Mayweather/Pacquiao Scores Well Over 4M Buys; Your Move, WWE

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Who would spend $100 to watch a boxing match that would end up being void of excitement? Lots of people, that's who.

Dave Meltzer has tweeted out that the Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao fight from May 2 scored big.

Mayweather-Pacquiao first estimated number is 4.4 million buys.

— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) May 12, 2015

That number must look even more astronomical to a WWE investor, one informed that WWE Network was the wave of the future, and that PPV was a dying medium. Granted, Mayweather-Pacquiao, even at $100 a pop, was a highly-anticipated clash that will probably happen only once in a lifetime (not Rock-Cena 'Once in a Lifetime', natch). Seeing as how a superfight proved the PPV market to be fertile under the right circumstances, it does paint WWE a little more negatively.

Of course, the lure of the fight would diminish greatly if they had rematches for the next two months before facing Amir Khan at three straight monthly PPVs, but that just shows the blindingly obvious reason that wrestling fans skip the 'secondary' shows as a rule with few exceptions. The Network is convenient for fans that would rather pay $10 to see to-be-resolved-later marquee matches as opposed to $45-55.

In other words, I'd love to be the investor that asks what Vince thinks of the Mayweather-Pacquiao buyrate in August. You'll note that the spring conference call happened two weeks earlier than usual this year, preceding the boxing match. Because coincidence?