goc

No they didn't say he wasn't allowed in, but they also did not announce him as being in, and didn't have him mention the Rumble match at all.

Despite my criticisms of Lawler, I've already done my taxes and plan to buy the Lawler set as soon as the direct deposit hits. I just think he's a much better babyface than a heel, but that's also a bit unfair because I also think he's maybe the best babyface ever.

I love Lawler but pretty much agree with all of Loss' criticisms of him as a heel. He relies on the foreign object stuff WAY too much as a heel, to the point of killing the whole gimmick by hitting the guy with it so many times it doesn't feel like a threat any more. He doesn't fit the idea of "good not great wrestlers" though and my pick for that would be Chris Jericho. I think people hyped him for so long as a great wrestler, but he's not. He's just good. People seem to have come down off that "Chris Jericho is one of the best in the world!!" ledge they were on in the early 2000s though.

It really does feel unpredictable this year. I think maybe we'll know more depending on how they book Bryan on Raw because as far as I know they haven't even announced him as being in the Rumble yet.

Just for anyone who isn't convinced WWE sees him as a top guy. I think that's more evidence that anything they've done on TV. On your side goc but it was still just the "B" house show troupe too. If John Cena, your top draw is on the "A" house show loop, why would you put Daniel Bryan, likely your 2nd best draw, on the same loop? If he is the headliner of the "B" group that's even better.

Did that story even come out BEFORE Steph became a TV character? I seem to remember it popping up around the time that there were rumors of Savage going to WWF and then that rumor coming out that he and HHH had heat because maybe Savage had Stephanie first.

I understand people not trusting WWE do the Network right. But I really feel like this is one time where they'll be forced to listen to consumer demand due to how badly they need this to work. Their original plans for how often they will update, the size of the updates, the type of content they will update, all of that will likely change after launch if people are clamoring for more. It's not like they have to go out and produce a lot of original stuff to create more updates. If people are going "hey we want more WCW" it's not like they have to do a whole lot to make that happen. The old problem with their Classics on Demand online service was that they treated it as secondary to DVDs and would frequently delete content that would be on a new DVD release. I don't think this is going to be a concern with the Network because the Network is going to be more important to them than DVD sales. There is no reason to hold something back in fear of cannibalizing future DVD sales, and that means we're likely to eventually get large continuous runs of Raw, Smackdown, Nitro, Thunder & Saturday Night in high quality. If people want territory footage I think it's going to be up to message boards like this and DVDVR to subscribe to The Network and continue to request it. I think it's the best chance we have of getting that stuff put out for mass consumption in a high quality format. I can't think of a reason they would NOT upload AWA, WCCW, Georga, Mid-South, etc if there was a vocal minority of paying costumers requesting it. What else would they own it for if not to use it eventually? All of that said, there need to be realistic expectations as well. This is a service they are banking on to carry them forward. They are going to always need something held back that people want to see to keep having good updates. They are pretty much not just going to go "well ok here's everything we have digitized already" and upload it all at one time.

Just for anyone who isn't convinced WWE sees him as a top guy. I think that's more evidence that anything they've done on TV.

It was very "story driven" and I think that's why I liked it so much. Even though some of the holds Goldust put on Johnson got a little boring, pretty much everything that they did in that match stuck to the story. Whether you think the story of "guy sexually harasses and molests his opponent to get into his head" is a good one is certainly subjective and I know in 1996 I was pretty turned off by the Goldust character. Looking at it now though I have to credit how original it was and how good Goldust was at working a character that very few guys in wrestling would want to do, and even fewer would be able to pull off.

Just watched Ahmed Johnson vs. Goldust from KOTR 96 with the buildup that includes Goldust giving him "mouth to mouth resuscitation" Man Ahmed's entrance where he burst through those doors they had for the set and runs in blasts Goldust with a clothesline while he's still wearing the wig and his robe is awesome. Then he busts out an insane dive over the ropes to get at Goldust on the outside. Ahmed seemed like he was going to be SUCH a big star at this point, I remember being a huge Ahmed fan at the time. But it also stands out to me how good Dustin was at this time. He was so great at working that character, patting Ahmed Johnson on the butt after delivering some punches to him, rubbing on his head before raking the eyes, touching his butt before pounding on his back. And at the same time he did a good job looking like he was a threat to Ahmed, who seemed invincible at this time period. When is the last time they had an IC title match even close to as heated as this?

The idea that the amount of content that is going to be updated regularly is completely set in stone is really premature. I think they have a general idea of how much they plan to add from their vault, but if the demand is higher they will add more. This is not 24/7 or Classics on Demand where it was just a little niche thing they didn't care about. The Network is essentially make or break for them right now, and I definitely do not see them being stubborn about adding more old content if that's what people want.

What does "confirmed" mean? Story on the front page of WO com where Dave says Bryan got a concussion? I assume that is sufficient for your needs. I don't think that's what confirmed means, no. That's what you would call a blind item or a rumor. PWInsider and Wrestling got confirmation from a WWE Spokesperson. However it remains unreported on WWE.com - a departure from the norm. Not to be an alarmist, but I think they would probably rather people not know how many concussions Bryan has had. I remember him talking about how many he had on the indies and it was a very large amount and then I know he's had at least 1 or 2 since being in the WWE.

I agree with Loss that I think they are underestimating the demand for new content, but I don't think that will hurt them that much because they have SO MUCH of it. They can kind of taper that desire by focusing on a few different things per month to dump. They have a lot of stuff to cycle through on an "every so often content dump" with old Raws, Smackdowns, Nitros, Thunders, Saturday Nights, Primetime Wrestling, Worldwide, Pro, Sunday Night Heats, Mania, Livewire, Superstars, Wrestling Challenge, All American Wrestling, Confidential, Shotgun Saturday Night, Jakked, whatever I'm forgetting. Then AWA, Florida, Georgia, WCCW, Mid-South, whatever else they have that I can't think of. Then add on top of that all the MSG & other taped house shows, Saturday Night Main Events, Clash of the Champions, etc. They can provide alot of varied content per month/week while still having plenty in the tank for future updates.

Lesnar/Ziggler is such a waste of the millions they pay Lesnar. Ziggler is done. He's finished. At least with Big Show we'll get the cool visual of Brock tossing him around.

EDIT: Wrong thread

I really hate the 9 A.M. signup as well. I wish it was just "sign up February 24" and pretty much at 12:01 the Network goes online. If you have people ready and working at the time you can tackle any problems that might pop up early before you start seeing high traffic. Plus it would be nice for me because I work Monday night overnight and thus could stay up all night Sunday/into the day Monday checking it out. On another note, on NFL Game Rewind there is a chat room function for every game. I never really understood what that was for, since you can't watch games live with that service. It would however be pretty cool if they had that included in the Network, where maybe you could set up a room with a password and anyone who joined would synch up with what you're watching and you can type/talk with each other.'

There is still a lot of people who would like to have rips of archives so they can burn them to hard drives, dvds, whatever. I'm not sure how MLBAM handles their protection but I don't think it would be hard to track things that are ripped from the Network. If that was my call I would look into a way to digitally watermark their streams to include subscriber # that is randomly placed somewhere in the duration of the stream. Even if people knew what you were doing, it seems like it'd be a real pain in the ass and not worth the trouble to find it if it was randomly placed.

I also like to think that he has no idea about the fact that his deleted tweets are still on the WWE page. I have no idea how WWE screwed up such an easy character as "Big Dumb Bully." The best part of the whole Bully Ryback segments was the one at SummerSlam where he complains about his soup being cold and he's told that it's supposed to be cold because it's Gazpacho soup. His reaction was the best character work he's done in WWE, and it's kind of too bad that segment happened at SummerSlam instead of on Raw because then I think more people would remember it. I also tried finding a video of it on youtube, etc. but it was only a couple of small clips and not the whole thing.

He deleted them all off Twitter, but I'm assuming the WWE site does not erase deleted tweets and once a tweet is posted I guess a site admin would have to take it off the WWE page.

I think this has the potential to really screw up their TV rights negotiations. But in the end, it's not like they are going to take anything LESS than what they are making now. And on top of that, I think the WWE Network will be a big success. They are going to market the shit out of it on all their shows. They have probably 3 or 4 million people who watch on TV every week. That doesn't account for the people who watch with Hulu Plus, torrents, Youtube, whatever. If they can get 25% of those people to sign up for the WWE Network, it will be a success. The fact that you pay $60 and it is in time for WrestleMania, and I assume it'll also be in time for Elimination Chamber is huge. That's two of the biggest PPVs of the year, at a discount. Then you have people who are lapsed fans but will buy it for the old footage and perhaps become interested again by watching a current PPV. I really think the WWE Network is going to be a big success, at least in the short term. If they are plagued with technical issues for the first 6 months, they are going to have a real problem because I think the well is already going to be poisoned with satellite and cable. EDIT: I just noticed the Network launches the day AFTER Elimination Chamber. I would call that a bad idea. I think it'd be much better to get a good test run in before possibly shitting the bed with WrestleMania. I know everyone seems to hand wave any concerns away with "MLB.tv" but I'd like to know what kind of traffic volume they are used to dealing with regularly. I know TV ratings for baseball aren't that great, even in the postseason so I'm kind of wondering if the MLB.tv structure has been tested the way it could potentially be tested for WrestleMania.

Actually I do see a lot of WWE and UFC stuff that says Sky Sports.

Jimmy Rave was the standout "why the hell did they bring THIS guy to India" worker for me watching Ring Ka King. I thought he had awful looking gear, a really generic indy moveset and a crappy look.

I kind of expect it to have the opposite effect, as people will find a way to rip the higher quality stuff off the Network and then it'll filter out to the torrent sites. That's just an observation though because I plan to give them my money for the Network as soon as they'll let me.

It seems like a lot of people really were overlooking those Bully Ryback segments when they were happening. I agree they were a highlight of the year, they were some of the best WWE backstage skits in years.

I am so fucking putting my money down on launch day. This is going to be awesome. And that is coming from a guy who has already burned just about every Raw & Nitro during the Monday Night Wars onto DVDs. But the video quality on that stuff makes it hard for me to really sit down and get a lot of watching done. That's no longer going to be a problem. Really hoping they don't neglect their territory footage either, I would absolutely love for them to upload full years of Mid-South TV.