I'm not sure if the article is behind the paid firewall or not, but looks like Battleground did around 110K-125K worldwide buys, which would make it the biggest flop in WWE PPV history, with the exception of the ECW December to Dismember disaster.
So clearly, Abeyance = NOT A DRAW.
Although then Hell in a Cell appears to be up from last year, so maybe he is.
I think Hell in a Cell did the same number as last year. Did 200k in 2012, ~205k in 2013.
ReplyDeleteBut you could argue that Abeyance was booked as too strong of a champion and everyone knew that he would retain at Battleground.
But remember, it's Daniel Bryan's fault! It has nothing at all to do with the stupidity of the surrounding angle and it definitely isn't an outright rejection of Randy Orton's umpteenth main event push. It's all because of Daniel Bryan!
ReplyDeleteThe PPVs since Summerslam have seriously all become a blur in my head.
ReplyDeleteIs Battleground the one where the finish was Big Show knocking Bryan and Orton out to end it?
It's shocking to ever see a ppv buyrate dip below 200,000 because I was always of the belief that there there will ALWAYS be 200,000 children with parents rich enough to casually buy them the ppv to keep them occupied.
ReplyDeleteWas battleground the one with hbk as the ref?
ReplyDelete110k worldwide...ouch! I can't to see what survivor series did
ReplyDelete"I HEAR BUYRATES DYIN'..."
ReplyDelete"AND THEY WILL BLAME BRYAN..."
No sir.
ReplyDeleteAlthough 205k for hitc seems pretty solid
ReplyDeleteThe pay per views since Wrestlemania 25 have all been in a blur in my head. With concentrated effort I can separate them from Summerslam 2008 until then.
ReplyDeleteSo when December to Dismember bombed, Vince fired the creative director of the show THE NEXT DAY— which was a joke, since that person (Heyman) barely had any real control over the product. But anyway, the show bombed historically and somebody in creative needed to get their head chopped off, so it be.
ReplyDeleteNow that Battleground goes down as a historic failure, who in Creative gets the blame from Vince? ANYONE? Because this event was a total failure of pro-wrestling booking. Creative killed off the value of the title, went out of their way to make both wrestlers in the main event look pathetic, and booked an awful undercard. Nobody is gonna catch any blame for this? Deep down Vince has to know that Stephanie is completely awful at her job and is costing the company millions and millions of dollars each year she's in charge. Family or not, Vince needs to wake up and realize a major change is needed, because right now WWE is in a continuous process of killing off their everyday product and relying on the old timers (Rock, Brock, Taker, HBK) to bail them out every year to increasingly diminishing returns. Battleground shouldn't be dismissed as a freak occurrence, it should be looked at as what will become the norm if they don't make changes at the top.
Is there any chance mania30 does less than 750k buys? Rock is definitely the #1 draw and he's out of the picture. Orton vs cena and punk vs hhh doesn't sound like it will set the world on fire. I've maintained that taker vs Brock is a draw but not like the rock. I guess the real question is does vkm care about ppv buy rates? With other revenue streams I could see why he would be content to just book shit cards to amuse himself but I wonder about the "boys." From everything I've read over the years the ppv pay outs are where the wrestlers see a big chunk of their income. Maybe Vince just figures fuck em
ReplyDeleteWhy does everybody except December to Dismember so easily? It was the third ECW branded WWE PPV, the other two of which did quite well, so don't just flippantly write it off as a one-time anomaly; accept that it was the result of booking choices that were even poorer than those made today.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing about the whole Abeyance debacle... If they were dead set on booking a vacant title storyline, why the hell wouldn't they do anything interesting with it? They booked a vacant title JUST to book a series of rematches between the same two guys for 3 PPVs straight. Wouldn't there have been more interest in the storyline had they booked a proper tournament for the title? At the least that would have filled a few weeks of TV time with interesting matches, rather than "Hey, the title is vacant. So yeah, Bryan vs Orton in 3 weeks." Or do Battleground as a one-night tournament so at least the show has a gimmick to it. They could have still gotten to the same exact ending, but at least the journey gives people something to watch (and it makes Bryan and Orton seem like the best of the roster, rather than two dopes who were getting gifted title matches by Hunter and Steph.)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, every single aspect about the booking since Summerslam has been completely absurd, and seems like they've been booking to PURPOSELY draw bad buyrates and sabotage their own employees.
It was the one in Detroit, a city which sucks the life out of everything it comes into contact with.
ReplyDeleteThe first two "ECW/WWE" pay-per-views were the One Night Stands shows, which were a different animal entirely. The first ONS was a straight ECW reunion; the second was essentially ECW vs. WWE with the intrigue of RVD vs. Cena for the title.
ReplyDeleteD2D was the first PPV for the bastardized 'ECW brand' that didn't appeal to anyone since the ECW mutants didn't like the watered-down version and the WWE fans had been trained to avoid the show since nothing major ever happened.
I think we know now why Cena was rushed back.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways it seems that they really are sabotaging their own product. The only thing I can really think of is that burying the entire roster makes cena as a brand seem like a bigger deal...or hhh really thinks he's the man and him being involved is good enough. Like what was the point of hhh burying Daniel Bryan verbally 200 times on TV? Or how they built big show vs hhh for MONTHS and now apparently have decided to just drop it.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine Vince has a "fuck it" attitude about Wrestlemania's buyrate. I mean, they make an absurd amount of money off of that show, there's no way Vince takes a dip in that buyrate lightly.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think Vince just believes that his bullshit "HHH power struggle" storyline, with the possible HHH vs Cena match, will be the best draw he has available. He probably thinks that because A) Vince has gotten old and completely out of touch with reality, and B) Vince sees HHH and Cena as his two loyal sons and thinks everything they shit is gold.
So no, I don't think he doesn't care about Mania, I just think he's severely lost a step. I mean, if Rock hadn't come back at Mania 27 and saved their ass for 3 years who knows how bad the last 3 Mania buyrates would have dropped.
Anyway, if Rock isn't on the show and the draws for Mania 30 are 1) The conclusion of the Triple H authority storyline, with a HHH vs Cena match 2) Taker vs Lesnar 3) Hulk Hogan hosting or beating up 3MB or some shit, then yeah their buyrate could be fucked. Nothing in those plans is special or particularly hot with the audience.
Or maybe Triple H has gained a lot more power from Vince than we thought...and he's really bad with the book.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, it bears repeating that, despite all of this, WWE still posts a profit each and every quarter.
Nope, Night of Champions (the one where Bryan won with the "fast count") was the Detroit show.
ReplyDeleteWWE has been great about getting their business side in order and creating tons of new revenue streams. They're basically finding different ways to make money off a fanbase that gets smaller and smaller.
ReplyDeleteBut eventually the day will come when they can't repackage any more Attitude Era DVDs, or find anymore TV channels to pay for additional D-show content, and there aren't anymore old timers to bring back to prop up the Mania buyrate. There's gonna come a day when they'll have to rely on making money off only their everyday roster and the fruits of their everyday booking, and well, then we'll just see how that all plays out.
I don't even remember what happened at Battleground...
ReplyDeleteYes.
ReplyDeleteWell that, and Survivor Series happened a week earlier.
ReplyDeleteEverything these days is about delaying the inevitable. WWE is just playing the game.
ReplyDeleteThat means 2 things.
ReplyDeleteHence the striking out all of my text in that post.
ReplyDeleteI type on a smartphone, so I make my words multitask!
ReplyDeleteI type on an IPad so sorry if you just saw that accidental down vote.
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that and worse.
ReplyDeletehttp://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/20000/3000/600/23690/23690.strip.print.gif
This Tuesday in Texas happened even earlier after Survivor Series, on a weekday, and still did a 1.0 buyrate.
ReplyDeleteAssuming 20K overseas, that is less US buys than fans that attend a Michigan football game. Crazy terrible.
ReplyDeleteI'll be surprised if it doesn't at least pass last year's buyrate. WM it's self is such a strong brand that it'll sell 750 k regardless of what's on top. I bet anything other then Cena/UT does 800-million. Cena^Taker breaks the record IMO
ReplyDeleteHitc
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia that night, a lot of things happened. What people wrote on the event page was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteYou're still posting here even though Scott said IN THIS POST that you weren't a draw? That's amazing dedication!
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I'll have to check out the event page.
Funny enough, me neither. Seriously, I can't remember the matches or the outcomes really. I'm pretty sure it was Orton vs Bryan and I know it was a screwjob ending but the exact details, nothing.
ReplyDeleteI dunno man, I think WWE is in for a massive shock with Rock not on the show. They've pretty much managed to make the entire everyday roster less over than they were a year ago, Brock's drawing power isn't what it was a few years ago, and the Authority storyline is heatless.
ReplyDeleteYeah they could turn things around in January and book cena-Taker and get everyone excited, but there's really no reason to be confident about it.
And remember, yeah right now the Mania brand is a draw, but it doesn't mean things will stay that way forever. One bad Mania card leads to a bad (for Mania) Mania buyrate, and then that bar is lowered for the next year. Once people don't order something one year, it makes it more likely that they won't order it the following year. So basically, bad booking and promoting can kill off even a "sure thing" brand eventually.
They killed Rocks drawing power by the time last years mania build by they way they portrayed him at points through his 3 year run. There were also 2 rematches at the top of the card and the results of the top 3 matches were never in question. I think that WM was pretty much dawned from the get go, even with the Rock.
ReplyDeleteYea, they could eventually kill the brand if they put out a few bad manias but they've protected it REALLY well. We are all freaking out about how bad the product is but WWE does this ever yead, they mail it in from right after Summerslam till the Rumble then they gear it up. They'll bring in the part timers (Hogan probably also this year), promote it as the biggest show ever, get some shitty musical act and sell lots of shows.
Scott didn't say I wasn't a draw, he said my cousin Abeyance wasn't a draw.
ReplyDeleteAnd to save you trouble I'll tell you what they were right now.
I'll be going back and forth editing this.
Despite all of Abeyance's title reigns, this was his only successful title defense on PPV.
ReplyDeleteBut how much does Cena-Taker appeal to the casual fan? I mean the people that have followed the product for years see it as a dream match, but what about people who haven't paid attention for a long time? I'm not sure if that match is enough to generate lots of buys.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is what does this company do when there are no more part-timers to fill the card? What happens when they get 10+ years from now and want to rely on some of the current guys as "part-timers." I'm sorry, but I don't think people are going to be longing for the nostalgic return of the Bellas, Kofi Kingston, or the Miz.
ReplyDeleteYeah, none of that card above has any interest for me and the thought of Taker making Brock submit in a fake match is somewhat revolting really. So many better ways to use Brock, but they just want to pass him around so all the established guys can get some kind of "special" win, which has diminishing returns every time he jobs.
ReplyDeleteI could be looking at it with "smart wrestling fan" perspective but think it's BY FAR the biggest two stars the wwe has to offer to everyone: the smarts and the casual fans.
ReplyDeleteCenas regarded as the biggest star of the past ten years, amd wwe will promote him as one of the greatest ever. Taker and WM are synonymous, and is by far the 2nd biggest star they have, and the WM streak itself is a draw. Think all this stuff is ingratiated into the casual fans, and is shit they'd care about. Wrap it all into 1 feud amd it breaks the records, IMO
Sadly, they probably think the return of Sheamus and the push of Roman Reigns will save the company. I have nothing against the Reigns push except I'm not sure if he's really ready for that spot. At least its a breath of fresh air.
ReplyDeleteHHH: "Vince, I told ya midgets don't draw! See, now's the time to put the belt back on me so we can build to me beating John Cena at Wrestlemania."
ReplyDeleteVince: "You mean John Cena winning the belt at Wrestlemania?"
HHH: "Or that. But we'll end up using my idea in the end anyway."
Good for Abeyance! I know he gets a lot of shit around these parts but he deserved to stand tall at the end of at least one PPV. Sadly since Hell in a Cell they have buried Abeyance, he hasn't been on TV since. Poor guy.
ReplyDeleteI hear he's doing Sin Caras gimmick.
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense. An interesting piece of booking I saw years and years ago called for the Undertaker to win the WWE title in his final match and then lightning hit the ring and the lights come on and the Undertaker is gone and the title belt is just laying on the canvas. Interesting idea, but the last thing we need more of is a vacant championship.
ReplyDeleteYea, the use of part timers taking up so much of mania is a double edged sword for sure. I give wwe the benefit of the doubt tho on this, nobody saw Rock returning for 3 manias until it happened, nobody expected a Hogan return for WM 6 months ago, Trumps involvment being such a huge deal etc. It's definitely such a short term philosophy and seems like grasping for straws but they've been successful at doing it forever.
ReplyDeleteStill makes him better than Randy Savage, whos only successful WWF Championship PPV title defense was a countout loss to Ultimate Warrior.
ReplyDeleteAnd dude, he's the TNA champion!
ReplyDeleteMan that would be some shit. As much as I'd love to see Taker get a nice send off or do a solid farewell speech, it doesn't seem like Callaway style. He's been so protective of his character, that storyline would definitely fit into his schtick.
ReplyDeleteBattleground sucked because the storyline sucked. EVERYONE saw through what was going to happen… screwjob at Battleground to lead to the "We Absolutely Promise No Screwjob" at Hell in the Cell. Everyone knew from the storyline that Battleground was a skippable show.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the last thing you said. Everything since Summerslam has been booked to draw the worst possible outcomes.
ReplyDeleteI'll eat my hat if it does over 750K without the Cena/Undertaker match.
ReplyDeleteCena/Taker has the appeal to smart fans. it's going to be a great match and you legitimately do not know the finish. At least, I don't think we do.
ReplyDeleteBattleground was the one the PPV where Abeyance retained his title, thanks to Big Show's timely assistance.
ReplyDeleteScott's View: Abeyance = NOT A DRAW.
ReplyDeleteWWE's View: Daniel Bryan = NOT A DRAW.
Reality's View: Fuck Finishes = NOT A DRAW.
I think all three are correct views, but I still wish they'd at least tried with Bryan. And not a halfhearted try, but a serious run. Cena didn't need to be back this early just to draw 2.9s and risk missing out on WM season by making his injury worse.
Maybe smashing together so many PPVs at once didn't help.
ReplyDeleteso.....wait...spend months squashing down the guy we like and telling us he isn't that great and then...we don't buy the PPV where that guy is suppose to be what draws us in..? Huh ..never made the connection.
ReplyDeleteRandom question...what does "rspwfaq" stand for? Something something pro wrestling frequently asked question?
ReplyDeleterec.sports.pro.wrestling FAQ
ReplyDeleteRspw the birthplace of the iwc
rec.sport-pro-wrestling newsgroup
ReplyDeleteI'm firmly entrenched in the "Daniel bryan" isn't a top guy camp but the thing I can't figure out is why they wouldn't just hot shot him at the top and suck money out of it for however long he stays hot? Do some stupid angle, put him at the top for however long he stays hot and make some money...this would be enough money to at least subsidized HHH and Steph growth hormones for a while. Everyone wins
ReplyDeletehttp://rspw.org/
ReplyDeleteYou should check out this site if you haven't before. Herb knuzes tidbits are a great read for looking back. I forget the name of the site I used to go to before al issacs scoops and micasa but they would basically just rip off knuze (like 411 does with meltzer before they started citing) and it started a big controversy.
And said FAQ was at one point written by Scott Keith.
ReplyDeleteLet's put this into perspective. What kind of buyrates does TNA get?
ReplyDeleteI gotta disagree. Bryan is super over (and probably always will be) and can have the best matches which IMO is key for the mainevent. Yeah he's small but thanks to ufc no one thinks you have to be Mr Olympia to be tough now a days. Also Shawn 2.0 wasn't much more than 200lbs and he was the guy for that whole time (or at worst Andre to cenas hogan)
ReplyDeleteThanks. Was always curious
ReplyDeleteTnks
ReplyDeleteFor their actual PPVs they're getting very low 5 figures. Bound For Glory supposedly did 17,000 and I think that estimate may be a little high.
ReplyDeleteBut for the new PPVs like the all knockout PPV, the numbers are supposedly "too small to measure". Meaning that we joke about TNA PPVs being friends and family only but that one may have literally just been friends and family. Even IWC reporters didn't bother to order that one.
Yup I had it wrong. Wrestling was hyphened not pro.wrestling.... ahhhh the good old days of dial up
ReplyDeleteWell copied from a previous version. Filled with "facts" like konnan was a white guy from New Jersey and raven was gay.
ReplyDeleteWas Raven gay? I thought that Paul Heyman was gay..
ReplyDeleteThis harkens back a good long while, to the days of dialing up and reading usenet groups...
ReplyDeleteMicasa always just reported whatever was on the hotlines at the time.
ReplyDeleteIs Daniel Bryan the man behind the beard and hair or is WWE forcing him to keep it as a "gimmick". A hair vs. hair match is about 6 months overdue.
ReplyDeleteHuge Micasa fan here.
ReplyDeleteHere is why I don't think he's a long term top guy, and I preface this with the fact that I do like Bryan and love his matches...size is a factor but to me it's more his character. He doesn't have the force of will personality/character like Austin, Rock, HBK, Flair, etc. He's a quirky kinda goofy dude who's an "everyman" type of guy. People root for these kinds of guys but I don't think they pay money to see them. As soon as they kept him the plucky underdog instead of transitioning him to legit bad ass asskicker (like they did with Angle), I knew this would happen. Throw in the size thing and it doesn't equal top top guy IMO.
ReplyDeleteHe really reminds me of Foley actually, great great all around performer who can be shuffled in and out if the main event scene and do really well, just never destined to be "the guy" for a variety of reasons
I'd bet more people stream TNA ppvs than pay for them
ReplyDeleteMe too, that was my first favourite wrestling site.
ReplyDeleteThere's a PPV called Battleground now?
ReplyDeleteSorry DBry. No need to downvote me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we're using different definitions of "top guy". I'd consider Foley a top guy in his day, but obviously not the top guy.
ReplyDeleteI think Bryan could "draw money" on top because he seems to really connect with the crowd. The yes thing is almost two years old. That's a long time of being super over. No one wants to see hhh involved in big storylines. That sunk these buy rates. And now a days only a ppv or two is going to do a big number anyway. He moves shirts, he has mass appeal, and I think (and I really think vkm does too) that wwe main events have to be great matches and he can do that.
The wwe fulltime talent roster pecking order has to be 1.cena 2.punk 3.Bryan then Orton and 5.adr. I wouldn't even be surprised if Bryan is making the most money outside of cena in 2013.
But is he never going to be Austin or hogan? No. But IMO that's partially because the wwe just doesn't want to rock the cena boat...for better or worse
That's actually an interesting question. Because if TNA is getting 10,000-20,000 buys then it should seem obvious that the stream numbers would be higher.
ReplyDeleteBUT
So few people are buying sometimes it's hard to find an actual stream. There'll be times when the usual sites get shut down and nothing comes up to take their place.
So I'd be really interested to know what the numbers were on that if it were possible to even know.
Cena didn't need to be back this early just to draw 2.9s and risk missing out on WM season by making his injury worse.
ReplyDeleteClearly you and I are twin brothers by different mothers.
Admittedly I'm viewing this from afar, but has WWE Creative even been this directionless and inconsistent before? Just reading about this stuff gives me a headache, so I applaud the efforts of those who recap the shows and try to make some sense of the insanity. But the whole creative process clearly needs an overhaul, otherwise "110-125k worldwide" will be become the new norm, not an aberration.
Yea. I agree. I think people, at least some of the smarts, thought he could be the heir apparent to Cena. As much as i like him i think Punk is slightly better in the ring and overall more eentertaining and Cena isn't going anywhere so hes firmly entrenched where he is. Not a bad spot tho overall
ReplyDeleteHHH: "I'll squash you at the next PPV and shave your head then embarrass you for 6 months about it. The pubic will sympathize with you and you'll get over."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that was something else that was passed off as "fact" in the rspw days
ReplyDeleteRemind me to mock you endlessly for not knowing this btw.
ReplyDeleteYou're where I was with Punk during the SoP: while I didn't think of him as the new Austin/Hogan/Whoever, I could see no good reason for not running with the momentum he clearly has for those few weeks. If nothing comes of it, fine, just go back to Cena again. But why not milk the attention for as long as you can for as much as you can? Instead, he came after a week, had a non-feud with Nash and jobbed cleaned to COO HHH. I mean, Punk's not hurting for money or airtime (and for the record, I don't think Bryan will be hurting down the road either), but still.
ReplyDeleteLol. I'm definitely a Johnny come lately.
ReplyDeleteThis, whatever site scott was writing for during the time (typically 411 amd I forget the one before that) meltzer, amd occasionally the torch are the only wrestling sites I've consistently visited over the past decade or so. Any other suggestions?
ReplyDeleteShould add that its not running anymore, but its FULL of articles from Attitude Era with full Nitro/Raw/Thunder/Smackdown recaps.
ReplyDeleteGod, I could get lost for hours and hours in this site.
ReplyDeleteYea, that's a good example. I really think that a part of it, along with egos and other personal agendas by the higher ups, is they want to keep a big gap between Cena and the rest of the roster just to keep Cena on Mount Olympus so to speak. Cena is essentially the walking avatar for the brand so they want to keep him as far ahead of the rest of the roster as possible.
ReplyDeleteI recommend http://slashwrestling.com/guests/crud.html
ReplyDeleteA link to a version of the FAQ was floated around here a few years back.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to the old faqs. Keith's as well as earlier keepers. I'm pretty sure that this is a later version of his, and that there were earlier ones. This one doesn't contain the Konnan from New Jersey thing.
ReplyDeletehttp://rspw.org/faq/
Just checked it out...definitely got it on the reading list. Thanks for the heads up
ReplyDelete"...The coveted 1.0 Owen scale" ha.
ReplyDeleteI remember some of the old stuff (especially the "infamous FAQ), but some of it was just "famous names" to me... like Kunze.
ReplyDeleteI read his Jan 1990 stuff... interesting takes, even if some of it ended up off:
Warrior turning heel before WM 6 OR Perfect getting the belt to be the heel champ heading into WM 6.
Tyson being the guest ref on Main Event (not Herb's fault Iron Mike was stunned in Japan by Douglas).
Rec sport pro wrestling FAQ
ReplyDeleteWe can disagree on the Bryan is a top guy thing, but I think we can all agree that there was literally no downside to giving him a cup of coffee at the top. It, literally, couldn't have been worse than what actually happened.
ReplyDeleteIt doens't matter if he's a top guy or not - there was literally no downside to giving him a run at the top. Anybody with eyes and ears can agree that he should have been given at least a short term title reign just to see what happens. Then a decision about his long term viability could be made. Instead, we got the lowest rated PPV of all time.
ReplyDeleteYea, I don't get it either. I think it was all ego, personal agenda driven
ReplyDeleteComparing PPVs from those two eras is like comparing the '70s Steelers to this year's Seahawks.
ReplyDeleteAJ Lee defeated Brock Lesnar.
ReplyDeleteI... would support this. Mightily.
Back in 97 thru 99...scoops wrestling!
ReplyDeleteThe 10-20,000 people who buy TNA pay-per-views must be apart of a secret society or something. I don't think I've ever met a person who's ordered one of their PPV's.
ReplyDeleteWell I'll never know if he was truly a top guy until they actually you know get behind him in a meaningful way. (that's what Patterson said)
ReplyDeleteWM is the one PPV where Vince actually does give a shit.
ReplyDeleteReading all these comments the only thing that keeps running through my mind is "what does the WWF roster look like in 5 years?" All of the part-time guys will likely be gone (UT, Jericho, Brock, etc.) and unless something major happens we will be sitting on roughly 15 years of Cena as THE GUY. Sure, Punk and Bryan should still be around, along with plenty of the current guys (I would think), but given the booking situation who actually has any long-term credibility above midcard?
ReplyDeleteI ask this because the last decade has been abysmal for WWF in terms of creating new stars. The big names that came out of it are Orton and Cena, two guys who are both nowhere near as over as their predecessors spanning back 20+ years. The rest of the WWF's attempts have ended in departure (Batista, Lesner), death (Guerrero, Benoit) or failure (Miz, Swagger, etc).
I'm definitely being a bit pessimistic here, and it's true that 5 years might be a bit too soon to really worry about the death of the nostalgia A-listers, but WWF is treading on some thin ice in regards to "big time" matches. But, then again, maybe some of these guys would get over if they weren't trading wins every week.
Only if she made him tap.
ReplyDeleteUntil someone at the top of the ladder panics about shrinking revenues, nothing much is likely to change. When the ink goes from black to red, or gets perilously close, they'll have to change something in order to avoid going under.
ReplyDeleteI like visiting this one during down time at work:
ReplyDeletebleacherreport.com/wwe
Back in the early 2000s when I was still using the rspwfaq@hotmail.com address to correspond with people on wrestling-related stuff (as opposed to my regular Shaw email) I set up my first blog. Because I signed up with that address, it assigned me blah blah.com/rspwfaq as the address, and the rest is history. Now I keep using it because it's distinctive and unlikely to be used by anyone else as a username or address.
ReplyDeleteSurprised this hasn't come up before now, actually.
Ordered Lockdown last year just because I had never ordered one of their PPVs and there was no WWE one in March. But then you havent really met me either . . .
ReplyDeleteI remember getting John Petries Monday recaps emailed to me every week. Man were they wordy.
ReplyDelete"But then you havent really met me either . . ."
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY.
I know it's just a pipe dream because there's no reason to just stop making money, but I really wish WWE would cut out one of the September-October PPV's and the December PPV.
ReplyDeleteMaybe have SummerSlam always be the last Sunday in August, a PPV the second Sunday in October and Survivor Series always the 4th Sunday in November. This way you get 6 weeks in between SummerSlam-whatever the October PPV is and another 6 weeks in between whatever the October PPV is and Survivor Series. September-December always feels like a slow period for WWE for me (maybe it's because I don't watch much thanks to football) but having only 3 PPV's from August-December instead of 5 would probably make it easier for me to still follow on the interwebs/after the fact.
Since January-April tends to be WWE's hottest period, I have no issue with having a pay-per-view for 4 consecutive months.
Jeez, they were really reluctant to release that number. How is it that the Mayweather/Alvarez buyrate got released only a week after the fight took place yet it takes two months to get the number of a fucking B show?
ReplyDeleteI'm also pretty sure that Battleground was a major money loser since that report doesn't mention all of the refunds they had to give to people (myself included) for the main event finish, the shittiest undercard since WOW: Unleashed and the ROH-like technical fuckup just before the main event.
Pretty sure these recent shows didn't make much of anything when you factor in all of the refunds.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there is a really simple solution to that problem and it's called: Don't book a single main event screwjob finish, let alone 5 in a row but apparently that solution is way too complicated for those in charge to understand.
Yeah, it sounds like the name of a second rate American Gladiators ripoff.
ReplyDeleteIt's like they don't even realize that Halloween Havoc is right there for the taking and they own it. Even Starrcade would have been a better choice because it would be just like Vince to name a mediocre B-PPV in the middle of football season after WCW's biggest show.
Refunds? I've been pretty out of the loop since SummerSlam. Why were there refunds? Like ticket refunds or PPV refunds?
ReplyDeleteRemember when buyrates had shrunken to under 400,000 in 2002 and there was widespread panic in the company over that? I bet they would kill to have those "low" numbers now.
ReplyDeleteThere have been refunds for both Night Of Champions and Battleground. I know this because I bought both shows and got refunds for both myself because the company didn't deliver as advertised. And looking at the various reports of these shows, I wasn't the only one, several thousand people got PPV refunds as well, that's the stuff this buyrate report left out.
ReplyDeleteAnd from what I understand, several people who attended Battleground in Buffalo (those who didn't get free tickets anyway because of the lousy attendance) actually got refunds for that ripoff of a show.
What happened before the main event?
ReplyDeleteWow. Ridiculous. I really wish they'd implement Scott's 8 PPV's a Year idea.
ReplyDeleteThere was a blackout that lasted about five minutes and it ended up cutting into the main event time. If only that could have happened to the Orton-Big Show match at Survivor Series since that 15 minute borefest was roughly 14 and a half minutes too long.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a better idea but really the only thing that will come out of this show's failure is that Buffalo will join Indianapolis, Raleigh and Augusta on the short list of towns that will never, ever have a WWE PPV again.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way in Hell Shawn Michaels is over 200lbs.
ReplyDelete