With all due respect to those who run WWE, today’s Conference Call for Stockholders spoke volumes about the lack of ‘common sense’ in the upper echelons of the business. While running a multimillion dollar business is not easy (Or for the feint of heart), there are some things about Wrestling itself that are true whether you run a small Indy promotion, or the juggernaut that is the WWE.
Take for instance the PPV buyrates. Most are down, with Wrestlemania & Extreme Rules experiencing growth by showing a slight increase. Vince said during the call that this was due to the Recession and WWE content. While these are certainly PART of the problem, Vince & company are missing the obvious – and it falls to Common Sense.
What they can’t seem to understand is that along with TNA, UFC & the lesser MMA PPV events – the WWE has saturated the market. Recession or no, the public only has so many Dollars (Pounds, Yen, Drachma, etc) to spend on PPV entertainment – this doesn’t change. They are all competing for the buys, and since all the Events hit monthly, the only competition is on quality, and quite frankly, the MMA events have the edge. The reason is simple – the MMA cards fluctuate rapidly, and no two cards are the same. Wrestling however often present the same feud over 2 to 4 PPVs – and we want to see the blow-off far more than we want to see the buildup events. That’s why Wrestlemania always does big numbers – we all KNOW that most (if not all) current story-lines are concluded at WM, so it’s ‘safe’ to watch because we’re getting our monies worth.
I’ve been saying it for a few years. Once upon a time, there were the “Big 4″ WWE PPVs – Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Royal Rumble & Survivor Series. There would be an occasional addition from time to time (Tuesday in Texas, The Wrestling Classic). Buys were always brisk, because the then WWF had time to build the story-lines to the extent that a PPV was a ‘Must Watch’ proposition – if you missed one, you lost out on the blow-off of a feud. King of The Ring was added in 1993 (It had been in different parts of the year, 1993 made it permanently in June), which still left the viewers with 2 to 3 months between PPV.
Then along came the “In Your House” additions, which starting in 1996 gave us the 12 a year rotation we would have – until MORE were added here and there that would have us see as many as SIXTEEN (2006) a year! Since 2008 however, we just have the paltry sum(!) of 14 WWE PPVs a year.
So to total up what we have as PPV choices a year (Average):
- WWE 14
- TNA 12
- UFC 12 (Assumed as full schedule not released)
- WEC 7 (Assumed, only 6 announced)
So in a 12 month period, we have an average of 45 PPVs to choose from – not counting local PPV options. Very, very few consumers have the fiscal ability to get them all, so we must imagine that there is quite a bit of choosing to be done. And as I point out above, the MMA companies are getting the lion’s share because their product is constantly different.
So what is the WWE to do? The answer is obvious – get back to their roots.
I’m not saying they should go back to a 4 a year rotation – times have changed, and the viewer’s have changed with them. We’re used to a more frenetic product now, and even a 3 month story arc would bore us. I’m not even saying 6 a year, even though a blow-off every two months would work not only for the WWE (Could charge more per PPV) but it’s viewers as well (would be in most cases able to buy all 6). I think 9 ‘permanent’ PPVs with the occasional “Extra Special Event” is the way to go. At this pace, prices wouldn’t have to go up to offset buy-rate losses, and the Writers could script feuds to cross PPVs or not as they see fit – after all, with only WM being a traditional blow-off point, we’d HAVE to watch because there would be an element of unpredictability. This would drive to raise buy-rates across the board, making each PPV more profitable, and have the added bonus of easing the schedule of writers and talent alike. The best added benefit? Lower operating costs – after all, it costs more to do a PPV than it does a Live event…
But hey, what do I know? I’m just using common sense – something that is sadly in short supply nowadays.
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3 comments
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Mackeran says:
August 8, 2009 at 8:20 pm (UTC -8 )
I added your blog to bookmarks. And i’ll read your articles more often!
Crasty says:
August 12, 2009 at 10:31 am (UTC -8 )
Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.
Mackeran says:
August 18, 2009 at 11:12 pm (UTC -8 )
In truth, immediately i didn’t understand the essence. But after re-reading all at once became clear.
What happened to Common Sense in the WWE? | Pro Wrestling | Shoot … | WWE Fan says:
August 7, 2009 at 2:11 am (UTC -8 )
[...] post to Daily Tidbit [...]
What happened to Common Sense in the WWE? | Pro Wrestling | Shoot … | WWE Memorabilia says:
August 7, 2009 at 2:15 am (UTC -8 )
[...] reprinted at WWE Memorabilia [...]
What happened to Common Sense in the WWE? | Pro Wrestling | Shoot … | WWE Fan says:
August 7, 2009 at 2:59 pm (UTC -8 )
[...] posted to Daily tidbit [...]
Better late than never? | Pro Wrestling | Shoot Finish says:
November 7, 2009 at 3:50 pm (UTC -8 )
[...] the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet BoxBack in August, I posted an article (Here) talking about Pay Per Views, and how the WWE (along with MMA and TNT) had saturated the market. My [...]