"WWE has updated their Key Performance Indicators with the preliminary buyrate information for SummerSlam. According to the company, the preliminary buyrate is 301,000 buys, almost 50,000 below the 2010 buyrate. The estimated buyrate is 174,000 in North America and 127,000 from International markets.

 

By comparison, the show drew 350,00 buys in 2010 and 369,000 buys in 2009."

 

- PWSpyware

Doesn't surprise me actually. I know some held out hope with a "let's see whear it goes" attitude but a lot of people lost interest as soon as Punk came back 2 weeks later. And even besides that sorta bright spot, the overall poduct is still pretty weak and uninteresting.

The biggest mistake they made this year was giving away Cena-Mysterio on free TV. That was the biggest money match they had left other than maybe Cena-Undertaker and they blew it with 1 hour buildup. I doubt WWE saw it as such a big potential draw but they're a bunch of dumbasses. I know Rey shouldn't have been wrestling at all on Summerslam but, well, he did, and it would have been more worth it to wrestle in a main event for a six-figure payoff rather than wasting himself in a meaningless six-man. They could have held off on Punk for a few weeks but kept him on the fans minds by some unusual methods like planting fans with "CM PUNK RETURNS AT SUMMERSLAM" signs at ringside, having Colt Cabana jump the rail and yell "CM PUNK WILL BE AT SUMMERSLAM THIS SUNDAY" over the ring announcer's mic, and maybe even having Punk hack into Raw's signal a la the infamous Max Headroom incident and deliver a pirated message. Or just kept him off TV and surprised the fans with his appearance at the show. But I think passing over Cena-Rey as a PPV main was a bigger mistake than blowing Punk's return.

Tonight they're apparently giving away C.M. Punk Vs. Alberto Del Rio for free too. Which seems like it would be a new & exciting Pay-Per-View match. Especially considering ADR beat Punk for the belt with his Money in the Bank Cash-in...but it doesn't feature John Cena, so I guess it doesn't matter.

 

Instead we get a 3-way cage match 2 weeks after the last PPV where Punk lost.

They did Punk/Del Rio the week before Summerslam.

What's your point?

 

EDIT: That sounds a lot shittier than intended. I'm curious what your point is in saying that is all. They could still try to make money off of a fresh match-up. Plus, Summerslam happened adding the Money in the Bank part to the story, so now Punk has more of a reason to why to beat him, in theory. For the record, I think I complained about Punk/Del Rio on that RAW too. That was the same RAW where Cena squashed Swagger for no reason too, right?