WWE Rumor: Two Monthly PPV Events Post Brand Extension?
The WWE brand extension is set to begin when Raw and Smackdown are split into two rosters for the live Tuesday night Smackdown premiere on July 19. We still don’t have official word on when the draft might be, if there will be two World Titles (that’s expected) and several other questions relating to it. What about PPVs? A WWE Hall of Famer may have shed some light on that for us.
A fan met WWE Hall of Famer and current Smackdown announcer Jerry “The King” Lawler at the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois on the weekend and The King shared this bit of information. The report comes from ProWrestling.net:
Lawler said that they would have two pay-per-view events monthly, one for Raw and one for Smackdown. This would happen except for the big four events (WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series).
Keep in mind that Lawler has previously said things like USA Network getting Smackdown and Smackdown going live months in advance of those things actually happening, so he is a good source on this. Plus, Lawler has been in WWE for over 20 years. He probably wouldn’t say these things unless somebody he trusts gave him that information.
On last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said it’s not official yet, but if it happens it would weaken the value of the titles (assuming there are two World Titles) and make the television shows seem less important because there’s too much content.
TJR Thoughts: I generally tend to avoid rumors like this, but when it comes from somebody like Lawler it’s worth paying attention to. My immediate reaction is a groan because there’s a lot of WWE content in an average week and now they want to add in another three hour show per month? That would mean two weeks per month with a 3 hour PPV, 3 hour Raw and 2 hour Smackdown in back to back to back nights for a total of eight hours of content. A little much, right? I think so.
As long as the price of WWE Network isn’t increased, some fans may like this. It would give them two Sunday nights per month with WWE content in their lives. If it’s not costing you more money, why should you care? That’s the way WWE looks at it.
If they were to only do it in the eight months where the big four PPVs are not taking place then that would mean a total of 20 PPV weeks in the year.
Take it as a rumor for now. It’s another of those things that WWE has to announce within the next month as the brand extension draws near.