— Many within WWE have found WWE’s recent earnings report, which revealed low buyrates–notably for the recent “The Bash” pay-per-view–as telling regarding WWE’s present RAW booking strategy.
The commercial-free edition of RAW, which served as the “go home” show for The Bash, was one of the most-viewed WWE shows in recent memory. Yet despite having the increased viewership from which to draw purchasers, the show converted at a poor rate and ended up posting one of WWE’s worst buyrates in the last decade.
Insiders explain that if WWE truly does prioritize pay-per-view events for revenue generation and the further development of the company, it is not enough to simply generate a larger potential viewing audience by making the television shows bigger attractions. The shows must be geared to the promotion of main-event PPV matchups (and matchups that fans would be interested in saying).
TNA has been experiencing a similar problem, as despite drawing solid ratings for a distant number two wrestling promotion, its pay-per-views never post good buyrates and live event gates are far from impressive.
— As another interesting tidbit, with buyrates down, it is clear that WWE’s increased effort to block illegal web streams events has not produced more pay-per-view customers. Thus, it seems that those who were watching the events illegally would not have otherwise paid to watch the shows on television.
— The JTG vs. Big Show match, which was taped for SmackDown, was originally booked as Shad Gaspard vs. Big Show. WWE obviously felt that the smaller JTG made for the better cat-and-mouse matchup with the physically large Show.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
