Commercials on PPV

[Harthan]

If you watched SummerSlam, you probably noticed a lot of commercials. Now, commercials on WWE PPVs aren't new, exactly. We often see pitches for the next WWE PPV, or a WWE film, or vignettes for an upcoming wrestlers, or what have you. These aren't really a big problem. A lot of times, yes, it's an insipid trailer for some stupid film that they're trotting out, but I don't really mind them because it's advertising me more WWE stuff. These aren't regular cable television commercials, it's the WWE saying "Hey, you bought this, here are some more things you might like." They're not particularly offensive because their nature is not that of the traditional cable television commercial - instead, they're WWE bumping stuff that they have going on in the future. Just part of the package deal.

But last night, the WWE decided to run traditional commercials on pay per view, and this crossed a line for me. The Twix commercial, for example. There was nothing unique about this. It was the same shit they throw on cable television every week. If it had been a few wrestlers, hanging out, eating Twix? I'd probably be okay with it, for the aforementioned reasons. It's part of the WWE show, environment, and experience. Running a regular cable TV ad in the middle of a PPV? That's a huge difference, and it's pretty much not okay. When watching Raw on USA, or what have you, it's part of the bargain, a necessary evil - I get to watch Raw for the price of my cable bill, and so that that can continue to happen, the WWE makes money by selling advertising time to Twix or whomever. No problem. When I pay money to watch premium programming, I have a certain expectation of that shit not happening. If the WWE wants to shill me some of their stuff, fine, because that's all a part of WWE programming. Product placement? Acceptable, because it at least would still be a part of WWE programming. Pre-produced, totally unrelated ads? Absolutely not. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to not pay for PPV, because what is my incentive? I'm supposed to be getting a commercial free, premium experience here. When you start airing commercials, you've taken that aspect away, and it hurts. Maybe if the PPV price were cheapened as a result, this would be okay. But I still paid full price for SummerSlam, and got commercials on top of it. As a consumer, that makes me pretty angry.

You might, perhaps, justify the commercials' presence because of Cee Lo Green's appearance. Cee Lo must have cost a good deal of money, and perhaps rather than passing that cost onto the consumer, the WWE ran ads to make up for it. This argument holds water until you realize that Cee Lo Green was utter shit, made the PPV unwatchable for 20 minutes, and nobody in the "WWE Universe" had any desire to watch him parade about, singing and dancing on a wrestling show. I paid to watch sweaty men beat each other up, goddamnit, and that's what I want.

So let's just get this clear. The WWE books a performance that trashes the PPV for a good 20 minutes, and makes up for it by running ads during the pay-per-view? I emphasize the word pay because we all paid for this show. This is garbage. The only reason I'm not angrier is because SummerSlam as a whole was so very good. It clicked on pretty much every other cylinder. What if the WWE had pulled this during a lesser quality PPV? Frankly it would have been an outrage.

At the end of the day, paying for premium content comes with an expectation of getting premium content. Premium content does not include regular television commercials, pure and simple. This is practically the entire foundation on which PPV is based. If I pay you full price for the show, you don't make me watch commercials.

What do you think? Were you pissed off by this too, or am I overreacting? Are you okay with the prospect of the WWE continuing this practice?

 

[TheTruthShallSetYouFree]

Its WWE = World WRESTLING Entertainment
not
WWASE = World Wrestling And Singer Entertainment

Whats the point of bringing Cee Lo Green to a Wrestling Show? Would anyone else here much prefer to have seen John Morrison Vs R - Truth in a Steel Cage Match or a Falls Count Anywhere Match instead? Don't get me wrong Cee Lo Green is a huge singing talent, but i bought SummerSlam for the wrestling.

All WWE is trying to do is bring in viewers in which don't always watch.. But who would pay £20 for a 15min performance by Cee Lo Green?

But they could have had a very entertaining match which would continue the R - Truth/John Morrison fued nicely?

I Don't Know?

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

WWE brings in singers so that everyone knows they're a top quality entertainment company. Get your head out of "DIS IZ WRESTLING" and realize that if WWE only does wrestling stuff, then people from the outside don't go "o, hmm". By having Cee Lo Green, people from the outside have to take notice.

As for the commercials, well stop streaming the PPVs and buying them and WWE will stop having to get extra revenue from commercials.

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

As for the commercials, well stop streaming the PPVs and buying them and WWE will stop having to get extra revenue from commercials.

Doubtful, WWE will do whatever they can to advertise as much as possible, not saying that's the worst thing in the world, but even if people weren't streaming overpriced PPVs from both companies, yes TNA is guilty too, there are still gonna be an overbearing number of advertisements on these events. Period. I have no sympathy for companies like TNA and WWE and other PPV promoters that have people streaming their telecasts, for one thing between WWE and TNA there's what like 24-25 PPV events. No thanks, 40-50 dollars a month for these events, I'll pass.

So your argument on the whole idea of WWE needing to find extra revenue sources by putting commercials within their PPVs is something I have to question. WWE just wants money period, and to be fair there are enough people despite the streams that will buy these events still, but I'm sorry I have to scoff at the rationale for why WWE is advertisement heavy on their PPVs. Seriously.

 

[Defekt]

Personally, I had never heard of Cee Lo Green until Summerslam, and I didn't watch his performance, because I don't care about him or his music and didn't wanna see it. It's just a waste of time.

The commercials are a pain. I quit watching wrestling for a time during the Raw guest host era because I got tired of having to sit through celebrities plugging their crap.

Last night we got a five minute promo about a subway sandwich...

 

[H33LTurn]

I cant speak for everyone but personally I loved Cee Lo's performance. Its not like he took valuable time away from anything. The US, IC, and Tag titles arent even defended anymore so thanks to him I didnt have to sit through another filler match. The commercials could've very well been to pay for Green's appearance and we wont know if this is true until the next ppv. I didnt really mind the commercials, it was one here and there and the ppv was great regardless.

 

[mrhexum]

I noticed the non-WWE related commercials too. While it surely made me say "WTF?", it wasn't that big of a deal. At the end of the day it's all about the money and I'm sure those ad slots made the WWE some cash. As for Cee-Lo, meh, they usually have a musical performance at the big PPV's. It makes for a good bathroom/smoke/hit on your hot waitress break.

 

[Harthan]

I cant speak for everyone but personally I loved Cee Lo's performance. Its not like he took valuable time away from anything. The US, IC, and Tag titles arent even defended anymore so thanks to him I didnt have to sit through another filler match. The commercials could've very well been to pay for Green's appearance and we wont know if this is true until the next ppv. I didnt really mind the commercials, it was one here and there and the ppv was great regardless.

I don't mind that you enjoyed Cee Lo - indeed, good for you, at least you were entertained during that tripe. But the statement I've highlighted bothers me. Alex Riley and Dolph Ziggler were relegated to the dark match. John Morrison and R-Truth were forced to have their Falls Count Anywhere match the next night on Raw. Don't you think that the time on wrestling PPV might have been better spent by two wrestlers actually wrestling instead of on a musical performance, especially when that performance isn't well received by most fans and possibly had to be paid for by obtrusive commercials?

 

[twiztid jay]

Summerslam was sponsered by 7-11, twix, and slim jim that's why the commericals were played it was because they were advertised sponsers of the ppv. i don't like it but i get why they did it, clo green was typical big ppv singer, i just didn't like the fact that he sang two songs, too much, one was good enough....

 

[SickJames]

I agree with you on commercials, I had that fuck me up too, and it stood out as they aired way too much as well.

But you all shouldnt be asking why they had Green perform. WWE is the leader in wrestling and entertainment to them not just wrestling entertainment

Dont act as if them bringing in singers is baffling to you. YOU May not have enjoyed it but fans HAVE enjoyed singing and dancing etc acts in the past

I dont care if you dont care for every genre they bring it, but out of Cee Lo, or Limp Bizkit @ Mania or Ray Charles or Aretha, Keri Hilson @ Mania, Mya singing to Rock, it just doesnt matter, you know they do this kind of thing

Hell, we've had the Guest Host thing run a few years on Raw and we had acts then, I loved seeing Ozzy live at Smackdown! in my hometown a few years back, my first and only time seeing him

You never know what you might get out of WWE, I wouldnt bash them bringing in celebs that are there to provide entertainment aside from wrestling or you're missing the point that it's a variety show

you're granted your opinion on whether or not a certain act sucks to you, but not the ability to complain and pretend as if this hasnt been the norm and that the same ppl who'll sit and complain about celebrity involvement in wrestling cant say that celebrity involvement IS ONE of the things that made the first WrestleMania special and has been and should be a mainstay with Mania, not always a match, but in general

and PPVs in general can have that element

 

[art1que]

Yeah those commercials are a major flag for me because if this becomes a trend for all PPV's there isn't much point in buying them. Also on Cee-Lo Green not that big a fan of him and WWE should think of target audience more when picking an artist to perform or atleast the majority since you can't please everyone.

 

[Ace630]

those commercials did seem outta place during the show but i'm used to the same ones running on during raw.
i think cee-lo green's performance was a big let down though. i don't know what it is with these performers who come and sing at wwe events but they never seem to sound good live and rarely get good crowd reaction. the only one i can remember in recent memory was pitbull during rock's bday celebrations and that was only cause they were in miami

 

[H33LTurn]

I don't mind that you enjoyed Cee Lo - indeed, good for you, at least you were entertained during that tripe. But the statement I've highlighted bothers me. Alex Riley and Dolph Ziggler were relegated to the dark match. John Morrison and R-Truth were forced to have their Falls Count Anywhere match the next night on Raw. Don't you think that the time on wrestling PPV might have been better spent by two wrestlers actually wrestling instead of on a musical performance, especially when that performance isn't well received by most fans and possibly had to be paid for by obtrusive commercials?

No because when you're booking a show like Summerslam you need to press to be talking about it. Whate better way than a Cee Lo performance. WWE is more than wrestling, its sports entertainment. Dolph vs Riley is still to young to be for the title. The rivalry needs more buildup. As for Truth vs Morrison, it worked out great on Monday Night RAW. They're beating a dead horse with this rivalry and the only time it should be on PPV is the last match of the rivalry.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

I think it's stupid to bitch about WWE running commercials on their PPV. It's not like Vince went "lets piss some people off today" probably more like "PPV buyrates are down and all these free stream and torrent sites are taking away thousands of buys, we need to do SOMETHING to get the revenue".

So yea, don't bitch about the commercials. If you ever watched a PPV on a stream or torrent instead of buying it, you're the real reason the commercials were there.

 

[EASTorWESTpunkIStheBEST]

i think people go to streaming or torrents because about 80% ppvs are not worth 40-60$ ,people usualy buy wrestlemania and royal rumble because these worth it,wwe should lower the price of B class ppvs and then they can fix commercials between then,it will increase buyrates and people will not make complains about commercials.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

i think people go to streaming or torrents because about 80% ppvs are not worth 40-60$ ,people usualy buy wrestlemania and royal rumble because these worth it,wwe should lower the price of B class ppvs and then they can fix commercials between then,it will increase buyrates and people will not make complains about commercials.

bullshit. Streams and torrents are free, free<20<40.

It's economics dude, take a class. If you get X amount of utility from something, say it's worth 10 dollars to you, but you can get it for free, you won't go "well shit it's worth 10 to me, I'll pay". You still try to get it for free because then it has EXCESS utility.

WWE has people far smarter than you or I using far more sophisticated techniques than either of us can get our hands on to analyse the market and suggest prices for their PPVs.

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

bullshit. Streams and torrents are free, free<20<40.

It's economics dude, take a class. If you get X amount of utility from something, say it's worth 10 dollars to you, but you can get it for free, you won't go "well shit it's worth 10 to me, I'll pay". You still try to get it for free because then it has EXCESS utility.

WWE has people far smarter than you or I using far more sophisticated techniques than either of us can get our hands on to analyse the market and suggest prices for their PPVs.

Poor poor wrestling promotions and their pay per views, charging up to 60 bucks for a PPV and you have people not wanting to buy it, dude, who gives a shit really? I'm all about hearing about buyrates for wrestling pay per views in general dropping, because it's a testament to how ridiculous the PPV prices are in the first place.

I have no sympathy for any wrestling company's misfortunes these days when it comes to the pay per view market, especially when the average folks are struggling to keep themselves and their families afloat in the real world. And trust me, I grew up in an era where pay per views were not so outrageous in price and the cost to go to events was pretty reasonable too. Therefore, if people don't buy these pay per views, it's no fucking loss. The business was doing just fine when there were less pay per views on the schedule. And to be honest these wrestling companies don't deserve the money they are asking for these events. Especially when episodes of RAW, SmackDown or Impact have at times proven to be far better than the pay per views are, spare me.

So to hear your theories about why a company like WWE needs to put non-relevant commercials on their PPVs, I laugh and I laugh uncontrollably. Whether it's WWE or TNA I say "boo hoo" with enthusiastic sarcasm because I personally find it funny. Merchandising these days is even bigger for professional wrestling what with the internet and of course international business being bigger than it ever was especially for WWE that I can confidently say that these companies have brought this bullshit upon themselves. And anyone sympathizing for them because of this must either be a mark in the TRUEST sense of the world or not have or somehow can afford to possibly buy every wrestling PPV on the market.

Unfortunately, not everyone can afford that luxury. Therefore, I'm not shedding any tears over streams or torrents, fuck it.

 

[ctln4rko]

I was 100% pissed off.I already had my time wasted with the backstage segements, and the divas match, and then several commercials and a concert! I would much rather have seen Alex Riley or Zack Ryder in a match.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Poor poor wrestling promotions and their pay per views, charging up to 60 bucks for a PPV and you have people not wanting to buy it, dude, who gives a shit really? I'm all about hearing about buyrates for wrestling pay per views in general dropping, because it's a testament to how ridiculous the PPV prices are in the first place.

I have no sympathy for any wrestling company's misfortunes these days when it comes to the pay per view market, especially when the average folks are struggling to keep themselves and their families afloat in the real world. And trust me, I grew up in an era where pay per views were not so outrageous in price and the cost to go to events was pretty reasonable too. Therefore, if people don't buy these pay per views, it's no fucking loss. The business was doing just fine when there were less pay per views on the schedule. And to be honest these wrestling companies don't deserve the money they are asking for these events. Especially when episodes of RAW, SmackDown or Impact have at times proven to be far better than the pay per views are, spare me.

So to hear your theories about why a company like WWE needs to put non-relevant commercials on their PPVs, I laugh and I laugh uncontrollably. Whether it's WWE or TNA I say "boo hoo" with enthusiastic sarcasm because I personally find it funny. Merchandising these days is even bigger for professional wrestling what with the internet and of course international business being bigger than it ever was especially for WWE that I can confidently say that these companies have brought this bullshit upon themselves. And anyone sympathizing for them because of this must either be a mark in the TRUEST sense of the world or not have or somehow can afford to possibly buy every wrestling PPV on the market.

Unfortunately, not everyone can afford that luxury. Therefore, I'm not shedding any tears over streams or torrents, fuck it.

A mark in the truest sense of the word for understanding the business side of things? That makes no fucking sense. A mark in the truest sense of the word is Christian fans thinking he should have won clean because they like him.

I don't buy every PPV, but I watch them all. I don't bitch about the commercials, because I know that I contributed to them doing that. Like I said, WWE has way smarter people than us using way more sophisticated tools than us telling them what price is best.

My grandpa ordered every WCW PPV for me from 1995-2001. I know the price.

You said "average family struggling to keep their family afloat" those same economic conditions effect the WWE. They have shareholders to please, if profits aren't up to an acceptable standard, everyone loses money.

Comparing the PPV market of 10 years ago to today is an incredibly stupid argument. There wasn't streaming video then. Shit man, comparing the fast food market from 10 years ago to today is stupid.

Here's why the WWE charges so much per PPV. For 1, the providers probably have higher charges for them to pay, so right way, without knowing this, it's ignorant to blame the WWE. For 2, the only people who probably don't even think twice about price, have a lot of money. Instead of searching for a steam, they'll pay 50 or whatever. To them the difference between 30 and 60 isn't very much. So, since the WWE knows that to anyone that 30-50 dollars is a lot to will just stream it, they price it at the upper part of that range.

In other words, only the rich people aren't really effected by the economy. Only the rich people see 50 bucks as a small number and won't stream. Anyone else, if it costs 20 bucks, 30 bucks, if they can, they will stream it because it's free and free is cheaper than anything. So WWE prices it to make the most money in the market. Like I said, they aren't pricing it high to piss you off, they aren't running commercials to piss you off, they're doing it because they have smart business people looking at studies through sophisticated tools telling them to do this.

I'm not a mark, I'm a business major who's getting an accelerated masters from a top 10% business school in the country and I also have an economics minor. I wish I had a graph tool so I could explain to you the vast difference in the PPV market of 15 years ago to today.

I don't care that you aren't sad for the WWE. Shit I'm not sad for the WWE, they make like 20 million dollars per quarter. I'm just saying it's fucking stupid to bitch about commercials on PPV when there's obviously a logical business reason behind it. Vince isn't doing it to piss people off. Complaining about this is like complaining that NFL tickets are too high even though the stadium is sold out (so obviously they aren't).

 

[derkman7]

TWJC, your post reminds me of this:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154822/college-know-it-all-hippies

As a business major and economics/statistics minor myself I completely agree with you.

There is one simple and easy way to fix the problem of commercials on PPV; stop streaming the PPVs. I know countless people who stream the PPVs by themselves. If just 4 or 5 of those people would get together, that's just $10-15 apiece. You also get to enjoy the PPV with friends, and what's better than that.

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

A mark in the truest sense of the word for understanding the business side of things? That makes no fucking sense. A mark in the truest sense of the word is Christian fans thinking he should have won clean because they like him.

I don't buy every PPV, but I watch them all. I don't bitch about the commercials, because I know that I contributed to them doing that. Like I said, WWE has way smarter people than us using way more sophisticated tools than us telling them what price is best.

My grandpa ordered every WCW PPV for me from 1995-2001. I know the price.

You said "average family struggling to keep their family afloat" those same economic conditions effect the WWE. They have shareholders to please, if profits aren't up to an acceptable standard, everyone loses money.

Comparing the PPV market of 10 years ago to today is an incredibly stupid argument. There wasn't streaming video then. Shit man, comparing the fast food market from 10 years ago to today is stupid.

Here's why the WWE charges so much per PPV. For 1, the providers probably have higher charges for them to pay, so right way, without knowing this, it's ignorant to blame the WWE. For 2, the only people who probably don't even think twice about price, have a lot of money. Instead of searching for a steam, they'll pay 50 or whatever. To them the difference between 30 and 60 isn't very much. So, since the WWE knows that to anyone that 30-50 dollars is a lot to will just stream it, they price it at the upper part of that range.

In other words, only the rich people aren't really effected by the economy. Only the rich people see 50 bucks as a small number and won't stream. Anyone else, if it costs 20 bucks, 30 bucks, if they can, they will stream it because it's free and free is cheaper than anything. So WWE prices it to make the most money in the market. Like I said, they aren't pricing it high to piss you off, they aren't running commercials to piss you off, they're doing it because they have smart business people looking at studies through sophisticated tools telling them to do this.

I'm not a mark, I'm a business major who's getting an accelerated masters from a top 10% business school in the country and I also have an economics minor. I wish I had a graph tool so I could explain to you the vast difference in the PPV market of 15 years ago to today.

I don't care that you aren't sad for the WWE. Shit I'm not sad for the WWE, they make like 20 million dollars per quarter. I'm just saying it's fucking stupid to bitch about commercials on PPV when there's obviously a logical business reason behind it. Vince isn't doing it to piss people off. Complaining about this is like complaining that NFL tickets are too high even though the stadium is sold out (so obviously they aren't).

It wasn't my intention to say you were a mark, and I agree with your feelings on people bitching about the commercials to an extent. I merely made the mark comment towards those who are also reading this, trust me, when I attack people on these threads and call them names specifically it's pretty well established. To my own fault, I did not do such, it's just that your post made me think of people that truly will buy EVERY single thing they can that WWE and TNA in particular sell and those types were the target of my post.

I apologize about the mark comment, because I definitely did not properly differentiate in my response to you. Also when I said I laugh at your argument about this issue, it wasn't your argument per se, but wrestling promoters themselves. Again man, that was my bust.

I'm just personally at a crossroads as a fan and just find it ridiculous that events like SummerSlam and WrestleMania these days lack the magic of their previous installments and I feel the same about TNA with their abundance of PPVs and their real lack of focus on what they determine as their most important ones, (I know Bound For Glory is one of their biggest but it just doesn't have that charm in my view). It's just that in my view even if WWE's business was surpassing the Attitude Era's at this point, I could still see them doing horrible filler segments and ridiculous advertisements on both PPV and RAW. Hell, the worst one I ever saw was a glorified Mattel WWE Toy commercial that was veiled as a routine backstage segment with Hornswoggle and Triple H, just plain ridiculousness and that's what they have commercial time for. Again a little offtrack but just the same illustrating my point that WWE (and the same goes for other corporations too) is definitely about its money, but there are just some things that are plain ridiculous.

TWJC, your post reminds me of this:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154822/college-know-it-all-hippies

As a business major and economics/statistics minor myself I completely agree with you.

There is one simple and easy way to fix the problem of commercials on PPV; stop streaming the PPVs. I know countless people who stream the PPVs by themselves. If just 4 or 5 of those people would get together, that's just $10-15 apiece. You also get to enjoy the PPV with friends, and what's better than that.

A great idea no doubt derkman7, and chipping in for PPVs is something I've often done, but trust me, go to this link and you'll realize Vince does not want that either...there's an OFFICIAL shareholders video included with the link too, and Vince himself is vehement about how much he dislikes group viewings of PPVs. Period.

2010 Vince McMahon Shareholder Meeting...CLICK HERE

I know the moral of the story is that businesses need to make money, that much is true, not going to knock that, not going to even deny it and between both you and TWJC I am not even going to claim to have any business or economics expertise. But that mentality and statement reeks of bullshit, and coming straight from the horse's mouth, I can't STAND to listen to some big wig say that he doesn't like the idea of a group purchase of a PPV. Just pisses me off personally hence my vitriol.

 

[chipandcheese58]

I was at Summerslam and I thought the C-Lo Green performance was a meh. It took away from a match that could've been on a card. I would've loved to see that Falls Count Anywhere match in person instead of seeing it the next night on RAW. However, since they used C-Lo they could've done a better job with it. For starters his song was the theme of SummerSlam. They should've done the same thing they did with his song as they did with Limp Bizkit back at WM19. During their performance a video montage was playing hyping all the matches for WM that night. His was a music video of him. Also they should've made the Divas match a lumber jack match and when he got to Forget you all the Divas enter dancing and ready to go into the next match.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

WrestleMania XXVII 1,059,000 buys, Extreme Rules '11 209,000, Over The Limit '11 140,000 & Capital Punishment 170,000.

WrestleMania XXVI 885,000 buys, Extreme Rules '10 182,000, Over The Limit '10 197,000 & Fatal 4 Way 143,000.

Four corresponding PPVs '11 versus '10. Three exceeded the previous year (and wrestling journalists put OTL's terrible performance down to a discrediting build to the PPV for the Miz). Buy rates for these four events have increased by a net 71 thousand.

Blaming streaming for commercials just does not fly! If the card is strong, then people will purchase the event. I fully expect that MitB and SummerSlam to decimate 2010's equivalents too.

As for Cee Lo Green; personally I hate this new trend. If they want to put them on RAW or SmackDown ala the Guest Manager, fine, but if this was such a great idea to start with, why was the concept dropped? The big PPVs have always featured celebrities, this is true, but outside of singing the national anthem or actually featuring in a match, their contributions have always been limited to guest appearances. Green is still a rookie as far as being a singing superstar (3 singles and 1 hit with Gnarls Barkley) and he gets a 20 minute set I actually am a Kid Rock fan and HATED that he got similar treatment at WM25 whilst an enjoyable built feud between Miz & Morrison & the Colons for the tag belts was dropped to the dark match!

If anything commercials and pointless musical performances are more likely to make people stream. They can do it at a time of their convenience and the commercials will have been erased and the 'concert' can be skipped.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

It wasn't my intention to say you were a mark, and I agree with your feelings on people bitching about the commercials to an extent. I merely made the mark comment towards those who are also reading this, trust me, when I attack people on these threads and call them names specifically it's pretty well established. To my own fault, I did not do such, it's just that your post made me think of people that truly will buy EVERY single thing they can that WWE and TNA in particular sell and those types were the target of my post.

I apologize about the mark comment, because I definitely did not properly differentiate in my response to you. Also when I said I laugh at your argument about this issue, it wasn't your argument per se, but wrestling promoters themselves. Again man, that was my bust.

I'm just personally at a crossroads as a fan and just find it ridiculous that events like SummerSlam and WrestleMania these days lack the magic of their previous installments and I feel the same about TNA with their abundance of PPVs and their real lack of focus on what they determine as their most important ones, (I know Bound For Glory is one of their biggest but it just doesn't have that charm in my view). It's just that in my view even if WWE's business was surpassing the Attitude Era's at this point, I could still see them doing horrible filler segments and ridiculous advertisements on both PPV and RAW. Hell, the worst one I ever saw was a glorified Mattel WWE Toy commercial that was veiled as a routine backstage segment with Hornswoggle and Triple H, just plain ridiculousness and that's what they have commercial time for. Again a little offtrack but just the same illustrating my point that WWE (and the same goes for other corporations too) is definitely about its money, but there are just some things that are plain ridiculous.



A great idea no doubt derkman7, and chipping in for PPVs is something I've often done, but trust me, go to this link and you'll realize Vince does not want that either...there's an OFFICIAL shareholders video included with the link too, and Vince himself is vehement about how much he dislikes group viewings of PPVs. Period.

2010 Vince McMahon Shareholder Meeting...CLICK HERE

I know the moral of the story is that businesses need to make money, that much is true, not going to knock that, not going to even deny it and between both you and TWJC I am not even going to claim to have any business or economics expertise. But that mentality and statement reeks of bullshit, and coming straight from the horse's mouth, I can't STAND to listen to some big wig say that he doesn't like the idea of a group purchase of a PPV. Just pisses me off personally hence my vitriol.

Off course Vince says that. He wants every single person in America to pay 50 bucks per PPV. This is a shareholder's meeting, if you asked him "either 5 guys chip in for 1 PPV or they all stream for free" I guarantee you he'd rather them all share in. It's that you essentially have 2 markets, the market of people that will think "hmmm, 30-60 bucks, or free?" and the market that says "yea I'll buy the wrestling ppv". The rich people will buy it because 50 dollars doesn't mean much to them, the other group of people will stream it 99% of the time, so why even bother? Not only that, but you don't even know how much the WWE has to pay the PPV providers. What if it turns out, that because so much of the market will stream regardless of price, that if WWE charges anything less than 40 per PPV that they'll lose money?

Think of it this way, I'll sell you air for 30 dollars a month. Seriously I will. You need it to live, so I'd think it'd be worth that much. What? You already get it for free? Well how about 10 dollars a month? What's that? You'd still rather not pay because you can get it for free?

Get my point? It's not about feeling sorry for anyone, it's a business decision they made because the market is such that they have to put commercials on. Do people get mad at you when you stay late to pick up a few extra hours at work?


As for the whole "magic" thing. NOTHING has the same magic as when you were younger. Ever read the Outsiders? The whole "stay gold" thing was all about how everything looks better and more magical when you're a kid. It's not that the WWE has changed, your perception of it has. I've been to live events, I've seen these kids ADORE everything that happens. It's just how I probably looked in 1996 and how you probably looked whenever. You just have to learn to appreciate it still.

WrestleMania XXVII 1,059,000 buys, Extreme Rules '11 209,000, Over The Limit '11 140,000 & Capital Punishment 170,000.

WrestleMania XXVI 885,000 buys, Extreme Rules '10 182,000, Over The Limit '10 197,000 & Fatal 4 Way 143,000.

Four corresponding PPVs '11 versus '10. Three exceeded the previous year (and wrestling journalists put OTL's terrible performance down to a discrediting build to the PPV for the Miz). Buy rates for these four events have increased by a net 71 thousand.

Blaming streaming for commercials just does not fly! If the card is strong, then people will purchase the event. I fully expect that MitB and SummerSlam to decimate 2010's equivalents too.

As for Cee Lo Green; personally I hate this new trend. If they want to put them on RAW or SmackDown ala the Guest Manager, fine, but if this was such a great idea to start with, why was the concept dropped? The big PPVs have always featured celebrities, this is true, but outside of singing the national anthem or actually featuring in a match, their contributions have always been limited to guest appearances. Green is still a rookie as far as being a singing superstar (3 singles and 1 hit with Gnarls Barkley) and he gets a 20 minute set I actually am a Kid Rock fan and HATED that he got similar treatment at WM25 whilst an enjoyable built feud between Miz & Morrison & the Colons for the tag belts was dropped to the dark match!

If anything commercials and pointless musical performances are more likely to make people stream. They can do it at a time of their convenience and the commercials will have been erased and the 'concert' can be skipped.

Not really. The stronger PPVs just mean that people who can afford them will buy more. You didn't put the number of the amount of streams up there too so your claim is completely bogus. You use selective statistics to prove your own point. You aren't looking at the whole picture. If I were a business owner and you were my research department, I would have fired you. You didn't put down what the general economy is doing at the time, what other items are/were on PPV close to those PPVs, the amounts of streams going on, nothing like that. You took one thing and made your analysis from that. Bad job, I give you an F.

WWE brings in media stars all the times. The fact that Cee Lo Green is relatively new makes them look even more relevant. If they pull up Kid Rock, who's best days as far as record sales and being "hot now" go are far behind him, they look behind. If you are associated with a new artist who's hot, then you also look up to date and hot. It's for sponsors and for shareholders. It's a business decision to let everyone know "we are a modern up to date media conglomerate".

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Not really. The stronger PPVs just mean that people who can afford them will buy more. You didn't put the number of the amount of streams up there too so your claim is completely bogus. You use selective statistics to prove your own point. You aren't looking at the whole picture. If I were a business owner and you were my research department, I would have fired you. You didn't put down what the general economy is doing at the time, what other items are/were on PPV close to those PPVs, the amounts of streams going on, nothing like that. You took one thing and made your analysis from that. Bad job, I give you an F.

Your right, why would a PPV's success be judged on how many people Paid to View How is the number of people that paid for the events 'bogus', 'selective' or not 'looking at the whole picture'? The American economy is doing worse than this time last year, hence their credit rating dropping (that makes increased buy rates more remarkable). The amount of streams? Please, tell me were you get this info and (again) how that cheapens increased buys. If your going to accuse me off selectiveness, how about your own assertion of the massive profits they make ($20m a quarter, I believe was your 'well researched' figure); surely that supports that they don't need to resort to advertisements?

WWE brings in media stars all the times. The fact that Cee Lo Green is relatively new makes them look even more relevant. If they pull up Kid Rock, who's best days as far as record sales and being "hot now" go are far behind him, they look behind. If you are associated with a new artist who's hot, then you also look up to date and hot. It's for sponsors and for shareholders. It's a business decision to let everyone know "we are a modern up to date media conglomerate".

Pretty sure I mentioned them bringing in celebrities (something about the RAW Guest Hosts and how that played out). I love many musical artists and attend many concerts, there is not one that would tilt me into paying for a wrestling PPV.

Shareholders and sponsors? How does Cee Lo Brown appeal to either, was it described as the Twix musical interlude? How does copying the SuperBowl template say "we are a modern up to date media conglomerate"? What other conglomerate uses this profile? In the SuperBowl, the half time show is logical because the game isn't on - it's dead time. WWe doesn't have a half time, so casual fans are wondering "What's the link here?" and educated fans are decrying the wasted time that could have been used for the core product.

I thought the Rock's contributions at the past WM were, in general, too overbearing but many lapped it up and (your hated) buy rates indicate this. Why? Because, he actually relates to the product. All the most remembered celebrities (Mr T, LT, Mayweather, Rock) were involved in the product. As far as Kid Rock and Brown are concerned, I don't believe even their biggest fans will look back at their WWe moments fondly.