In late 2006, a small, one-off Pay-Per-View (PPV) event by the name of December to Dismember was held a week after the annual Survivor Series event, one of WWE's "big four" events. Only two of its six matches were promoted, and December to Dismember went on to be the lowest-selling Pay-Per-View in WWE's history.
Nearly five years later, SummerSlam, second only to WrestleMania in terms of importance, is a mere five nights away, with only four of its matches announced. Of those matches, only two are major matches from high-level feuds; of those two, only one has been properly built up and promoted by months of confrontations. While SummerSlam could never fail as painfully as December to Dismember, the fact is that WWE has failed to learn from the mistakes it made that night.
Pressure On for Cena and Punk
Following Money in the Bank, it seemed that CM Punk was done with WWE. A mere week later, Punk returned to confront John Cena, who had just been named the WWE Champion. Now, within a month of "leaving" WWE, Punk and Cena are set to headline a second Pay-Per-View.
During his brief "vacation," Punk had been fighting a guerrilla war against WWE, disgracing the championship all over Chicago with his Ring of Honor buddies, appearing on talk shows and invading Comic Con to confront the WWE representatives. A scant week later, Punk was already back, despite the long-term benefits of a viral, off-screen war that was garnering a great deal of media attention.
Now, Punk and John Cena have barely confronted going into SummerSlam: with only two weeks to prepare, their only real showdown was during their contract signing on last night's Raw. A storyline involving the first-ever concurrent WWE Champions, while an epic concept for WWE's second-largest annual event, cannot be effective if rushed. Cena and Punk have their work cut out for them on Sunday to put on a match that rivals their epic bout last month, despite not having nearly the same level of build-up and personal intensity as before.
Over and Over and Over Again
The other marquee match, the one with the most build-up between the bitter rivals, is between Christian and Randy Orton. However, we've seen it many times already: Christian first lost the World Championship to Orton mere nights after winning the vacant title at Extreme Rules earlier this year, and the two have been battling over it ever since—with Christian never truly getting the upper hand on his vicious opponent. This rematch's only saving grace is that it has a stipulation that promises to result in a brutal contest: No Holds Barred. Given Orton's nature, though, it seems obvious that he will regain the title Christian was only able to win via legal manipulation. With rumors circulating that these men will fight again at Hell in a Cell next month, there is no end in sight to the monotony of SmackDown's stagnant World Title division.
Bad Booking
The other two matches advertised for SummerSlam are Sheamus versus Mark Henry, and a Divas Championship contest between Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix. Neither match has much potential to draw in buyers: the midcard "monster mash" promises to be cringe-inducing from a wrestling standpoint, while the Divas Division has been treated as irrelevant for years. In fact, Sheamus has only just turned face, and his feud with Henry has barely gotten off the ground during its two-week run.
One match that may be added to the card is US Champion Dolph Ziggler and Alex Riley. But, like Sheamus-Henry, this feud has only recently started. Rather than receiving adequate build-up to make the fans want to see these larger-than-life personalities square off on PPV, WWE will just be cramming it onto the card.
The PPV Problem
Since ending single-brand PPVs in 2007, WWE has done an increasingly worse job at building up intense feuds for their big events. A crowded schedule and a lack of patience has led to countless rushed feuds and under-promoted events. Even WrestleMania XXVII waited until the week of to announce several of its matches, which received almost no time at the actual event.
The problem is, especially in tough economic times, if people don't know what matches they'll see, or only know about uninteresting matches, they don't have much reason to pay. And, if the feuds are underdeveloped, the stories aren't captivating enough to draw them in and the matches are meaningless, hurting not only the buyrate, but the overall product (including ratings and future events).
Now, with a handful of days until SummerSlam, it remains to be seen how the summer's biggest wrestling event will perform with such lackluster build.
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