More News On WWE Changing PPV Format

[CandyKANE]

There is a backstage rumor that WWE will soon change the makeup of their PPVs by alternating each event to have exclusively Raw or Smackdown! brand wrestlers, with the top PPVs (Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble) being labelled as special where wrestlers of both brands would compete. Keep in mind that this is only a rumor and in fact, most people feel that it won't happen due to business reasons.

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

[-STITAN-]

I think it's better to go with the new PPV system. It seems so much easier to manage.

[CandyKANE]

There are strong rumors that WWE will go to a new format after Wrestlemania, further seperating the two brands. As it stands RAW will be getting 4 PPV's per year solely for their brand and Smackdown! will be getting 4 as well. Those PPV's have not yet been determined, but it is thought that Wrestlemania, Survivor Series, Summer Slam, and The Royal Rumble will be both brands PPV.

It is not certain that these changes will take place, but there are strong indications that this could be the case starting after Wrestlemania.

In essence, each brand will have 8 PPV's per year and any cross promotion between the two brands will be eliminated.

credit:prowrestling.com

[Bruce Bolt]

I like it. :thumbsup:

I hope it's like the old days.

[CandyKANE]

I don't like this idea at all. Your telling me that the wwe are going to get good buyrates if for 4 months out of the year The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Rey Mysterio, The Undertaker and The Big Show won't be on the PPV? And vice-versa for the RAW Brand.

It would just be a 3 hour SmackDown broadcast or a 3 hour RAW broadcast.

If they do this and say the first month it's JUST a RAW program. Usually only about 10 guys from RAW make it to the PPV. Now they will need like the whole RAW roster to fill the show. RAW DON"T have a lot of GOOD talent on their show, that will not get huge PPV buys.

[CandyKANE]

As I talked about yesterday on my Premium hotline, as of right now the WWE is moving forward with a plan to create a "hard split" in the company's two brands. As it stands right now (and remember things are always subject to change in WWE), they are proceeding with the plan that was being considered last month where the company would do four Raw brand only PPVs, four Smackdown brand only PPVs and four combined shows a year. The June King of the Ring PPV is tentatively scheduled to be the first PPV of the new direction, with the show set to consist of Raw brand matches. I believe that the plan is for The Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and The Survivor Series to be the events that feature talent from both rosters.

The word making the rounds is that Vince McMahon decided to go forward with the idea after last month's Madison Square Garden house show when he heard the crowd react negatively when Triple H couldn't work his scheduled match against Brock Lesnar, due to his leg injury. On that night, Team Angle filled in for H and it ended up as a Smackdown main event on a Raw brand house show. As the story goes, Vince reportedly took the fans' negative reaction to the substitution to mean that they were angry because they wanted to see an all Raw show, and didn't come to see a Smackdown main event. If that story is true, it's sheer insanity from where I sit. The boos from the fans clearly came from the fact that H was advertised and the fans didn't know he wasn't going to wrestle until the show had already started. How it could be viewed as anything other than that is beyond me.

As far as the idea itself, the McMahons are said to be prepared for an initial drop in buys at the beginning of the new system, much as they said they were ready for a drop in house show gates and television ratings when they first did the split last year. They feel that if they can build two substantial, independent brands that in the long run the idea will be a good one.

My own take on this is that it's a potentially suicidal idea for the company. As it stands now, they don't have enough top tier talent to begin with. They need all of the drawing power that they can get on each monthly event. By thinning the talent pool on the shows, buys for the shows will drop. In addition to that, if they go forward with the idea, the best that the wrestlers can hope for is 8 PPV bonuses a year instead of 12. That will be a substantial hit in their pockets. I truly hope WWE reconsiders this and abandons the idea.

credit:1wrestling.com

[MGBweird]

If they do go through with it the Raw PPVs would be really boring.

You could however put Scott Steiner in the first match and have him punch away at his opponent. That would use an hour of the show.

[Bruce Bolt]

I guess I'm alone on this then. I still like this idea. The WWE is supposed to be split. Both brands have their own GMs, their own rosters, and their own shows. It really makes no sense to share PPVs. Yes, it will seem like a three hour edition of Smackdown or RAW but that's okay. Each brand has more than enough talent (and now time) to make great angles to fill the show. I really believe each brand has more talent now then the whole WWE did as a whole not too long ago. Remember when all they had was Austin, Rock, Mankind, and Undertaker?

Having a PPV every month rushes things and feuds are much more meaningless than they used to be. This will spread things out. Besides, sharing a PPV has no purpose. There are no matches between members of opposing brands. The PPVs are basically just a bunch of Smackdown and RAW matches all mixed up and put into one show.

As for RAW suffering, I have to disagree. I think RAW has a lot of talent and in my opinion, it is twice as good as Smackdown right now. Smackdown has bored me for the past month while RAW has kept my interest week after week. Smackdown is great for actual wrestling but I can only see so many Team Angle vs Benoit/Edge combination before I can't take it anymore.