10 Lessons WWE Can Learn From The Biggest SummerSlam Buy-Rates Ever

Of course, the main event of any show is one of the biggest influences on the eventual buy rate.

But who exactly should the company be looking to place in those main events exactly? Is it the established stars who draw the most? Or is it the plucky underdogs with the outside chance that capture the hearts—and wallets—of fans?

Well, based on previous SummerSlam buys, it’s very much the first of those two groups.

In the years that the show has experimented with lesser-known stars in the main event, the buys have fallen the wrong side of 300,000. With Daniel Bryan in 2013, King Mabel in 1995, and in some ways Lex Luger in 1993, each were fairly fresh additions at the top of the card, and each show’s buy-rate suffered in the end.

Meanwhile, the shows that topped 600,000 buys featured the Hulk Hogans, the Undertakers, and Stone Cold Steve Austins of this world in the final match of the evening.

And so it seems that when it comes to the main event, the key is to simply go all out and use only the biggest of stars available, rather than messing around trying to build up new ones. It’s a logic that now sounds fairly obvious, but as discussed above, it’s one that hasn’t always been stuck to.