WWE: 7 Greatest Innovations To The Wrestling Business

2. Pay-Per-Views

There's a quote by Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White where he calls Vince McMahon the "the guy that basically created the pay-per-view market." It's because McMahon has been in the PPV business for nearly 30 years and few people come close to him as a promoter in that field. Yes, some boxing promoters could claim success in it, but none of them have the longevity of McMahon. What WWE has done over the years with the PPV concept has been brilliant. It started out with just WrestleMania. Then they added Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam to give us the big four. Those four events are still around to this day. While Survivor Series has fallen off in terms of its stature, most years the PPVs that have done the best buyrates have been WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam. That's held true to this day. In 1993 they added King of the Ring to the mix. In 1995, they added two hour In Your House PPVs that gave us a PPV every month of the year. By 1997, we were treated to at least 12 three hour PPVs every calendar. Was it too much? To some it might have been. To WWE it was a sign of growth. The PPV was a money maker for WWE. It still is although even they know it's time to change. That's just how good business is done. Now that the PPV concept will change with the debut of WWE Network on February 24, perhaps McMahon can be known as the guy that changed the way we all watched these major events. For $10 month we can get these live shows that used to be $55 per month (in HD) just because McMahon wanted to take it out of the hands of the cable providers. Once again, it's an example of WWE thinking outside the box. Will it work? Time will tell on that one. History has shown that WWE has been ahead of the curve. While the PPV concept may change, there's no doubt that the quality of the shows will remain high. They may not always be perfect, but they will give their best and most of the time they deliver. After all, they have a 30 year PPV archive that is proof of that. You can watch all of those on the Network too, by the way.