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

We’ve already established that the main event needs to be reserved for only the very top names. And so you’d think it would stand to reason that you should also be saving the WWE Championship bout for the final match of the evening.

But low and behold, that kind of strategy hasn’t always produced the most PPV buys at SummerSlam.

Three of the five most-purchased shows featured main events that didn’t involve the company’s premier prize. 2005 saw Hulk Hogan face Shawn Michaels in a grudge match, 1989 staged Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior against Randy Savage and Zeus, while 2001 closed with the Rock vs. Booker T for the WCW Championship—ahead of the Kurt Angle vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin clash for the WWE belt.

And conversely, if we discount the shows from the post-Network era, each of the four least-purchased SummerSlams all ended with WWE title bouts, with a clear precedent on the belt itself rather than the competitors involved.

So according to history, at least, the best way to maximise a SummerSlam buy-rate would seem to be to place the top star in the main event, and place the WWE title bout slightly earlier on—a strategy that we saw at last year’s show, and may very well see again this time around.