While investors saw enough to like in WWE’s third-quarter earnings announcement to send the stock up 2.22% Thursday, the wrestling media was quick to point out that pay-per-view buyrates again disappointed.
Confirming figures strongly in line with earlier estimates, WWE revealed that all three of its Q3 pay-per-views were down in comparison to last year’s numbers.
Most disappointing was Money in the Bank, which drew a mere 165,000 buys in July of 2010. Down significantly from the 267,000 buys garnered by Night of Champions in July of 2009, the show is particularly disappointing given the perceived value of the MITB gimmick and strong industry optimism about the show.
Summerslam, featuring the big Nexus vs. WWE RAW match, was down from 369,000 buys to 350,000. While a decline like that year-over-year is not uncommon for WWE’s portfolio, given the fact that last year’s Summerslam was considered a bomb, August was a month in which many were expecting WWE to post pay-per-view growth.
September’s Night of Champions garnered 165,000 buys, down from 169,000 from Breaking Point in September of 2009. This comparison is complicated; one can choose to either admire the fact that WWE’s September was basically on par or criticize Night of Champions for its loss of more than 100,000 buys from when the show aired in July of 2009. As Breaking Point was considered a weak pay-per-view, the latter comparison is probably more logical.