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WWE Network... It's Here


goodhelmet

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Dave finally confirms what we should have believed would happen

 

 

 

--One of the reasons WWE isn't adding a ton of old footage to the network is that almost nobody watches it. The stuff that is popular are the specials and NXT has now become popular. The Roman Reigns 24 and Jericho with Stephanie were the most watched shows of the past week. Also popular is the Springer show, the last two PPV shows and the Austin season of Tough Enough.
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Frankly, what did anyone expect ? Old wrestling footage only interests a microniche of a microniche of geeks like us.

 

(the fact that the Springer stuff, whatever it is, is popular is also pretty telling. And sad. The WWE Univ... audience deserves the WWE product they get.)

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I never expected the old footage to draw people in, but just like what Netflix and Hulu do with old TV shows and old movies it serves as a good way of beefing up your library and keeping your entire fanbase happy. That's where I feel they've dropped the ball, plus you've got this huge library they should be putting it on the Network to make money off of it any way they can.

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I never expected the old footage to draw people in, but just like what Netflix and Hulu do with old TV shows and old movies it serves as a good way of beefing up your library and keeping your entire fanbase happy. That's where I feel they've dropped the ball, plus you've got this huge library they should be putting it on the Network to make money off of it any way they can.

I agree. Why buy the Mid-South/UWF library and not showcase it? How would they know how many people don't subscribe due to the lack of old footage unless they add more? What does it hurt by adding more of it? Makes zero sense unless it really is a space issue.

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The most puzzling thing to me is that they've reached this conclusion where the current product is what drives the Network and the nostalgia stuff generally doesn't matter... and now we're sitting through angles on Raw in which a man pretending to be Hulk Hogan is teaming up with a man pretending to be Randy Savage in order to fight two men pretending to be the Road Warriors.

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I never expected the old footage to draw people in, but just like what Netflix and Hulu do with old TV shows and old movies it serves as a good way of beefing up your library and keeping your entire fanbase happy. That's where I feel they've dropped the ball, plus you've got this huge library they should be putting it on the Network to make money off of it any way they can.

I agree. Why buy the Mid-South/UWF library and not showcase it? How would they know how many people don't subscribe due to the lack of old footage unless they add more? What does it hurt by adding more of it? Makes zero sense unless it really is a space issue.

I can't see it being a space issue. If it were, the random SD pre shows which NOBODY on the planet is going to revisit and content of a similar ilk would be gone. You'd think...

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That's no excuse for not adding the shows already fully edited for Classics on Demand and/or Classics Online (like a few years of WCCW), though.

There is definitely that indeed. Mid-South would be a bitch to edit especially the UWF years

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It would depend on the rights issues. I have no idea what their situation is, but if they signed a distribution deal with Lions Gate for example (which I'm sure they did with the Kane film) this would include a term which will likely be for decades from what I understand about distribution, specifying the distribution rights. WWE wouldn't be able to sell the product to any other distributor or in this case, self distribute.

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Managed to come across a "Mr Electricity" Steve Regal vs. Victor Rivera match from Prime Time on the live feed this morning. With their pick of essentially every wrestler I have no idea why WWF ever employed that scrub. Gorilla Monsoon did amuse me though by saying after the match that "Mr. Electricity didn't show me an awful lot of voltage."

 

Also using search to watch some Roman Reigns matches over the past year of TV and I think it would be a cool Network feature if they started including full matches that get interrupted by commercial on the replays.

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I will say that the Network is better on my second go around than the first. I like that they are putting chapters in most things so I can use the search and watchlist features together to single out Smackdown & Main Event matches without having to randomly search through the shows. I have watched a lot of good Smackdown matches over the past couple days.

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Apparently the Undertaker is lined up as a guest for an Austin podcast in the coming months. Never, ever thought I'd see them break kayfabe there, much less before calling it a day on his career.

I wonder if he is planning to formally announce his retirement on the podcast....or maybe that WM 32 will be his last match or something.

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Having Austin back is great - Jericho interviewing Undertaker would most likely be a letdown.

 

They also uploaded the ECW invades RAW episode from 1997. I haven't seen that in ages. I remember being blow away by it back in the day and then being upset at the lack of follow up on it.

 

Still waiting for the magical day in which they start uploading non WWF 80s stuff regularly. I imagine that in 2-3 years we'll have threads where we'll discuss eveyrthing that happened during a specific week and month of 1983 (or something) on the weekly TV of every promotion that they own.

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That's enough to make me ready to cancel my sub, to be honest, and I'm someone who originally thought everyone who could should subscribe just to help it become successful because of its potential to churn out hidden gems and transform what WWE currently is into something better. I had this pipe dream in my head that they would eventually add their entire library. Ha!

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That's enough to make me ready to cancel my sub, to be honest, and I'm someone who originally thought everyone who could should subscribe just to help it become successful because of its potential to churn out hidden gems and transform what WWE currently is into something better. I had this pipe dream in my head that they would eventually add their entire library. Ha!

 

It really wasn't remotely deluded to expect something BETTER, though. Being at least as good as Classics on Demand and/or Classics Online in terms of the trickle of archival content, possible hidden gems showing up, etc. isn't THAT high a standard to aspire to. Especially when Classics on Demand was killed when WWE Network was launched (though it had slowed down quite a while before that).

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I think the Network has a great value for people who are really into the current product, which is the smarter choice and definitely the better dollar to chase than people who don't even watch anymore but you hope will buy the Network to see old NWA footage.

 

On the other hand I still think they have done a shitty job highlighting the older footage and that there is still potential it could draw SOME people to the Network.

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