Early 2012 Royal Rumble Buys

[Austin 3:16]

A rough cable estimate of WWE's 2012 Royal Rumble pay-per-view has it doing between 250,000 and 285,000 North American buys. The official number should be out in about three weeks.

For reference, the 2011 Royal Rumble had 281,000 domestic and with the international buys, gave it a total of 476,000.

The 2010 Royal Rumble had 259,000 domestic buys and a total of 465,000.

Decent buy amount but not that good considering it's their biggest PPV leading to Mania.

[Aniking]

If I were the WWE, I'd be hoping it buys from 280,000 to 285,000 North American buys based off that number or else it'll be a loss for them. I guess we'll have to wait and see what the final number is.

[Darth Shizzel]

Wonder who will be the scapegoat for this one if the buyrates aren't good.

[AF.]

Royal Rumble doing dem low numbers. WWE is dying.

[Troy]

Looks like the number is in line with what they did the past two years so I would take that as a positive. WWE are clearly lacking in star power, just look at how many surprise entrants there were in the Rumble, and so there weren't as many names to push leading into the Rumble but they did a good job focussing on the guys they did.

Anyone else think that international buyrates will be a bit higher for this PPV since Sheamus and Barrett were pushed as possible chances to win the Rumble before the PPV? Plus since Sheamus won there may have been quite a few replay buys from UK fans to see Sheamus win it.

[Defiant-sensei]

The numbers are roughly the same as the last two years. It isn't very surprising that the Royal Rumble buys are so consistent, its the Royal Rumble. The match itself is pretty much what is getting these numbers and whatever gimmick or title matches are going on are irrelevant.

In fact I'd say WWE's desire to add a new gimmick to the match every year is actually a detriment. The consistent figures show that people find the match itself to be unique and a lot of fun. Why fuck with that? It just annoys people.

[Troy]

True the appeal each year is the Rumble match itself, it will sell no matter what else is on the card and there is no real reason to try to alter it. For me it is the PPV I buy every single year because I love the gimmick and no other PPV (outside WM) does that for me.

Elimination Chamber PPV buys should be really interesting this year leading into WM28.

[Darth Shizzel]

If the Rumble wants to continue to be successful they need to start building their stars because as you could see no one was fussed over Cody or Miz lasting 40 minutes in the ring and it definatley didn't feel like and there were just too many jobbers in the ring as well plus the suprise entrants while Road Dogg was enjoyable, Kharma didn't last long, Jerry, Cole and Booker were a waste of a spot, Khali was just a waste the spots should've gone to Cena, Kane, Henry if only for him to last a few minutes due to his injury and even if you wanted add Beth Pheonix to the match and she could've brawled with Kharma.

[Keith]

The lower card should be made up of straight wrestling matches for the reason it is a contrast to the main event and gives the crowd a nice build up. This sort of figure really isn't good enough for WWE, but then again since it has been roughly the same for the past two years then it is no big disater either. The EC number will be interesting as I have been concerned that in recent years that show has started to take on a greater importance than the rumble.

[Troy]

I wouldn't go as far as saying that the Rumble is losing importance to the Chamber. I would say that finally the PPV between the Rumble and WrestleMania actually means something now. For quite some time it was a nothing PPV that no-one cared about, with the two Elimination Chamber matches to determine champions/challengers for WrestleMania it now means a lot and means that each year starts with three massive PPVs. WWE now just need to make the other 9 PPVs as interesting as the first three.