The only problem with this, is SummerSlam didn't draw either, and that was well before any Triple H/Authority shenanigans.
Of course, none of that helped.
The million dollar question, is has the towel been thrown on him? It's not obvious the Big Show title match was nothing more than a one month time killer that meant nothing big scheme.
Mania build will tell all.
Vince's words to investors RE: Summer Slam flopping (paraphrasing) - "We didn't have the right attraction".
Vince has got it all wrong. With the exception of Wrestlemania, we are out of the period of there being a draw or "attraction." They've got to have the card, and if we re-visit the SummerSlam card, we can see why.
1.) Bray Wyatt and Kane in the gimmick match. Both guys are the drizzling shits and they get booked in a gimmick match together. This made absolutely no sense.
2.) Rhodes vs. Sandow. They spent weeks pushing this angle, including it being the main one on a SmackDown that involved Sandow having the MiTB briefcase remade. So what do they do? The briefcase isn't on the line, and the match is over in under seven minutes.
3.) ADR vs Christian for the WHC. I can't remember positives or negatives from this match, which is both good and bad I guess. These are two guys who can go for 20 minutes, but get 12.
4.) Six Divas tag match, which I guess was because of the Total Divas show. I can guarantee no one was purchasing this PPV because of the Total Divas match, so why waste the time on it? Especially with a mixed-tag up later in the show.
5.) Lesnar vs Punk. Given 25 minutes, great match no complaints.
6.) Ziggler/Kaitlyn vs Langston/AJ. No problems here necessarily, because they did push this feud as well, but given that we already had one match with Divas, put another match in here and give Rhodes/Sandow or ADR/Christian more time. Better yet, take out the other Divas match and have this one instead.
7.) Danielson vs Cena. The minute H's put himself in the match, most of us figured that shenanigans would happen. But why end one of the major PPVs like this? You finally have someone beat Cena clean for his title, the title he got off of the Rock no less, then do the screwjob ending. Most people knew this would happen, so why bother?
And lets not even go into the throwaway pre-show match, where they wasted the Shield and Rob Van Dam, who could have had spots throughout the card.
Middling card=middling show. WWE is going to get what they put out there, and in this case, an average return.