Different PPV Format

[Jack-Hammer]

There's been lots of talk as to what people think the WWE should do about it's dropping ppv buyrates. We've heard everything from making ppvs brand exclusives to reducing the number of ppv events to simply lowering the cost. I think the second and third choices might be pretty viable all things considered. But, I was mulling things over and I had a bit of an idea. Not saying it's a good idea, but it's something I haven't seen anybody bring up so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

What I had in mind for the ppv situation was to have maybe 8 ppv events through the year and have a live 3 hour ppv style Raw without commercial interruption once every 4 months. As for the ppvs themselves, I had a thought about maybe only having 4 matches on the card for most of the ppvs. No filler, no 2 minute Diva or comedy matches, just 4 matches in which WWE Creative works their collective asses off to come up with ideas for building the feuds on television, building up the storyline and angles so as to have 4 extremely strong matches at the ppv lasting anywhere from at least 20-30 minutes per match. The wrestlers involved would have to work hard, no half assing it or phoning it in, if they wanted to be included on these ppvs and show that they've got the stuff to be a star for the company, a champion worthy of carrying a title, being a contender worthy of championships, etc. I'd eliminate the Diva matches from ppvs altogether I think.

Now, at least in my head, I think it could potentially lead to overall wrestling content being made as strong as possible on Raw and SmackDown!, even often having ppv caliber matches on those shows in order to convince people to buy the ppvs. I think that the quarterly, commercial free Raw ppv specials could also have people interested in buying ppvs if the specials contain lots of great matches.

Such a format might bruise some egos a little as everyone would wants to be on ppvs, but maybe some bruised egos would be a worthy price to pay if the WWE can gain some steam on this ppv problem they've got. And, besides, it could be considered incentive to simply work harder and show that you've got what it takes.

Not saying it'd work at all, but it's a format that would have me interested in seeing what would come about ultimately.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Pay Per Views are a cash cow for the WWE and a major part of their revenue stream... any cutbacks would hit the bottom line and as a traded company they would have to have something major in reserve to get away with it...

The problem is not so much the number of PPV's WWE holds but the somewhat antiquated concept of PPV's in the first place... Today everyone's entertainment dollar is torn between 5 times as many different places as before... the idea of a PPV itself means that you spend a large amount of that for a one off TV experience...

$50 or £30 can buy you a meal out, a night on the town with friends, several movies a video game or pay for your Iphone that month... All have more potential entertainment value than sitting watching soap opera.

WWE is currently touting itself as "The Best Value In Entertainment" but PPV's are no longer giving value for money or rather the money charged...

Here in the UK, it costs £15 or nearly $30 to watch a PPV live... now bear in mind that this is at 1am on a Sunday, finishing at 4am... Anyone with school the next day or work can't really justify that expense as to fully enjoy the PPV they might not be able to get up the next day, thus a PPV could cost nearer to £100 with lost wages... They then charge the same amount to watch the PPV after the fact, when we can have seen spoilers... yet a live Premier Leauge Football game, even the top games like Liverpool Man U costs 9? I think not Vince...

The PPV concept itself needs to change... I'd suggest first of all making all events cheaper by half, thus encouraging casual viewers... I would have a "premium match" that you can order (the "must see" match) for an extra few bucks... thus if you must see Supercena win again and his is the Premium match then you pay that few extra bucks for it... if you hate Cena... then you don't...

 

[blackmetalbuick]

I'm not sure too many guys on the roster could put on a compelling 20-30 minute match. I do agree that there's no need for filler on PPV cards though, get rid of the comedy matches and whatever else.

I don't see too many good points to what you brought up. Commercial free PPV episodes of RAW, PPV cards with 4 matches, etc etc etc. Nothing wrong with brainstorming a little bit and trying to think of something creative, I just don't think it would solve much.

It's not a complicated issue. The need to either A) make their product worth $44.95 for 3 hours of entertainment, B) lower the price, C) have fewer PPV events, or D) continue staring at their declining sales reports and do nothing about it.

I've said it before, if they would lower the cost to maybe $25-$30, I'd be much more inclined to order their PPVs. I think many people would say the same thing. I do not have $45 to spend on one Sunday evening of entertainment, especially when there's no guarantee that it's going to be particularly entertaining.

Pay Per Views are a cash cow for the WWE and a major part of their revenue stream... any cutbacks would hit the bottom line and as a traded company they would have to have something major in reserve to get away with it...

Not sure where you get your business sense from, but when sales start plummeting, you better start making some adjustments. "Cutbacks would hurt the buttom line", but standing firm on having $50 PPVs 12 times a year that nobody buys doesn't? You can't force people to buy anything and you can't just stare at your poor sales reports and do nothing about it. That's not protecting the bottom line either.

They obviously already know there's a problem. Preorder Smackdown VS Raw 2011 and you get a voucher for $20 off a WWE PPV event.

 

[KitInaka]

have a live 3 hour ppv style Raw without commercial interruption once every 4 months.

You know this could actually work and let me tell you why.

WWE's last major buy for a PPV (at least for me) was Money in the Bank. Why you might ask? Well, 6 days eariler I watch Evan Bourne get RKO'ed by Randy Orton out of Bourne's finisher. It generated so much hype for the event seeing it happenand made people wonder how they could top it. So people bought the PPV.

Now imagine that the WWE drops a few PPVs at least down to 10 and we get special 3 hour no-commerical RAWs. The WWE could use big stuff like that in those Raw's in order to generate interest that this is something that you only see at PPV's.

Also, WWE has sort of done this before. If you remember when the PPV's were brand exclusive they used to have one night every once in a while where the card would be stacked with PPV matches on the normal shows because the other show was the one with the PPV.

Not saying that this is gonna work. Just saying that the WWE could implement it very easily into there system.

 

[VencomHardcore]

I agree with the FREE show commercial free. I also love the idea of reducing the price to $25. Or the cost of thier cheapest seat [ $20]. I think they could double the amount of buys by reducing the price.

As one person said. There are alot of things competing for that $50 per month. So they need to think about ways to keep people going in thier pockets. Hell if they kept the $50 per month charge. They could try to have a $20 PPV feature where you only get the lower card matches and if you wanted the full show upgrade.

WWE has to do something to get people to dig in thier pockets.

What if WWE started streaming the PPV's on thier own website for $20. That would hit many of the streaming sites hard and get them more money with casual fans.

 

[CyDeez]

I like the OP idea. It's not a bad one.

With the way things have began to decline, as far as revenue and what not. Change is something that is needed in wrestling, and for the most part, in business in general.

I also believe that lowering the prices of PPV's would be a great idea. I agree on a higher price for Wrestlemania and probably even The Royal Rumble and maybe a couple others. But, I think it is a stupid idea to have some event like HIAC or NOC, at least at this point, be so damn expensive!

 

[richunclescrooge]

As far as ppvs, they may do better if price drops, but they may also be percieved as less prestigious, just looking online i saw the price for bragging rights is 44.99, and so is ufc 121. Ufc is WWE's competition and if they drop the price below theirs, they could be percieved as showing weakness.

Looking up some stats, wether they are accurate or not im not sure (http://mmapayout.com/2010/10/ufc-overtakes-wwe-in-ppv-buys/), but it looks as tho ufc ppv buys have beaten out WWE's in more recent years. Changing prices may help that but I tink a better format would to be to get rid of the gimmick ppvs, having 3 hell in a cell matches in one night just for the sake of having them is crappy and lazy booking. Gimmick matches are meant to end feuds or at least propel them further.

Remember when gimmick matches meant something? two guys would be pissed off at eachother enough to say "hey, a regular match just wont do it, i need something more to hurt my opponent"? now guys say things along the lines of "I hate my opponent right now, and X PPV is coming up, we might as well fight in that kind of match". It doesnt show passion from the fighters, its like if you ask 2 men why they decided to marry their girlfriends, one man says "she's the most beautiful girl Ive ever seen and I knew I couldn't live without her by my side, she brings out the best in me, etc." and the other guy saying "we get along pretty well and I figured it was probably enough time dating to ask her". Both men do love their girlfriends, but if you could only choose to attend one wedding, all other factors aside, which would you choose?

That would help ppv buys, as well as having more compelling stories and more time to build the stories as well, just getting more over with the casual fan. The more people that watch is directly correlated to the amount of PPV buys there will be. The way I would propose getting more causal fans would be to create compelling stories that really suck you in while adding somewhat cliffhangers at the end of episodes leaving some questions unanswered. TV that leaves you asking questions is what gets people to watch, think about shows like lost, if everything was explained in the first show, nobody would care. Conversely you cant make things too confusing or else people will just say F this, things must start simple, then become more complex.

One PPV a month is fine, as long as they are truly spaced out and give people a reason to actully buy them

 

[shadyfozzie]

Hey Everyone,
After reading the recap of the lackluster TNA PPV, and the fact that some of the WWE PPV have been abysmal, I have a few ideas on how to change, at least WWE, the PPV schedule, and possibly include a new PPV into the mix.

1) Change PPV Schedule
I personally don't think they should have a PPV every month.. Here's my suggestion:

a) Rumble in January, Wrestlemania in March, a PPV in May, move SummerSlam to end of July (since it's more 'summer' than end of august), Night of Champions/KOTR in September, and Survivor Series in November..

What about the other months?? instead of a cheesy Gimmick PPV, here's what they can do: the last Monday of every month have a 3 hour Raw and put on PPV quality matches.

For example: after Wrestlemania, they start of a bunch of feuds for 3 weeks, or have tournaments (i'll get back to a tournament in a bit), then at the 3 hour Raw, they have the 'PPV', where they can have some of the interesting finishes, then continue the fued through to the next PPV. This can attract new viewers and show what the PPV is like, thus possibly increasing their buyrate.

Also, why not have a PPV on a Saturday night??

Part 2: What about this for a PPV idea (maybe for May, which I will then use as my May PPV from above)

Monday after Wrestlemania, they decide to have a Tag Team Turmoil 32 team tournament. Teams will be paired at random (Except for already established teams, and champions do not have to be part, but they can) and put in matches. Week 1-3 will be 2 first round matches where we see teams implode,,cause upsets, etc... After teams get eliminated, they then start new feuds with each other or cause other teams to get eliminated, etc...in the upcoming weeks, we get down to the 'elite 8' tag teams, where at the 'mini PPV' on Raw we see all 4 tag matches, plus additional matches. Then over the next few weeks we get the final two matches, and the week before the PPV, we get the finals, where the winner faces the tag champs at the PPV.

Now, you can do a lot more with this: you can have tag battle royals to give teams 'a second chance', you can have random pairings like Barrett/Orton (again, champs can be part of this), you can have a team like Santino/Goldust upset a team like Rhodes/McIntyre, you can re-team edge/christian and have them make a run, you can split teams up (like what they might do with the Harts).. You can even split them up and have 16 Raw and 16 Smackdown teams, where the winners of each show meet up..

Not only this, but you can also re-establish the tag division (showing that teams that have been together will advance, maybe bring in new teams from FCW).

Tell me what you think.. Let the bashing commence!

 

[Dagger Dias]

Having 8 PPV's still feels like too many. WWE isn't in a situation like TNA where they need the money from each show's buyrates. I say reduce it to 5. Keep the Big Four and Night of Champions. I like Jack-Hammer's idea of eliminating the divas matches from PPV's. There's no reason why the Divas Championship can't just be defended on Raw and Smackdown, perhaps with a rare PPV title match. They don't need to be on the PPV's at all unless it's a promo or something. Most fans don't care about the division anymore anyway. Having PPV caliber matches on Raw and Smackdown I definitely disagree on. Why pay for a PPV when you can see a PPV quality match for free? There goes all the money WWE would have made on me other than Wrestlemania. Other fans share my opinion too, so there goes A LOT of money. Not a good idea. I don't fully agree with all of Jack-Hammer's idea in the first post but it's a lot better than the current format. The PPV buyrates will only continue to go down due to people not caring anymore and the issues with live streams. Monthly PPV's is ridiculous, let alone 13 or more each year. Going down to 5 or so and eliminating the divas matches is a great start and the buyrates for the remaining shows would skyrocket because WWE would have enough time to build up the matches to the point where people WANT to pay to see them.