Has the Joint PPV concept damaged Raw and Smackdown?

[pepentorresHHH]

Hear me out.

Years ago in the years before 2007, PPVs were by brand except for the big four.... this meant that the E had to put 6 to 7 matches per event which included your world title/me match.... 2 feud ones.... your tag match.... your diva match....and a filler.....

this meant that the program had to create enought feuds to fill the PPV.

But now each brand have produce 3 matches and MOST of the time .... are the world title matches and the 2 feud matches per brand......

so there is no effort now to make more feuds and storylines because you wont get the payoff at the ppv which has almost always been where storylines end.....

I know you'll say now the PPVs are better with the main eventers only wrestling but if that's the case then why are the buys dropping even more every year?

also a good portion of the international fans cant watch raw smackdown and the former ecw and could only get glimpses of the shows on the internet ........ so the lower card guys cant showcase their skills anymore...

so i want your thoughts......do you think joint ppvs have damaged the way raw and smackdown were?

 

[macksstream]

You know, you make a really good point. and now that i think about it you're right. i've just started watching wrestling the last couple of years but one of my mates lent me a heap of old ppvs, and they were good. and now i do find myself kinda looking for fueds on ppv, but they dont have many. Mainly they're over titles. But just once i'd like to see pretty much a blood fued, like orton-kofi should have been. so yes in ways i think it has damaged raw and smackdown but in other ways its also better. But the cons of joint ppv outweigh the pros at the moment i think.

 

[Schizophrenic]

While I don't think it has damaged it persae, I do think it has greatly effected the talent and the guys who hardly get a shot at being on tv. I'm more of a fan of SmackDown so I will use their roster to get my point across. Ever since they started doing the PPV's will both or all brands on the same show, like you said pepen, the writers really only have to get over the big 3 programs that will be on PPV and maybe a tv one as well. That involves maybe 10 people total. The current SmackDown roster holds 24 main wrestlers along with maybe 7 or 8 divas. That would leave about 24 people off tv weekly. Add in Superstars and then you have still around 20 people not doing much but seen in backstage pull aparts.

Very talented individuals such as The Hart Dynasty, Charlie Haas, Dolph Ziggler, Finlay, Cryme Tyme and Matt Hardy are all currently not involved in any feuds. For some of these guys not to have the chance to shine is ridiculous. I for one would be very happy to see "brand-Exclusive" PPV's to come back as it would showcase all the talent on the show and it would make it possible to see new and fresh matches which is no doubt a big thing lacking in WWE right now. This would also help make the tv less routine and would get people to tune in to see who was going to face who insed of knowing that the top six guys are gonna be involved in several different matches with one another that has happened before on tv.

Plus it was always fun to go to a brand exclusive event and when someone from another brand showed up it was because a big feud was about to begin and it fealt like something special insted of making it seem like "he was here and had nothing to do so he just went out there." It would give it the feeling of "He's not supposed to be here! How did he sneek in?" I much prefered the brand exclusiv PPV's mainly because it made me want to get the shows insted of feeling like I'm watching the same PPV for the third time.

 

[16mikeytot]

well to answer your question about pap-per-view drops umm it might be because the country is in a resession and you have to remember their are a bunch of pap-per-views i believe 13 last year. i dont order pap-per-views unless their are good matches throughout. it could also be because they have the same guys constantly wrestling each other for 3 or 4 pap-per-views with different stipulations like hhh and orton last year the fued should have never went past backlash. but about separate brand pap-per-views you'll get the same matches you would see on raw or smackdown.

 

[mister_b1LL]

I don't think that the Joint PPV concept damaged RAW or Smackdown in terms of business. The PPVs are supposed to show the money guys and obviously WWE is doing that right and in turn they're getting money. But for the superstars trying to make it big in the WWE it's hard for them because they can't get their feuds on PPV. You're never gonna see Shelton Benjamin take on Ezekiel Jackson and William Regal in a handicap match because it's not gonna be a money maker. But at the same time, brand exclusive PPVs wouldn't be the answer to that because I remember watching the old PPVs and all they looked like were glorified versions of the Brand's TV show. I personally wish WWE would keep the joint concept, but add more of the major grudge matches to the card and not always depend on a championship match every time.

 

[flyguy1609]

i personally loved the brand only ppvs. each match got more time. i remember back in 04-06 where they act seem to care about each title, and gave time to build the feud up

 

[wbuqed]

im pretty much with the idea that the PPVs should be separated, in doing so though Vince would have to take on more talent, because as schizo mentioned there are only 24 guys on roster with smackdown and i dont have a number now but I imagine barely a little more on RAW. Hopefully with the ECW stars getting split between the two brands you can build up enough bulk between the 2 brands to have more substantial feuds. I say this because with PPV buy rates at a low point now over the last maybe year or so it wouldn't be a financially profitable decision to buy up talent cause they aren't guaranteed to work.

Then again and this will sound off topic but in a way its a curveball back on topic...re-merge brands anybody?? im just saying

 

[Low_Ki]

I kind of agree with you here.

A lot of people didn't agree with the brand only PPV's but I think they were a great way to showcase new talent. On the flip side the new talent wasn't selling the PPV's the main eventer's were.

But everyone remembers the epic failure of ECW's only brand only PPV, December TO Dismember and I think a reshuffle was needed.

As far as buy rates go, the recession can be blamed for a lot of that, but I think the blame also needs to be placed on the complete lack of originality in the main event department. In the last few years, how many times have they done HHH Vs Cena, or Cena Vs Orton etc. I know they are slowly creeping in the new guys but until guys like Drew McIntyre are over with the fans enough, they buy rates won't reflect the talent on show.

Its time to re-merge the brands.

 

[J.Diesel]

I was just thinking about this the other day when i was watching Armageddon 2005. Like some of you said the good thing about brand exclusive PPV events is it seemed like WWE was putting more time into showcasing talent and building more storylines. It seriously helped because the Big feuds and title matches didn't seem so rushed. They have such great talent that isn't being used right now becuase there isn't enough time in one ppv to show all of them in 3 hours. A normal ppv has 6-8 matches which only gives you about 4 decent feuds for each show if your lucky. Brand exclusive PPV you could have the full 6-8 from that brand which I would like to see because there are so many guys that deserve the spotlight but nobody is seeing them.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

There is also the argument of TV Ratings. Think of it this way its possible that joint PPV with a stronger star presence boot PPV buy rates. But what about TV buy rates. What rational is there for me to watch an entire 2 hour show if only 1/3 of the show has actual bearing on the next PPV?

Back in 2004 to 2006 what we got for RAW and Smackdown! was a 2 hour product that all lead to some PPV event or blow off feud. So there was a lot of reason to catch the entire show before than there is now.

 

[nwohbk]

i think the drop in buys could be they are too expensive. £15 in uk and i know its worse in other parts of the world. i only buy wrestlemania because its the biggest and the superstars put on a great show but i dont want to pay for ppvs when the same fights happen 3 months in a row. brand only would be better. am a raw watcher but it is really poor just now and defo would not pay for ppv. rotten tv rotten ppvs high price = poor ppv rate

 

[Dagger Dias]

Yeah, the current PPV concept has damaged Raw and Smackdown a little bit. I miss the brand exclusive PPV's. Guys further down on the card had better odds of making it onto a PPV, plus it felt less stale because Raw and Smackdown would alternate between who had a PPV next, and the "Big 4" included both. Arguments can also be made in favor of the current PPV format though because of seeing cards that look better by having two world title matches and wrestlers from both major brands. The main reason that this has damaged Raw and Smackdown is because of the guys who don't get a chance to be on PPV's due to being low on the card. Midcarders are lucky to make a PPV at all and anyone below them won't. Then there's also the matter of feuds either not lasting long enough, or lasting through too many PPV's. It's a lose-lose situation unless they bring back the brand exclusive PPV's, which they probably never will. However, it's not like Raw and Smackdown have been damaged beyond repair or anything. The current PPV concept is fine in my opinion because it's cool that both world titles are always defended, even though it damages the brands a little to have this format.