How many matches should PPV events have?

Posted by Lorie Orum on Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Totally situation. As you already touched on, the Royal Rumble can get away with only booking 3-4 matches because it has an hour-plus main event. The Elimination Chamber can get away with 4-5 matches for a similar reason. And when it comes to WrestleMania you're going to have more simply because of the extra hour. All obvious points.

As for the rest of the "normal" PPV events, I don't honestly know if there's a "right" or "wrong" amount of matches to be held. As a consumer you want to feel like you're getting your monies worth, but MORE doesn't always equal BETTER. For instance, this year's WrestleMania looks to have fewer bouts than its predecessor, but has all the potential to be 10x better. Some of the first few Mania's had more than 10 matches, all under 3 minutes long. So it really depends on the era, the style of the company, and of course the limitations of the actual event.

Most Ring of Honor guys can go 15-20 minutes and put on solid bouts. TNA pushes that limit from time to time. It's more rare to see, but some WWE PPVs do feature 20 minute matches... As long as I am entertained and feel like I got what I paid for, I'll be a happy customer. Often times WWE lacks in building up stories for anything but one or two matches on the card, so they fill in MORE to boost sales. When you're paying for a 3 hour PPV and 2 hours of it is just there for the sake of being there, it doesn't really add to the QUALITY of the event. I'd almost prefer, if creative isn't going to spend the time to make me interested in the undercard matches, that they scrap half of them and give more time to CM Punk, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, etc.

To actually answer the question, and if we're talking about a WWE PPV in the modern ere that is NOT Mania, the Rumble, or Elimination Chamber...

20 minute main event - ex: CM Punk vs Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship
+10 minutes for promo and entrances

20 minute secondary main event - ex: John Cena vs Kane
+10 minutes for promo and entrances

15 minute tertiary main event - ex: Daniel Bryan vs Mark Henry vs Sheamus for the World Championship
+10 minutes for promo and entrances

15 minute midcard event - ex: Dolph Ziggler vs Santino for the US CHampionship
+6 minutes for promo and entrances

15 minute midcard event - ex: Cody Rhodes vs Goldust for the IC Championship
+6 minutes for promo and entrances

20 minutes for intro, backstage segments, etc.

7 minute undercard event - ex: Justin Gabriel vs Jack Swagger
+3 minutes for entrances

5 minute Diva event - ex: Eve vs Beth Phoenix
+5 minutes for promo and entrances

If my match is correct I just outlined a 7-match PPV that allows a few minutes of breathing room for more promos, a match over-run or emergencies. You never want the WWE to feel like they're in a time crunch, or bad things happen (like Brodus Clay getting delayed two months and stuck with the Funkasaurus gimmick). I'd rather see every match given time to grow and tell a story, rather than cram in two more matches for the hell of it and lessen the quality of the product. I realize this doesn't help the WWE get their less important names out there, but it also creates a more competitive atmosphere, where talents actually have to work to make it on a PPV card. It's not too ridiculous to ask creative to come up with 6 or 7 good stories to play off of in a month, especially since most of them end up being recycled anyways...

LONG story short, give me fewer matches and a better build. I think 6 or 7 in three hours is perfect, and they really shouldn't need much more than that if they're telling decent stories at the same time.

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