Saturday, January 26, 2008

Head-to-Head Numbers For TNA versus ROH

Last night, TNA and ROH were both running in the Dayton, OH area.

TNA ran Hobart Arena in Troy, with the following results:
Motor City Machine Guns defeated Petey Williams & Elix Skipper Sharkboy defeated Cowboy James Storm Awesome Kong defeated Jackie Moore to retain the Knockouts Championship AJ Styles and Tomko defeated LAX to retain the Tag Team Championship HotShot Johnny Devine defeated Black Machismo Jay Lethal to retain the X Division Championship Booker T defeated Robert Roode Kurt Angle defeated Samoa Joe to retain the Heavyweight Championship

at the same time, ROH ran a show at the Montgomer COunty Fairgrounds in Dayton: Briscoes defeated Matt Cross & Jigsaw Claudio Castagnoli defeated Adam Pearce Champion Erick Stevens defeated Davey Richards and Austin Aries in a three way BJ Whitmer & Brent Albright defeated Delirious & El Generico. Daizee Haze defeated Lacey Roderick Strong & Rocky Romero defeated Jimmy Jacobs & Joey Matthews. Bryan Danielson defeated Tyler Black ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness defeated Chris Hero inside a Steel Cage to retain his title

Now, which of these shows do you think drew the most fans?
While I have no numbers as far as paid tickets versus papered, early reports are that TNA drew about 1500 to their show, while ROH drew a house of only about 500.
I just wanted to put these numbers into perspective a little bit.
Last week (a Friday actually), I wrestled on the HWA card in Dayton. I think they drew less than 100, but for the sake of argument here, I'm going to round it up. This show featured a number of ROH regulars, such as BJ Whitmer and Chris Hero.
I have wrestled on shows for DCW in the Dayton area (Piqua and Springfield) that have done around 200 fans. The only people on those shows with ROH experience were the Irish Airborne.
The numbers for those TNA and ROH shows really caught my attention, because an independent promotion using no "name" wrestlers to draw can get about half of what ROH does in the same area. In addition, a company with a presence in every household in the nation via cable television, and using former WWE stars, could only do 1500 - not even enough to compete with ECW house shows at Hara Arena back in 1999-2000 - and only about five times what the independent promotion with no television outlet draws.
To me, this really puts "indy wrestling" into perspective. When an independent company can draw comparatively with the promotion the internet fanbase claims to be the "Number Two" company in the US, it becomes a lot easier to see why there is no money in this business the way it is currently structured and ran.
It also shows just how far ahead of ROH that TNA really is. ROH might make a good chunk of money selling DVDs (and putting on a good product), but from what I have read they have yet to crack 10000 buys for any of their PPVs. While TNA certainly isnt competitive with the WWE and UFC in the PPV market (both of them regularly picking up a minimum of 100000 buys), with only 30000 per show, that is more than three times what ROH is doing. With drawing a house three times as large, maybe internet wrestling fans should rethink a bit about what they base their opinions on.
You might watch TNA and think it sucks... but three times as many people seem to be willing to lay down their money and watch as opposed to ROH.
Food for thought...

Sunday Update:
According to reports, an independent Lucha Libre show out drew ROH head to head on Sasturday night in the Chicagoland area. The results from the show at the Congress Theatre are:
- Jay Jensen defeated Acid
- Tigre Oriental defeated Silueta Azul
- Great Malaki DCO Fuzio
- Bazooka & Angel de la Muerte defeated Impacto & Pentagano
- Slayer & Principe Franky defeated Guerrerito del Futuro & Aguila del Azteca
- LA Park & Rey Misterio Sr. defeated Dr. Wagner Jr. & Infernal
Supposedly this show sold out the Congress Theatre, which holds 3000 people. Much like the Friday night shows, I do not have any info on papered versus paying fans. ROH, which does run Chicago Ridge on a regular basis, usually does between 800-1200 fans for their shows there.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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