10 Big Lessons WWE Must Learn From 2016
4. There Are Too Many PPVs
WWE’s pay-per-view schedule has come fast and furious since the Brand Split. There have been six PPVs since July, with SmackDown’s TLC and Raw’s Roadblock set to air later this month. In total, WWE will have aired 15 major events by the year’s end, and by the time Roadlock takes place on December 18th, WWE will have produced three PPVs in six weeks.
Oversaturation and burnout are huge problems in 2016, and the company’s increased PPV schedule is a huge part of this. The Split necessitates brand-specific PPVs, but asking fans sit down and watch a 3-4 hour pay-per-view every second Sunday night is demanding too much of an already stretched fanbase. The schedule is brutal and unrelenting, and if it continues, fans are going to start picking and choosing, and the viewership will fall.
There’s been talk recently that WWE are looking to tone down the number of PPVs in 2017, and we can only hope this is true. The months featuring two PPVs are incredibly hectic, and while this might be unavoidable from time-to-time, it’s already happened thrice since the Brand Split. On PPV weeks, someone who watches Raw & SmackDown is looking at consuming 8-9 hours of original WWE content, and that’s without considering NXT, 205 Live, and Main Event. For many fans, following WWE is becoming a job rather than a hobby, and that should never be the case.