Survivor Series is the second-longest running pay-per-view the WWE puts on behind WrestleMania. The inaugural Survivor Series took place in 1987, and showcased the Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, Paul Orndorff, One Man Gang, Butch Reed, Ken Patera, Hulk Hogan, Rick Rude, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Don Muraco in their 5-on-5 tag-team elimination match. Twenty-seven years later, they are still continuing the tradition of that match.
This year, Triple H’s Authority will be taking on the team of John Cena and others included. Right now, the only confirmed person in the match is John Cena. There are rumors that Dolph Ziggler will be on Team Cena is logical. However, until Ziggler is chokeslammed by Kane, then causing Cena to come out and become a superhero, it’s Cena against the Authority exclusively.
Amidst all of the good news about Survivor Series and their traditional approach to bring back the big match, some reports aren’t very good at all. A new report talked about the Survivor Series sales so far, and they aren’t good.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that there were 11,000 tickets out for purchase and 4,000 tickets unsold for the WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view as of this week. WWE is selling family packs of four tickets for the price of three, which is rare for a pay-per-view.
For a pay-per-view that’s as big as this, WWE needs to be concerned about the number of tickets being sold. The moment that a major show like this doesn’t get sold out, there’s a problem. Of course, the initial reaction to a big show not selling out in minutes can be perceived as premature. Sure, that’s a fair statement, but huge concerts that are promoted for months usually sell out fairly quickly.
When St. Louis, Missouri, opened up the floodgates to WWE Survivor Series tickets, they should’ve sold out in days. That clearly isn’t the case, and WWE fans need to be concerned. Try and keep an open mind while thinking this statement, but if the WWE has trouble selling out Survivor Series, where will their lesser PPV’s be down the road?
Normally, Vince McMahon, who is a marketing genius, would hear about this and immediately do something to rectify the situation. He’s in a pickle due to the two biggest attractions not able to be at the pay-per-view at the end of November. Brock Lesnar is on hiatus and Randy Orton is going to film the Condemned 2 starting next week. Where are the star power and big guns? That just means Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose will have to deliver again and put on excellent matches. Shouldn’t be a problem, right?
[Image via survivorseries2014.com]