This is honestly pathetic, the guy has been gone since last October. And it's not like he's been in the ME scene, he's been midcarding it with the U.S. belt for a year now. Why has no one surpassed him yet? There were even reports of his merch sales being on a decline during that Kevin Owens feud, but yet no one has stepped up. The main babyfaces for the past year has been Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Brock Lesnar. Roman Reigns is apparently being targeted towards Cena's fanbase of kids and women. Last we heard is he's 2nd to Cena, despite being groomed for his throne for the past year. Dean Ambrose hasn't been as much of the main focus of the show as Reigns, but all we've heard of him is he was #1 for like one weekend. His demo is kids, women, and hardcore smarks but he has more support from the hardcore smarks than from the kids and women. Lesnar is part time so it's understandable but still he's suppose to be this big attraction but yet I rarely hear of his merch selling out. His demo isn't kids and women so again he has a better case than the other too. Why do you think no one has tapped in to Cena's market yet?
It's baffling that despite this, this is WWE's highest profitable year ever. There is no way WWE is breaking records in merch sales though. I would bet that there is a decline in merch sales compared to 2013-2014. Just think about it, we had Cena still in the ME, The Rock (begging of 2013), Daniel Bryan and his ME rise, and CM Punk who just lost his 434 reign as our top 5 faces. Not only this, but we still had the Shield who had turned face in early 2014. All these guys are gone now. There is no way any of these guys are selling more merch in 2015-2016 compared to 2014-2015.
The only people we hear of selling out in merch is Owens, New Day, and some of the divas. When is their next conference call? It will be interesting hearing the numbers for online and arena merch sales. Arena merch sales have been on the decline for years now, and paired with the fact that ticket sales are struggling to sell out lately compared to other years it's safe to assume that arena sales are at a low, but of course this is all speculation.
Can this be because of fan apathy? Ratings are down, arenas aren't being sold out, and merch sales must be down. Vince dodged a bullet with the network, because if it weren't for that bringing in all the money, not only would ppv buys also be down, there TV deal probably wouldn't have been as lucrative. Had there not been a network the product could have possibly been in rebuilding era right now LOL, damn you WWE network for only 10$. But yea, why hasn't anyone passed Cena yet?
It's baffling that despite this, this is WWE's highest profitable year ever. There is no way WWE is breaking records in merch sales though. I would bet that there is a decline in merch sales compared to 2013-2014. Just think about it, we had Cena still in the ME, The Rock (begging of 2013), Daniel Bryan and his ME rise, and CM Punk who just lost his 434 reign as our top 5 faces. Not only this, but we still had the Shield who had turned face in early 2014. All these guys are gone now. There is no way any of these guys are selling more merch in 2015-2016 compared to 2014-2015.
The only people we hear of selling out in merch is Owens, New Day, and some of the divas. When is their next conference call? It will be interesting hearing the numbers for online and arena merch sales. Arena merch sales have been on the decline for years now, and paired with the fact that ticket sales are struggling to sell out lately compared to other years it's safe to assume that arena sales are at a low, but of course this is all speculation.
Can this be because of fan apathy? Ratings are down, arenas aren't being sold out, and merch sales must be down. Vince dodged a bullet with the network, because if it weren't for that bringing in all the money, not only would ppv buys also be down, there TV deal probably wouldn't have been as lucrative. Had there not been a network the product could have possibly been in rebuilding era right now LOL, damn you WWE network for only 10$. But yea, why hasn't anyone passed Cena yet?