Update On WWE Scouting College Wrestlers, Recent WWE Attendance, Business Notes, More

- Average WWE live event attendance for January 2013 in North America was up 1.9% from 5,307 to 5,409. RAW's average rating for the month went from a 3.15 with 4.51 million viewers in 2012 to a 3.26 rating with 4.58 million viewers in 2013. SmackDown's average rating went from a 2.09 with 3.05 million viewers in 2012 down to a 2.02 rating 2.94 million viewers in 2013.

WWE shipped 246,000 DVD units in January 2013, up 55.7% from January 2012. Over the last year, the most shipped DVD's have been WrestleMania 28 with 237,000 units shipped, CM Punk with 124,000 units, Attitude Era with 117,000 shipped, nWo with 114,000 shipped and The Undertaker's DVD with 105,000.

WWE's website had 14.6 million unique viewers in January 2013, up 21.7% from January 2012. They averaged 677 shop orders per day, up 23.5% from the previous year.

- Here are recent WWE attendance figures:

* RAW on 3/8 in Colorado Springs drew 5,500 for $200,000
* RAW on 3/9 in Broomfield, Colorado drew 5,000 fans for $185,000
* SmackDown on 3/9 in Lacrosse, Wisconsin drew 4,500 fans for $120,000
* RAW on 3/10 in Loveland, Colorado drew 4,000 fans for $140,000
* SmackDown on 3/10 in Milwaukee drew 9,000 for $280,000

- WWE NXT stars will be wrestling at this year's WrestleMania Axxess events.

- Gerald Brisco was scouting for WWE at the NCAA Division II national wrestling tournament this past week and will be headed to the finals later this month. Brisco is high on a few college juniors as pro wrestling prospects. WWE is trying to not get a bad reputation with college wrestling coaches so they won't heavily recruit talents until their eligibility is complete.

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Subscribe to The Wrestling Observer by clicking here. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus history pieces. New subscribers can also receive free classic issues.