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WWE Network... It's Here


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FWIW, I have had the Network and Fight Pass and thought the Network blew Fight Pass away in terms of reliability and functionality.  Haven’t had it for several months now but it always worked well for me.  I have Fight Pass at the moment and their Roku app is trash.  

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  • 3 weeks later...
1 hour ago, ...TG said:

They dropped a bunch of WWE Confidential today. This came out during my dark period ('02-'09 or so) - is it worth checking out?

Not really. It was basically a watered down televised dirt sheet (or the Mean Gene WCW Hotline come to life, except not nearly as entertaining as that sounds) with a WWE spin.

The most infamous episode is the one about Lex Luger "murdering" Elizabeth - complete with the 911 call.

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3 hours ago, ...TG said:

They dropped a bunch of WWE Confidential today. This came out during my dark period ('02-'09 or so) - is it worth checking out?

There are a handful of good bits--there's a great bit around when Bobby Heenan's cancer diagnosis was announced that was sort of a salute/get well message for him with lots of really good clips.  Also a really good Freddie Blassie video obit.

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Guys. Hey, guys. That Mark Henry documentary was fucking aces, y'all.

It was moving. It was inspiring. It was engaging. It was excellent. It was, well... Everything their usual TV isn't.

I mean, I watched the Nigel doc awhile back. And it was good, too. But this - THIS - was a rollercoaster. This was the world's strongest segment. This was the greatest vignette never made.

Seriously. It's such a shame they can't figure out a way to do these things & air them in continuity - in canon with their regular television - for people to build connections & relationships with these wrestlers.

Something like this - broken into separate, digestible pieces - would be the modern equivalent of the Mankind/Jim Ross interview. It's too bad it took them THIS long to find a way to properly spotlight Mark's powerlifting. An intro like this, back when it could've counted, would have been a big baby face boost.

ESPECIALLY the stuff about his mom in 2002. My god.

I mean, don't get me wrong. It's all contextual. You trot a baby face out to the ring with a live mic and have him pour his heart out about his momma, and yeah. You risk it dying a silent, awkward death. But if you air it this way? Fuccckkk. Totally different story.

But that's their approach to everything in a nutshell. They're tactics are all so tired and uninspired. Every baby face is just a lifelong fan with a dream. That's it.

But these people actually have interesting stories to tell. Because they LIVE interesting lives to get there.

Anyway, I loved this documentary. Can't tell you the next time I'll watch anything WWE at any given moment in time, but I can tell you I'll be watching this documentary again at some point. It's far better than anything else they've done in a long, long time. I just wish they'd find a way to utilize THIS skill set with their usual stuff. Guys might actually get over in a real, sustainable way.

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The best part was when he was talking about the powerlifting guys talking shit about him calling himself the World's Strongest Man after being away from their scene for years and how it was the maddest he ever was. Plus Vince's reaction when he asked if he could go compete being "sure, but you better win it because I have no place for the second strongest man in the world" being a shit-just-got-real moment. All that topped off with him going in with only 3-4 months training and winning the thing after being away for so long made clear how scary a motivated and pissed off Mark Henry could be. 

It also made clear that he's probably one of the legit nicest people ever in wrestling. Clearly he's one of the very few folks that no one has a bad word to say about. How could you, after seeing how passionate he is about life and how he goes in 100% when he cares about something. Even the part at the end with him being the typical corny dad embarrassing his son made it clear anyone who's ever met the guy would love him.

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2 hours ago, sek69 said:

The best part was when he was talking about the powerlifting guys talking shit about him calling himself the World's Strongest Man after being away from their scene for years and how it was the maddest he ever was. Plus Vince's reaction when he asked if he could go compete being "sure, but you better win it because I have no place for the second strongest man in the world" being a shit-just-got-real moment. All that topped off with him going in with only 3-4 months training and winning the thing after being away for so long made clear how scary a motivated and pissed off Mark Henry could be. 

It also made clear that he's probably one of the legit nicest people ever in wrestling. Clearly he's one of the very few folks that no one has a bad word to say about. How could you, after seeing how passionate he is about life and how he goes in 100% when he cares about something. Even the part at the end with him being the typical corny dad embarrassing his son made it clear anyone who's ever met the guy would love him.

Yes! That story with him telling Vince that he still had something to prove in powerlifting was GLORIOUS - perhaps my favorite part of the doc, so I'm glad you brought it up.

Everything about it rang true. Vince starts off asking if Mark is sure he wants to enter the competition. Then, when Mark doubles down, Vince gets real. "Well, you'd better win. Because there's no place here for the second strongest man."

Tremendous.

Flash forward to the comp, and big Mark is SPLITTIN' WIGS with his mind-blowing strength. Setting records, then instantly breaking his own records.

Not only all that stuff with his momma, or his son... But there's also the relationship he had with his coach. Fuck, man. That one got me, too. And that HOF speech about how he did it all for his family was the perfect topper to cap it off.

Honestly, it's no wonder this guy is universally loved by everyone.

There's not a demographic or a single person with a pulse that something like this wouldn't reach or speak to in some terms. It's the best.

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15 hours ago, Matt D said:

WWE's not on the ball with this, but tomorrow's the 5th anniversary of the Network. I'd say it became much more of what I wanted it to be in the last year with the advent of the weekly hidden gems.

WWE has been teasing a new interface. It and the tiered pricing will likely come between now and the Summer. Hopefully, they will launch the new interface tomorrow.

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On the Nigel doc they show the footage of Bryan Danielson yanking him head-first into the post and drawing hardway blood.

A few weeks later, during the Phoenix Takeover, Shayna Baszler pulls Bianca Belair by the hair into the post and Nigel makes a comment about knowing how dangerous that can be. I thought it was a nice callback.

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I've gone back to watching Mid Atlantic and I'm at the post Starrcade 83 episodes, and I can't help but laugh at how hard they tried to make Kelly Kiniski a thing. Bob Caudle set him up to do a promo about whatever was going on in the territory and Kelly just goes off on how he's worked on his wrestling style and gets quasi-heelish toward Americans while babyfacing himself to Canadians like a weird, less charasmatic proto Bret Hart.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/23/2019 at 5:51 PM, SomethingSavage said:

Guys. Hey, guys. That Mark Henry documentary was fucking aces, y'all.

It was moving. It was inspiring. It was engaging. It was excellent. It was, well... Everything their usual TV isn't.

I mean, I watched the Nigel doc awhile back. And it was good, too. But this - THIS - was a rollercoaster. This was the world's strongest segment. This was the greatest vignette never made.

I concur with all of this. Finally watched the Mark Henry doc last night, and man oh man, it was awesome.

I need to watch Nigel's at some point, but I know that one is going to be heartbreaking and hit close to home.

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On 1/25/2019 at 6:17 AM, Zoo Enthusiast said:

FWIW, I have had the Network and Fight Pass and thought the Network blew Fight Pass away in terms of reliability and functionality.  Haven’t had it for several months now but it always worked well for me.  I have Fight Pass at the moment and their Roku app is trash.  

I don’t understand how Fight Pass hasn’t fixed their amazon app after years of complaints! You can’t resume anything and the fast forward function is trash. Only app I pay for that I’d rather watch on my smart phone than on my tv

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 2/18/2019 at 12:03 PM, ...TG said:

They dropped a bunch of WWE Confidential today. This came out during my dark period ('02-'09 or so) - is it worth checking out?

They did their version of WWE Cribs which is kind of cool. Specifically the Al Snow one where they show all of his hockey jerseys that he owns & he puts them all on at once.

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On 4/17/2019 at 3:19 AM, sek69 said:

Oh my goodness, the shows from 84 include Adrian Street showing up I can't think of a more perfect gimmick/promotion combo than that.

Following up on this, after watching a few episodes he's in (previously I've only been aware of him via magazines) I wonder if Dustin Rhodes pays him royalties since Goldust is basically this gimmick + movie references.  I've heard people say it before, but watching it in action it's apparent as hell. 

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