Who have wrestling fans plunked down the most money to watch over the years? It may not be as straightforward an answer as you think.

For lord only knows what reason, I recently developed a spreadsheet that denotes how many times a specific wrestler has ended up in the main event of a pay-per-view to determine which grapplers appear the most frequently (and, for that matter, least frequently). What follows are the results of that study.

Before we get underway, just a few notes about the methodology I used:

• I'm using only WWE, TNA, WCW and ECW pay-per-views, spanning from 1985's Wrestling Classic (WWF) to last weekend's Hell In A Cell (WWE). I included several local-market and one-time only PPV's.
• I excluded NWA-TNA's weekly Wednesday night shows, because they were more like television shows than genuine PPV events, at least on a national stage.
• For the purposes of this study, the main event is the FINAL televised match on the show. In other words, whenever a promotion tries to pass off a show as having "three big main events!", we all know there's really only one. And just to be crystal clear, when, say, Bret Hart wrestled Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX, the impromptu Hulk Hogan-Yokozuna match gets billed as the "main event" in this study.
• Royal Rumbles, Battlebowls, Gauntlets for the Gold, World War 3 battle royales and other matches that have more than 10 competitors in them at a time don't count. I'm sorry, but you can't realistically give Bushwhacker Luke main-event credit simply because he happened to be one of 30 guys in the final match. However, if a singles or tag match aired after the Royal Rumble match at said event, it would count as a main event.
• Special guest referees, managers, ringside enforcers, etc. don't get credit for being "in" a main event, even if they were physically there. 

Got all that? Now let's find out who's headlined the most pay-per-views in wrestling history...

The Undertaker

He may be The Deadman, but with more PPV main events than anyone else (59, to be exact)... he's also The Rich Man.

We all know about The Phenom's 19-0 WrestleMania record, but here's one that I'd argue is equally cool. For someone that has been in semi-retirement for the last few years and has taken several sabbaticals even before then, Taker sure gets around a lot.  Interestingly enough, one of his more recent main event spots was at WrestleMania 26, when The Deadman and Shawn Michaels went on after the WWE Championship match between John Cena and Batista.

Sting

At 58 main events, no wonder WCW called him "the franchise".

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I never would have imagined that The Icon would the second-most consistent headliner in PPV wrestling history. When you think about it, it makes a ton of sense: he was on top for a good chunk of WCW's pay-per-view history as well as TNA's, and both companies don't have the roster depth on top that WWE does. So even though Stinger never spent time in New York, he probably made a very nice living avoiding it.

Triple H

What, just because he's been in 57 main events, you think he has stroke in the back?

Sure, this one isn't overly surprising: The Game has always been a "tippy top" guy, to use his own vernacular. But if you consider that he hasn't been around as long as many of his contemporaries in the top ten, that he started off in WWE as a jobber-to-the-stars, and that he only main-evented in one company over the years, it's a little more impressive.

Hulk Hogan

Hulkamania has run wild on 53 different PPV main events, brother!

When I starting crunching the numbers, I figured that Hogan would be right at the top of the list, given his impressive dominance in both WWE and WCW. However, his early WWE run didn't include monthly pay-per-views, which gives some of his competitors a leg up.  Plus he hasn't main-evented much in TNA (though he likely will at Bound for Glory). Factor all of that in and it's quite incredible that he's hanging this close to the top.

Stone Cold Steve Austin

51 main-event spots, and that's the bottom line.

Here's what's interesting about Stone Cold's main-event run: It all happened over a five or six year period, all in the same company. If the Texas Rattlesnake's career had lasted even a few years longer before falling to injury, personal problems and a contract dispute, it's quite conceivable to think that he would have easily overtaken The Undertaker's record.

Kurt Angle

44 PPV mains for your Olympic hero? It's true; it's damn true.

Angle is another name that has had a relatively short run. He first headlined at SummerSlam 2000 (in a triple-threat match with Triple H and The Rock) and has been going fairly strong ever since, including the bulk of TNA main events over the past five years.

Shawn Michaels

The Showstopper has stopped the show 39 times.

For someone who refers to himself as "the main event", Michaels probably should have been higher on the list, given his first headline bout was way back in 1989 (part of a Survivor Series team that included Marty Jannetty, Jim Neidhart and The Ultimate Warrior against the random combination of Andre The Giant, Arn Anderson, Bobby Heenan and Haku) and he dominated throughout most of his run as a singles star. However, given that HBK was retired from 1998 to 2002, and again from 2010 to present, you can see where the gaps lie.

John Cena

The Champ Was Here. 37 times, in fact.

This one clearly demonstrates WWE's confidence in Cena. If you figure there have been about 70 shows since his main-event debut at Judgment Day 2005 (an "I Quit" match with John Bradshaw Layfield), Cena has appeared at the top of the card in just about half of them. Wow.

Ric Flair

16-time World Champion, 33-time PPV main-eventer.

Amazingly, Nature Boy was in main events before pay-per-view wrestling was even invented! And he's still headlining today, teaming with Matt Hardy, Abyss and Bully Ray against Fortune in the main event of April's Lockdown event. Like Hogan, his total is hurt by the fact that WCW didn't have monthly pay-per-views during his heyday, although he certainly had his share of top spots between WCW, WWE and TNA.

Kevin Nash

Big Sexy jacknifed his way to 32 main events.

The next time Nash engages in a war of words with CM Punk, Big Daddy Cool should quip "Hey, Punk -  I headlined 32 pay-per-views! How many for you, kid?" (to which, if Punk was being truthful, he'd answer back, an impressive 10 as of last week). The Artist Formerly known as Diesel also has the distinction of topping the shows in WWE, WCW and TNA.

Jeff Jarrett

With 29 PPV main events to his name, I'd probably be strutting, too.

There are reasons I didn't include TNA's Wednesday night pay-per-views from the early days; one of them is that The Chosen One would have overshadowed virtually everyone else due to putting himself at the top of the card on a frequent basis. Interestingly enough, a large majority of his main events were with TNA and a handful from the dying days of WCW.

The Rock

How many main events has The Rock been in? It doesn't MATTER how many main events The Rock has been in! Okay, fine - 27.

The Most Electrifying Man In Sports and Entertainment was a staple of the WWF Attitude era and, like Stone Cold, he headlined a number of shows during his relatively short period of time with the company. Of course, he may a couple more over the next year with Survivor Series and WrestleMania as others go one-on-one with The Great One (or four-on-four, or five-on-five, or whatever).

Booker T

23 main events! Now can you dig THAT.... suckaaaaaaa?

Tell me you didn't just say that! Well I did, and I can't take it back now. Somewhat surprisingly, the five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time WCW Champion is in the upper echelon of main eventers, thanks not only to WCW appearances, but runs in WWE and TNA as well.

Honorable Mention

Just in case you're wondering how some of the other top stars fared:

Dishonorable mention

And finally.... Here's a list of about 75 folks that only have one PPV main event to their name.