Guest rawmvp Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 From PWtorch: "The initial buyrate estimates for Great American Bash certainly don't paint a rosy picture of the state of SmackDown. The PPV, headlined by JBL vs. Batista, scored an estimated 200,000 buys. Although the first estimates are usually a bit lower than the final number, the PPV is still dangerously close to being the worst-performing WWE event this year. Considering WWE has opted to continue two of the more prominent storylines - JBL/Batista and Guerrero/Mysterio - through Summerslam, the news is extremely alarming. Prior to this PPV, the WWE No Way Out event was the year's worst performer."
USC Wuz Robbed! Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 It's obvious JBL is at fault here. Consider that the two of the lowest drawing PPVs this year involved... JBL... in the main event.
genius33 Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 however, judgment day did very respectable numbers and jbl was in the main event there too... your logic is faulty at best
USC Wuz Robbed! Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 The show also featured one of the most over guys on the roster, Cena. My logic is perfectly fine. The show also had a blood feud in Eddie/Rey. edit: Not much of a genius, are you?
UZI Suicide Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 I'd say that had a lot more to do with John Cena than JBL.
Guest Ransome Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 From PWtorch: Considering WWE has opted to continue two of the more prominent storylines - JBL/Batista and Guerrero/Mysterio - through Summerslam, the news is extremely alarming. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It's hardly 'extremely alarming' that the storylines are continuing - it would be wasteful for them not to blow off these two angles (Eddie/Rey and JBL/Batista) at SS. If they instead tried to whip up new feuds for these four before SS they'd only be overshadowed by Hogan vs HBK anyway, which is the only match that the WWE publicity machine will be hyping up. Reporting this as 'news' is one thing, but trying to exaggerate the importance of said news like this is a tad alarmist. The number of buys for GAB is hardly surprising for what was one of the weakest pay-per-views they've ever done. I wonder, if GAB had been two weeks after ONS instead of Vengeance, would they have gone all-out desperately trying to improve GAB so as not to be outdone by ONS too?
King Cucaracha Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 The show also featured one of the most over guys on the roster, Cena. My logic is perfectly fine. The show also had a blood feud in Eddie/Rey. GAB also had a blood feud in Eddie/Rey. JBL isn't the only one at fault. The entire brand is a turn-off right now, not just one guy.
Guest jm29195 Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 Well I don't think Batista's at fault here- the RAW PPV's he's headlined have all drawn respectable numbers, especially Wrestlemania- and he is/was really over as a champ before the booking team decided to virtually stop him talking and wrestling on tv.....
Gert T Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 I also think the fact that the Raw PPV right before GAB had 2 world title match including the Hell in a Cell to spike buys. That also took some buys away.
cabbageboy Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 The draft really killed Smackdown's drawing power. I don't think they care really since the show is going to move to Friday this fall and will be killed off a year from now. I can see why they would consider going on with the Rey/Eddie thing since that has been going forever and Eddie plausibly needs a win at some point. But this Batista/JBL thing? Fucking hell. No way can this possibly go past SS, since Batista obviously has to win there and end this crap feud. There is absolutely no way they can justify keeping Bradshaw in the main event at this point. It was sorta funny for a while but now it's getting offensive. Get this fucking clown off my TV.
Team Angle Pusher Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 You guys think the WWE will change plans just because of this? I see Lesnar attacking Batista at Summerslam and they give Lesnar the belt soon
USC Wuz Robbed! Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 The show also featured one of the most over guys on the roster, Cena. My logic is perfectly fine. The show also had a blood feud in Eddie/Rey. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> GAB also had a blood feud in Eddie/Rey. JBL isn't the only one at fault. The entire brand is a turn-off right now, not just one guy. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Except after Judgment Day, the steam was taken out of the feud. Rey had beat Eddie twice in a row. GAB and now Summerslam is just stretching it thin. JBL was credited as being the lowest drawing champion of 2004, so I don't see what have changed since then. He's still in the main event, at NWO it was against the Big Show in a foregone conclusion and GAB against Batista in what I personally think was a foregone conclusion. JBL is not a draw. You can say the whole brand isn't a draw, and the reason is because the wrong guys are on the top. If a strongly-booked Eddie was in JBL's spot, I am willing to bet there would be at least 50K more buys each time out.
humongous2002 Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 LMAO, even Sandman or Tommy Dreamer are bigger draws than that main eventer wannabe JBL. ONS did way better than GAB.
dubq Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 Something tells me that people didn't buy GAB JUST because of the main event.. the entire card was shite.
USC Wuz Robbed! Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 LMAO, even Sandman or Tommy Dreamer are bigger draws than that main eventer wannabe JBL. ONS did way better than GAB. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That I don't agree with.
cabbageboy Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 Well my point about JBL is that there is literally nothing he could do with the title at this point. Smackdown's face side just provides the same crap he did last year to little acclaim, unless it's just a shock switch and Batista regains soon after. It's time to cut bait here, job his ass out and end this failed experiment. Summerslam absolutely HAS to be Cabinet jobbing night, there is no other option. If I don't see both JBL and Orlando Jordan get their asses kicked then this PPV is a fiasco.
Kahran Ramsus Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 Hassan/Taker got more publicity than anything else at GAB. That angle should take the blunt of the blame. It is also the only reason that JBL is main eventing Summerslam too.
Guest JMA Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 JBL needs to be moved down to the U.S. title division. While Batista needs to feud with someone who's a credible threat.
Hunter's Torn Quad Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 If Hassan was still in the SS main event, I think a title change would have been a near certainty now.
Guest Y2DAYDAY Posted August 10, 2005 Report Posted August 10, 2005 I checked the WWE Corporate site and it is closer to 220,000 for the initial estimate. The May Smackdown PPV had a first estimate of 230,000 so this one is right below that one and pretty much on the same level. Funny thing is people liked that show so it was considered a success but hated this one so they are rounding 220,000 down to 200,000 . This show had a much weaker lineup, after 2 straight 2 PPV months with HBK vs Hogan already announced for SS, and they still did about the same as the May show. It is really a miracle they did 220,000 buys as a first estimate. Batista has been the PPV draw all year for the company so I think he is the one that saved this thing from 175,000 buys or lower. What no one is mentioning is that the RAW July PPV last year headlined by HHH vs Benoit and Edge vs Orton that followed 2 PPV's in June had a first estimate of 215,000 buys, so this one is already ahead of that one. Not a great number by any means but with the current landscape, a weak card, and all of the PPV's before saturating the market, and SS Main event already advertised, they are happy to get 220,000 buys for a B-Show. One more thing is Backlash had the return of Hogan and HHH vs Batista, Judgment Day had Cena vs JBL in an I-Quit gimmick match, ECW had their PPV, Vengeance had HBK vs Angle II, Cena moving to RAW, and HITC. This PPV had, what, a main event with no gimmick, and Taker vs Hassan second from the top.
Fökai Posted August 11, 2005 Report Posted August 11, 2005 You guys aren't adding in the fact the PPV was free to tons of people. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Don't they still have to order the event, then get the fee knocked off of the month's cable bill? Umm, I'm not sure of whether the giveaway factors into the buyrates or not. ...and whoever said Batista isn't a draw is kidding themselves. The fact that this shitty card (even without looking at the booking aspect of it) still did around 220,000 buys is a miracle in itself.
Jericholic82 Posted August 13, 2005 Report Posted August 13, 2005 Perhaps people didnt want to spend 34.95 that much in the course of 1 month (from june to july we had 3 ppvs in ONS, Vengeance, and GAB) especially now since wwe prices their ppv dvds at 15 bucks. (hell you can find them even cheaper on some sites) and they come out only 4 weeks after the show (and in ecws case 2 weeks)
Guest panthermatt7 Posted August 13, 2005 Report Posted August 13, 2005 Just a question... has there ever, EVER been a brand-exclusive PPV that has done a great buyrate? I'm pretty sure that fans aren't going to shell out too much of their money to see half of the roster. Just end the brand-exclusive PPVs already - a decent idea at first, good for "giving new guys chances," but the bottom line simply is that 'giving new guys chances' doesn't add up to huge buyrates. I miss the days when they tried to stack every PPV.
Art Sandusky Posted August 13, 2005 Report Posted August 13, 2005 End the split. There, I've said it.
Danville_Wrestling Posted August 13, 2005 Report Posted August 13, 2005 Why don't they just go back and do like 5 pay-per-views a year? Just do Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, bring back King of the Ring (or name it something else), SummerSlam, and then Survivor Series. There's no reason why they need a pay-per-view every month and I miss the old days where shows were built over the course of months rather than weeks.
RavishingRickRudo Posted August 13, 2005 Report Posted August 13, 2005 Yeah, why don't they just lose millions of dollars in revenue. Clearly, this is because WWE fans perceive "The Great American Bash" as a WCW show, rather than a WWE show. Therefore the answer is simple: Change the name of the show.
AndrewTS Posted August 13, 2005 Report Posted August 13, 2005 12 mediocre PPV buyrates > 5 spectacular PPV buyrates. Although I think we're up to 14-15 now, but I get your point. It's Bischoff's fault for starting it.
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