Diesel as WWF Champion and Business in early 90s

I actually liked Diesel's matches with Bret Hart from that Era & thought as a big guy he was a good worker.
However the reason diesel's reign is so badly thought of is the guys he wrestled, his title feuds were mainly Sid & bloody King Mabel which meant poor matches all round.
I don't recall business jumping up that much when Bret & then HBK got the belts, in fact I'm sure at the time I remember reading that HBK's reign was even worse at the gate & TV ratings.
That may have been due mainly to thew Steriod Court Case which led to vince focusing on smaller more technical guys & trying to sell that to an audience who for the previous ten years had been fed a diet of steriod monsters & the ideal that bigger was better.

As for the effect Diesel & other champions had on PPV buyrates check out this link which list every PPV Buyrate in WWE History.
Diesel's reign lasted from 26/11/94-19/11/95

www.100megsfree4.com/wiawrestling/pages/wwf/wwfppvbr.htm

Hope that helps, that site is really good & might give you some info about how WCW was faring at the boxoffice etc.

Nash wasn't that bad of a champion. He was a legit badass who, for his size, was able to go when with the right opponent. Much better than Batista.

Like noted previously, the mid-90's was a dark time for wrestling due to the steroid allegations on Vince and his company. It was an ugly situation which didn't help garner the business any positive media coverage.

Again do not soley blame Nash. I'd place the blame on the cast of rejects he had working underneath him. It's hard to boom the business when crap like Man Mountain Rock, TL Hopper, and Issac Yankeem is being spewed out left and right.

WCW was doing about the same as the WWF during late-95 (likely a bit better). It wasn't until the whole nWo storyline began in June of '96 that business really started to pick up for them.

Believe it or not, but WWE actually did even worse under Michaels initial run as WWF champ. This is not a reflection of Shawn, as he gave 110% each match and stole the show every night, but again it was due to a few factors. The company was stuck in between the Hulkamania era and the Attitude era where they were trying to find a new niche. Vince couldn't shake this rut and when the nWo took off, WWF was left in the dust.

So, in a way. Nash > HBK and Bret Hart. Ha!

I like Nash and liked that he was champ.

I liked Diesel as champ. Their TV ratings were probably the lowest that they ever were in the history of the company though. I don't think they were even getting 2.0 ratings back then.

I don't think it all had to do with Diesel though. This was the era of the extremely cartoonish gimmicks. Doink the Clown, Duke the Dumpster Droese, TL Hopper, The Goon, Abe "Knucklball" Schwartz, Mantaur, etc. It really turned off most of the older fans at the time. Older fans control the money, so they're the ones buying PPVs, merchandise, event tickets, etc.

Well i guess since it was in a high school gym, they didn't feel they should have the big starts working the show. Although it would've been nice for the fans in attendance such as yourself.

Agreed Hall should've been champ.

People were getting tired of the loony toon business the WWF had become. They attempted to get away from the "real American's" and just use people that seemed "real". At this point, many older fans tuned wrestling out or watched WCW. And a new audience tuned in. This is why business was down.

They weren't that low for long as fans began to accept the change by 96'.

Very good points, I agree on all of it.