September 13, 2004 Observer Newsletter: Tallying main events, Real Pro Wrestling, more
After doing the Hall of Fame issue and going through the big matches of so many of the wrestlers, I got curious regarding PPV main events.
Usually, there is a reason behind doing things like this, such as to see who, historically, really drew and didn’t. That may be a project for another day. We’ve done the 1.0 buy rate comparisons in the past, but that’s really not fair. For example, in 1989, a Halloween Havoc match with Ric Flair & Sting vs. Great Muta & Terry Funk did a 1.8 buy rate. This past year’s Wrestlemania didn’t even do that, and it may have been the biggest money show in the history of pro wrestling (either that or the 2001 Mania in Houston were). Oscar de la Hoya vs. Bernard Hopkins probably isn’t going to do that number (although it may come pretty close), and you can’t possibly compare the interest in this year’s Mania and the big fight of this year with a 1989 WCW PPV
Current subscribers click here to continue reading.
Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.