Battleground Draws Approximately 125,000 Buys
According to Meltzer. This would mean the show is the lowest bought PPV in modern history save for December to Dismember. Night of Champions and Summerslam were down as well. HIAC was up very slightly.
In other words, three of the four shows headlined by Bryan were down in buys and the only one up saw Cena returning. That’s why Daniel Bryan is feuding with the Wyatts instead of the Authority and John Cena is headlining another pay per view.
Simply blaming Bryan is incredibly reductive. I mean, I don’t think anyone is delusional enough to claim that he’s a draw like Cena is but don’t you think the fact that the PPVs were so close together had an effect? Don’t you think that cost has an effect? How about poor booking in pulling the rug out from under Bryan by undercutting his big moments and the weeks of beatdowns? Or the issue of Big Show being the focus of the whole story?
Bryan can’t take all the blame here and I think you know that as well as anyone.
TV ratings (when Bryan is on) seem to agree with this buyrate. Look at his overall run as a main eventer, not just this buyrate and you’ll see why he was depushed.
I was afraid this was going to happen the moment Summerslam drew less buys. Hell, if you look up WWE’s Q3 2013 earnings statement, Vince actually says that they did well in spite of Summerslam’s buy rate.
I’m with a few guys that the booking sucked and that we might be telling a different story if they gave Bryan the belt and let him keep it, but like I said before, the buy rates and ratings decide who stays on top, and Bryan is getting depushed because of it.
Even though I saw it coming, this still sucks. Bryan is good and I don’t think Cena vs. Orton again will fix things.
One thing to remember, WWE didn’t just use this one PPV to de-push Bryan; he just didn’t draw. At least Miz wasn’t blamed.
Yeah. It was clearly Daniel Bryan and not the piss ass writing on top of the ridiculously short span between PPV’s.
Damn, I really hate how dickish WWE can be at times.
“That’s why Daniel Bryan is feuding with the Wyatts instead of the Authority and John Cena is headlining another pay per view.”
You must really not like Bryan to suggest it’s his fault for that horrible ppv. I like your work kb, however your outright Bryan bias is frustrating at times.
You know what else is frustrating?
Trying to get Bryan fans to listen to reason.
Coming from the die hard Cena fan? It’s pretty frustrating trying to explain that there actually quite a lot of people that hate him and have stopped watching because of it.
I understand you like Cena and i’m not arguing that he isn’t a good wrestler, But his time is over. It’s been a decade, he’s boring and stale. Putting him in a match with a guy that he’s headlined a half dozen ppv with isn’t going to solve anything.
This company is afraid of risks. Would the “ratings” have gone up if anyone actually believed, That Bryan or anyone else was going to stay on top once Cena got back? There is no reason to get behind anyone else.
Aren’t you tired of Cena vanquishing the evil?
p.s. This ratings nonsense has to stop. You watch the show to be entertained. If you truly are entertained by Cena, and want to see him in future main events for the next 5-10 years then fine. Don’t say you want him there because of draws and ratings. Those have no baring on your ability to enjoy the show. Unless your work for corporate you shouldn’t care.
That’s Battleground KB. Delete this comment afterwards.