10 Wrestling PPV Concepts That Totally Flopped

The importance of a wrestling PPV sees promotions trying to come up with concepts to warrant an annual event every year. Some of the all-time great PPV concepts included the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and Bash at the Beach.WWE and every other company hopes to find success with these ideas to book their product around each show to play into the concept.

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Unfortunately, not every idea is bound to have long-term success. Quite a few flopped and showed that some concepts were not being bought by fans. The stories range from the idea lacking logic, to fans not caring, to the promotion trying to force the idea multiple times. Each instance ended the same with these PPV concepts failing to deliver.

10 WWE Breaking Point

WWE came up with the idea of a Breaking Point PPV to have submission matches at the forefront. The PPV only lasted one year in 2009 before Vince McMahon scrapped the project moving forward. CM Punk vs The Undertaker and D-Generation X vs Legacy set up both main events with the submission stipulation.

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Fans were not pleased with the event more due to the booking than the concept. Punk defeated Undertaker due to yet another Montreal Screwjob recreation. The tag match was quite impressive, but the concept didn’t work as a PPV.

9 TNA Hardcore Justice (ECW Reunion)

TNA used the Hardcore Justice name a few times, but they attempted a unique concept once that basically just ripped off a WWE idea. Hardcore Justice 2010 featured the TNA PPV being all about the former ECW wrestlers having another reunion show.

WWE had already used two of these ECW reunion PPVs with the One Night Stand events and a short run rebuilding the brand. TNA trying to use the ECW legacy felt weird and their show taking place in the Impact Zone with silly lighting to make it feel extreme came off embarrassing.

8 WCW Road Wild

WCW used the Road Wild aka Hog Wild concept for a few years despite all indications showing it to be a bad decision. Eric Bischoff talked WCW into booking an annual event outdoors at the motorcycle rally in Sturgis with bikers surrounding the ring.

Even though there were some big matches booked for these events, WCW didn’t sell tickets for the free live event and often ran into problems with the crowd. Multiple WCW wrestlers complained about the bikers saying racist things to them and throwing rocks in the ring.

7 WWE Fatal-4-Way

Another one-time WWE PPV to never get brought back was Fatal-4-Way. Most fans enjoy multi-person matches like a fatal four-way, so WWE tried to sell a PPV based on that. There were three different title matches to have four wrestlers competing against each other.

All titles changed hands with Sheamus, Rey Mysterio and Alicia Fox all becoming champions. WWE unfortunately didn’t create the buzz they hoped to accomplish with this idea. Fatal four-way matches are still popular today, but a PPV based around it did not work.

6 Impact Wrestling Vs Lucha Underground

The rebranding for Impact Wrestling over the past few years has worked strong enough for fans to forget about the bad TNA times. However, there were still some misses for Impact in between the generally successful rebuilding stage.

Impact Wrestling Vs Lucha Underground was a tremendous idea on paper that made fans excited to see both promotions going head to head during WrestleMania weekend. Alberto Del Rio no showing the main event and a few other hiccups made it a disappointing concept that never happened again.

5 WCW World War 3

WCW wanted to have their version of the Royal Rumble match, but it never felt the same. World War 3 became an annual PPV for four years every November. WCW tried to raise the stakes by having sixty men in three different rings for their battle royal.

The problem was that became too confusing to follow, especially since they all started in the rings at the same time. Fans were also confused about the prize on the line since WCW never specified when the winner would receive their title shot, except for Kevin Nash the final year. The wait would take months at times before the winner finally collected their shot.

4 ECW December To Dismember

WWE bringing back the ECW brand for a third weekly show featured the project failing rather quickly Vince McMahon initially wanted ECW to have a few exclusive PPVs per year with December to Dismember as the first of them.

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The show featured almost all ECW brand talents that provided little interest for the audience. Raw and Smackdown’s display of the Hardy Boyz vs MNM was the only positive match. A horrible main event spelled the end for ECW getting any more exclusive shows and they had one match on each Raw and/or Smackdown PPV.

3 WWE Taboo Tuesday

Many fans today miss the concept of Taboo Tuesday, but it flopped badly when it was taking place. WWE wanted to take advantage of the internet growing by having fans vote on opponents, partners, stipulations and various other things for every match.

The wrestlers hated being left in the dark until minutes before they went to the ring. Taboo Tuesday also did weak buy rates since it was a rare week night PPV. WWE tried to recycle the idea as Cyber Sunday, but that failed after a few years as well.

2 NWO Souled Out

WCW wanted to go all in for the New World Order storyline when they received their own PPV in early 1997. Souled Out was the name with the entire presentation being treated as an nWo event with no signs of the standard WCW set-up.

The show started with confusing when the nWo members arrived to the venue on garbage trucks. Fans were more annoyed than anything else at all the matches being tailored to the heels cheating and the WCW talents getting buried. WCW dropped all plans for nWo PPVs or the rumored nWo Thunder show after this PPV flopped.

1 WWE Bragging Rights

WWE has failed to create strong brand rivalries for the Raw vs Smackdown story during the various brand split eras. Bragging Rights was a two-time event created to have the brand rivalry serve as the biggest aspect of the event.

Multi-man team matches of the Raw stars clashing with the Smackdown team didn’t create much excitement since fans knew the brand split no longer mattered in 2009 and 2010. WWE dropped the concept and even further loosened the rules on the brand split.

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