Disappointing Buyrate For Wrestlemania 26

[Turd Ferguson]

Wrestlemania 26 did 885,000 buys worldwide. On the surface, this seems like a decent enough number... however the WWE should be VERY disappointed, especially when the UFC pulled in 850,000 North American buys the night before from UFC 111.

Here's how Vince McMahon tried to spin it today:

Vince noted that the Rumble and Elimination Chamber did increase buys, and was asked if competition (UFC 111 on the same weekend) hurt WrestleMania. Vince stated, “We’re not sure if it has or not, you’re talking about two relatively different audiences, completely. The UFC audience, which I guess is what you are referring to, is more of a boxing audience than an entertainment thing, like we are. Nonetheless, there has been some of that, but from a scheduling standpoint, we can’t control that. Going forward, I don’t see any on the schedule at the moment.”

I don't know how Vince can say they're different audiences, especially when the crossover between UFC fans and WWE fans tends to be pretty high. Furthermore, the UFC has stolen a lot of WWE fans in between how The Ultimate Fighter used to be on right after Raw when it was still on Spike, and how Brock Lesnar is the UFC Heavyweight Champion. The UFC specializes in both sports and the entertainment spectrums. Wrestlemania happened the day after one of the biggest UFC cards of the year, and the UFC card was cheaper to order than Wrestlemania.

So, between the high cost of the card, and the UFC absolutely being a factor in the WWE's success, that's the reason why Wrestlemania's buyrate was a shame. This card was extremely bad timing for the WWE too, when Georges St. Pierre, who is from Canada, and immensely popular in the country was fighting on the card. Canadian fans chose GSP over Bret Hart it seems.

Either way, Vince needs to stop with the "UFC is not our competition" quote he keeps churning out. The UFC and WWE have a high crossover in fan appeal, and with the UFC's product being a lot more exciting than what the WWE's offering, as well as being cheaper than Wrestlemania and putting on something different every month, as well as the whole factor of it being "real"... the UFC is absolutely competition for the WWE, and the Wrestlemania buyrate should reinforce that line of thinking.

 

[Decarow]

Well, when he says "UFC isn't our competition", he's meaning they aren't WRESTLING competition. What he means by that is TNA, ROH, and how WCW and ECW were. They aren't necessarily threats, but they are technically business competition. Yes, they both show violence and athletes, but not in the same business category. It's like McDonalds and Applebees. They both serve food, but aren't necessarily competition. McDonalds worries about BK and Wendy's, where Applebees worries about TGIFridays and Ruby Tuesdays. I'm sure there are a lot of people that eat at both establishments, but they aren't competition. Same as WWE and UFC.

 

[CuddleBuns84]

There is a high crossover, and it did effect the wrestlemania buys. I mean if Game 7 of the world series was on the same day as the superbowl, ratings would shift.

Now, i've been to an UFC ppv party, and I've been to a WWE ppv party, and I've noticed a huge difference in audience. Most UFC fans are former boxing fans, and fighting fans. WWE fans change on a regularly basis. Every couple years or so. Just 3 years maybe even earlier you had John Cena telling people to blow him, and they were advertising Maria's Playboy shoot.

The WWE is an entertainment juggernaut where the UFC is a legit sporting jaggernaut. Two different entities. Not also that but that is a lot of buy rates for professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has fixed outcomes, and is more of stunts. UFC is a sport, where anything can happen. So it's still a big win for the WWE.

Professional wrestling is a traveling show of entertainment, like a circus, UFC has set areas for the fans to travel instead. Two different entities, two great products.

 

[Phoenix]

One thing that was rightly pointed out in the shareholders meeting is that there are Wrestlemania Parties increasing which minimises the buyrate but increases viewership. For example, I was in a bar that showed Mania at 12 Midnight GMT, there was at least a 100 people minimum watching, how many buys does that constitute? One. So where buys have suffered, it doesn't take away the fact people are watching Wrestlemania, they just are using means to minimise spending. Vince has stated he would like to try and people to watch Wrestlemania individually, but he has said that he knows the buys DO NOT reflect how many people watched the product. Yes, it affected the outcome of buys, but many did watch it with minimum cost effects.

 

[DCubedxDDD]

I agree with you BigFan that when Vince says that UFC isnt the competition that he means they aren't a wrestling company. However, he needs to realize that when you only have roughly 35,000 more buys worldwide than UFC did in North America alone there is a problem there because Wrestlemania is the "granddaddy of them all" and should be able to draw better buys for its premier event of the calender year. I think it had something to do with the card personally. To me there just wasn't enough build for the specific feuds and I also believe price has alot to do with it too....it was $55.00 plus to get Wm26 and I still regret ordering it, not because I wasn't satisfied, it's because I just can't believe I paid 55 bucks to see a mediocre Wrestlemania. It's about the product not the competition.

 

[giantwooly]

to me the reason the whole buy rate thing is happening is because of cost for the HD version of wrestlemania from Comcast in Jacksonville, Fl it was $60..in todays economy with hardly nobody having a job(or at least that's the way it seems) combined with the fact that the one match worth watching was HBK how in the ever living hell can Vince expect us to pay that. Now if he was to say....come down on his PPV prices to $40 dollars he would probably triple his buyrates and make TONS more money. I blame Vince and the WWE for expecting people to pay so much for something that's not that great.

 

[Legendary1]

The buyrates are not TOTALLY disappointing. Even though the buyrates were less than last year, WWE still should of made MORE money off of the PPV this year than last year. (They had a $10 increase for this years HD WM broadcast!) ....UFC may not be DIRECT competition for WWE but, they still compete for PPV dollars so it had to effect WM a little by having a UFC event the day before. (It definitely didn't help.) I'm sure WWE was hoping to at least match or increase last years PPV number and still cash in on the $10 increase. But, it's by no way all "doom and gloom" or nearly as disappointing as it may look by just simply comparing it to last years numbers.

 

[izzardceo]

The buyrates are not TOTALLY disappointing. Even though the buyrates were less than last year, WWE still should of made MORE money off of the PPV this year than last year. (They had a $10 increase for this years HD WM broadcast!)

exactly they expected less ppl would buy raised the price and made 5X more $$ than last year anybody who calls that a failure or a disappointing event has the mind of a smark and not a business mind in general wwe is making $ top of $ and made more $ this wrestlemania off buys then they did in a long time i would say for the price he charged the obviously less wrestling audience and ufc i would call that a great day

 

[mral82]

It ain't McMahon's fault the buyrates were down it's Dana White's. Every year WrestleMania rolls around and everybody tries to jump on their band wagon. The price for HD and Regular Feed was the same for Saint Joseph CableVision customers and that price was $54.99. It's like when the Grammy's were on the same night as the Rumble this year. What I am trying to say is that if that the UFC was on the night before TNA's PPV which they would've not done at all WrestleMania would've done better. I rather watch wrestling over MMA as the ELiteXC made me realize that MMA is as fixed as wrestling. I'm not disappointed at WM's buyrates at all.

 

[NXTrookie2013]

Vince is probably saying that because UFC is a sport and WWE isnt. "No WWE is a sport, its wrestling." In vince's eyes though, WWE is an entertainment business not a sports business, therefore he says that anything that is a sport isn't competition. What he's forgetting is that most people take it as a sport and people switch too UFC because they think wrestling is "fake." So basically, Vince needs to start looking at the sport part more to build audience, he thinks it's all entertainment but either way whether he likes it or not it's still a sport, but uum. Yeah theres not much else i can add to this.


Vince Says WWE isn't sport... in other words.... WWE in wrestling is like MTV and music. Had to throw that in, i didn't come up with that ive seen it before, but it's some what true.

 

[Travaje]

It's my opinion that the UFC is absolutely WWE's main competition, not TNA. I've been saying this on here for a while to the people that complain about the WWE being PG. A very large percentage of the American public over the age of 18 doesn't think wrestling is cool anymore. It's THE reason why there hasn't been anything as big as the nWo, The Rock, or Stone Cold since 2002, because right after that, that was around the time the UFC started to blow up. A good percentage of the UFC audience are former wrestling watchers, that don't need to watch fake fighting anymore because they have a cooler alternative....real fighting.

Vince was smart to know this, even if he denies it, and that is THE reason why the WWE has been hell-driven to continue to develop and create new stars for a new audience. It's a big reason why TNA is not doing well....kids don't care about guys like Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. TNA's audience is people in the UFC demographic who still like wrestling. It's that simple.

Now, as far as PPV buys, Vince recently stated at the stockholder meeting that the reason why they upped the price of the PPV's is because more people are watching one TV than they were. This is what UFC fans already do, imagine if they didn't how many buys a PPV would do. Even though the PPV buys were close in numbers, I guarantee you more people watched UFC 111 than Wrestlemania. The UFC is bigger. UFC buys will continue to increase while wrestling buys will continue to decrease. And there is nothing that is going to bring back former wrestling fan that now watches UFC back to wrestling, unless they have kids who end up liking wrestling. The best thing Vince can do is what he is doing, trying to create the new guys that will appeal to kids who aren't allowed to watch UFC and creating a new audience while building the Cena audience.

 

[3,000 Pound Gorrilla]

One thing that was rightly pointed out in the shareholders meeting is that there are Wrestlemania Parties increasing which minimises the buyrate but increases viewership. For example, I was in a bar that showed Mania at 12 Midnight GMT, there was at least a 100 people minimum watching, how many buys does that constitute? One. So where buys have suffered, it doesn't take away the fact people are watching Wrestlemania, they just are using means to minimise spending. Vince has stated he would like to try and people to watch Wrestlemania individually, but he has said that he knows the buys DO NOT reflect how many people watched the product. Yes, it affected the outcome of buys, but many did watch it with minimum cost effects.

Phoenix makes a great point. In this day and age...people are less willing to plop 60$ down to watch a PPV, when they can invite 10 people over and share the wealth, or watch it a bar. But, it works both ways. My friends and I often rotate the house at which we order UFC PPVs, so we have 10-15 families watching, but only one buy. So... if you figure that half the audience (for arguments sake) does that, that's A LOT of missed PPV buys. But it is not WWE alone, UFC suffers the same fate. VKM is a spin doctor, and says what he believes sounds the best, but the bottom line is the economy sucks, and people are tight wads about money. I don't think in my entire adult life have I ordered a PPV event (WWE or UFC as I am a hufe fan of both) and watched it all by my lonesome. Also, with the internet being as it is now-a-days, there are many, many sites which you can watch the PPVs for free if you have a bit of talent with a search engine. This propbably also loses a few (thousand) buys. It is not that the product is any different, be it better or worse, but times have changed. And there you have it.

 

[ichigoakiyama]

It ain't McMahon's fault the buyrates were down it's Dana White's. Every year WrestleMania rolls around and everybody tries to jump on their band wagon. The price for HD and Regular Feed was the same for Saint Joseph CableVision customers and that price was $54.99. It's like when the Grammy's were on the same night as the Rumble this year. What I am trying to say is that if that the UFC was on the night before TNA's PPV which they would've not done at all WrestleMania would've done better. I rather watch wrestling over MMA as the ELiteXC made me realize that MMA is as fixed as wrestling. I'm not disappointed at WM's buyrates at all.

this is a very ignorant statement...u do know elitexc was forced closed due to the conspiracy, and dana white and scott coker(strikeforce) blasted elitexc...... dont compare the larger orgs such as ufc,strikeforce,dream to elitexc.... elitexc was very corrupt due to the promoter coming from boxing and tried to use boxing tactics..hell shaw didnt even believe in true mma.... he told fighters to stand because it would be "more" exciting...white and coker have never done this.... dont generalize the sport over 1 dbag who didnt even care about the sport.... and beforeu say dana white prob does this too....its highly doubtful....there are many fighters that extremly dislike dana and if this were true this would be leaked in a minutue... mma isnt fixed, elitexc was.... , your arguments about the night it was on is invalid, they still would of held it in the same month...the whole point is people for the most part are not willing to buy 2 or 3 ppvs a month..... people r choosing mma because its a sport and its not predicted unlike wrestling.... and they have put on fights the night before tna ppvs as well..... if your gonna try and bash something atleast have knowledge on what your trying to bash... and u also make it sound like ufc only comes close on wm weekend which is totally false.... in 09 wm pulled around 970 buys which was there largest ppv b uy, ufc had 5 ppvs close to this number 4 beat it... ufcs biggest ppv pulled in 1.7 million buys which was nowhere near wm time. wwes next biggest ppv was RR which pulled in 450.... 450 was ufcs LOWEST PPV draw and then u have take into consideration that ppv was the same night as mayweathers ppv.. so the audience was split...... other than those 2 ppvs, wwes buy rates were in the 200's while the avg for ufc were in the 700's...

the fact is wwe is losing fans, hell vince is losing his own family and workers to the business.... shane sold a majority of his stock to try and buy into zuffa (ufcs parent company, but shane ended up failing in the purchase) and apparently zuffa hired some of the wwes backstage workers... with the ecoonmy the way it is alot of people cant afford 2 or 3 ppvs a month, and what is happening is ufc/mma is becoming more and more popular and are drawing more fans, the older crowd is switching over and vinces pg rating isnt helping any

this 885, is a very bad number....as said the 885 was all around the world, ufc pulled near it in just america, thats not including canada and the uk where the 2 headliners are from.....this wm was almost 100,000 down from last year.... this is not a good sign when considering wwe got its ass kicked in ppv in 09 compared to the ufc...wm was there highest ppv and got beat 4x last year, were not even done with this year yet and ufc has some very big cards coming up and wwe is bound to get beat again soundly... not a good sign with the dwindling numbers...

 

[Beitter]

WWE's product is the reason why the buyrate was down! Now I'm both a UFC and WWE fan, the fact is UFC is in a class on its own, the shot by WWE years ago! Why well it would be the one difference between the 2 and that is that UFC is real, damn real as Kurt Angle would say and while we can guess, there r no spoilers for UFC ppvs, unlike Wrestlemania when everyone knows who's going to win and lose! I think the WWe should be happy with what they got considering what took place! The worst ladder match since Jake roberts vs JYD decades! A divas matchs at maniaare never exciting, I think the last good one was Mickie James vs Trish at 22! The only thing good about the WWE title match was Cena entrance with the armsmen! Edge and Jericho, were great and had a surprise finish, and of course the Taker/HBK was classic! Other than that what did wrestlemania offer us!? I think WWE shouldn't worry about UFC they should worry about Wrestlemania 27, and how there r going to but on a show without HBK! I only say that because I know the WWE has done it before, but now the product is in my opinion at an all time low, and I've been watching for 20 years now! I think Vince, and his band of writers need to stop thinking about family orientation, and bring back what made us and kept us all wrestling fans in the late 90's and early millenium....ATTITUDE! I'll quote some audience fans "we want blood"!

 

[Legendary1]

u also make it sound like ufc only comes close on wm weekend which is totally false.... in 09 wm pulled around 970 buys which was there largest ppv b uy, ufc had 5 ppvs close to this number 4 beat it... ufcs biggest ppv pulled in 1.7 million buys which was nowhere near wm time. wwes next biggest ppv was RR which pulled in 450.... 450 was ufcs LOWEST PPV draw and then u have take into consideration that ppv was the same night as mayweathers ppv.. so the audience was split...... other than those 2 ppvs, wwes buy rates were in the 200's while the avg for ufc were in the 700's...

the fact is wwe is losing fans, hell vince is losing his own family and workers to the business.... shane sold a majority of his stock to try and buy into zuffa (ufcs parent company, but shane ended up failing in the purchase) and apparently zuffa hired some of the wwes backstage workers... with the ecoonmy the way it is alot of people cant afford 2 or 3 ppvs a month, and what is happening is ufc/mma is becoming more and more popular and are drawing more fans, the older crowd is switching over and vinces pg rating isnt helping any

this 885, is a very bad number....as said the 885 was all around the world, ufc pulled near it in just america, thats not including canada and the uk where the 2 headliners are from.....this wm was almost 100,000 down from last year.... this is not a good sign when considering wwe got its ass kicked in ppv in 09 compared to the ufc...wm was there highest ppv and got beat 4x last year, were not even done with this year yet and ufc has some very big cards coming up and wwe is bound to get beat again soundly... not a good sign with the dwindling numbers...

OK....I'm not trying to take away from UFC's popularity and anyone with any sense knows that WWE right now is not as popular as it use to be. I'm not going to go into the whole "cycle" spill, but right now WWE is luke warm where UFC is pretty hot. (Boxing used to be hot on PPV, now its selectively hot.) But trying to compare these two companies off of PPV buys only, is just asinine. In WWE's defense very few companies have a business model as effective as WWE's. PPV income is just ONE part of WWE huge synergy of income. (Granted it is a large and important part.) Before I get into that though I want to touch on the actual PPV numbers.

UFC has a HUGE PPV advantage in the fact that it is a REAL sport and most importantly, the UFC fighters are not NEARLY AS OVER EXPOSED as the WWE Superstars. UFC rotate their stars on PPV where WWE has the same stars on TV AND PPV every week/month. (Not even including all the non televised house shows.) I for one also think it helps that UFC always have their PPVs before (Sat.) WWE's has theirs.(Sun) The gentleman above stated that 885 is a VERY BAD number and sites a couple reasons why WWE is hurting. (I agree that I don't think the PG thing is helping.) But part of the reason it was that low is because the UFC PPV was the night before! If Wrestlemania was the night BEFORE the UFC card I'm sure they would have felt some effect. (Maybe not as much.) It's always an advantage if you get the FIRST crack at someones wallet. As far as 885,000 being VERY BAD??? Only 7 PPVs in boxing HISTORY have done over 1 Million PPV buys, so anytime your remotely close to that number your doing pretty good!

Some of the UFC "numbers" above are slightly inflated from everything I have read. In 2009 UFC averaged 620,000 buys. (Not 700,000) If you actually look at just PPV numbers, other than the last couple of UFC PPVs, they have been on a downward trend since their biggest PPV UFC 100. (Which did 1.6 Million buys.) Other than UFC 100 there were only 3 other UFC PPVs that did better that RR. (450 IS NOT the lowest number UFC did in 2009. UFC 109 & 110 actually only did 275 & 240,000 buys. (This years EC did 285,000.) As far as last years Wrestlemania getting beat 4 times last year? I have that UFC 100 was the only PPV to beat WM. Like I said I'm not saying UFC isn't popular, everyone knows that it is but a lot of numbers stated earlier look to be exaggerated.

Like I said earlier, it is crazy to compare WWE and UFC based on just PPV numbers anyway. Dana White would give his left nut if "The Ultimate Fighter" could average the same TV ratings as WWE gets. (And WWE's ratings are almost half what they used to be.) I guarantee Dana wishes he could get the same $600,000+ a week ($32 Million a year) TV deal that SMACKDOWN is getting next season. The WWE merchandising and marketing machine is unmatched to anything UFC is doing right now. (Cena may not be a real wrestler but he can sure as hell sell t-shirts.) I don't want to beat a dead horse, but from a business standpoint the financial synergy between PPVs, TV, Live events, merchandise (Toys,clothes, DVDs) is nothing short of amazing. (DISNEY being the only other company I can think of off the top of my head that does just as good of job.) Let's not forget about the financial advantage WWE gained when they became a publicly traded company and in the influx of cash they received. Unlike most companies that go public, WWE was a "debt free" company when they went public.

WWE really is a hybrid and hard to compare to other organizations other than other "wrestling" companies. Truthfully, they are just "entertainment" but unfairly they will still be compared to UFC because they have a "sport" element to them. (Especially since they both are dominating PPV buys.) To be fair to UFC they are still doing a great job on the PPV front. For years WWE has been the king of PPV and has been dominating boxing for quite some time. Now that WWE isn't the only company putting up impressive PPV number, people are going to compare them to UFC even more. Like this thread. (To be honest the real winners are the cable companies!!) Don't get me wrong PPV is very important to WWE but like I said you cant just use PPV numbers and compare them to UFC. TWO different companies, TWO different business structures, and way TOO many other elements to compare. IF and when UFC get successful using WWE's model their business is going to be unfathomable!! (And dont think they are not trying to do it.) UFC's business first took off when "The Ultimate Fighter" was created. It was smart you could use the show to create characters to sell PPVs. (Sound familiar?)

Until the day that UFC runs events with the same fighters every week on TV, PLUS the same fighters on non-televised shows, PLUS the same fighters on PPV every month ..THEN...I'll say its fair to compare the PPV numbers. (Yes, we all know it's physically impossible for a human being to be in a REAL fight that many times that close together.....Isn't that the reason promoters started to make wrestling fake to begin with???? )

 

[tarzan2490]

Well, when he says "UFC isn't our competition", he's meaning they aren't WRESTLING competition. What he means by that is TNA, ROH, and how WCW and ECW were. They aren't necessarily threats, but they are technically business competition. Yes, they both show violence and athletes, but not in the same business category. It's like McDonalds and Applebees. They both serve food, but aren't necessarily competition. McDonalds worries about BK and Wendy's, where Applebees worries about TGIFridays and Ruby Tuesdays. I'm sure there are a lot of people that eat at both establishments, but they aren't competition. Same as WWE and UFC.

Honestly someone need's to give this person a medal, for the best point,metaphor, and best post to someones thread.

Took the words right out of my mouth, dont even know what to say now...Good job.

 

[Blade]

Well, it is interesting to note that The Rumble and Elimination Chamber did get higher buy rates than last year. That messes up the IWC's perception of who draws completely, since Sheamus was the WWE champion going into those events and Undertaker was in feuds with Mysterio and Batista. Maybe having people other than the usual 4 or 5 guys in the title scene actually does pay off? Because going into Wrestlemania, it was back to the usual guys in the title scene in the space of a month. Just something worth pondering.

But yeah, the buyrate is pretty disappointing considering the card was fairly stacked. Like I've said, maybe new faces in the main event scene is exactly what the WWE needs right now to start making the kind of money they used to make. Would Wrestlemania have sold better with Cena vs someone going for the title for the first time? Or perhaps having Cena vs Batista in a non-title match and maybe letting Sheamus or someone have the WWE title match? That might have help, who knows.

Also, like Phoenix has said, there's not large groups of people who come together to watch Wrestlemania at friends' houses or at bars, it's like having Oscars parties. But that's not something that can be easily discouraged.

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

the buy-rate going down, well not by alot, but it's still a drop...it could well be because of ufc, but it's gota be down to the "E", this wrestlemania wasn't the best, it was kinda predictable for some and for many more reasons could be why the buy rate was down..