Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer sent out a tweet a few months ago in which he claimed that Shawn Michaels wasn’t in the top 30 WWE Superstars of all time in terms of drawing power. Meltzer spoke about those claims again this week, adding that he considers Michaels to be amongst the greatest of all time in the ring, but not in terms of drawing money.
Lane points out that Meltzer considers Michaels and Bret Hart to lack drawing power because WCW was beating WWE during their Title reigns. Lane looks at it from the opposite side, noting that those guys kept WWE in business during those tough times.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson spoke out on one of his audio shows this past week, saying that he thinks WWE’s current crop of stars might be good enough to carry the next generation forward. Russo isn’t so sure that’s the case, noting that Johnson failed to name any stars. Lane points out that Daniel Bryan might be one guy who can return in a prominent position at WrestleMania a decade from now, and Russo notes The Miz’s star power might allow him to be one of those guys as well. Other than that, it’s pretty slim pickings.
At another point this week Ryan Satin tweeted out that Becky Lynch & Asuka vs. IIconics felt like an NXT match on Smackdown Live, and he was a fan of that. Russo laughs and points out WWE isn’t even a month removed from WrestleMania and they’ve already seen their viewership dwindle. Lane adds that the return of Daniel Bryan hasn’t even been enough to sustain viewership.
