Are PPVs Worth Buying?

Posted by Doug Garbark on 01/25/2013 at 06:07 PM

The Dazzler by Doug Garbark (Formerly Strange Bedfellows)

“PPV’s aren't worth $45 bucks anymore and paying for one is like buying a cd instead of pirating it. What do you think?”
-Corey (Mouth-Breathing Miscreant)

There are several reasons PPVs seem obsolete to me:

Poor Booking: The thing that really bothers me about the recent PPV’s is that half of the card isn’t announced at least a week before the PPV. If they are too lazy to devote at least a week of build up to mid card title feuds or other matches with big talent, why should I invest money in their product? I want to know what I am paying for.

On top of the ambiguity of the cards, most of the WWE PPV’s are dreadful. The norm has become one or two good matches and a bunch of fill in garbage that most fans would turn the channel if it were shown on cable TV. It wasn’t long ago that two matches a PPV were devoted to Brodus Clay and Ryback squash matches and almost all of those were exactly the same match.

I know some PPV’s like Money In The Bank 2011 (MITB) and others have been very strong but then WWE turn around and say “Well, the fans must not want that! It didn’t generate the buys we had hoped.” Of course it didn’t! If I rang your doorbell once a day for a week and every time you answered the door I slapped you in the face by the 7th day would you still be answering the door? No! But the joke would be on you because on the 7th day I was going to give you a million dollars to make up for slapping you in the face 6 times. It’s the best way I can describe WWE and TNA right now. How many times can you burn us and then whine when you do something right and nobody is around to see it?

3 Hour RAW’s: The only difference between RAW and a PPV is the commercials. Seriously, RAW and Smackdown give away PPV main events every week. They also spoil every feud before it becomes a feud. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan fought at least 3 times for free before having them meet at multiple PPVs for the top title! How about Del Rio vs Big Show’s Last Man Standing(They are redoing the match at Royal Rumble), Christian vs Orton, I could keep naming them but those are some of the best feuds as of late and they were all on TV before PPV. On top of that why are they booking matches with Cesaro and Sandow against all of the top stars? If you want to see how they work with top stars do it at house shows but those are two guys who will be headlining PPVs in a few years… Why are you giving me these matches and they trying to make me pay $45 dollars in 3 months when they are redone on PPV?

The Economy: Lets face it people are hurting for money. I would imagine the group of people most affected would be the WWE’s target demographic. Nobody on limited funds is dishing out $45 bucks for a throw together meaningless PPV that they could either pirate online or watch in a bar for free. People always get uppity when they write stuff on here about pirating and say “Support the product!” Why? The product isn’t worth supporting! If you keep supporting it they will keep neglecting to improve it! Personally I would rather just skip most of the PPV’s and watch RAW the next day where they will redo the entire card for free. Now, before Dudley Do-Right attacks me for condoning PPV streaming, I’m not. If you have a means to buy the PPVs buy them! You would have to truly hate yourself enough to endure a VHS quality, lagging, ad-ridden mess of an Internet broadcast for a PPV like Hell In A Cell. People that love the WWE enough to do that should just be given the PPV’s for free.

Base Pricing: My final gripe with the WWE PPV system is that EVERY PPV no matter how weakly thrown together costs the same amount, except for Wrestlemania! I can get charging a decent price for ‘Mania, Royal Rumble, Summerslam, Money In The Bank, and Survivor Series (Although is this even important anymore?). The rest shouldn’t be a penny over $20 and even then they are still bending you over for half of these. Not every PPV is handled with the same care so why does the price remain the same? Just because this model worked in the Attitude Era when they had twice as many fans and far better booking doesn’t mean it works now. WWE need to get with the times and stop worrying about people pirating shows and start asking why they are pirating them instead of buying them.

That’s all from me this week and I hope you have enjoyed…




What do you guys think of the current PPV system? Hit me with your thoughts and other mailbag questions on Twitter @DougGarbark or email me at DougGarbark@live.com!