False Narrative

Aside from that I think that the WWE PPV numbers declined mostly because the increase in the amount of PPV's meant that each PPV lost it's significance. With the exception of Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, and usually Summerslam, all the other PPV's the WWE offers don't feel as special. One could easily miss them and get almost the same quality product on Raw or Smackdown. You see the same guys wrestle each other and you'll find out the results so little matters from missing it.

With the UFC, the major way they produce their brand is through PPV. The Fight Night shows sell a ton of advertising on Spike and make money but when it comes down to it they fail in comparison to the PPV's. If the UFC was more like the WWE and  say Chuck Liddell could fight once or twice a month and they put that on free TV and only his big matches against other top contenders were put on PPV, those PPVs wouldn't do so well because they already got their fill of Chuck. The UFC uses the Fight Night shows to promote their second tier of talent and TUF alumnus while simultaneously promoting their brand to the masses for free, attracting new fans and potential PPV customers. While you may see a Hendo-Rampage or Ortiz-Shamrock "mega-fight" on free TV once a year, if you want to see such blockbuster fights you'll have to pay.

All in all I don't see the WWE model and the UFC model being the same at this point. While both have historically catered to a similar demographic that doesn't make the business model for the two the same. The only real similarity is that they each sell mainly on their brand name and only a few stars rise up at times that elevate the brand (compare Rock, Austin, HHH, and Cena to Liddell, Ortiz, Couture, and Griffin).