We’ve all heard the criticism that WWE goes through a bit of a lull period for the last chunk of the year. With the holidays looming and no more big PLEs to prepare for, the weekly shows tend to go into autopilot mode — or so the theory goes.
Is there any truth to it? Determined to get to the bottom of the debate once and for all, we’ve crunched the available data and revisited some of the events of the past few years, all to find out whether the old stereotype about a year-end lull really holds water. After doing my homework, here’s what I think we can say, with some authority, about the year-end period in WWE.
The claim: Titles are less likely to change hands
Using sports-style data points to measure the quality of a scripted entertainment product isn’t easy or even necessarily a good idea. But there is one metric that usually coincides with whether the WWE is treading water or firing on all cylinders: Are the belts changing hands?
By counting every single main-roster title change we’ve seen over the past 10 years (excluding the gimmicky 24/7 belt), we’re able to work out which months were the busiest and the quietest when it comes to the belts changing over. That should provide some evidence as to which parts of the year are usually quieter than others.
That April (WrestleMania) and August (SummerSlam) are by far the busiest months — containing a third of all title changes between them — isn’t going to surprise anyone. But what is interesting is that November and December are pretty much somewhere in the middle.
The main roster titles have changed 24 times in November over the past 10 years and 23 times in December. That makes both months busier than four others: February (19), June (19), March (18) and September (16). In other words, the idea that no titles change hands during this supposed end-of-year lull just doesn’t stack up.
The verdict: Ehh, yes and no — but mostly no
The claim: Fewer people watch the product
I have to tip my hat to Wrestlenomics, which has spent years putting the work in when it comes to measuring pro-wrestling viewing figures. Its charts are immensely useful on this front, not least as it proves a relevant point here: WWE has fewer viewers in November and December.
In 2024, “Raw” viewership fell around 10% in the last quarter of the year, a pattern that was pretty consistent with previous years. The “SmackDown” drop was even more dramatic (around 30%) but coincided with the show moving from Fox to the USA Network. In both cases, the decline is consistent across the period, with viewers dropping from one week to the next in November and December.
Admittedly, it would be risky to draw any qualitative conclusions from that. But it’s interesting that the downward trend always reverses in January, when attention starts to turn toward the Royal Rumble. Maybe that whole thing about there being no big shows to build for really does have an impact on viewing figures.
The verdict: It’s true, it’s damn true
The claim: The PLEs are weaker than usual
Look, we know you probably didn’t come here to argue about the relative quality of WWE PLEs. But I think we can agree the current year-end PLEs (Crown Jewel and Survivor Series) aren’t usually cited as the best of the bunch.
Crown Jewel has improved massively in recent years, albeit from a very low baseline. It’s had a handful of genuinely excellent matches (Roman Reigns vs. Logan Paul, for example), and the sheer volume of Saudi cash usually means the big names will always show up for these shows. But there’s still something about Crown Jewel that feels less urgent than the big U.S. shows.
As for Survivor Series, I sense there’s some frustration out there with the repetitive nature of the WarGames gimmick, which has run for four years now. The whole multi-man cagematch setup tends to be better at generating big spots — like Iyo Sky’s legendary trash-can dive — than progressing storylines. Though it did have CM Punk’s big return (more on that later …), which has to score an extra point.
The verdict: Arguable. (But that trash-can dive is still supremely cool.)
The claim: December doesn’t have any big events
It’s now been five years since WWE retired the Tables, Ladders & Chairs PLE that used to take place in December. It’s certainly true that its reputation had utterly soured by the time it was canned. But that doesn’t mean WWE couldn’t have replaced it with something else, rather than leaving a gaping hole in the schedule.
To be fair, WWE does appear to have woken up to that problem in the past two years. Last December, it gave us the first episode of the rebooted Saturday Night’s Main Event, which was promoted as being a de facto PLE. This year, we have a special edition of SNME built around John Cena’s retirement match, which could genuinely end up being the most important pro-wrestling moment of the year.
Cena’s retirement match is obviously a one-off, but hopefully it’s a sign that Triple H sees the need to make sure something of note takes place in the last month of the year.
The verdict: Arguable again. (I mean, how long can you go without hearing the words “Dec. 13?”)
The claim: Nothing ever happens
The accusation that nothing happens in November and December gets tossed around in YouTube comments sections and other such scholarly forums — which is strange, given that it can be dismissed by even a cursory glance at the past few years.
It was only two years ago — almost to the day — that CM Punk made his legendary return at Survivor Series in Chicago. Nothing ever happens? Sure, just perhaps the most explosive comeback in a generation, not to mention Triple H taking probably the boldest creative call of his career by letting it happen in the first place.
CM Punk gave us another November surprise last year, when he was unveiled as the surprise member of Roman Reigns’ team for Survivor Series. It was one of those moments that absolutely nobody saw coming and quickly generated millions of views on YouTube and social media. But nothing ever happens, right?
There have even been some notable moments in December. Remember The New Day turning on Big E? It may not have added up to much in retrospect, but it was a huge moment at the time. We even gave it one of our Crownie awards, labeling it the “twist of the year.” As much as WWE botched that storyline afterward, I still stand by our call on that one.
The verdict: Patently false
The judge’s ruling
Obviously, this year-end WWE run is never going to be up there with WrestleMania season. But I think you can make a strong case the idea of there being some kind of end-of-year lull is slightly overblown.
Perhaps it’s a hangover from some of the abysmal Christmas specials we’ve been subjected to over the years, or even the infamously bad December to Dismember pay-per-view. But either way, the reality points to these last two months being very much business as usual, at least when it comes to today’s WWE.
Not great, then, but not terrible either. Which sounds like a pretty evergreen verdict on what WWE has been up to recently.
