Roman Reigns Now Tops the WWE in Merchandise Sales

There’s a new top dog when it comes to merchandise sales in WWE.

After years and years of John Cena reigning supreme, Cena’s sales numbers have now been overtaken by another up and coming star you may have heard of: Roman Reigns. This according to a report from the most recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

While many continue to be mystified at Reigns’ everlasting push to the top of the WWE, it’s become abundantly clear that he draws a tremendous amount of interest (both good and bad) from fans, as well as a tremendous amount of money per this new report.

The merchandise sales don’t just take into account things like t-shirts. Many have responded to this report by noting they don’t see Reigns’ shirts filling arenas in the same way other performer’s shirts seem to. During Cena’s heyday, even when he was being boo’ed by a large majority of the crowd, it was hard to miss his shirts all over the arena. Reigns’ most popular t-shirts have been items themed after The Shield rather than shirts pushed for him as a singles competitor. However, merchandise sales also include things like action figures and accessories. Reigns certainly seems to sell a lot of merchandise to young kids in the same way that Cena did and his action figures are a hot commodity.

The fact that Cena has been gone from WWE for most of the year due to his expanding Hollywood career is certainly a major reason Reigns has moved into the number one spot. However, Reigns had been right near the top for a while now even before he overtook Cena.

To bring this all full circle, the fact that Cena moved merchandise like crazy and made WWE so much money marked a turning point in how the company books. Despite receiving such a negative reaction from a very vocal part of the crowd for so many years, Cena’s push (as a babyface) continued. This taught WWE that you could continue to push someone (like they are with Reigns) if they are a money draw, regardless of how bad the crowd reactions may seem. Prior to Cena, the company was much more reactive based on what they heard at the live shows. That being said, Reigns often times is more popular at non-televised live events than he is at television, where fans often like to be part of the show and take over.

In the end, wrestling is a business like any other and profits are the real motivating factor, not uniform audience reactions. Roman Reigns makes the WWE a lot of money and thus, his push is absolutely justified.