With John Cena retiring at the end of this year to so much fanfare, I figured it would be as good a time as any to look at some of the business he did as a headliner. Thankfully, Wrestlenomics has all those figures listed clearly and easily for us to do a deep-dive wrestling nerd analysis. 

While Cena won the WWE title from JBL at Wrestlemania XXI, the show did great business, but that was more for the Batista vs. Hunter main event. However, you do have to give Cena some credit because he was a hugely popular babyface as the Dr. of Thuganomics, before the latter Fruity Pebbles Cena era. His first legit PPV main event and WWE title defense was against JBL in a No Holds Barred Mania 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 Eddy Guerrero defending the WWE title against JBL. As hot as everyone remembers Latino Heat being, the new champion, Cena, did better business than Eddie in almost the same 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). Interestling enough, despite improving on business in similar spots to the likes of Eddy Guerrero, Triple H, and Randy Orton, this marked the feud where fans passionately started turning on Cena. It wasn’t as bad as it would become, but it was passionate and vocal.

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 privately told everyone what a draw he was. On second thought – of course he did.

Cena worked with Angle in an undercard title match at Survivor Series 2005, but New Year’s Revolution 2006 was headlined by Cena defending the WWE title in an elimination chamber. 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 U.S. business.

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. Before the launch of the WWE Network in 2014, there were eight more Rumble PPVs. Cena vs. Edge did better business than all of them, so that is a feather in their caps.

WrestleMania 22 was headlined by Cena defending against Triple H, which was ironic because it was a matchup of two wrestlers that the hardcore fans complained about the most. Although “fucking hated” may be a more accurate depiction. 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. That’s not a good number for the company’s number one heel and number one babyface, roles that had been well-established by both for quite some time.

WWE 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 metric was the lowest in Cena’s first calendar year as a PPV headliner. Once again, the early returns were not good in the Cena vs. Hunter dynamic. It’s also hard not to put that on Hunter, since this was Cena and Edge’s first match since their successful Rumble encounter. The DX turn couldn’t have come at a better time for him, as he was THEE top heel for almost four consecutive years, and the Trips fatigue was intense.

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 ONS in 2005, which did 325,000 buys. Even with the WWE title match up top, you would expect some drop-off from the first novelty event based on nostalgia, and 21,000 buys isn’t too bad, all things considered. It’s also worth noting that this is where the price of company B shows went from $34.95 to $39.95, their first price increase in just over five years.

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 McMahon & 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. Overall, it was a very pleasing number.

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 Unforgiven main event, and up 68,000 from the first Hunter vs. Orton singles match at Unforgiven 2004. The double gimmick matches clearly played a role, but the Cena-Edge feud continued to draw well in its first incarnation.

The company decided that Tuesdays weren’t ideal days to run their interactive PPV, so in 2006, they switched to Cyber Sunday from the Ill-conceived Taboo Tuesday. Cena was in the main event as WWE champion 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. It was also up from the inaugural cyber event’s 174,000 buys in 2004. It’s a little tougher to get a read on the change-of-days variable, but it is clear that the move to Sundays helped with the overall viability of the concept.

Cena worked semi-main at Survivor Series 2006 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 random JBL title four-way in 2004 drew nearly the same audience with 230,000, and JBL’s title run was considered a financial letdown. 

There will be more to come in part two, but two early takeaways are how little Cena vs. Hunter drew and how well Cena vs. Edge did on PPV in its early stages. It’s also worth noting that the fans have already become more vocal against Cena, but it wasn’t killing his ability to draw…yet.