When Michaels retires...

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Tedious I don't even know where you'd get these numbers, but I'd love to know how the Big Show's first title reign stacked up in ratings and money drawn vs one of Shawn's.

I can't find the source now, so you're just going to dismiss it (which is fair enough, this is just a anecdote that runs off your question), but I remember being surprised to discover that Big Show (at one stage, anyway) actually boosted ratings whenever he was on the television. They went up like 30%, or something.

I'm not sure if that trend has stuck with Big Show over the years, or if it was effective during his title reigns. I'm also not sure how much money Big Show has made in gates while he has been main eventing, but I do know that Big Show is deceiving profitable to professional wrestling.

[Theo Dious]

Originally Posted by Noid I can't find the source now, so you're just going to dismiss it (which is fair enough, this is just a anecdote that runs off your question), but I remember being surprised to discover that Big Show (at one stage, anyway) actually boosted ratings whenever he was on the television. They went up like 30%, or something.

Now this is exactly my point; did ratings boost because people wanted to see Paul Wight, or because they were excited to see a new face thrown into what had been the Austin/Rock show? The parellel question being, were fans excited to see the shaved ape they called Golderg, or were they excited to see the hyped-up beast that was going to slay Hogan and the nWo? Given the fact that Goldberg's popularity tanked when his initial push ended, I gravitate towards the latter.

My point: Goldberg was not more popular than Shawn Michaels. The Streak and the spear may have been more popular than Shawn Michaels. Which I'm still not convinced of, and I'm not entirely sure I've ever heard of a piped-in "HBK" chant.