May 26, 2003 Observer Newsletter: WWE Judgment Day review, WM 19 buyrate

WWE had two very disappointing buy rates for Wrestlemania and Backlash, and almost assuredly a third for Judgment Day, has just produced two of the company’s worst PPV shows in years, in two successive months. It now follows with the very risky attempt at doing a singular brand PPV starting next month.

This show brought up the inevitable comparisons with WCW, and most were unfavorable even to the dying days of that product. At least with WCW, you could count on one or two very good undercard matches before the bad main event.

At Judgment Day on 5/18 at the Charlotte Coliseum, you had a Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show main event that had to exceed everyone’s expectations, but couldn’t come close to saving what had been a booking atrocity up to that point.

ust for a sobering comparison, on February 21, 1999, the WCW SuperBrawl PPV, headlined by Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair, drew a 1.15 buy rate, which at the time was about 455,000 buys.

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