Wrestlemania rumoured to have got 1.9 PPV buys!

[George Steele's Barber]

I watched WM because I needed an excuse to get out of the fucking house.

Here is a rundown of what drew in the fans:

It's a WWE PPV: 15%
It's Wrestlemania stupid: 39%
Rock-Cena: 29%
HHH-UT: 10%
Jericho-Punk: 3% (thank you Canadians, Indie marks and Canadian Indie marks)
People who were afraid of losing their streams: 2%
People who just wanted an excuse to get out of their fucking house: 1%
Other: 2%
Otunga & MGK: -1%
(margin of error: ±100%)

I don't know if 1.9m is right. Gus Ramsey seems like a nice enough guy, loves the Broncos and is known as the semi-retired king of Madden. In this day and age numbers can fly pretty fast but at the same time it usually takes longer for numbers to come out. Wrestling TV numbers have been fading but that could be due to young people using DVRs. The numbers certainly had not popped the way one might expect for the road to WM but that isn't necessarily an indication of the WM buyrate. An approximately 85% increase in buys is unheard of but Rock-Cena as a main event is 20 times as interesting as Miz-Cena.

In summary, as explained by Dragon Saga, The Rock is huge in Uganda. Uganda is full of Jabkonies and I don't know what the hell to believe. Go ask your mother and leave me alone. I need to find another excuse to get out of the fucking house.

 

[mareek]

Yeah gotta give credit where its due, the Rock is the reason why this ppv sold. Ads everywhere weren't advertising punk vs jericho but instead rock vs cena. I have friends who havent watched wwe in years who said they were gonna order the ppv just cause of rock's involvement (they didnt cause the price was too high though).

The main event is what sells the ppv. Similar to boxing, people are gonna buy to see Mayweather vs Pacquaio while the undercard is just an after thought.

 

[Jericho-79]

I don't know if I could trust this number.

WWE has a reputation for inflating its "official" figures.

 

[Peoples_Champ]

You can't ignore The Rock's impact on the PPV buyrate (which I assumed would be massive). For example, my wife has never watched wrestling. She watched the Rock v. Cena match with me, her first wrestling match ever. I bet this happened in thousands of households across the world, where the wife / GF / mother is more receptive to ordering the PPV because of an attractive movie star wrestling in the main event.

There's no doubt The Rock had a large part to play with sales, but there was something for everyone. For older fans, there was HHH v. Taker. For the younger fans, there was John Cena. For those in between and wrestling aficionados, there was Punk v. Jericho. This is probably the first time WWE targeted matches to such a broad range of the market so effectively. And I would say that is one of the bigger reasons that this PPV sold so well. The biggest reason, however, was the one year hype machine.

 

[RussellMania]

I gotta say that if true, this is damned impressive. The three main events were sold well. The Rock vs John Cena is truly a match that sells itself. I had a couple of friends who ordered or watched WrestleMania that aren't even wrestling fans. I had people asking me whether The Rock or John Cena had won who are not big wrestling fans. In my opinion the Rock vs John Cena definitely delivered and attracted in casual fans so it would make sense that this mania drew a huge buy rate. Damn it is an exciting time to be a wrestling fan.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I don't see how he could find this out only a few days after the ppv itself. If it did draw 1.9 million, which I don't think it did, then that's just plain massive. At $55 a pop, that would mean that WM generated somewhere around $105 million in ppv buys.

If I'm not mistaken, the record for the most stands at WM 24 I think, which drew right at 1.2 million. Based on what I've read, the WWE is hoping for around 1.5 million buys. Either way, however, I don't have any problems believing that WM 28 scored at least a million buys, maybe as much as 1.5 million but I don't think I can buy into the 1.9 million buys unless the company officially announces it. It's not as if WWE can inflate the number even if they wanted to. Well, maybe they could, but the headache caused by the SEC if such a lie took place and was discovered certainly won't be worth it, which would probably include a load of prison time for lots of people and severe financial penalties. As a publicly traded company, they can't fib about such things as they have an effect on the price of WWE stock, the value of the stock to current holders and whether or not others might want to purchase stock in the company.

 

[Davi323]

I don't see how he could find this out only a few days after the ppv itself. If it did draw 1.9 million, which I don't think it did, then that's just plain massive. At $55 a pop, that would mean that WM generated somewhere around $105 million in ppv buys.

If I'm not mistaken, the record for the most stands at WM 24 I think, which drew right at 1.2 million. Based on what I've read, the WWE is hoping for around 1.5 million buys. Either way, however, I don't have any problems believing that WM 28 scored at least a million buys, maybe as much as 1.5 million but I don't think I can buy into the 1.9 million buys unless the company officially announces it. It's not as if WWE can inflate the number even if they wanted to. Well, maybe they could, but the headache caused by the SEC if such a lie took place and was discovered certainly won't be worth it, which would probably include a load of prison time for lots of people and severe financial penalties. As a publicly traded company, they can't fib about such things as they have an effect on the price of WWE stock, the value of the stock to current holders and whether or not others might want to purchase stock in the company.

Not only that, but how could they possibly have gotten the complete buyrate numbers from every cable/dish provider not only in the USA, but internationally in such a short period of time? It defies logic to believe that every other PPV takes a month or so to piece together the total buyrates, but somehow, as if by magic, they can figure out Wrestlemania in less than 24 hours. Not buying it.

 

[Trill Co$by]

People who give all the credit to the Rock are stupid. Seriously guys... it's WrestleMania! There are going to be people who buy the event just because it's WrestleMania. A lot of times, people who don't even watch WWE regularly still buy the event because it's WrestleMania. Hell, my Uncle hates all of Wrestling now... but he still pays for WrestleMania because to a lot of old time wrestling fans, that's the night where all the shitty stuff gets replaced with entertainment.

Then you add in the fact that WWE promoted highly anticipated matches for fans in all likes of the wrestling corner. You had two legends fighting in a match that they both helped build (HIAC), you had two competitors fighting for the top title and claims to "Best in the World", you had two competitors fighting for the world title after being in a dark match last year and making it a match people wanted to see (it didn't last long, but they still paid to see that match), and you even had the battle of ultimate power with the Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy match.

Was Rock vs. Cena a major part of the WM success? Sure, I'll give it credit for that... but not THE major part. If anything, the WrestleMania sticker on the front gives it more credit than the matches do. I mean face it, WWE was red hot with the booking this year and they turned out great.

---

At the end of the day, no matter what the reason for the big draws, it all comes down to one fact and one fact only... Pro-Wrestling is here to stay. I don't care what people say and if they want to believe that "Wrestling isn't cool anymore". When you're getting 2 Million Viewers (Counting Ticket sales AND PPV buys) that's a big number for a PPV event and WWE's doing just that. WWE and Pro Wrestling aren't going anywhere, and if you ever think that they are, I'm sure WWE's got numbers that they'll be glad to prove you wrong with.

 

[Brahma_Bull9]

Really? You're the sole arbiter of why people buy WWE PPVs?

Because *I* damn sure *did* buy Wrestlemania for Jericho/Punk. It was by far the biggest draw for me before the show and the best match after.

WWE made a huge push for Wrestlemania this year with several major matches as a part of that push. The Rock may well have contributed some of those buys, but to act as if this can be laid firmly at his feet is absurd. I'm sure I'm not alone, or even in limited company, in watching Wrestlemania expressly for Punk/Jericho.

Yea this post could have been written before the show aswell. I thought the Rock match would have been the best, but this is where Rock fans and Punk fans differntiate. We take the world for what it is, and don't mix it up in this odd combination of wrestling and idealism. Taker HHH was the best match...

The only reason I was even interested in Punk's match is because of Jericho...

and yes you are in "limited company" who the hell even talks or writes like that

Can we be real? All the garbage aside, the guy is just Benoit except a lil worse of a technical wrestler and a little better on the mic.

 

[Dagger Dias]

It's still too early to tell if 1.9 million buys happened or not. I'm not saying it's impossible. WWE did hype the Cena VS Rock dream match for AN ENTIRE YEAR. I doubt they will reach a number as high as 1.9 million though. The actual record PPV buyrate for the federation is held by Wrestlemania 23 which got 1,250,000 buy's. Dethroning that number is possible this year due to The Rock's involvement. They broke 1 million last year just on Rock as the guest host of a rather terrible card. This year he was in a match, the most heavily hyped wrestling match of all time, against John Cena. This is an event that people REALLY wanted to see.

I'll believe it when I see it, as far as 1.9 million buy's rumors are concerned. They will have to eat those words when the real numbers end up being lower than that. If ever there were a show to dethrone Wrestlemania 23, this year's card has a chance. It was a stacked card from top to bottom (other than the Divas tag team match) and delivered a great show (disregarding one or two little things that could have changed). I don't know how this rumor got started, but people are too quick to believe anything they read online. WWE are required to release information such as PPV buyrates, so the real figures will soon be revealed. If they broke 2 million, then that's awesome. If not, then I told you so. I'm holding back on any rants or congratulating until I see the real numbers or else I'd be wasting my time.

 

[Davi323]

I'll believe it when I see it, as far as 1.9 million buy's rumors are concerned.

Agreed. I just don't see how they could possibly be that high, not with the reduced wrestling audience being what it is. There are less people watching, yet it completely smashed the WWE's previous Wrestlemania buyrate record? It doesn't add up. If the advertising for the match was the reason, you would have expected to see a steady increase in RAW and Smackdown's ratings in the months leading up to Wrestlemania as more people are watching due to the interest created by the Rock/Cena buzz...yet, their ratings remained mostly stagnant. All of the advertising did not bring new viewers to the WWE leading up to Wrestlemania...yet, miraculously, 700,000 more people supposedly ordered the PPV.

I highly doubt that all those extra people who were willing to fork over 60 bucks to watch Rock/Cena would not have also been willing to watch the shows leading up to the PPV, yet in order for the 1.9 million to be true, that is exactly what must have happened. You would think that someone who was willing to fork over that kind of dough to watch Rock/Cena would have had some interest in learning what the other matches on the card were about too, since they are paying for the entire PPV anyway, and would have watched some of the shows leading up to it, to try to catch up a little bit. This should have caused a spike in the ratings for RAW and Smackdown. Yet, there was virtually no blip whatsoever.

Stagnant TV audience + shattering Wrestlemania buyrate record = WTF, that makes no sense!

 

[HBsam31]

I generally buy only Mania and Royal Rumble each year. In 2011 I added MITB and Survivor Series. I bought SS because I thought Cena would turn heel on the Rock and I bought MITB for Punk Cena, and because it was in Punk's hometown. I was disappoint in SS except for the Punk match, and loved Mitb. What I am trying to say is we avid fans buy ppvs for various different reasons, but I am sure a lot of casual fans bought Mania because of the Rock. I am guessing he attracted a lot of attitude era fans that haven't watch since then. To give Rock all the credit is a bit far fetched, but I am sure he had something to do with it. Don't forget HHH, Taker and HBK were on the show to. I bet they had just as much to do with the buys as the Rock did.