Presence Of John Cena Boosts WWE SmackDown Ticket Sales

Despite debuting for WWE more than 20 years ago, John Cena is still a draw in the company.

It was announced that Cena will be appearing on nearly every episode of SmackDown in September and October, with the only exception being September 8th as he will be in India to wrestle on the Superstar Spectacle. Following the announcement, extra tickets began to be sold for the select events.

As reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, a breakdown of how many extra tickets were sold for each event following the addition of Cena has been published. The additional tickets sold are as follows:

To no surprise, Wrestletix did an analysis of Cena’s drawing power. In Denver on 9/15, he moved 856 tickets in the few days after the announcement of him being on the show. In Glendale, AZ, for 9/22, they quickly sold 1,469 tickets. In St. Louis on 10/6, it was 1,541. In San Antonio on 10/20, it was 997. In Tulsa on 10/13 it was 622. In Milwaukee on 10/27, it was 1,489

Why Has John Cena Returned To WWE?

The number of shows that the 16-time World Champion will be appearing on came as a surprise to WWE, with those in the company not expecting to see Cena for this many dates. Now more likely to be seen in movie theatres than in the wrestling ring, Cena has only made occasional appearances over the past few years. However, with the ongoing SAG-AFTRA Strikes taking place in Hollywood, multiple projects have been put on hold. Even if the strikes do come to an end earlier than expected, Cena has made the commitment that he will honour those dates.

It is also believed that Cena was partly responsible for SmackDown maintaining a significantly high rating for its September 1st show.