wrestling; there are random notes on ventures such as the Nitro Grill in Las Vegas, delicious Trimfast WCW Bars, nWo t-shirts, and WCW Action Figures.  WCW was rarely mentioned in Turner Public Filings -- usually just listed as one of the many, many assets of a major media and entertainment corporation.
PPV
Scattered across the web, there's a few places that have some WCW PPV numbers. But since it's about the mid-1990s, you're stuck in the world between buyrates (percentage of capable homes that purchased an event) and buys (the number of homes that bought the event).

Some of the data sources I have used:
PWH: Jason Campbell's Pro Wrestling History (Excel spreadsheet) old broadcast and cable industry articles PWO: this prowrestlingonly thread ("Demand for a Comprehensive PPV Buyrate List")  GER: an old german website (archive of Genickbrunch's "WCW buyrates PPVs 1991-2001" page) Wrestling Observers Archives The final column is CDH Estimate which is basically my formulaic guess at what might be plausible.
table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; }
WCW EventDatePWH Buyrate GER Buyrate PWO buys CDH Estimate Starrcade 1987 11/26/1987 3.30 20,000 20,000 Bunkhouse Stampede 1/24/1988 3.50 200,000 200,000 Great American Bash 1988 7/10/1988 2.20 190,000 190,000 Starrcade 1988 12/26/1988 1.80 100,000 to 150,000 150,000 Chi-Town Rumble 2/20/1989 1.50
130,000 WrestleWar 1989 5/7/1989 1.30
120,000 Great American Bash 1989 7/23/1989 1.50
140,000 Halloween Havoc 1989 10/28/1989 1.77
175,000 Starrcade 1989 12/13/1989 1.30
130,000 WrestleWar 1990 2/25/1990 1.60
175,000 Capital Combat 5/19/1990 1.40
160,000 Great American Bash 1990 7/7/1990 1.70
200,000 Halloween Havoc 1990 10/27/1990 1.30
160,000 Starrcade 1990 12/16/1990 1.30
165,000 WrestleWar 1991 2/24/1991 1.20 1.20
160,000 Superbrawl I 5/19/1991 1.04 1.04
150,000 Great American Bash 1991 7/14/1991 1.00
145,000 Halloween Havoc 1991 10/27/1991 0.80 0.80
120,000 Starrcade 1991 12/29/1991 1.00 0.70
155,000 Superbrawl II 2/29/1992 0.96 0.70
160,000 WrestleWar 1992 5/17/1992 0.61 0.60
105,000 Beach Blast 1992 6/20/1992 0.40 0.40
70,000 Great American Bash 1992 7/12/1992 0.40 0.40
70,000 Halloween Havoc 1992 10/25/1992 0.90
165,000 Starrcade 1992 12/28/1992 0.50 0.50 95,000 95,000 Superbrawl III 2/21/1993 0.50 0.50 85,000 95,000 Slamboree 1993 5/23/1993 0.50 110,000 100,000 Beach Blast 1993 7/18/1993 0.50 0.50 100,000 100,000 Fall Brawl 1993 9/19/1993 0.46 0.46 95,000 95,000 Halloween Havoc 1993 10/24/1993 0.50 0.50 100,000 100,000 BattleBowl 11/20/1993 0.27 0.27 60,000 55,000 Starrcade 1993 12/27/1993 0.55 0.55 120,000 115,000 Superbrawl IV 2/20/1994 0.50 0.50 110,000 110,000 Spring Stampede 1994 4/17/1994 0.53 0.50 125,000 115,000 Slamboree 1994 5/22/1994 0.48 100,000 105,000 Bash at the Beach 1994 7/17/1994 1.02 1.02 225,000 225,000 Fall Brawl 1994 9/18/1994 0.53 0.53 110,000 115,000 Halloween Havoc 1994 10/23/1994 0.97 0.97 220,000 210,000 Starrcade 1994 12/27/1994 0.60 0.60
130,000 Superbrawl V 2/19/1995 0.95 0.95 215,000 180,000 Uncensored 1995 3/19/1995 0.96 0.96 200,000 180,000 Slamboree 1995 5/21/1995 0.57 0.57 100,000 110,000 Great American Bash 1995 6/18/1995 0.51 0.51 90,000 100,000 Bash at the Beach 1995 7/16/1995 0.82 180,000 160,000 Fall Brawl 1995 9/17/1995 0.48 0.48 85,000 95,000 Halloween Havoc 1995 10/29/1995 0.60 0.60 120,000 120,000 World War 3 1995 11/26/1995 0.43 0.43
90,000 Starrcade 1995 12/27/1995 0.36 0.36
75,000 Superbrawl VI 2/11/1996 0.60 0.60
210,000 Uncensored 1996 3/24/1996 0.70 0.70
250,000 Slamboree 1996 5/19/1996 0.44 0.44
155,000 Great American Bash 1996 6/16/1996 0.48 0.48
170,000 Bash at the Beach 1996 7/7/1996 0.71
250,000 Hog Wild 1996 8/10/1996 0.62 0.62
220,000 Fall Brawl 1996 9/15/1996 0.65 0.65
230,000 Halloween Havoc 1996 10/27/1996 0.70 0.70
250,000 World War 3 1996 11/24/1996 0.55 0.55
200,000 Starrcade 1996 12/29/1996 0.95 0.95
345,000 Souled Out 1997 1/25/1997 0.47 0.47
170,000 Superbrawl VII 2/23/1997 0.75 0.75
275,000 Uncensored 1997 3/16/1997 0.89 0.89
325,000 Spring Stampede 1997 4/6/1997 0.58 0.58
210,000 Slamboree 1997 5/18/1997 0.60 0.60
220,000 Great American Bash 1997 6/15/1997 0.60 0.60
220,000 Bash at the Beach 1997 7/13/1997 0.89 0.89 500,000 325,000 Road Wild 1997 8/8/1997 0.65
240,000 Fall Brawl 1997 9/14/1997 0.53 0.53
195,000 Halloween Havoc 1997 10/26/1997 1.10 1.10
405,000 World War 3 1997 11/23/1997 0.56 0.56
205,000 Starrcade 1997 12/28/1997 1.90 1.80 625,000 to 650,000 700,000 Souled Out 1998 1/24/1998 1.02
380,000 Superbrawl VIII 2/22/1998 1.10 1.10
415,000 Uncensored 1998 3/15/1998 1.10 1.10
415,000 Spring Stampede 1998 4/19/1998 0.72 0.72
275,000 Slamboree 1998 5/17/1998 0.72 0.72
275,000 Great American Bash 1998 6/14/1998 0.75 0.80
290,000 Bash at the Beach 1998 7/12/1998 1.50 600,000 580,000 Road Wild 1998 8/8/1998 0.93 0.95
365,000 Fall Brawl 1998 9/13/1998 0.70 0.70
275,000 Halloween Havoc 1998 10/25/1998 0.78 0.78 500,000 310,000 World War 3 1998 11/22/1998 0.63 0.70
250,000 Starrcade 1998 12/27/1998 1.15 1.15
460,000 Souled Out 1999 1/17/1999 0.78 0.78
330,000 Superbrawl IX 2/21/1999 1.15 1.10
485,000 Uncensored 1999 3/14/1999 0.77 0.73
325,000 Spring Stampede 1999 4/11/1999 0.60 0.60
255,000 Slamboree 1999 5/9/1999 0.45 0.48
195,000 Great American Bash 1999 6/13/1999 0.43 0.43
185,000 Bash at the Beach 1999 7/11/1999 0.40 0.39
175,000 Road Wild 1999 8/14/1999 0.54 0.55
235,000 Fall Brawl 1999 9/12/1999 0.29 0.35
130,000 Halloween Havoc 1999 10/24/1999 0.52 0.52
230,000 Mayhem 1999 11/21/1999 0.45 0.45
200,000 Starrcade 1999 12/19/1999 0.32 0.23
145,000 Souled Out 2000 1/16/2000 0.26 0.25
115,000 Superbrawl X 2/20/2000 0.15 0.15
70,000 Uncensored 2000 3/19/2000 0.13 0.13
60,000 Spring Stampede 2000 4/16/2000 0.25 0.27
115,000 Slamboree 2000 5/7/2000 0.14 0.14
65,000 Great American Bash 2000 6/11/2000 0.19 0.20
85,000 Bash at the Beach 2000 7/9/2000 0.22 0.25
100,000 New Blood Rising 8/13/2000 0.18 0.18
85,000 Fall Brawl 2000 9/17/2000 0.16 0.16
75,000 Halloween Havoc 2000 10/29/2000 0.15 0.15
70,000 Mayhem 2000 11/26/2000 0.12
55,000 Starrcade 2000 12/17/2000 0.11
50,000 Sin 1/14/2001 0.17 0.10
80,000 Superbrawl Revenge 2/19/2001 0.15
70,000 Greed 3/18/2001 0.10
50,000
One thing that has been exceptionally hard to track down is "total number of PPV capable homes" so there is some basis to try and convert a 1.0 buyrate into something meaningful. You can read some of my notes on what I learned last time I tried to do that.

I am incredible grateful to the hard work of everyone who has labored to keep track of these archaic statistics for stat hounds like me. I don't believe that what I published here is correct, but I do think it's in the ballpark of accurate.  I look forward to continuing to learn more so I can refine techniques and learn more about what are the true WCW Buys vs Buyrates.