WWE Over the Limit 2011 Drew 65000 ppv buyrate

[pepentorresHHH]

According to the Main Page:

Source: The Wrestling Observer

While the following figure is an early trending number, and the final buyrate information has yet to be released, WWE's Over The Limit PPV, based on trending figures and actual cable reports, took in about 65,000 domestic buys, making it the lowest bought PPV event in The U.S. since 2005's "December to Dismember" event.

The "December to Dismember" PPV, which was an all ECW themed show, took in 55,000 domestic buys, which is the lowest buyrate in company history. As usual with early estimates, the final number will likely be slightly higher, but this early figure gives a good idea of how poor the show drew this year. The PPV was headlined by John Cena vs The Miz and Randy Orton vs Christian.


my question is simple........what brought this on?
the card? too many ppvs? people just didnt care? there wasnt anything good enought to buy the ppv? is this a 1 time thing? will ppv buys continue declining? what can be done to improve the situations?
comments or opinions... go ahead

 

[Ventana]

well i bought it cause i watch every ppv. but i think maybe the reason alot of people did not buy it is because it had alot of repeat matches and people didnt want to spend another 45 dollars 50 for hd to see the same matches again. I have a feeling capital punishment might do mad also cause this is r truths first championship match and a lot of people dont care about rtruth and his antics.

 

[WWEIsLife2]

Well I had to watch Over The Limit on the Internet as I had gotten Extreme Rules 3 weeks prior (saving money). That could be one reason for it being low,who knows for sure. I do plan on getting Captial Punishment however.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Wow, oddly enough that was one of the few WWE PPVs I didn't purchase either.

To be labeled around the likes of Decemeber to Dismember is bad, very bad, because that PPV was God awful. I did see a couple of the matches after it, I saw a stream repeat of Randy Orton vs. Christian and the Sin Cara vs. Chavo Guerrero match.

Guess Vince McMahon will be throwing a shitstorm for the next while, huh?

 

[klunderbunker]

There are a few problems here.

First and foremost, the three big matches here had been done recently. Cena vs. Miz we had seen on Raw what, three or four weeks before this? Same with Christian and Orton on Smackdown. Christian vs. Orton on TV was already a good match and the PPV match was better, but not good enough to get me to fork over money to watch. I saw them have a good match already with a title change. Why would I want to pay money to see more or less the same thing over again? The same is true with Lawler vs. Cole. That match already happened at Wrestlemania and another version at Extreme Rules. While it was cool to see Cole get what was coming to him, it had taken too long to get to. That should have ended at Mania, period.

The other problem is simple: John Cena isn't going to lose an I Quit match. No one bought Miz having a chance of getting the title back at this show and it was due to the gimmick of the match. Everyone knew Cena was walking out of that show with the title and that's all there is to it. Also, we saw Miz and Cena have a good long match on Raw the night after the PPV. There was no reason to want to pay for a match where the ending was never in doubt.

Finally, and this summarizes the aforementioned problems, this show didn't need to happen. It wound up being entertaining, but if I actually was a regular PPV buyer I wouldn't have bought this. WIth repeat matches in the main three spots and more or less nothing on top of that, why in the world would I want to pay to see this? THis would have been a solid In Your House if that concept was still around, but not a 3 hour/45/50 dollar show. Just not happening and not a lot of people bought it as you can see.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

The Triad did not convene for it, which should tell a lot.

This doesnt really suprise me at all. Nothing about the show was exciting, intriguing, or anything that anyone REALLY wanted to see. Weak build for everything outside of the two ME matches, and just not much good at all in general as far as the overall card.

The whole thing was just extremely "meh" and the buyrate shows.

 

[Clem]

The article mentions the PPV being headlined by John Cena vs The Miz and Randy Orton vs Christian.

I bet you anything that Miz and Christian cop the blame for not being exciting enough competitors.

Because nothing could be wrong with forcing John Cena and Randy Orton into every single championship match....could it....

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

I think it is an interesting subject to look at. The Wade Barrett Trollop in me says that they spent a lot of time booking around Wade the later part of the year and the buy rates didn't totally bomb considering he was a brand new guy.


The other part of me just blames the lack of interest (or the Miz depending on how you take what I am gonna type.. haha)

I don't blame knowing that Cena doesn't lose I Quit matches for people not caring. I blame the fact that any potential interest in a long feud was kinda shitted on when the Rock came back and stole the Miz's importance in the feud. "Who cares if Miz is the champion headlining his FIRST Wrestlemania? CENA AND THE ROCK! IN THE SAME RING! OMG!" And a lot of times, Cena just seemed to not give a damn because the Rock was much more important than the Miz to him.

I also think a major problem with the feud has been the people themselves. I don't think Cena or Miz are bad. I just don't think it was a good move to push the Miz as hard. I think his segment's ratings shown that he still has that stigma of being "just a mid-carder." They tried REALLY hard to make the Miz seem like Cena's equal, He almost always went out on top in their segments. Many video packages highlighting his success. A handful of successful title defenses in a row. etc But it just kinda fell flat. It didn't help that they just didn't click. Like the segments and matches just didn't click. Not the best way to sell your brand.


I don't having a lack of an undercard matters these days. Like I mentioned earlier, the last six PPVs in 2010 were built around one feud and the numbers didn't completely suck considering one guy might as well had been born on June 6, 2010. That is how little people knew of this guy before he got da big push of the year.

 

[johnnyblaze3:16]

well there are a few reasons for this ill start with the most obvious for me. PREDICTABILITY everyone knew christian/miz were going to loose. cena isnt going to loose and "i quit match" and orton wasn't going to drop the belt right after getting it. the second reason is 3 weeks isn't enough time to build intresting feuds/storylines. Now i think that this is why people complain about wwe so much, they lost that "anything can happen" attitude and became overly predictable. they need to have "up-sets" to make people want to watch monthly ppv, im not getting capitol punishment because cena/orton are not going to loose. i think it was last year we all complained about all the orton/cena main events, so now they split them up into two shows that they dont have "beliveable" opponents. if they made me think that truth or christian could actually win i'd order it like the rest of the ppv's ive ordered this year, smarten up wwe

 

[a7xfan93]

as others have stated, one possibility could of been repeat matches, cena vs miz again? jerry and cole....again????? there was no excitement put into the matches, and it was the same stuff all over again. another problem is indeed the free online streaming. if you had a choice to pay $50 to watch a ppv, or watch it for free, what would you choose? i choose free streaming. you don't know whether or not the event will be awesome, so why pay alot for a crappy ppv...like over the limit

 

[The Suplexer Perfecter]

well there are a few reasons for this ill start with the most obvious for me. PREDICTABILITY everyone knew christian/miz were going to loose. cena isnt going to loose and "i quit match" and orton wasn't going to drop the belt right after getting it. the second reason is 3 weeks isn't enough time to build intresting feuds/storylines. Now i think that this is why people complain about wwe so much, they lost that "anything can happen" attitude and became overly predictable. they need to have "up-sets" to make people want to watch monthly ppv, im not getting capitol punishment because cena/orton are not going to loose. i think it was last year we all complained about all the orton/cena main events, so now they split them up into two shows that they dont have "beliveable" opponents. if they made me think that truth or christian could actually win i'd order it like the rest of the ppv's ive ordered this year, smarten up wwe

But Christian/Orton was an amazing match. If it's an amazing match I don't really care if he loses or not. Plus it's all part of the overall story line.

You only want unpredictable if it's something you like anyway.

And it's spelled LOSE not LOOSE. People need to learn that.

If they had better build up, and no PPVs separated by 3 or 4 weeks, it would start to be better.

 

[marklouis]

You mean all those talk show appearances by The Miz everyone goes on & on about didn't translate to PPV buys? Who ever could have expected that? The low buy rate can be traced to 1 reason: the product isn't good. Cena & Orton are overrated as main event guys, & the rest of the roster is very weak. Really, the roster is the weakest it's been since the 93-96 time, the last real low point for the industry. But even then, you had guys like HBK, Bret Hart, Undertaker, Scott Hall, Owen Hart, Kevin Nash, a young HHH-guys who you saw had real potential to do great things. Now the WWE is depending on a bunch of young guys who haven't really shown the potential to do that. There is some athleticism, but every heel is the same character & the faces are completely boring. Add to that the fact that the creative department is at an all time low point, and there is really nothing worth paying $45 to see. But please Vince, keep pushing The Miz. Clearly he is must-see.

 

[johnnyblaze3:16]

But Christian/Orton was an amazing match. If it's an amazing match I don't really care if he loses or not. Plus it's all part of the overall story line.

You only want unpredictable if it's something you like anyway.

And it's spelled LOSE not LOOSE. People need to learn that.

If they had better build up, and no PPVs separated by 3 or 4 weeks, it would start to be better.

didn't know this was a spelling bee and as amazing as the match was, there was know way christian was going to win it. watching great matches with a out come known to all does not translate to ppv buys, would you order ufc if you knew who was going to win just to see an amazing fight? maybe some but not the majority wich would translate to ppv buys. and unpredictable if it's something i like? that makes no sense at all i've watched wwe for 30 years and it's never been so stale that i knew for sure the outcome. now im not saying christian had to win to make it good but c'mon at least make people think its possible

 

[DeathClutch]

Simple WWE has too many ppv's and considering this was the third between Cena & Miz fans knew neither Cena nor Orton were going to job the belts so why pay to watch something you know has no relevance? obviously wwe needs to re-consider their ppv options.

 

[TheNewStyle]

Predictability is one big reason for it. I used a stream and although I liked the content, there was nothing that I couldn't have guessed correctly. Orton was obviously going to win despite the excellent match and there's no way Cena would lose an "I Quit" match. When Jack Swagger abandoning Cole, anyone would have known that Cole was gonna get his at last. Sin Cara had a match just after two weeks of build up with no real heat between him and Chavo, not to mention he would obviously win the match. The PPV wasn't bad, it's just the results were very predictable and it followed Extreme Rules way too soon.

What would have made this PPV exciting would have been a returning Batista interfering in Cena's match while being in the same position with Miz on top of a car ready for an AA. If that had happened, this PPV would have been much more memorable.

 

[The Suplexer Perfecter]

didn't know this was a spelling bee and as amazing as the match was, there was know way christian was going to win it. watching great matches with a out come known to all does not translate to ppv buys, would you order ufc if you knew who was going to win just to see an amazing fight? maybe some but not the majority wich would translate to ppv buys. and unpredictable if it's something i like? that makes no sense at all i've watched wwe for 30 years and it's never been so stale that i knew for sure the outcome. now im not saying christian had to win to make it good but c'mon at least make people think its possible

I know it's not a spelling bee, but "loose" is a completely different word. Just a heads up.

UFC is real though, no spoilers or dirt sheets on websites. And some UFC PPVs don't pay off, but they still bought to see them.

During the Orton/Christian match with the near falls the crowd sure as hell thought Christian could win.

Same for Triple H/Taker at Mania after the Pedigrees and Tombstone from Triple H.

I say stop with the every 3 or 4 weeks of PPVs first of all, and then actually TRY to build up the matches to some degree.

 

[The_Reptile_]

I just have this to say: Is anyone really surprised? I mean, even WWE seemed to know that this was going to be a shit show. It had almost no buildup, it's promo package just sucked, and it was chock full of matches we already got. I mean, you could just tell that no one really gave a crap in planning this thing.

 

[Dalek Rising]

There was a thread about a month ago titled "Will Cena holding the championship for a year affect buyrates?" Many people said "no", I said "probably". I think we might have the answer. There was no suspense or real drama tied to the main event. It was already plausible that there was no way Cena would lose. When it was announced as an "I Quit" match, that made it a certainty that he wouldn't lose. I'm not gonna pay money for a pay-per-view that I know the outcome of.
Hopefully, this lights a fire under WWE's ass and they get their act together a little more concerning the writing and booking.

 

[Zeedeevel]

I think the biggest reason is the streams. Many sites that had the events in the past started showing them again. My friends and I were getting ready to order it, but I went on the site that i used to use and they had a link there so we didnt order it. I don't care if it is the most built up event ever and has the biggest stars, if I can stream it for free, there is no way I am buying it. I think there are a lot of people that feel the same way.

 

[TheTruNoLimit]

I didn't see anyone bring it up and I'm not talking Over the Limit, I'm talking WWE PPV's in general, but is it possible the reason for the seemingly low buy-rates all around (besides 'Mania) is due to the quality of wrestling on free tv?

I know it sounds ridiculous, but hear me out. More so on Smackdown! as of late, a couple nights ago when Orton faces Sheamus in the NO DQ match, it was a heck of a match and just the previous week Orton and Sheamus had a heck of a match for the World Title. Back to back weeks, Smackdown! was headlined by PPV quality matches. I had planned on getting Capitol Punishment (the bad taste in my mouth from 'Mania is dissipating), but watching Orton and Sheamus I thought, is it really worth paying $50 bucks to see Orton and Christian when I saw them have a solid bout on free tv a few weeks ago? Is Orton/Christian really going to be that much better than what I'm seeing out of Orton/Sheamus the last few weeks?

Get it?

Another issue is the PPV's are just extended versions of Raw or Smackdown!. How often is a PPV put together where you didn't see the same match on Raw/Smackdown! a few weeks ago or where it wasn't at the previous PPV, etc.

The drawing point for Capitol Punishment for me is Orton/Christian, but even that's been done twice before both recently. So they added Zeke and Wade for the I.C. Title which was done twice before, both recently, both matches demonstrating the inability to have a good, strong PPV caliber match. Before Over the Limit, you saw Orton/Christian, you also saw Cena/Miz be an absolute bust at Mania, part of a triple threat at Extreme Rules, have a very solid bout on Raw just a few weeks earlier (the best of their bunch) and been opponents in countless tag team situations. How is Cena/Miz headlining a show a drawing point now when it's already proved they've been lackluster together?

I know it's a long post, but my final reasoning is Wrestlemania. Sure, it hit a million buys, almost entirely because of the Rock and HHH/Taker. But, the show was so bad (to many people, I know others did enjoy), but so bad that I didn't even want to think about ordering Extreme Rules and when Over the Limit came around and I was hoping for something fresh and we saw Cena/Miz and Cole/Lawler again?!?!? Really!?!?!?!? I told myself after 'Mania I'll never order another PPV with Cole/Lawler involved in a match together.

 

[closet_fan]

There was a thread about a month ago titled "Will Cena holding the championship for a year affect buyrates?" Many people said "no", I said "probably". I think we might have the answer. There was no suspense or real drama tied to the main event. It was already plausible that there was no way Cena would lose. When it was announced as an "I Quit" match, that made it a certainty that he wouldn't lose. I'm not gonna pay money for a pay-per-view that I know the outcome of.
Hopefully, this lights a fire under WWE's ass and they get their act together a little more concerning the writing and booking.

this is what my thinking was. most will say that cena makes only 10 percent of what a ppv is. but i think they will see their buy numbers drop with everyone knowing he will likely keep the belt for an entire year.

i am sure they aren't worried about over the limit's numbers. i doubt they will care about capital punishment that much either because it's not that great of a card so far.

if summerslam's buyrates are down, then i would be seriously worried.

i still don't understand vince's intentions of announcing the rock/cena match was for the belt. it just doesn't make sense. you could have easily announced it at the end of this year, or at the beginning of next year.

you don't need an entire year to build up a match, no matter how big it is.

 

[Yesiamaduck]

I watched this PPV live only because it was shown on Sky Sports and was not a PPV event in the UK (they tend to do this when they forecast low buys in the UK) and I'm not surprised it didn't do well... the card wasn't very good & it was just 3 weeks after Extreme Rules which was like 3 weeks after Wrestlemania.. the were 3 ppvs in 2 months and that is overkill & expensive ($150 in the US?) whilst I got to see all 3 shows for the sum of 30pounds I wouldn't of considered putting it up to 45 for 3 shows... yet alone the 150 you americans pay.

 

[ULTRASTARZZ]

The article mentions the PPV being headlined by John Cena vs The Miz and Randy Orton vs Christian.

I bet you anything that Miz and Christian cop the blame for not being exciting enough competitors.

Because nothing could be wrong with forcing John Cena and Randy Orton into every single championship match....could it....

- Give John Cena a break. It has been almost a year since he held the WWE Championship. You know, had The Rock stayed, he will be getting the same treatment right now as John Cena because he has been on the top too long for impatient fans like you ...

 

[Dagger Dias]

The low buyrate for this PPV was likely the weak build up that just about every angle had. Truth VS Mysterio wasn't going to generate many buys. Neither were Jackson VS Barrett or Sin Cara VS Chavo. Big Show & Kane VS New Nexus which shouldn't even have happened, let alone been thought of as a potential buyrate increaser. Then there's the Kelly VS Brie match that I highly doubt anyone cared about. Christian had not turned heel yet, so his angle with Orton didn't have as good of a build as it could. Everyone and their dog were tired of Cole VS Lawler by this point. Cena VS Miz had been done two PPV's in a row and Cena never loses "I Quit" matches.

So there you have it, basically every single match had weak build up. Nothing really stood out and screamed "buy the PPV to watch this match!". The card looked good on paper, and the show did end up being decent, but when you have a weak build then people are not going to care. That is why the buyrates were so low. Although things like having too many PPV's per year and financial issues are going to continue to cause a decline in PPV buys each year also. What could have been done to improve the situation would be to build up the storylines better, have the guys cut better promos and have the announcers put over matches other than the one they were going to be in themselves.

 

[Hitman-HBK United Inc.]

Hold on a second peeps....get a load of this from PWINISDER.com

By Mike Johnson on 2011-06-27 15:28:00
According to the WWE Key Indicators, updated on June 24th, Over The Limit 2011 actually beat the 2010 edition of the pay-per-view with slightly more than 200.000 buys.