Opinion: 19 Pay-Per-Views Per Year is Too Many

Many incredible things have been occurring in WWE since the brand split occurred in late July. “Monday Night Raw” and “Smackdown Live” are delivering fresh new content, which has been unlike anything that we have seen in a long time. Fresh new feuds are taking place, and much of the talent on both shows are being given opportunities to have meaningful, developed storylines.

One other thing that was announced at the split, was the return of brand-specific pay-per-views. At first I was very excited about this concept, because it would give each show the chance to develop lengthy storylines, and allow the culmination of the feuds to have more of a payoff, because the build would be so intense.

However, what WWE failed to mention is that these brand-specific pay-per-views would be in addition to the monthly ones that the company puts on each month.

As I sit here writing this article, I’ve noticed that it is a Sunday night and I am not watching a wrestling pay-per-view on the WWE Network. Accompanying that thought was a feeling of relief and calmness.

And in my opinion, having those feelings is a problem. It lets me know that 19 pay-per-views per year on the WWE Network is simply too many.

I get what the company is trying to do. By adding more pay-per-views in the fall, it allows for fans of both wrestling and football to be persuaded to not watch the NFL Sunday night game.

However, I can’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed with the amount of content that I have to keep up with, and the amount of time that I have to invest in the current product in order to be caught up with everything that is happening in the storylines.

Think about the amount of content that occurs in a pay-per-view week for a wrestling fan. You have “Raw” on Monday for 3 hours, “Smackdown Live” on Tuesday for 2 hours, plus a pay-per-view on Sunday for an additional 3+ hours. That’s over 8 hours of wrestling that week just to be caught up on the storylines. In some cases, that is more than two NFL football games combined!

And being asked to do that 19 out of the 52 weeks of the year is quite a stretch. Especially for those fans that have families, children, and intense jobs.

This does not include NXT or the recent Cruiserweight Classic. I was not able to watch any of it, unfortunately, just because I was hanging out to stay current with the storylines that were occurring on regular WWE programming.

In addition, having so many pay-per-views defeats the purpose of having brand-specific events. Imagine if there were two months to build storylines, instead of three weeks. How much more interested would you be in tuning into the pay-per-view to see what happens in the big match?

Earlier this year, I wrote an opinion piece giving an idea of how WWE could restructure their pay-per-view system in order to maximize the potential of separate storylines on separate brands. I still believe that this could work, and would be ideal for giving fans even more of a reason to tune in each month.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I will still watch all of the pay-per-views, and of course will be very excited for all of them. But the fact that I’m enjoying a weekend off from watching wrestling is a problem; it makes my enjoyment of sports entertainment feel more like a job than a hobby.

And I don’t know if that is best for business.

Follow @Dericho06