Has the WWE finally figured out it's Pay Per View Problem?

[Shocky]

As we all know, the last few years the WWE's pay per view buy rates had dropped, and to respond to this turn of events, the WWE scrapped the Brand Exclusive Pay Per Views.

In the year and a half since this has happened, the WWE has now gone even more out of it's way to individualize each pay per view. Sure, combining all the rosters on pay per views was going to up buy rates, gone our Maria vs. Candice in a twenty minute crap fest on pay per view. Over the last 18 months we've seen the WWE come up with some great concepts.

So do you think it's time that the WWE simply brands certain concepts to certain pay per views. For Example, the Royal Rumble is known for the Rumble match. This year we saw the Elimination Chamber used for No Way Out to determine number one contenders for each brand, which is something I would love to see unchanged.

This is how I would run the Pay Per View Schedule.

Royal Rumble: Rumble Match obviously
No Way Out: (Rumble Winner still gets the title shot) The remaining two brands determine the #1 contender in the Elimination Chamber
Wrestlemania: Really doesn't need anything, sells itself on name only. I would love to see MITB moved to another pay per view, but I understand it's purpose.
Backlash: Really doesn't need anything special. The name speaks for itself, it's essentially the Wrestlemania rematch pay per view.
Judgment Day: Scrap this pay per view.
One Night Stand: Great pay per view. Every match a gimmick match, but makes sense. This would be the third pay per view in a series of matches starting at Wrestlemania, and makes sense to end these feuds in big time gimmick matches.
Great American Bash: Hard to think of something with this pay per view, possibly bring back a WCW concept (War games).
Summerslam: Again, shouldn't need anything, it's big enough to sell itself.
Unforgiven: Championship scramble, I love this concept. I would love to see these matches before a definitive, but it's an amazing concept.
No Mercy: Scrap this pay per view as well.
Cyber Sunday: I love the concept of this pay per view. The Fans get to chose a stipulation for each match. Can't go wrong with that.
Survivor Series: They really need to put the emphasis back on the traditional Elimination matches.
Armageddon: Still would need to figure something out for this one.

I like the Idea of not allocating the Cell or TLC to a certain pay per view. Those matches are huge, and the shock of the announcement of those matches incites a huge reaction from the live audience.

 

[Jest XXL]

I agree with the Elimination chamber matches's for the two brands at No Way Out who didnt have a superstar win the Royal Rumble. The name of the PPV really goes well with the Elimination Chamber concept because they are all enclosed in the chamber! I also agree that they should scrap Judgement day because there are loads of PPV's at that particular time of year and it dosent seem to mean anything. Also scrap No Mercy but keep Armaggeddon because you need a PPV in between two of the 'big-four' PPV's in my opinion.

 

[joejoe]

I don't think the WWE needs to have a set gimick match for each PPV. I actually think that what they're doing right now works fine.

However I'm a little confused. Are you saying that the Rumble winner should get his title shot at No Way Out instead of Mania? I'm not a fan of that.

I'd keep the one Elimination Chamber Match for No Way Out but keep it so the Rumble winner still gets his shot at Wrestlemania. That way it gives more time to build a feud between the winner and champion no matter who it is.

This past year was a little different because of Cena coming back so they had to do the two Chamber matches to make sure both him Triple H and Orton could be involved in the main event at Mania.


So besdies all the current "Gimmicks" that WWE has right now set in PPVs I would like to see No Mercy be the Hell in the Cell PPV.

It somewhat fits with the name as the WWE could build that structure as one that has "No Mercy" on their opponents.

 

[oldschoolfan]

Interesting thoughts, here's mine:

Royal Rumble: Rumble Match obviously

No Way Out: (Rumble Winner still gets the title shot) The remaining two brands determine the #1 contender in the Elimination Chamber. Perhaps also have MITB qualifying matches?

Wrestlemania: Really doesn't need anything, sells itself on name only. I would love to see MITB moved to another pay per view, but I understand it's purpose. Nah, leave the MITB match here. The concept is that the winner has 1 year, til the next 'Mania, to cash in. Could be an interesting 'Mania if the winner cashes in that night.

Backlash: Really doesn't need anything special. The name speaks for itself, it's essentially the Wrestlemania rematch pay per view. Problem is when the rematches are better than 'Mania. Leaves fans feeling ripped off coughing up the $ for 'Mania.

Judgment Day: Scrap this pay per view. Or make it a King of the Ring tournament PPV to include all 3 brands.

One Night Stand: Great pay per view. Every match a gimmick match, but makes sense. This would be the third pay per view in a series of matches starting at Wrestlemania, and makes sense to end these feuds in big time gimmick matches.Should be renamed to something like "Night of Extreme" or "Night of Hardcore." The "One Night Stand" name refers too much to the old ECW, and we all know that ECW is not what it was.

Great American Bash: Hard to think of something with this pay per view, possibly bring back a WCW concept (War games).Should have some sort of #1 contender matches for SummerSlam, i.e. Battle Royal.

Summerslam: Again, shouldn't need anything, it's big enough to sell itself.

Unforgiven: Championship scramble, I love this concept. I would love to see these matches before a definitive, but it's an amazing concept.

No Mercy: Scrap this pay per view as well.See Judgement Day.

Cyber Sunday: I love the concept of this pay per view. The Fans get to chose a stipulation for each match. Can't go wrong with that.

Survivor Series: They really need to put the emphasis back on the traditional Elimination matches.Agreed. No Championship matches, just traditional 4 on 4 or 5 on 5. End it with a Battle Royal with all survivors for brand supremecy.

Armageddon: Still would need to figure something out for this one.

You forgot Night pf Champions. Though not much to say about it, a PPV comprised of championship matches. Just be sure ALL are defended.

You also forgot New Year's Revolution. One match here should be a Triple Threat with the #1, #15, and #30 Royal Rumble entrants. Winner enters Rumble at #30. Guy pinned enters at #1. Guy not involved in finish enters at #15.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

Totally agree. Judgment Day being so close to Backlash and One Night Stand is frustrating, as it forces you to just cram some matches together. You forgot about Night of Champions, though, which I think is one of their best concepts. It gives every title some spotlight and sometimes we go an entire year without seeing the tag titles or IC/US title defended on a ppv, which is far too long in my opinion.

It may not be a ppv, but what I also like are the 3-hour Raws that actually have a purpose to them. Too many of them don't, but they're starting to get better. This year we had the 15th Anniversary show - one of the best Raws out there. Granted, you can't have that one every year, haha, but we still had the 2008 Draft which was very entertaining, the King of the Ring tournament (which works perfectly on a 3-hour Raw in my mind), and the Raw Roulette idea. All three are gimmicks, and all three worked. Its so much better than just having 3 hours of your typical broadcast. So maybe they can start working on that concept as well...trying to add more to the 3 hour episodes like they have to the ppvs.

Side note about Survivor Series....does anybody else think that we should only have 3 world title matches, one "feud match", and the rest all be the typical elimination match? Someone brought up a good point on another thread that if Survivor Series were right now, they could have a decent match between Rhodes/DiBiase/Hawkins/Ryder against Cryme Tyme/Jesse/Festus. I also miss the "wildcard" matches that had heels teaming with faces and such.

 

[Shocky]

Damn I forgot Night of Champions, which I think is an excellent mid summer pay per view myself. A night for all of the championships to be on the line is a great idea. I wasn't sold on it at first, but in my opinion if there was the mythological 5th A Show, this would be it by a long shot.

And No Fate, my Elimination Chamber idea for No Way Out would be for the two brands that didn't have the winner at the Rumble. So if a Raw guy wins the Rumble, the two chamber matches would be Smackdown and ECW. Sure, most don't think that ECW is up there, but it still should be treated as a respectable brand.

 

[oldschoolfan]

Remember though, the Rumble winner can challenge for another brand's title.

 

[Shocky]

That is a good point, but I would say that the WWE would have to give the Rumble winner a certain time limit to make a choice on which champion he will go after. I think it's only happened once where the WWE milked it out for a while on who the challenger would be facing. That was 2005 with Batista waiting to decide with Triple H and JBL.

I kind of liked the way it went down with the Undertaker, all three champs on Raw the next night after the Rumble, and he has to make his choice then.

This way ECW would again be recognized as a third legit brand and not left out. You can see that the WWE was doing this with the Championship Scramble matches at Unforgiven. They put the ECW match in there because if it didn't, it would make that title look incredibly weak.

 

[ivo150]

You also forgot New Year's Revolution. One match here should be a Triple Threat with the #1, #15, and #30 Royal Rumble entrants. Winner enters Rumble at #30. Guy pinned enters at #1. Guy not involved in finish enters at #15.

The New Year's Revolution Pay-Per-View has been scrapped now has it not?
That is why it did not take place this year. So that WWE could build storylines more between Armageddon and Royal Rumble.

 

[klunderbunker]

Love this idea. We don't need as many shows as we have, and the fans don't seem to care at all that some of them have been scrapped. There were shows with 3 weeks between them. That is simply nowhere near enough time between events. Mania gets 6-7 weeks of build, and you can easily see the matches go up in quality. Dropping No Mercy and Judgement Day sounds great to me. TNA has made it work with Lockdown. That is one show where every year there's a theme, and for me it works fine. No Way Out, Unforgiven, NOC, ONS, all great concepts for PPV's. Doing the gimmick ppv's makes ones like Summerslam and Wrestlemania have the big show feel to them. Love the idea.

 

[Revived]

Very good points.

I would scrap out Great American Bash and return King of the Ring as a PPV. Or have some sort of battle royal or similar tournament to determine the No.1 Contender for the Summerslam main event (similar to Royal Rumble/Wrestlemania) but with a shorter time frame.

I can't really think of anything special to do with Armageddon, though. I like the War Games idea posted earlier but this would be way too similar to the Rumble and might take away some prestige. Actually, anything involving throwing 15+ guys in the ring one month prior to Royal Rumble would just be dumb and kill all the hype.

Maybe they can create a tournament similar to King of the Ring that leads into the actual PPV and culminates with the winner facing their brands champion as the main event that night. Or have a gauntlet match for each main championship with the champion being the last entrant into the match, although that may be a little too similar to the Scramble. Just some ideas.

 

[Davi323]

I seriously think all the WWE needs to do is drop half of the PPVs. we don't need them monthly, and going to a 2 month cycle in between would give us more buildup to the surviving PPVs. Obviously, you have to keep Wrestlemania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble. Those are dead set stone cold gimmies. Here is how I would do it:

March Wrestlemania -keeps MITB match
April no PPV
May Backlash - move from April to May
June no PPV
July Summerslam - move to July, it still fits with summer theme nicely.
August no PPV
September Cyber Sunday -keep as is, with voted stipulations
October no PPV
November Survivor Series
December no PPV
January Royal Rumble - keeps #1 contender stipulation
February no PPV

If you notice, all I really had to do to get the bi-monthly PPV schedule to fit is move Backlash from April to May, and Summerslam from August to July, and then move some of the gimmicky matches, like the elimination chambers, championship scrambles, etc to RAW, Smackdown and ECW to increase our interest in the programming. There is no rule that gimmick matches HAVE to be performed on PPVs. If you want to increase ratings, give us PPV quality matches on TV every now and then. If you put a Hell in the Cell match on Monday Night Raw, give it a few weeks worth of buildup, I can guarantee RAW gets no less than a 4.0 for the ratings. We need to know that when we watch RAW, Smackdown and ECW, we might see something fantastic in and of itself, and not just more buildup to the next PPV. A large part of the problem is that they have so many PPVs, storylines are rushed, and we don't have time to enjoy the feuds. Its become incredibly formulaic. Its also hard to get 100% enthusiastic to order PPVs at 40 bucks a pop when there are 3 PPVs in 6 weeks.

 

[tehblogger]

Obviously some PPVs are just useless: from this year Judgment Day sucked horribly; HHH and Orton had a crappy steel cage match while Edge had a good but pointless match with Taker. And we definitely didn't need BOTH Night of Champions AND the GAB. Probably the latter should go. Again, we don't need BOTH No Mercy AND Cyber Sunday: it gives you no time to build proper storylines.

ONS, on the other hand, is a fantastic PPV concept. It wasn't as good as it could have been this year, thanks to Orton's unfortunate injury and the fact that Batista generally sucks, but we got a wonderful TLC encounter and a bloody good Diva's match. If they use this one correctly WWE are on a major winner. Summerslam obviously sells itself, and I like the idea of at least 1 Elimination Chamber match being a yearly feature of No Way Out.

Backlash, though...it just seems too close to Mania. I didn't like it this year when, after Orton's amazing achievement in retaining at Mania, he dropped the belt just a few weeks later at Backlash. To effing Triple H, of all people. Maybe cull Backlash and Judgment Day and move ONS up the calendar...I like the idea of Mania rematches being all extreme rules.

 

[Rusty]

I think this is the main reason why I have enjoyed so many WWE pay per views of late. Individualising many pay per views gives you a great reason to order them. The big 4 (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series) will always sell as the WWE usually save the big matches for those pay per views, especially Wrestlemania. The Royal Rumble pay per view always sells on the 30 man Rumble match alone. It's usually one of the best and entertaing pay per views of the entire year. The biggest pay per view Wrestlemania, always sells the best of all the ppvs as the biggest matches happen especially the big main events, and the Money in the Bank ladder match is always entertaining.

Survivor Series and SummerSlam are usually either the beginning or the end of big time feuds and matches. They also regularly sell good each year. So the big 4 don't need changing at all. No Way Out has hopefully two elimination chamber matches each year as I personally love that concept as it decides the main events of Wrestlemania. Before this year, No Way Out was just a filler pay per view that usually had no decent matches on the card. Backlash doesn't need gimmick matches as it sells as being the aftermath of Wrestlemania and sometimes has big time rematches from the previous pay per view.

Judgment Day should be scrapped. It usually has no purpose and gives little time for matches to be built up for One Night Stand. I can't remember the last time I thoroughly enjoyed a Judgment Day pay per view. One Night Stand is a pay per view full of gimmick matches that I personally look forward to each year. Feuds usually conclude at this pay per view by having some sort of a gimmick match. Night of Champions is usually a fun pay per view that usually has some title changes as all the titles are on the line. It usually has a few matches worth seeing. The Great American Bash should stay as it is a normal pay per view without any sort of gimmick added. You need one of these because every single pay per view can't be gimmicky.

Unforgiven should have 3 Championship Scrambles each year as it is an interesting concept that gives many superstars a chance in a big time match for a World Title. I like the fact that many former champions are in the Scramble matches this month as it focuses on the mid-carders particularly. No Mercy should be scapped. It is usually a filler pay per view and is too close to Cyber Sunday in my opinion. Cyber Sunday is also a fun pay per view as the fans get to choose the participants and even the match types by voting online. A good pay per view for one off matches. Armageddon is a normal non gimmicky pay per view that should end most feuds as it is the end of the year. It shouldn't have a gimmick in my opinion.

So after scrapping Judgment Day and No Mercy, I would say the WWE pay per view lineup would be near perfect. I do think the WWE has indeed worked out its pay per view problem and hopefully buys increase as the WWE has been strongly focusing on their pay per views and their quality of them in my opinion.