Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

[Lintyfresh85]

http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/12269/

After the disappointing results of the show this year, Vince McMahon announced today that the Survivor Series has been dropped as an annual event.

The event, the second oldest annual event in company history, dating back to Thanksgiving of 1987, did 235,000 worldwide buys this year as compared to 319,000 the year before.

McMahon blamed the decline on the idea the team concept is obsolete, was good for its time but no longer resonates.

In reality, the decline from being one of the bigger events of 2008, was because of poor television build-up of the main events, and secondarily, coming one day after a UFC event.

The team concept has not even been a major part of the selling point of the show, but the name and history of it being a "big four" event has kept it among the bigger sellers most years. The elimination matches have usually been promoted as more along the lines of a high mid-card match, with the focus being on championship matches, this year being three-ways for Raw and Smackdown. The HHH vs. John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels buld up was heavily reliant on comedy, and that, more than the name of the event, was the reason for the major decline.

Obviously the company will do a new November event this year, with a new name.

Totally lame.

You don't mess with the big four.

Next time you should build up a big show and not just expect it to sell regardless.

I'm sure they'll replace it with some stupid concept like Pink Slip on a Pole PPV.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Awful.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

WOW! What a shocker. I agree with Linty that PPV's won't sell themselves and my comments in the MMA forums about too many PPV's in a calendar year for wrestling has done too much damage to the product in general. When they had 14+ PPV's a year that was overboard. Now it comes down to canceling one of the big four, what a real shame. The team concept died because Vince saw no value in it anymore............and the teams later on started having no real meaning either.

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Agreed. Only two shows really sell themselves.

Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania.

Outside of those two... unless you promote a decent card you can expect, and you deserve the low rating it's going to pull.

[BunnyHardaway]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Bad News: More gimmick PPV's

Good News: WarGames could be one of them

[mgoblue]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Eh, I'll admit that I haven't really cared about the team aspect for years...it's not really that compelling nowadays.

[Streets]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Eh, I'll admit that I haven't really cared about the team aspect for years...it's not really that compelling nowadays.

I feel sort of the same, though for the tradition aspect alone at least keep the name and make it a regular PPV, and you can always go back to the "team format" if that makes a resurgence.

Still, I miss King of the Ring more than I'll miss this.

[scarface scotty]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Ok bear with me I haven't seen a pay per view in like a decade...there's no more King of the Ring? And big three...Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble and what's the third?

[HealyMonster]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Ok bear with me I haven't seen a pay per view in like a decade...there's no more King of the Ring? And big three...Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble and what's the third?

Summerslam

[55]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Totally lame! I always loved watching the Survivor Series growing up, even when it was ALL team elimination matches.

[goh]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

They can do away with Bragging Rights and have SD vs. Raw War Games.

[JiggidyJames]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Big deal. It was worse when they put it on a random Sunday starting in '95. Or maybe three years later when they started half-assing the original gimmick.

And for everyone wanting to be all nostalgic about "the big four", I remember when Survivor Series was part of the "big two".

[DJ]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Big deal. It was worse when they put it on a random Sunday starting in '95. Or maybe three years later when they started half-assing the original gimmick.

And for everyone wanting to be all nostalgic about "the big four", I remember when Survivor Series was part of the "big two".

Yep. I still remember the first Survivor Series back in 87, which was born out of WM III being such a big hit. It was the first time we saw Hogan and Andre in the ring since that match and the team concept was really unique.

I always liked that it was on Thanksgiving night. Once they got away from that, it became just another PPV, imo. That, and the team concept was pretty much abandoned or treated like an afterthought most years from the mid-90's and on.

[CMH]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Didn't even know Survivor Series was still around. Once WWE went away from the team concept, I figured it was a dead event.

I had no idea there was no more King of the Ring. Wow, that was an event that really tested the depth of a federation.

[vernond]

Re: Survivor Series cancelled - Now only Big 3 left

Great idea. Get rid of the Survivor Series, now they can replace it with a ppv with every main event being a hell in a cell, or a submission match, or a ladder match, or an elimination chamber match. The team concept is played out but the reason last years survivor series bombed is because they put 0 effort into promoting it. Cena,hbk,hhh the one thing i remember about that build is Cena pulling hornswoggle off a hook backstage. If they put any effort into building storylines around everyone and all the teams meant something then it would be decent. It's more of a sign of the times than anything, there's too much product and it's too watered down for anything to seem special.