(an intro to) Buy Rate by PaperclipMike

Welcome to (one of) my new series, Buy Rate!

While streaming has all but negated the need for them, at one point, pay-per-views were a huge deal for a few reasons. A part of a company’s revenue came from people buying PPVs. It made a lot of money, too. Most cost between 20-30 bucks. If you took the average at $25 a pop with let’s say 350,000 buys, that equals $8,750,000! Now, imagine that times, however many shows they had, you get the general idea. 

Also, it was a fun way to get together with friends to watch the show. A lot of times, one of your friends begged their parents to buy the show. Everyone came over for pizza, pop (yes, it’s pop, not soda), and whatever else to watch the show. My experience as an adult was part the same, part different. When I was in the Army, there was a local sports bar not too far off post called Jester’s, a place that no longer exists. But they would charge no cover, just spend 10 bucks throughout the night. Simple, a burger and a couple of beers, nbd. I went there for many years. Maybe one day I will tell you how I almost got into a bar fight while watching No Way Out 2005. The one with the ‘barbed wire’ cage match.

My point is that up until the advent of the WWE Network (R.I.P.), PPVs were a very important part of being a wrestling fan. Fans could debate for years what the greatest PPV of all time is. And with all of the choices being opinions, they would all be right. I wanted to use this to take it in a different direction. Most years you could find st least one good PPV. But what year and the overall best roster of shows? Hence why I came up with the concept of Buy Rate. I want to find the best year of all time. 

One thing, the first PPV was the WWF’s Wrestling Classic, which came out in 1985, AFTER WrestleMania I.

But they did have closed-circuit shows where events would be broadcast to theatres or arenas for the crowds there. Closed circuit had been around for a long time before that, mainly for boxing and the occasional wrestling card. In my research for this, though, it seems the first more widespread closed circuit was Starrcade 1983 (I was 1 year old). So we are starting there. Now this system is not perfect, as not every year has the same number of shows. The first couple of years only had one show, while 2019 had 27! But this is not an exact science, even though I am right (of course). Also, I am sticking to PPV-style shows, no Clash of the Champions or Saturday Night’s Main Event. They were special shows, but they were broadcast on basic cable.

So each article is going to be a brief history of the show, events leading up to it, fun facts, etc.. Then I am going down the card and giving a rating to each match, with the show getting an overall grade. And then after a year is done, the year gets an overall grade. Trust me, this will take a while. Including All In 2025 and Slammiversary 2025, there are 941 different PPVs and it only grows each show, so strap in. And we start with the grandaddy of them all, Starrcade 1983. We get Harley Race and Ric Flair in a steel cage for the NWA World title!

I hope to see you all on the journey of Buy Rate. I will have the first article up soon. Meanwhile, check out the other members of the bWo and all they have to offer, as well as the rest of the content put out by the rest of the Main Event Wrestling Network. As always you can find me on all socials as PaperclipMike.