WWE’s Merchandise Sales Have Never Been Higher Including in the Attitude Era

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Dale

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WWE’s business is doing very well these days as television ratings are up and merchandise and live event sales are through the roof.

This comes at a time when WWE has turned around its popularity with The Bloodline storyline involving Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, The Usos, and Solo Sikoa.

While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted WWE’s merchandise business is off the charts and has surpassed any time in company history, including the Attitude Era, arguably WWE’s hottest period.

“Attendance is way way up….It’s been big on cable…even in the Attitude Era, when it was big on cable, it wasn’t beating the top network shows. It wasn’t even close. But now, I mean, it is. It’s crazy, and people wanna say that somehow this isn’t hot. It is so hot. It’s the hottest wrestling has been since 2001, that’s 22 years, and people may look back and go, ‘Oh, they were doing three million viewers not that many years ago,’ although TV’s changed. They certainly weren’t doing these crowds on a regular basis like they are now. The crowds for the quarter would be some of the highest in many years, and so many other things when you look at them. Merchandise has never been higher, ever. Not in the Attitude Era, not in the Hulk Hogan era. Never as high as it is now. Roman is the catalyst. Cody Rhodes is doing great on Raw, no doubt about it. Roman….he’s been great since he went heel, and it’s been building and everything like that, but even when you look back six months ago, it’s gone way up since six months ago.”​
Would this be total units sold or revenue from sales? Obviously if it's revenue then I don't doubt it for a second but if it's units sold then i'd be a little surprised I suppose. Maybe that's the nostalgia kicking in but I just imagined them pumping out way more sales with Austin/Rock and the supporting cast.
 

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Revenue wouldn’t surprise me but actual pieces of merch being sold would.

Either way, the machine won’t stop. They’re printing money hand over fist
 

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Piggybacking off this bc stock is also at an all-time high.

I'd guess def just revenue for the merch though I could see unit count as well due to more international purchases than at previous highs
 
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Bout to buy myself a couple shares
 
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Dale

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I bet the vast majority of the Attitude Era had shirts aswell but it almost feels like everyone has one these days so I guess that would add up.
 
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Good for them, this could be a good thing for wrestling as a whole as well. If WWE gets booming again and takes off, maybe some new fans will spread out and try to enjoy other companies as well and hopefully find more to enjoy (while still watching WWE of course) and help out the business all together. The more people enjoying wrestling, the better imo.
 

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Not even government lockdowns and inflation can stop this company.....and people were acting like they were going to hit an iceberg when Vince came back.

Nobody gives a fuck about fucking your secretaries.
 

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Nobody was buying shirts online in attitude era, things are more expensive n they filling up bigger venues. None if this is shocking to me, they are in a peak atm.
 
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The online argument is a valid point.

I wonder what merch sales look like at concession stands today
 

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Yeah, online shopping definitely helps. Back in the day unless you went to the show, or was able to buy one at like K-Mart or something like that, you couldn’t buy a shirt, or a belt, or whatever. Now you can easily go to their website and buy a shirt anytime a new one drops.
 

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The online argument is a valid point.

I wonder what merch sales look like at concession stands today

I know they're doing big numbers for PLEs for sure for merch bc they'll hype them when they release gates too and they're always running out of Cody stuff no matter how much they have lmao
 

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I'm forever seeing him sign those weight belts and them always being sold out.
 
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The online argument is a valid point.

I wonder what merch sales look like at concession stands today
Apparently great but it's just what I've heard anecdotally . AEW is leagues behind (also anecdotal from when I went. Only ppv had reasonable selection)
 

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I'm forever seeing him sign those weight belts and them always being sold out.
The weight belt really is to him what the glasses were to Bret
 

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The weight belt really is to him what the glasses were to Bret
Or the plastic Rey masks.

Only acknowledge the kids with your merch......workers gotta work.
 
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