BIGGEST EVENTS AND TOP DRAWS

Period covered based on our awards balloting year from December 1, 2011 to November 30, 2012

LARGEST ATTENDANCE

64,900 - 4/1 WWE WrestleMania 28 Miami Sun Life Stadium (John Cena vs. The Rock)

23,000 - 1/4 New Japan Tokyo Dome (Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki)

21,000* - 3/4 UFC 144 Saitama Super Arena (Frankie Edgar vs. Benson Henderson)

19,000 - 8/5 AAA TripleMania Mexico City Arena Ciudad de Mexico (Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Mascara Ano 2000 Jr. mask vs. mask)

18,919* - 3/17 p.m. St. Louis Savvis Center NCAA tournament finals

18,600* - 3/15 afternoon St. Louis Savvis Center NCAA tournament

18,600* - 3/15 evening St. Louis Savvis Center, NCAA tournament

18,600* - 3/16 afternoon St. Louis Savvis Center NCAA tournament

18,600* - 3/16 evening St. Louis Savvis Center NCAA tournament

18,600* - 3/17 afternoon St. Louis Savvis Center NCAA tournament consolation round

18,318* - 7/23 WWE Raw 1,000 St. Louis Savvis Center (The Rock, John Cena, C.M. Punk, HHH, Brock Lesnar, Undertaker)

18,303* - 12/10/11 UFC 140 Toronto Air Canada Centre (Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida)

18,121* - 1/29 WWE Royal Rumble St. Louis Savvis Center

18,088* - 3/19 WWE Raw Philadelphia Wells Fargo Arena (John Cena and Rock)

17,482* - 8/19 WWE SummerSlam Los Angeles Staples Center (Brock Lesnar vs. HHH)

17,249 - 11/17 UFC 154 Montreal Bell Center (Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit)

17,000 - 3/18 WWE New York Madison Square Garden (John Cena vs. Kane Last Man Standing)

16,963* - 1/28 UFC on FOX Chicago United Center (Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis)

16,849* - 7/7 UFC 148 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena and closed circuit on location (Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen)

16,844 - UFC 153 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil HSBC Arena (Anderson Silva vs. Stephan Bonnar)

16,800 - UFC 152 Toronto Air Canada Centre considerably papered (Jon Jones vs. Vitor Belfort)

16,643* - 6/23 UFC 147 Bello Horizonte, Brazil Minerinho Arena (Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin - Tickets sold for Silva vs. Vitor Belfort)

16,500* - One Fighting Championships Quezon City, Philippines (Bibiano Fernandes vs. Gustavo Falciroli)

16,268* - 3/5 WWE Raw Boston T.D. Garden (John Cena & C.M. Punk vs. Chris Jericho & Kane/Rock appears)

16,122* - 4/23 WWE Raw Detroit Joe Louis Arena (John Cena & C.M. Punk vs. Chris Jericho & Kane)

16,089* - 7/21 UFC 149 Calgary Scotiabank Saddledome (Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao - Tickets all sold for Jose Aldo vs. Erik Koch)

16,080 - 8/6 UFC on FOX Los Angeles Staples Center considerably papered (Shogun Rua vs. Brandon Vera)

15,700 - 12/31/11 Dream Saitama Super Arena (Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii)

15,545* - 4/21 UFC 145 Atlanta Phillips Arena (Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans)

15,428* - 4/14 UFC on Fuel Stockholm, Sweden Ericsson Globe Arena (Alexander Gustafsson vs. Thiago Silva)

15,306 - 2/19 WWE Elimination Chamber Milwaukee Bradley Center (John Cena vs. Kane Hospital Elimination match)

15,000 - 8/31 WWE Sydney, Australia Allphones Arena (John Cena vs. Big Show & John Laurinaitis)

*Denotes sold out show

MOST MAIN EVENTS DRAWING MORE THAN 10,000 FANS

19 - John Cena

12 - C.M. Punk

6 - Kane

5 - The Rock, Big Show

4 - Brock Lesnar

3 - Jon Jones , Hiroshi Tanahashi, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, John Laurinaitis, Ryback

This makes the fifth year that John Cena headlined the most shows that drew above 10,000 fans, after previously being the leader in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. With five No. 1 years, he’s in a very rare category, tied with Joe Stecher, Ed “Strangler” Lewis, The Sheik and Argentina Rocca. The only ones ahead of him in pro wrestling history would be Jim Londos (13), Bruno Sammartino (8), Hulk Hogan (8), Bill Longson (7) and Lou Thesz (7). Of course, it’s very different in an environment where there is only one promotion capable of drawing 10,000 fans to a show more than a couple of times a year. Unlike in the past, when the top spots were often spread over a number of different companies, if you’re not in WWE, you don’t have a chance, and really at this point, if you’re not on the Raw touring brand, you don’t have a chance to garner any real numbers. UFC can hit 10,000 every month but its competitors are limited to at most four fights a year and really most of the top guys are closer to one or two.

But a sign of the times is with 19 shows headlined being enough to make you No. 1, that’s a whole lot different from years where the top guys could hit 80 (admittedly that only happened if you were Austin, Rock or Hogan in boom period years). Last year, Cena headlined 33 shows that fit into that category. The year before the number was 38