WCW PPV Attendences

[oogieboogie]

Hello,

I have been looking at WCW PPV attendences and have been very surprised at how low they have been throughout WCW.

In the early 90's to mid 90's there have been PPV's with attendences as low as like 2000-3000. But i was more surprised during 96 onwards. This was when WCW started to grow and get more viewers and all the top names in the business. I was surprised that the majority of PPV's had around 7000-11000. Now this is pretty poor, isn't it? I think the biggest attendence was around 21000, which was around the year 2000/01, i cannot remember which PPV it was, but it wasn't a great line up. Now WWE tends to have (From what i have read up on) around 15000+ plus in most PPV's. Then at WM you get the motherload depending on arena/stadium up to 70000+.

I know that WCW had the biggest tv audience for Nitro, even more then Raw. This was when Goldberg won the title and you had 40000+ in the arena. I know they mentioned on 'The Rise & Fall Of WCW', that they could have and should have got this for a PPV, but opted to do so for a tv show.

So my overall question would be is this partly to blame for the fall of WCW? Cos if they got 15000+ for each PPV, which i am sure they could have, would they still be around?

 

[bioshock]

During the mid 90s crowds were solid, they sold out everywhere they went, WCW just didn;t do alot of shows in big arenas like WWE would do, thats why most are only around 11,000 for WCW in the mid 90s.

And the fall was all because WCW never pushed any younger talent and in 2001 you still had the old Nash, Steiner, Jarrett, Luger, Sting, Flair ect.. all on top one way or another. You just had bad storylines and terrible feuds with alot of old and or crap wrestlers, it was then when the crowds didn't start showing up.

 

[waylonmercy]

WCW didn't go out of business because of attendance. They went out of business because they lost their programming and had no choice but to sell their footage or store it in archives becuase the new guy who was running Time Warner didn't want wrestling on his programming.

 

[oogieboogie]

Oh i see. I thought that they were not making enough money and thought with bigger venues, that would bring more revenue, ah well.

I think it was partly due to not pushing younger talent, but in my opinion i think the storylines which they had must have had a bigger impact. The main crappy storylines for me was giving Arquette the title. Not to mention the few title matches where someone would just lay down to be pinnned.

 

[TellMeWhy]

WCW crowds were huge from 94 and going until the year 2000 when their uprise came to an abrupt halt due to the merger sitting on WCW's neck creatively.

Whether they pushed young talent or not, WCW was destined to fail due to the powers that be at the top. Their infrastructure or lack thereof is why they fell. That simple.

 

[oogieboogie]

Oh ok cool cool.

Does anyone know what their biggest PPV in terms of buy rates was?
I think a big no no was the Halloween Havoc, i think it was, which was cut off just after the main event (Goldberg v DDP?) started.

 

[oogieboogie]

Thanks for that mral82.

So that had 1.15 million buys? That is pretty good considering there was no Hogan, Sting, Luger and Savage.

 

[Hervina Whippleman]

Starrcade '97 was the WCW PPV with the highest buyrate. It was the event we finally saw Hogan/Sting. The buyrate was 1.9 and had an attendance of over 17000. It doesn't mean 1.9 million people bought it, it's a percentage. About 600,000 actually bought the PPV. There, you get real facts from me.

 

[klunderbunker]

WCW was notorious for going to much smaller venues. On top of that, the shows a lot of the time were complete and utter crap. The writing made little sense after about mid 97 and it was just attempt at quick fix after quick fix. Literally books have been written about why the company failed, so don't even bother trying to sum it up in a short space as it can't be done justice.

 

[oogieboogie]

Literally books have been written about why the company failed, so don't even bother trying to sum it up in a short space as it can't be done justice.

I have seen a few books floating around and will have to purchase them and have a good read.

Thanks

 

[bko]

I remember awhile ago(don't recall where) Eric Bischof was saying how they would literately give away 1,000's of free WcW tickets at Disneyland, because people were simply not buy the WcW tickets, so keep that in mind as well.

 

[Slyfox696]

I remember awhile ago(don't recall where) Eric Bischof was saying how they would literately give away 1,000's of free WcW tickets at Disneyland, because people were simply not buy the WcW tickets, so keep that in mind as well.

Actually, they would give tickets away at Disneyworld because you can't actually charge for tickets at Disneyland. Once a patron is inside Disneyworld, they've paid for everything in there. Which is why the TNA Impact is a free show to watch as well.

As far as attendance and failure go, the WCW had problems in just about every aspect of their booking.

 

[TheAnimatedSeries]

To answer the original question, nope. Even if WCW had far greater attendance or buyrates for their PPV's, the company would still have been sold. It was one of many factors for why WCW went into the red in 1999, but they had been profitable since Nitro with those numbers and could have carried on as a successful business had the Time Warner/AOL merger not happened, and had they not made so many mistakes.

In 1999, when WCW was really slipping in the ratings, they were made to be a family program. This was not really in sync with what fans of Nitro wanted and definently not something that fans of Raw would be interested in. A wrestler called The Dog became the face of the company. So there you go.

 

[koo2bme]

Oh ok cool cool.

Does anyone know what their biggest PPV in terms of buy rates was?
I think a big no no was the Halloween Havoc, i think it was, which was cut off just after the main event (Goldberg v DDP?) started.

I remember ordering that PPV. I was so hyped 4 the rematch between Hogan and Warrior. one of the worst matches i've ever seen. The one at Wrestlemania 6, is my favorite match of all-time. And the cut-off, i remember me and my dad spending $30 on that ppv, and we said this sucked!!!! we never ordered a WCW PPV again. Halloween Havoc 1998 SUCKED!!!