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What's the story?
Dave Meltzer recently stated on Wrestling Observer Radio that the WWE is planning for less pay-per-view events in 2018 than what took place this year.
In case you didn't know...
At the time of this writing, there are only three announced pay-per-views for the WWE in 2018.
The Royal Rumble will take place from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 28th, WrestleMania will take place from New Orleans, Louisiana on April 8th, and SummerSlam will take place from Brooklyn, New York on August 19th.
The heart of the matter
If there is not a Monday Night Raw branded pay-per-view in December, the WWE would have a total of 16 pay-per-views in 2017. Survivor Series and SmackDown Live brand's Clash Of The Champions are the two remaining scheduled pay-per-views for this year.
Meltzer stated that no month in 2018 would have two pay-per-views until either April or May. That was the case for 2017 as well as SmackDown's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view was in February and Raw's Fastlane pay-per-view was in March before WrestleMania in April.
In 2017, the following months had two pay-per-views: May, September, and October. Those could be the months where the WWE is looking to eliminate a pay per view.
What's next?
The next pay-per-view for the WWE is Survivor Series on November 19th live from Houston, Texas.
One of the main matches on the card is a traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 elimination match with Team Raw captained by General Manager Kurt Angle and Team SmackDown captained by Commissioner Shane McMahon.
Author's take
As a host of the Lost In The Midcard Podcast, I'm definitely excited for the news of less pay-per-views next year. We host a weekly show as well as one after every pay-per-view, and there was a point where there were four straight pay-per-views every other week, and this was just too much.
With four weekly television shows plus the pay-per-views, it's a lot for the WWE Universe to be able to catch up on. Lesser pay-per-views allows for better storytelling in my opinion. When you have a pay-per-views every other week, it doesn't allow for proper development of an angle.
