When the story of the 2012 WWE and TNA PPV season is told years from now, two themes will jump out. On the WWE side, it's big, epic matches make a PPV stand out from the crowd and justify $45+ tax. On the TNA side, it was the end of 12 PPVs per year following a mind-numbing stream of middle-of-the-road PPVs.

Based on PWTorch Staff Roundtable Reviews and PPV specialist Nathan Kyght's monthly tallies, the Top Three PPVs of the year were WWE's Extreme Rules, WrestleMania, and TLC PPVs. All three had one thing in common - a solid card that built to the Epic Match.

Extreme Rules had John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, Mania had Triple H vs. Undertaker with Shawn Michaels as special referee and The Rock vs. John Cena, and TLC had The Shield vs. Team Ryback in a late Match of the Year contender.

Extreme Rules was the only PPV of the year to garner a single 9.0/10.0 Roundtable score from a Torch staffer. Meanwhile, WM28 and TLC scored 8.0s from Torch staffers.

- Extreme Rules RT Avg.: 8.3
- WM28 RT Avg.: 7.6
- TLC RT Avg.: 7.4

On the TNA side, the only PPV to reach the psychologically-important 7.0 score was Destination X in July. The event averaged a 7.0 rating from the Torch Staff and was the only TNA PPV to receive a 7.5 score from a Torch staffer.

TNA lacked that one signature match - even something close to Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle at Lockdown 2008 - to really elevate one of their PPVs above the other 11 during the year.

Back on the WWE side, the worst PPV of the year was Hell in a Cell, which averaged a 4.1 Roundtable score. The next-worst were Royal Rumble and Summerslam, which each averaged a 4.9 score.

On the TNA side, the worst PPV of the year was Lockdown, which bombed out with disappointing book-end matches. This was the only TNA PPV of the year that failed to garner a single thumbs-in-the-middle 5.0 score, with the highest score being a 4.0 and lowest score being a 3.5.

Inside the Numbers - WWE PPVs

Avt. RT Score 2012 - 6.1
Avg. High Score - 7.0
Avg. Low Score - 5.2




Inside the Numbers - TNA PPVs

Avg. RT Score 2012 - 5.6
Avg. High Score - 6.2
Avg. Low Score - 5.0




NATHAN KYGHT'S FINAL 2012 PPV RANKINGS

1 - WWE EXTREME RULES (2012-04-29)
2 - WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXVIII (2012-04-01)
3 – WWE TLC (2012-12-16)
4 - WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER (2012-02-19)
5 - TNA SLAMMIVERSARY (2012-06-10)
6 - TNA DESTINATION X (2012-07-08)
7 - TNA SACRIFICE (2012-05-13)
8 – WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS (2012-09-16)
9 - WWE MONEY IN THE BANK (2012-07-15)
10 – TNA HARDCORE JUSTICE (2012-08-12)
11 – WWE SUMMERSLAM (2012-08-19)
12 - WWE OVER THE LIMIT (2012-05-20)
13 – TNA BOUND FOR GLORY (2012-10-14)
14 - WWE ROYAL RUMBLE (2012-1-29)
15 – TNA TURNING POINT (2012-11-11)
16 - TNA VICTORY ROAD (2012-03-18)
17 - TNA LOCKDOWN (2012-04-15)
18 – WWE SURVIVOR SERIES (2012-11-18)
19 – WWE HELL IN A CELL (2012-10-28)
20 – TNA FINAL RESOLUTION (2012-12-09)
21 - WWE NO WAY OUT (2012-06-17)
22 – TNA NO SURRENDER (2012-09-09)
23 - TNA GENESIS (2012-01-08)
24 – TNA AGAINST ALL ODDS (2012-02-12)

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