It was previously reported that WWE will now have all future PPVs dual-branded starting with their Backlash PPV Event that will take place on May 6th. According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE will reportedly be making an official announcement soon regarding these changes to their future PPVs. Originally only 5 events were scheduled to be dual-branded this year – the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, Money In the Bank, SummerSlam and Survivor Series.
The reason behind WWE making their future PPVs dual-branded is because they currently run more PPVs than what was originally scheduled and adding more PPV Events has added costs for them without a lot of new revenue, with the exception of the live gates, since they really aren’t increasing WWE Network subscription numbers at a high rate. Another possible reason is they may have had issues with storylines slowing down due to longer gaps in between brand-exclusive events.
WWE reportedly ran 16 PPV Events in 2017, but they cut back to 14 this year. WWE reportedly had a goal of running 12 PPVs which means one per month. They currently have 13 more scheduled PPVs to take place starting with Elimination Chamber. The other PPVS include Fastlane, WrestleMania 34, Backlash, Payback, Money In the Bank, Battleground, SummerSlam, Extreme Rules, Hell in a Cell, TLC, Survivor Series and Clash of Champions.
It was also previously reported that another change WWE will be having for their future PPVs is to make them 4 hours long not including the Kickoff Show. It was reported that the reason behind this is to have every top star from both brands featured on the PPV. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter now adds that despite both brands pushing the same PPVs each month and all of the top stars being featured on it, one major negative is that a lot of middle & lower card talents won’t be featured on the PPVs as much and less PPV time for them means less focus on TV. It was also speculated that we may see more stipulation matches on TV that would have usually been used for the PPVs with some of the mid-card feuds.
The Observer also indicates that another negative could be that there will be title matches featured on the Kick Off Shows, which will hurt their significance and that there could also be more multi-person matches as a way to get top talents booked on PPVs. The main shows on the other hand are said to feature more matches on each show which means that the matches will be rushed and there will be less spots for non-title matches. It is also possible that most of the shows will feature two main title matches, two secondary title matches, two women’s title matches, two tag team title matches and a cruiserweight title match.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter