WWE: Pay-Per-View Not What It Used to Be

WWE's Capitol Punishment, from the nation's capital, Washington D.C., is its next and newest pay-per-view offering.

The promos for the event, which feature President Barack Obama in a mock press conference "answering" questions about the upcoming event, I'll admit have been funny—particularly the one with R-Truth. The event looks to be a great one, with matches like The Miz vs. Alex Riley and R-Truth vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship on schedule for the card.

With this being a new event, however, I got to thinking that these new events and the entire WWE PPV scene in general is not what it used to be.

First off, I do not think that there are too many PPV offerings. Twelve is fine (as long as it stays that way), though, I would prefer the old once-a-month schedule rather than having two in one month (at the beginning and end) and leaving one month empty. Since the championship on Smackdown seems to be the only one that is defended on free TV nowadays, it means that whoever is the champion on Raw after SummerSlam will remain champion going into October (as there is no PPV scheduled for September).

The issue here, though, is the quality of WWE PPVs. Since 2006, beginning with Wrestlemania 22, it has been obvious that WWE puts all its efforts into the big event. People now only watch the Royal Rumble to see who will win and headline Wrestlemania. These recent SummerSlams have ranged from good to mediocre, but not great. Survival Series was for a while in early 2010 until fan backlash forced the WWE to schedule it. And since the King of the Ring ceased from being a PPV event after 2002 only Booker T received a major push.

I hark back to the days of the Attitude Era and the few years that followed it when all WWE PPVs were nearly, if not just as, anticipated as the Big 4 (or 5). Who can forget 1999's St. Valentine's Day Massacre, which was headlined by a brutal Last Man Standing match and an infamous Steel Cage match? Some might argue the match between Stone Cold and The Rock at that year's Backlash was better than their encounter the month before at Wrestlemania 15.

The Hell in a Cell match between Cactus Jack and Triple H at No Way Out, and the match between The Rock and Triple H at Backlash in 2000, were probably both better than the main event of Wrestlemania 2000. Fully Loaded that year was billed as having a triple main event: Kurt Angle vs. the Undertaker; Chris Jericho vs. Triple H in a Last Man Standing match; and Chris Benoit vs. The Rock for the WWE Championship. Even in the few years following the Attitude Era, the non-major PPVs still provided great wrestling.

Another problem is there are too many gimmick PPVs. Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber, and TLC matches are supposed to be special attractions, which are to be few and far between. They occur "unexpectedly," and it has been by "coincidence" that they have occurred nearly once-a-year. Now with PPVs based on these types of contests fans are guaranteed to witness such matches and the shock of the announcing of these bouts is no longer there.

WWE owns the rights to WCW PPVs. Why not bring back some of those? I would not care to see WWE's version of Starrcade, but, it would interesting to see classic events such as Superbrawl and Halloween Havoc revived.

Hopefully, Capitol Punishment will mark a return to WWE's year-long offering of great PPV cards.