Buyrate for Judgment Day comes in LOW !!

[Guest glennsoe]

Credit; pwinsider.com

 

World Wrestling Entertainment released the buyrate for the Judgment Day 2004 PPV as part of information released to WWE stockholders today. The buyrate for the PPV, headlined by Eddie Guerrero defending the WWE championship against John Bradshaw Layfield was ~200,000 buys.

 

That would be much lower than the 2003 PPV buyrate, which was ~300,000 and the 2002 number of ~375,000. Obviously this is a strong sign of the current state of the Smackdown brand, which Jim Ross termed as in a "transitional period" last month during an appearance on the WWE.com Byte This Internet show.

 

The buyrate is the lowest for any WWE live PPV event since February 2001.

[iliketurtles 0]

Difference with February 2001 and now is that a lot of people wanted to save their money for Mania instead of getting No Way Out.

 

It's not like the fans are saying money for another WWE PPV at this point...which makes it a hell of a lot worse than what it was in 2001.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

The hell, I thought NWO 01 drew great buys...

[Guest Fook]

Wait...so Bradshaw's NOT a draw???

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

Wait...so Bradshaw's NOT a draw???

He is, Eddie's not. Bring back Stephanie and put the title on her.

[Zack Malibu 0]

I can't forsee the Great American Bash doing much better, because the confirmed/rumored matches for that (Eddie vs. JBL in a gimmick match, Undertaker vs. Dudleys) aren't exactly going to make people run out and lay down $34.95.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

I thought NWO 01 drew shitloads too. The whole show was on fucking fire the entire night, really awesome PPV. The Triple H/Austin feud was built really well too, I thought that would of brought in heaps of cash.

 

This JD buyrate does little to surprise me.

 

UYI

[iliketurtles 0]

I just checked ProWrestlingHistory.com...No Way Out 2001 got a 1.31 which is above normal, so their stat about that is pretty much not true.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

1.31 is better than 'above normal', that's a mighty fine lot of buys.

[Guest Anglesault]

The title acts like this is some kind of shock.

[The Tino Standard 0]

1.31 is better than 'above normal', that's a mighty fine lot of buys.

Buyrate isn't the number anyone should be concerned about... The number of actual buys is. With PPV availability changing through the years, buyrates are hard to compare.

 

Still, a 1.31 in 2001 wouldn't set any records, but yeah, that should have translated into a pretty high number of buys nonetheless.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Considering how bad the show looked on paper I'm surprised that they actually managed 200,000 buys.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

I won't use the "the numbers change over the years" because there is no difference between buyrates from five years ago and today.

 

NWO did a good buyrate in 2001 for a non-big 4/5 PPV, and Invasion did even better. I guess it was a disapointing number because of the heavily hyped Austin/HHH showdown.

 

Edit: Hogan/Taker did nearly double in buyrates over Eddie/BRADSHAW. Somehow, I'm not surprised.

[Guest JMA]

For some reason I see smart fans getting blamed for the low buyrate. Or, they could always use a non-sensical political excuse...

 

"There's a Presidential election coming up! Everyone is watching the cable news channels!"

[Guest Korgath]

Hardly surprising... the buildup to the PPV took all of 2 weeks. And they had 2 months after Wrestlemania!

[Brett Favre 0]

200,000 people bought Judgment Day? I thought there was gonna be like 29 buys.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

For some reason I see smart fans getting blamed for the low buyrate. Or, they could always use a non-sensical political excuse...

 

"There's a Presidential election coming up! Everyone is watching the cable news channels!"

Come on we all know that Eddie is going to get the blame for this. And because of the low buyrate Vince decides to take the belt off of him and put it on JBL. Because as we all know Hosses=buyrates.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

I wonder if that includes the number of people who bought the webcast...

 

<---Idiot.

[chaosrage 0]

Well according to some people (like everyone who blames Diesel for 95 and Shawn for 96), the world champion is all that matters. So maybe we SHOULD blame Eddy.

[bradolson 0]

I can't forsee the Great American Bash doing much better, because the confirmed/rumored matches for that (Eddie vs. JBL in a gimmick match, Undertaker vs. Dudleys) aren't exactly going to make people run out and lay down $34.95.

don't forget that wwe will probably count all the "free" buys that members of the military order because they will order normally and just get reimbursed the $35 when they send in their cable/satellite bill. so the GAB should have an artificially high buyrate.

[Guest Cheech]

I thought Armageddon 2003 got the lowest buyrate since an In Your House PPV in 1996? And that No Way Out 2004 did even worse.

 

And No Way Out 2001 was one of the best PPV's the company has ever done.

[NoCalMike 0]

well I expected this, considering I see the ppvs for free here at a sportsbar and I still refused to watch it last month.

[tbondrage99 0]

200,000 buys!?! Wow considering what I thought this Craptactular PPV would do this was a smash hit!

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Well, I tried to help Eddie. I tried.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Wait, a card that had 4 matches known before the last Smackdown before the PPV failed? I mean, they had 2 months to promote matches and they came up with 4 and then came up with the rest at the last minute. Vince should not let Smackdown degrade itself to this. He owns a publicly traded company and this looks bad for the company even though Raw is doing well.

[AndrewTS 0]

"Obviously this is a strong sign of the current state of the Smackdown brand, which Jim Ross termed as in a 'transitional period' last month during an appearance on the WWE.com Byte This Internet show."

 

Transitional period = JR speak for "the show is sucking **** right now, and expect it to for a while...then we'll do a ridiculous over-the-top angle to 'get ratings.'"

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

Well according to some people (like everyone who blames Diesel for 95 and Shawn for 96), the world champion is all that matters. So maybe we SHOULD blame Eddy.

Wrong. Diesel headlined EVERY PPV that year except IYH5, and they all sucked dick in the buyrate department.

 

Michaels was no better in 1996.

 

Judging ONE show Eddie headlined shouldn't be the time to pull out a crucifix. If it's consistant....then that's a different story.

[hitman2003 0]

I thought Armageddon 2003 got the lowest buyrate since an In Your House PPV in 1996? And that No Way Out 2004 did even worse.

 

And No Way Out 2001 was one of the best PPV's the company has ever done.

No Way Out 2004 did better than Armageddon 2003. Last I heard, Armageddon 2003 did 215,000 buys an No Way Out 200 did 250,000.

[tbondrage99 0]

Judging ONE show Eddie headlined shouldn't be the time to pull out a crucifix. If it's consistant....then that's a different story.

It will be consistant if they keep putting him in the main event against JBL, I mean c'mon Why JBL of all people, actually if JBL then why not anyone? Why not put in the main event against Orlando Jordan? I mean why not the results would probally be the same.

[Mole 0]

They should make the brand PPVs around $24.99.