Why do the December PPVs always suck?

[Boo!]

In many sports the festive period is a boon, on television the Network's pull out all the stops to entertain the family at Christmas time. WWE? Meh some two-bit, instantly forgettable throw away PPV. I don't get it. I don't understand why a product traditionally primarily aimed at the family audience couldn't give two craps about Christmas.

This time of year should be one of the marque dates in the WWE calendar - all the family together for the holidays with nothing to do but drink and try to pretend to like each other. It seems perfect for WWE to put on a Christmas week PPV special with big storylines, huge names and matches that matter. Instead after about November (and most years not even as late as that) they tread water until January. It seems ridiculous that they completely ignore Christmas and treat it like any other throw away month. For the product they produce and the audience they target Christmas should really be one of their busiest and most profitable times of year (toy sales not withstanding)

[Jiren]

It's WWE

Nothing they do makes sense

[Rolent Tex]

Because the Rumble is more important so they don't give two shits about a good December PPV.

[Mozenrath]

Dec 21, 2014 9:11:37 GMT -5 Rolent Tex said:

Because the Rumble is more important so they don't give two shits about a good December PPV.

Generally speaking, yeah.

Which is why I hate that Elimination Chamber falls between Rumble and Mania, since it means nothing of note is going to happen, wasting the gimmick match people actually generally like.

[kidglov3s]

In Your House Season's Beatings was awesome, one of my favorite wrestling shows. I thought TLCs 2009-2011 were somewhere between good and great. I enjoyed Armageddon 2004 for having fun stuff like Kurt tapping out Santa and Funaki achieving his boyhood dream.

However, In Your House It's Time might be among the most depressing shows ever. Rock Bottom sucks. D-Generation X sucked. Save the main event Armageddon 2000 is almost laughably terrible.

No real strong impressions from the other Armageddons/TLCs.

[Rolent Tex]

Dec 21, 2014 9:17:10 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Dec 21, 2014 9:11:37 GMT -5 Rolent Tex said:

Because the Rumble is more important so they don't give two shits about a good December PPV.

Generally speaking, yeah.

Which is why I hate that Elimination Chamber falls between Rumble and Mania, since it means nothing of note is going to happen, wasting the gimmick match people actually generally like.

Any PPV before a Big 4 PPV will generally be the same matches that will happen at the big PPVs...just nothing is resolved and nothing of note happens.

Ever.

Everrrrrrrrrrrr.

[agent817]

Dec 21, 2014 9:18:38 GMT -5 kidglov3s said:

In Your House Season's Beatings was awesome, one of my favorite wrestling shows. I thought TLCs 2009-2011 were somewhere between good and great. I enjoyed Armageddon 2004 for having fun stuff like Kurt tapping out Santa and Funaki achieving his boyhood dream.

However, In Your House It's Time might be among the most depressing shows ever. Rock Bottom sucks. D-Generation X sucked. Save the main event Armageddon 2000 is almost laughably terrible.

No real strong impressions from the other Armageddons/TLCs.

I enjoyed Armageddon 2006 for some reason, maybe it was because of the four-team ladder match. I didn't think 2005 was that bad, but the HIAC match could have been so much better.

[Rolent Tex]

Looking back at the Armageddons I attended live...I really only remember a few things. HHH vs HBK Three Stages of Hell, Flair/Batista winning the tag titles after being surprise last second entrants in a tag battle royale and Goldberg dropping the WHC back to HHH after Kane last the triple threat. Lesnar also ran in and F-5'd Big Show during Angle/Show I think.

[BRV]

The same reason as why October pay-per-views suck. And September pay-per-views. And June pay-per-views. And May pay-per-views. Because whether they have a Network to sell or six-month commitments to keep, WWE only really puts effort into the product from January through April and July through August.

I'll say it until I'm blue in the face.

January is the start to the road to the Royal Rumble, which is the start of the road to WrestleMania. February is the last stop on that road. March/April is WrestleMania, then the conclusion to the feuds still simmering from WrestleMania season.

Then, when we enter May, we tread water for a few months, then kick start again in July when it's time to start promoting the biggest party of the summer, SummerSlam. After SummerSlam, it's the fall doldrums, and basically time to kick back, relax, not put in too much effort, and just coast until WrestleMania season starts again. It's been that way for about a decade now.

You would have figured that with the Network, commitments, and $9.99 per month, they would have changed that business model and made every month and every pay-per-view seem important, but to WWE, that's just not a tenable approach. It's all about waiting things out, then jumping on the backs of returning part-timers like The Rock, Batista and the Undertaker to carry them through WrestleMania season.

[chazraps]

Armageddon 2008 is a fun show, and the first few TLCs are actually pretty great. It's only TLCs 2013 and 2014 that eem like lesser shows. Otherwise, PG-Era seemed to have been using the december shows as definitive ends to long-running feuds so that the next week, the Road to Wrestlemania can begin fresh.

The only month that's really been consistently bad has been May, but that seems to have changed this past year with April/May only having combined one show after Mania.

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2014 9:18:38 GMT -5 kidglov3s said:

In Your House Season's Beatings was awesome, one of my favorite wrestling shows. I thought TLCs 2009-2011 were somewhere between good and great. I enjoyed Armageddon 2004 for having fun stuff like Kurt tapping out Santa and Funaki achieving his boyhood dream.

However, In Your House It's Time might be among the most depressing shows ever. Rock Bottom sucks. D-Generation X sucked. Save the main event Armageddon 2000 is almost laughably terrible.

No real strong impressions from the other Armageddons/TLCs.

I love Its Time. Mainly for Bret Hart's awesome beating on Shawn Michaels after Michaels cost him the title. And a Leif Cassidy/Flash Funk barnburner!

[FAR5222]

Because their form of entertainment is not for most of us. WWE cater to us twice a month. It's usually the go home show before a PPV and the PPV itself. I only enjoyed 2009-2013 during this time of the year. 2014 has been the worst I've watched by far.

[Professor Chaos]

Better than it used to be when you'd have New Year's Revolution a couple weeks later, then the Rumble a couple weeks after that.

[RIHT]

I think up until 2013, TLC has always been a solid PPV.

[Sephiroth]

December to Dismember did give us Shelly Martinez in a g string

[fw91]

It's the fall. Only Survivor Series has any chance of being good.

[chazraps]

Also, while May may be the worst month for WWE PPVs, I think September holds the record for most consistent month of bad WWE programming. With the sole exceptions of 1991 (with the Flair shake-up) and 1997 (along with the Attitude Era and bringing Raw to MSG for the first time, I think the early September PPV and greater-than-average distance from Summerslam helped) September has to be the worst overall month year-to-year of WWE programming with the aimlessness post-Summerslam of uncertain Mania plans and more recently the struggle with having to book a Pay-Per-View to bridge the gap between the 2nd biggest show of the year and an event with several Hell in a Cell matches.

December is just alright with me. December is just alright oh yeah.

[TheMediocreWarrior]

I always use the name Season's Beatings for my video game PPVs. I didn't realize WWF actually used the name once.

For some reason, tying in Christmas toys and wrestling has me thinking of a "Rock Em Sock Em Robots" match.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Dec 21, 2014 10:31:58 GMT -5 BRV said:

The same reason as why October pay-per-views suck. And September pay-per-views. And June pay-per-views. And May pay-per-views. Because whether they have a Network to sell or six-month commitments to keep, WWE only really puts effort into the product from January through April and July through August.

I'll say it until I'm blue in the face.

January is the start to the road to the Royal Rumble, which is the start of the road to WrestleMania. February is the last stop on that road. March/April is WrestleMania, then the conclusion to the feuds still simmering from WrestleMania season.

Then, when we enter May, we tread water for a few months, then kick start again in July when it's time to start promoting the biggest party of the summer, SummerSlam. After SummerSlam, it's the fall doldrums, and basically time to kick back, relax, not put in too much effort, and just coast until WrestleMania season starts again. It's been that way for about a decade now.

You would have figured that with the Network, commitments, and $9.99 per month, they would have changed that business model and made every month and every pay-per-view seem important, but to WWE, that's just not a tenable approach. It's all about waiting things out, then jumping on the backs of returning part-timers like The Rock, Batista and the Undertaker to carry them through WrestleMania season.

They've basically maintained the same booking style from 1989 when they only had 4 PPVs. Which all felt huge and there's tons of bad finishes in there, to get fans out to live events and see matches. You really can't tell a good story in 4 weeks, when you get, at the high end, 20 minutes of TV time a week? They took a year to tell Hogan and Savage. Telling that story they got several PPVs out of it, house shows, SNME, a WrestleMania. That feud today? They'd burn that whole story out in between PPVs and they wonder why no one gives a shit.

Summer of Punk should have been a 6 month story at minimum. I know he's coming back, that's the whole point, what did he miss? Like 2 shows? He could have just slept in that day for all the length of time he was gone.

With the Network now, outside of Mania and probably the Rumble, all the PPVs are dispensable crap. I live in an era I'd have killed for as a child, tons of wrestling, I can find the PPVs online for free with super ease and I don't even bother with that. Free is too much for these shows.

[Ryushinku]

The post-Summerslam pre-Rumble period almost reliably turns out to be the worst of the year. With Survivor Series' downgraded status, you can tell they're just killing time until the big rev up for WrestleMania in January.

Bit of an exception this year with the Authority build. I'd like to hope they can carry on doing the same.