WWE News: Did the Rock's First Match Since 2004 Help Survivor Series Buyrate?

This year’s Survivor Series finally felt like a Big Four pay-per-view. 

After years of substandard performances from what is supposed to be one of the WWE’s top PPVs each year, the company really delivered in 2011 with a show in Madison Square Garden that featured The Rock’s first match in roughly seven years and CM Punk winning back the WWE championship. 

The question is: Did The Rock’s huge return to the ring and CM Punk’s big win translate to an increase in PPV buys? 

Let’s find out. 

From WrestleNewz.com: 

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Based on preliminary data released by WWE, November’s Survivor Series pay-per-view featuring The Rok’s first match since WrestleMania 20 drew approximately 280,000 buys. The final figure is expected to be higher than 280,000, as this figure is only through the end of November, but its a reliable early indicator of the event’s performance. 

Last year’s Survivor Series did 244,00 buys and 2009′s show did 235,000 buys. Company officials were so disappointed with 2009′s buyrate that the show was temporarily scrapped from WWE’s pay-per-view lineup.

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While an increase of 36,000 (or more buys) looks like a drastic increase, I’m actually surprised that The Rock’s first match since 2004 didn’t translate to 300,000 or more buys. 

When The Rock hosted Wrestlemania 27, he helped the pay-per-view get more buys than any other pay-per-view in history. Therefore, it seems like his return to the ring would also result in a very dramatic increase in the PPV buyrate. 

I guess there are numerous reasons why The Rock’s return didn’t result in a dramatically higher buyrate, but here are a couple of things I think could have affected it. 

For starters, The Rock has appeared on WWE TV multiple times since Wrestlemania. While he obviously still draws, maybe the “special” feeling that usually comes along with seeing The Rock on WWE TV just wasn’t there anymore. 

Also, you have to take into consideration what we've got out of the WWE since SummerSlam back in August. Night of Champions, Hell in a Cell and Vengeance were all lackluster PPV efforts from the WWE, with Vengeance drawing the second lowest buyrate in company history. 

Perhaps those three PPVs left a sour taste in the mouths of WWE fans, leaving them less inclined to purchase Survivor Series. 

Maybe I’m overreacting here. After all, Survivor Series did have a noticeable increase in its PPV buyrate, but I just don’t see WWE officials being too thrilled about 36,000 extra buys when it probably cost a ton of money to get The Rock to wrestle at the show. 

If it was 50,000 or more, then probably. However, 36,000? Not so much.