10 Fascinating WWE SummerSlam 2001 Facts
1. The Buyrate Was Down Considerably From InVasion
The anticipation for the InVasion pay-per-view was off the charts, so much so that it did the highest non-WrestleMania buyrate in WWE history, 770,000 buys. That show, while novel, disappointed in many ways, outside of a stellar Rob Van Dam/Jeff Hardy Hardcore title match. Austin joining the Alliance at the end felt like a rivet-gunned solution for a failing idea, as aside from DDP and Booker T, no major stars from WCW were joining in the less-than-hostile takeover.
The buyrate for SummerSlam 2001, while comparable to the 2000 show, was down almost 27 percent from InVasion, coming in at 565,000 buys. While that's still a number worth celebrating under normal circumstances, it did demonstrate some early lost faith in where the all-encompassing angle was headed, before dying with a whimper in November.