Besides WrestleMania 29, which is annually WWE’s top video release, WCW nostalgia has been driving WWE’s DVD sales.
According to WWE business numbers released last week, WCW titles rank as the second, third and fourth top WWE video releases of 2013. Through the end of November, the most shipped DVDs have been WrestleMania 29 (174,000), The Best of WCW Monday Nitro, Vol. 2 (121,000), WWE: Goldberg – The Ultimate Collection (86,000), WCW War Games: WCW’s Most Notorious Matches (80,000), WWE: The Top 25 Rivalries in Wrestling History (64,000) and WWE: For All Mankind- The Life and Career of Mick Foley (59,000).
It should be noted that the Goldberg DVD had only been out for less than two months, with 74,000 sold in the first month. It greatly outsold the Triple H video released two weeks prior, Triple H – Thy Kingdom Come, which was not ranked as a top-seller.
As of late, actual sales have hovered around the 60% mark of total shipments.
The DVD market appears to be declining, with shipments of WrestleMania and other top WWE-themed titles being significantly down compared to the year before. The top WWE DVD releases at the same point in 2012 were WrestleMania XXVIII (236,000), The Rock: The Epic Journey of Dwayne Johnson (150,000), CM Punk – Best in the World (114,000, released in October), WWE: Undertaker – The Streak (102,000), WWE: The Greatest Superstars of WrestleMania (96,000), nWo: The Revolution (94,000, released in November) and Royal Rumble (89,000).
WWE has plans to release more titles featuring the best of World Championship Wrestling. WrestlingDVDNews.com reported last week that WWE’s upcoming WCW’s Greatest Pay-Per-View Matches Vol. 1 DVD and Blu-ray, which is scheduled for release on March 11, 2014, will be the first title released in a series highlighting the greatest WCW matches on pay-per-view.
