Royal Rumble & Elimination Chamber See Big Increase In PPV Buys

[Dale]

As part of WWE's first quarter earnings report earlier today, the company released updated pay-per-view buyrate figures for the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber:

- The Royal Rumble drew 512,000 total buys, up from 443,000 buys in 2012 and 446,000 buys in 2011.

- Elimination Chamber did 213,000 buys, up from 178,000 buys in 2012 and 199,000 buys in 2011.

The big difference maker was The Rock wrestling CM Punk on both shows.

Overall, WWE PPV revenues were up 15% percent (to $37.5 million from $32.5 million) compared to Q1 2012.

 

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

This was expected, no shocker here. Rock equals cash in anything he partakes in.

 

[Crippler]

Sure Rock = money. Just a shame he doesn't = GOOD WRESTLING MATCHES

 

[Kiffy Lube]

Punk carried Rock, I'll give him more credit.

 

[The Cork]

This thread nosedived off a cliff after BRJP's post.

Good god.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

What were you expecting, Cork?

 

[Weez]

inb4 Punk hate.

Not surprising. Say what you want about the WM29 build, it clearly was better than people give it credit for.

 

[Keith]

It is great news in the short term, but once again what about the long term?

 

[Miss D]

it was only way the rock fans could see him do anything expect talk about everything but his upcoming wm match

 

[Rated R Superstar]

This should come as no surprise to anyone. Rock=ratings, has pretty much since he started. He's the gold nugget that Vince will take credit for. Rock is still doing what he enjoys, so I certainly hope nobody hates him for this.

 

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

This thread nosedived off a cliff after BRJP's post.

Good god.

Good god, I say things how I see it and I think Rock jokes are getting old. Make a credible post for the first time in three months.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

Pfft...I'm sure that CM Punk is who boosted the buyrates. Sure none of the other PPVs he headlined had increased buyrates but CM Punk did it...

Seriously though people can hate Rock for busting his ass doing 2 jobs at once but the guy puts asses in seats both in wrestling arena's and movie theater's.

 

[Defiant]

There's no questioning Rock's draw power, but to me Rock is someone you'd bring in particularly when you want to draw attention to your show when you've got something big planned. It gets annoying when it seems like the end goal is (or that it should be) just about the pay day, and it's all wanking off the the mega-stars while the remainder of the roster is neglected to make space for all the main event faff. Rock/Cena initially was pretty surreal for any wrestling fan, Rock/Punk was exciting, but the Cena rematch in particular turned out to be such a cynical waste of potential in it's build up and the match apparently no better than the first.

It obviously made a LOT of money and probably accounted for most of the buys, that can't be disputed. But it's still a dead end in the sense that it added and contributed nothing in any other aspect, in fact I think it's continuation completely kills the "once in a lifetime" appeal of the first. And their interactions, even The Rock's appearances, feel less and less magical.

Then when WWE repeatedly take the safe option that guarantee's maximum profit time after time at major events, and wonders why none of these promising young guys somewhere in the background aren't drawing anywhere near Rock or Cena level... Something isn't working somewhere. Feels like the machinery has stopped moving but people are still gathering around to see what it does.

EDIT - I should make my stance clear: I'm really not trying to bash Rock, the numbers suggest he's clearly someone lots of people like to see. But when you're not really THAT big on him like me and a number of others, it's hard to see what The Rock does as anything other than catering to his own fans and of course making money. Nothing wrong with either, but it's a little alienating for us when anyone else we want to see elevated can't find room under the spotlight and the quality of the product doesn't magically improve, irritating sometimes.

 

[SAIYANS]

[MENTION=529]Defiant[/MENTION] I understand and respect your point, but Vince said it himself. They were able to put 7 new guys on Mania because of Rock-Cena. Even when rock-Cena wasn't happening the fact is past manias were filled with undercard hards like Carlito, MvP, Morrison, Kofi, etc who were at their ceiling. That means those same young guys still weren't getting on and the business wasn't doing as well either, it was pure lose lose. For everything negative to be said possibly about Rock-Cena/HHH-Brock/Taker-Punk being the headlines with all the part timers, you have to admit that guys like Fandango, Reigns, Ambrose, Langston, Rollins, Ryback were able to be on the show and watched by a much larger audience in the arena and at home to make their moments and be noticed because of the draw at the top of the card sold the event for it to be filled with new blood who can't draw.

I think people often keep looking at it with too much tunnel vision. They look at it as if to say Rock is only facing Punk and Cena, Brock's only facing Cena and Hunter, Takers only facing Micharls, Hunter, and Punk .... Thing is they never look at the big picture. Guys pay money, casuals and loyalists to a Rock or Cena pay money, they don't stream, they aren't ashamed to buy and wear the gear. In doing so the audience expands and even though a Dolph isn't facing Rock, he is being watched by the same set of eyes who coughed up $65 for a ppv just for cena-rocks match. He's being exposed to an audience that other wise wouldn't know wtf a Dolph Ziggler is even supposed to be if name dropped. There in lies the opportunity that its up to that guy to seize. Its a cycle, Kane even did an interview around mania saying young guys today who complain about part timers don't get it because guys like Rock were once in the undercard too while Michaels-Hart sold the show and instead of being mad about the spot they were in, they went out and put on a show to be noticed. Its why rock is where rock is while guys like carlito make twitter jokes to stay relevant grand scale

 

[Keith]

[MENTION=529]Defiant[/MENTION] I understand and respect your point, but Vince said it himself. They were able to put 7 new guys on Mania because of Rock-Cena. Even when rock-Cena wasn't happening the fact is past manias were filled with undercard hards like Carlito, MvP, Morrison, Kofi, etc who were at their ceiling. That means those same young guys still weren't getting on and the business wasn't doing as well either, it was pure lose lose. For everything negative to be said possibly about Rock-Cena/HHH-Brock/Taker-Punk being the headlines with all the part timers, you have to admit that guys like Fandango, Reigns, Ambrose, Langston, Rollins, Ryback were able to be on the show and watched by a much larger audience in the arena and at home to make their moments and be noticed because of the draw at the top of the card sold the event for it to be filled with new blood who can't draw.

I think people often keep looking at it with too much tunnel vision. They look at it as if to say Rock is only facing Punk and Cena, Brock's only facing Cena and Hunter, Takers only facing Micharls, Hunter, and Punk .... Thing is they never look at the big picture. Guys pay money, casuals and loyalists to a Rock or Cena pay money, they don't stream, they aren't ashamed to buy and wear the gear. In doing so the audience expands and even though a Dolph isn't facing Rock, he is being watched by the same set of eyes who coughed up $65 for a ppv just for cena-rocks match. He's being exposed to an audience that other wise wouldn't know wtf a Dolph Ziggler is even supposed to be if name dropped. There in lies the opportunity that its up to that guy to seize. Its a cycle, Kane even did an interview around mania saying young guys today who complain about part timers don't get it because guys like Rock were once in the undercard too while Michaels-Hart sold the show and instead of being mad about the spot they were in, they went out and put on a show to be noticed. Its why rock is where rock is while guys like carlito make twitter jokes to stay relevant grand scale

That is a very balanced argument, not saying I agree, but you do make some interesting points.