This is so preposterously wrong. They have the right buyrates, but all that is is a PERCENTAGE of the number of people who ordered the show versus the number of people with PPV capabilities. A PPV universe that has expanded exponentially since 1987, where a 10.2 buyrate translates to only about 500,000 buys, not FOUR MILLION. A 1.0 buyrate accounts for 1% of the PPV universe at the time each show took place, which happened to be 400,000 last year, but is not a constant number.
To show how much that number changes from year to year, they're not even close to accurate about the last five years:
WrestleMania XIV (1998) Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin 2.3 buyrate (920,000 buys) ACTUALLY: 750,000
WrestleMania XV (1999) Main Event: Steve Austin vs. The Rock 2.32 buyrate (928,000 buys) ACTUALLY: 800,000
WrestleMania XVI (2000) Main Event: The Rock vs. Triple H vs. The Big Show vs. Mick Foley 2.35 buyrate (940,000 buys) ACTUALLY: 825,000
WrestleMania XVII (2001) Main Event: Steve Austin vs. The Rock 2.18 buyrate (872,000 buys) ACTUALLY: 950,000
WrestleMania XVIII (2002) Main Event: The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan 1.60 buyrate (640,000 buys) ACTUALLY: 840,000
1) Just remember that when everyone looks at the range of 1.6-1.8 that WMXX draws and calls it a downslope when in reality it got as many buys as the Attitude WMs.
2) Do they have any set ratio in place for people who watch at Hooters to name one place as an example? I know that the owners of bars pay a much higher rate (without knowing the amount) for public exhibition purposes but what I'm wondering is when they count buys, do they have an average per Blast Area that they factor into the buyrate number, or is that a seperate entity altogether?
Boy, I started with one question and ended up asking four.
Oh good. Well that's service. FWIW, this is what I was originally looking at:
*****
The following are the buyrates for the past WrestleMania PPVs (going back to 1987). A 1.0 buyrates translates to roughly 400,000 buys. Note that WWE is hoping that WrestleMania XX draws at least 1,000,000 buys (a 2.5 buyrate). WWE has not drawn that high a buyrate for WrestleMania since 1991.
WrestleMania III 1987 Main Event: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant 10.2 buyrate (4,080,000 buys)
WrestleMania IV 1988 Main Event: Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase 6.5 buyrate (2,600,000 buys)
WrestleMania V (1989) Main Event: Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage 5.9 buyrate (2,360,000 buys)
WrestleMania VI (1990) Main Event: Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior 3.8 buyrate (1,520,000 buys)
WrestleMania VII (1991) Main Event: Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter 2.8 buyrate (1,120,000 buys)
WrestleMania VIII (1992) Main Event: Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair | Hulk Hogan vs. Sycho Sid 2.3 buyrate (920,000 buys)
WrestleMania IX (1993) Main Event: Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna 2.0 buyrate (800,000 buys)
WrestleMania X (1994) Main Event: Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna 1.68 buyrate (672,000 buys)
WrestleMania XI (1995) Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel | Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Lawrence Taylor 1.3 buyrate (520,000 buys)
WrestleMania XII (1996) Main Event: Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels 1.2 buyrate (480,000 buys)
WrestleMania XIII (1997) Main Event: Sycho Sid vs. The Undertaker | Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin 0.77 buyrate (308,000 buys)
WrestleMania XIV (1998) Main Event: Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin 2.3 buyrate (920,000 buys)
WrestleMania XV (1999) Main Event: Steve Austin vs. The Rock 2.32 buyrate (928,000 buys)
WrestleMania XVI (2000) Main Event: The Rock vs. Triple H vs. The Big Show vs. Mick Foley 2.35 buyrate (940,000 buys)
WrestleMania XVII (2001) Main Event: Steve Austin vs. The Rock 2.18 buyrate (872,000 buys)
WrestleMania XVIII (2002) Main Event: The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan 1.60 buyrate (640,000 buys)
WrestleMania XIX (2003) Main Event: Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar | Hulk Hogan vs. Vince McMahon | The Rock vs. Steve Austin 1.40 buyrate (560,000 buys)
Didn't the writer (Ashish?) realize four million buys for the first Wrestlemania, with a relatively steady decline in each succeeding Wrestlemania, was a bit odd? Four million buys at 30 bucks each is $122,400,000. At 20 it's $81,600,000. With that kind of revenue in the mid-80s, there never would have been a Monday Night War.
I quite like how the roundtable PPV predictions cuts off in the middle of Brock vs Goldberg, before the article even gets to Angle vs Eddy or the Triple Threat.
I actually like Rajah keeping the WWF. I don't think it's intentional but it did feel like a little F-U to the WWF-Wrestling who did contact him to drop the WWF off his site. Which I thought was being tight (not in a good way) on WWF's part.