Backstage News: Goldust/DiBiase Storyline, PPV Buyrates

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

— Based on the initial advertisement that was cut for Bragging Rights, the original plan was for John Cena and Big Show to be the respective captains of Raw and Smackdown.

— As many assumed, WWE gave Goldust the new program with Ted DiBiase so he had some kind of a program going with the upcoming December release of his autobiography titled, “Cross Rhodes: Goldust out of the Darkness.” The actual idea of putting him into a program with DiBiase was brought up at a creative meeting when it was noted that both of their fathers worked a program together in WWF around 20 years ago.

— One of the biggest stories of the year has been the steady decline of WWE PPV buyrates. Many say there are too many PPV events, they’re too expensive and the gimmick-based shows just don’t work. WWE is working on ideas to help buyrates, but none of them address these issues. As noted earlier here on the website, one idea being tossed around within WWE recently is to go back to holding a live pre-game show to push late buys for the event. The company used to do this for years (Sunday Night Heat and later dropped it when it wasn’t considered to be cost effective.

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