WCW's 10 Lowest Grossing PPVs By Buyrate
It took a bit for WCW to crack the PPV market as WWE did. They always lacked the same power of WWE to get companies behind them but did their best to handle the situation. Even at their best, WCW PPV highs couldn’t come close to WWE. The high point would be when the New World Order boosted them to significant success. The biggest is Starrcade ’97, which scored a 1.90 buyrate. In terms of pure success, the highest would surprisingly be the 1988 Bunkhouse Stampede at 3.50.
But after the height of Starrcade ’97, WCW’s buyrates began sinking badly. The company’s infamous creative misdirection wasn’t helping along with the obsession of giving away PPV-worthy matches for free on Nitro. Telling, all of WCW’s lowest buyrates came in the last year of their existence and showed the decline all the way until their end. Here are the 10 lowest rated WCW PPVs as proof of how this once great company fell apart in the end.
Related: WCW's 10 Highest-Grossing PPVs By Buyrate
10 Sin (0.17)
As 2001 began, few truly realized WCW’s days were numbered. The Chavo Guerrero-Shane Helms opener was surprisingly good, as was the Jung Dragons vs Jamie Noble and Evan Karagais. Then it went downhill. The Team Canada/Filthy Animals “Penalty Box” match was a total debacle, the Hardcore match was ugly, and General Reaction/Lance Storm was atrocious.
What everyone remembers is the main event where Sid broke his leg in one of the grisliest in-ring injuries ever seen. Scott Steiner won the World Title, but Sid withering in pain was a fitting analogy for WCW.
9 Fall Brawl 2000 (0.16)
This is probably the last good PPV WCW put on. The opening Cruiserweight title match was ugly to be sure, as was the Filthy Animals/Natural Born Thrillers elimination match. Sting vs Great Muta was a letdown, and the scaffold match was terrible.
Related: 10 Stupid WCW Concepts That Were Quickly Abandoned
But, 3 Count and Misfits in Action was a fun match, and Scott Steiner and Goldberg had a very good no-DQ brawl. The main event wasn’t bad, with Booker retaining the World Title against Kevin Nash in an actually good battle. There was a bunch of bad but made up for by suitable matches yet showing how far WCW had fallen when “pretty okay” counted as a great show.
8 Superbrawl Revenge (0.15)
The final Superbrawl came in that period when WCW was going under fast, and it showed. The opening elimination match for the number one contender for the Cruiserweight title was a fast-paced and fun affair. Also, Chavo Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio was a good bout, but then it was downhill.
Ernest Miller faced Lance Storm, Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell fought Brian Adams, and Rick Steiner vs Dustin Rhodes was awful. Scott Steiner beat Kevin Nash in a two-out-of-three falls ‘Loser Leaves Town” match, but the fans were the losers leaving the company in droves.
7 Halloween Havoc 2000 (0.15)
Once a marquee PPV, Halloween Havoc suffered majorly with the rest of WCW in 2000. The opening three-way match for the tag titles wasn’t too bad. However, we also had Buff Bagwell over David Flair in a “First Blood DNA Test” match; Mike Sanders over Ernest Miller in a kickboxing contest; and Sting over Jeff Jarrett in a miserable battle.
Related: 10 Strangest PPV Main Events In WCW History
Booker T was World Champion, but his DQ win over Scott Steiner wasn’t the main event. That was Goldberg crushing Kronik in a three-minute handicap match. Yes, a main event made for Thunder headlined a PPV event to show how bad WCW was then.
6 Superbrawl X (0.15)
This show should have been a sign of how rough 2000 was going to be for WCW. An infamous match saw Tank Abbott holding a knife to Big Al’s throat, which rightfully got some bad buzz. Meanwhile, Booker T and Big T fought for who could have ownership of the “T” name.
James Brown made an unannounced appearance to dance with Ernest Miller. The Sid/Scott Hall/Jeff Jarrett main event wasn't good, and the various title bouts were a mess. Amazingly, WCW would just get much worse as the year went on.
5 Slamboree 2000 (0.14)
A few weeks earlier, WCW made the disastrous mistake of letting David Arquette win the World Title. With that, it’s no shock the show was a huge mess. There was the long-awaited battle of Shane Douglas against Ric Flair, which was a letdown. Sting beat Vampiro in a fast match while Hulk Hogan got 13 minutes to finally dispatch Billy Kidman.
Related: WCW: Every Slamboree Event Ranked
Luger/Bagwell and the Hardcore matches were ugly. The finale was the triple threat “Ready to Rumble cage” match where. in a “shocking swerve," Arquette turned on DDP to help Jeff Jarrett regain the title. No wonder WCW was going under by then.
4 Uncensored 2000 (0.13)
Uncensored always had a reputation as the worst WCW PPV, and this did nothing to change that. The main event was the only match that went over ten minutes. Bam Bam Bigelow beat the Wall, Brian Knobbs beat all 3 Count members in a hardcore match, Kidman and Booker T faced Harlem Heat 2000, and even Sting and Luger couldn’t put on a good bout.
The worst was the main event as Hogan and Flair fought in a “Yappi Strap Match” that was slammed as one of the worst bouts in the company’s history. Another gem in Uncensored lore.
3 Mayhem 2000 (0.12)
Late 2000 had WCW doing what they should have been doing a while earlier in building up younger workers. Mayhem showed some decent talent with 3 Count, the Jung Dragons, and Evan Karagis and Jamie Knoble in a fun triple threat match. Sadly, that was the only good thing on the card.
Related: 10 Worst PPV Endings In WCW History
There was General Reaction winning the U.S. title from Lance Storm, radio shock jock Mancow Muller beating Jimmy Hart, Goldberg crushing Lex Luger, and other bad matches. The finale of Scott Steiner winning the world title off of Booker T in a cage match did little to send the crowd home happy.
2 Starrcade 2000 (0.11)
Once the “Granddaddy of Them All,” Starrcade had fallen hard like everything else in WCW. The 3 Count/Jung Dragons ladder match was actually good fun, but that was the end of it. General Reaction and Shane Douglas had a terrible bout for the U.S title, Goldberg vs Lex Luger was a surprisingly good fight but the Insiders/Perfect Event tag team battle was poor.
Given the talent involved, the Scott Steiner/Sid main event was shockingly good with Steiner retaining. But it was still a little too late to get fans into WCW as the weak buyrate proved.
1 Greed (0.10)
It's fitting WCW’s worst-ever buyrate is for its final PPV. Greed took place on March 18, 2001, just a week before Vince McMahon bought WCW. Even then, few realized it was going to be the company’s PPV swan song as there had been plans for a big “reboot.” One highlight was Elix Skipper and Kid Romeo becoming the first WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions.
Booker T defeated Rick Steiner for the U.S. title while Dusty and Dustin Rhodes beat Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett in a lousy battle. The main event had Scott Steiner beating DDP in a shoddy fight for a fitting end to WCW’s PPV era.
