WWE’s latest key performance indicators packet confirms yet another disappointing buyrate for the leading wrestling promotion.
According to the WWE document, August’s Summerslam pay-per-view garnered approximately 350,000 buys, which represents a decline from last year’s already-disappointing performance.
As with Money in the Bank, Summerslam represented a pay-per-view that many insiders thought would “buck the trend” of dismal WWE buyrate performance. As with MITB, that optimism again proved invalid.
In addition to again confirming the troublesome decline of interest in WWE pay-per-views, the poor buyrate also provides another statistical condemnation of the Nexus angle. While the Nexus faction had been around for previous pay-per-views, Summerslam featured the group in a marquee “WWE vs. Nexus” main-event; its performance is thus the best available figure for determining how the angle translated into pay-per-view dollars. That determination is not favorable.
Between poor merchandise sales, weak television ratings and consistently weak buyrates, analysts will have a near impossible time declaring the angle commercially successful.
