Wrestlemania 27 = 1 million PPV Buys

Today it was reported that WWE Wrestlemania 27 received 1 million buys. That is up from 885,000 buys from last year, and 960,000 buys from the year before. I'm sure Vince McMahon is extremely happy that all his maneuvers paid off. But why is it that wrestling only gets exciting during the first 3 months(the road to Wrestlemania) and then dies off for the rest of the year? Why can't WWE or TNA for that matter make pro-wrestling that exciting 24/7?

Well there are two different reasons for both companies. Let's start with TNA: TNA wants to be exactly like WWE. Every time you turn around they do something out of the WWE's playbook. It's riddiculous. I first noticed this back in 2004, when TNA moved to monthly pay-per-views. I thought to myself,"why are they trying to follow WWE's PPV model? Especially at a time when WWE was expanding theirs". If WWE was going to water down their product, TNA should have done the opposite and gone to a 4-6 PPVs a year model. This way TNA can make everyone of their PPVs seem special, seem like Wreslemania. But TNA has always clung to WWE's tail, and always will unfortunately. Then there's the fact that TNA has a lot of the people who ran WCW into the ground running the show. And based on the number rehashed storylines, I wouldn't be surprised if Hulk Hogan and company ran TNA into the ground either.

Now onto WWE: As I mentioned above WWE has severely watered down their product. It is oversaturated in every way possible. 13 PPVs a year a number that was said to be, by an executive within the company, the minimum amount of PPVs a year. Then you've got all sorts of television, Raw, Smackdown, Raw Am, Tough Enough. That doesn't include tv shows that have recently been either cancelled, ECW, relegated to WWE.com, NXT and Superstars, or the occasional special, Saturday Nights Main Event. There is so much overexposure that hardly anything feels special anymore. The reason the Road to Wrestlemania feels special is because that's the one event they actually try to build-up to months in advance. Compare that to say Hell in a Cell, a PPV that occurs two-weeks after Night of Champions. TWO-WEEKS!!! I say. How the hell can you make a PPV feel special in those circumstances? You can't. All you can do is offer rematches from the last PPV, which makes all those people who ordered the previous PPV very upset. Now most PPVs have more than two weeks, this was a worse case scenario obviously, but the thing is WWE doesn't use all that tv time wisely. One of the worst PPV builds last year,imo, was Fatal Four Way. Why? Because the Raw prior to the PPV we only had 4 matches announced. Four. They didn't care about it, so I didn't order it. And judging by the buyrates for it neither did anyone else.

Now the reason I'm giving WWE an even harder time on this than TNA is because they should know better. They've been around over half a century while TNA isn't even 10 yet. Because they're still young compared to WWE, I'm willing to cut TNA some slack. But not enough to abstain them from any wrong doings they've done.

The fact that pro-wrestling is doing poorly is not due to the fans turning their backs on it, it's because there is too much mediocrity and not enough big moments. Moments that transcend the test of time. So while I'm happy Wrestlemania 27 did a good buyrate, I just wish every show had the feel of a Wrestlemania. I'm sure I'm not alone in that sentiment.

Until Next Time,
Chesswiz77 is out