With John Cena retiring at the end of this year, I wanted to take a look at how he did as a PPV headliner. Thankfully, Wrestlenomics has all of those figures listed nicely and easily. 

Cena’s first main event and WWE title defense was against JBL in a No Holds Barred Wrestlemania rematch at Judgment Day 2005, drawing 260,000 buys for the SmackDown only PPV. For comparison, that was up 25,000 buys from Judgment Day 2004, also a SmackDown show. Making it even more apples-to-apples, that show had Eddie defending the WWE title against JBL. As hot as everyone remembers Latino Heat being, the new champion, Cena, did better business than Eddie in this spot. 

In the move over to Raw and with Hogan vs. Shawn headlining Summerslam, Cena didn’t headline a PPV again until Unforgiven 2005, when he defended against Kurt Angle. That show did 250,000 buys, up 11,000 from the prior year’s first-ever Randy Orton vs. Triple H match (more on that feud here). 

Taboo Tuesday, headlined by Cena vs. Angle vs. Shawn Michaels (who was voted into the match during the PPV over Big Show and Kane), did 250,000 buys, beating 2004’s 179,000, which closed with Orton vs. Ric Flair. Two reasons for the vast increase had nothing to do with Cena or the title, as Ric Flair and Triple H had their first match since Hunter turned on Flair. Also, Steve Austin was advertised for his first match in over two years against Jonathan Coachman (although Batista later replaced him), so that’s obviously going to cause a bump. I wonder if Coachman told everyone what a draw he was. 

Cena worked with Angle in an undercard title match at Survivor Series 2005, but New Year’s Revolution 2006 was headlined by Cena defending in an elimination chamber, and the show drew 320,000 buys. Wrestlenomics doesn’t have the worldwide buys for the 2005 version. Still, the 2006 Cena show drew 198,000 domestic viewers, compared to 192,000 for Hunter’s defense in the 2005 Chamber, so it was mostly the same in terms of business in the U.S. 

New Year Revolution closed with Edge cashing in the MITB and beating Cena for the title. The two had their first announced match at the Rumble and did 585,000 buys. Surprisingly, that was only up 10,000 from the previous year, when Hunter defended the World title against Randy Orton. It’s interesting that, despite the intense heat of the Cena-Edge feud early on, it didn’t generate significant business early on. The Cena booing started HARD during the Angle feud. It’s intriguing that in the first two shows he headlined after that started, there were negligible differences in the PPV buys year-over-year, compared to his first two as a headliner when Cena was less polarizing. 

WrestleMania 22 was headlined by Cena defending against Triple H, which was a matchup of two wrestlers that a segment of the crowd complained about the most. The show did 975,000 PPV buys, a number obviously inflated by Wrestlemania. To put it in perspective, there were six Manias between Manias 20 and 25, and this show tied with Orton vs. Hunter (there’s that feud again) for the lowest in that span. Not a good number for the company’s number one heel and number one babyface, roles that had been well-established. 

They ran Hunter and Cena back at Backlash 2006, but added Edge to make it a three-way main event. That show was down 90,000 buys from 2005’s Batista vs. Hunter Wrestlemania rematch, only coming in at 230,000 buys. This was the lowest in the first year of Cena as a headliner, and again, the early returns were not good in the Cena vs.Edge or Cena vs. Hunter dynamic 

ECW One Night Stand II, headlined by RVD beating Cena for the WWE title in the main event, did 304,000 PPV buys in 2006,

only slightly down from the first one in 2005, which did 325,000 buys. Even with the WWE title match, you would expect some drop-off from the first novelty event, and 21,000 buys isn’t too bad, all things considered. 

Cena went on last and defended the WWE title against Edge at Summerslam 2006, but also had the benefit of the newly reunited DX facing Vince & Shane McMahon, and Batista returning after an eight-month absence due to injury. The show did 541,000 PPV buys, down from 2005’s 640,000 for Hogan vs. Shawn. Obviously, it didn’t draw what Hogan/HBK did in a dream match, but this was also massively up from 2004’s 320,000 buys for Orton vs. Chris Benoit. 

Unforgiven 2006 was another stacked B show, with Cena challenging Edge for the WWE title in a TLC match, and also featured a Hell in a Cell match between DX and The McMahons & Big Show. That show drew 307,000 PPV buys, up 57,000 PPV buys from the prior year’s Angle vs. Cena main event, and up 68,000 from the first Hunter vs. Orton singles match in 2004. The double gimmick matches clearly played a role, but the Cena-Edge feud did better as it went along, perhaps as Edge became more established as a main eventer. 

The company decided Tuesdays weren’t an ideal day to run their interactive PPV, so 2006 saw the switch over to Cyber Sunday. Cena was in the main event with World Heavyweight Champion Booker T and ECW Champion the Big Show, where fans could vote on which title would be on the line (it was Booker’s). The show did 228,000 PPV buys, down from 2005’s 250,000, but there was no advertised Steve Austin match on this show. It’s also up from the inaugural event’s 174,000 buys in 2004. It’s a little tougher to get a read with the change of days variable, but it is clear that the move to Sundays helped. 

Cena worked semi-main at Survivor Series with his team facing Big Show’s team in a traditional Survivor Series match, as Booker T defending against Batista in Batista’s last title shot was the official main event (the show did 383,000 buys versus 2005’s 400,000). Despite being Raw-exclusive, Cena worked December 2006’s SmackDown Armageddon PPV, teaming with Batista against Booker and Finlay in the main event. The Cena appearance and Raw crossover hook meant very little, only garnering 239,000 PPV buys, a massive drop from 2005’s 320,000 for Taker vs. Randy Orton in a Hell in the Cell. Since that’s obviously a bigger match on paper, for context, a JBL title four-way in 2004 drew nearly the same audience with 230,000, and JBL’s title run was considered a financial letdown. 

We’ll delve into further years in future pieces, but there is a lot of information to gather here. It does seem like Cena became less effective as a draw once the crowd became so vocally against him. It took a few tries for the Edge rivalry to pay off in terms of PPV buys (and the DX reunion can’t be understated as a factor), and the Hunter feud never did. 

More to come in the next part.