10 Money Matches WWE Rushed To Give Away For Free
"This is the biggest match in the history of Monday Night Raw... "
Making money.
Not to sound too much like 2022's Captain Obvious, but that's what pro wrestling has and always will boil down to. It's a business, and one obsessed with making folks fork over their cash (whether that be via traditional pay-per-view or into the WWE Network coffers) to see the biggest matches possible.
Seems like a simple strategy, doesn't it? Big stars + pay wall = the opening lyrics to Ted DiBiase's old theme tune. "Everybody's got a price", and that only makes it even more baffling that WWE has occasionally strayed from their moolah-making model in favour of giving fans bumper matches on free television. Of course, the rights fee era has made this take ancient and inaccurate, but there's still something to the idea of not giving the absolute biggest matches away. Wrestling builds to big shows. That will never change, even if the economy has.
All but two of the matches listed here happened on TV first before they made it to pay-per-view. In the examples that didn't, there was cash to be made in rematches after the original. That was tossed away in favour of popping a TV rating or as a tool to promote future pay-per-views.
Everyone had a dig at WCW for throwing box office magic away. History tells us they weren't the only ones...