WWE Network... It's Here

[shoe]

With an hr. The 3 matches should have enough time to be good to great.

[El-P]

Anyone watched Foley's "stand up" show ? I thought it was pretty unfunny overall. I cracked a few smiles here and there, but... not much interesting stuff that hasn't been heard dozen times before, in much funnier fashions.

And damn, Foley looks sad moving around like a broken down old guy. And Colette, well, hasn't aged very gracefully either to be honest that or the WWE makeup departement really made her look older than she is, which is also very possible).

[Johnny Sorrow]

She looks like a normal mother of four in her mid to late fourties.

[sek69]

The thing about Foley is a good deal of what makes him look like a broken down old man probably could be taken care of with a knee replacement or two. The process is way less invasive than ever (my 86 year old grandmother-in-law had one a few years ago and was barely out of commission at all), but knowing his well documented thriftiness he seemingly would rather limp around than spend the money.

[goc]

I think it's more hips than knees with Foley.

[The Chief]

I saw Foley live a few months back. Dude aged ten years when he got out of his chair. I was in pain just watching him walk.

[sek69]

Hips are a little more involved than knees but it's still something that could be taken care of and would greatly improve the guy's quality of life. Hell, I'm sure he could even get WWE to foot the bill since they are always in need of good PR.

[Sidebottom]

I'm no doctor, but I've always said he would be doing himself a favor by dropping weight to put less pressure on his knees and hips.

[KrisZ]

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.

[El-P]

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.)

[BillThompson]

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.

[victory]

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.

[Matt D]

I could see it as an ego/attention thing. The people creating new content want to make sure eyes only fall on their content. Or what not. If anyone wants to put forth another Wacoan-style Hunter conspiracy, have at it.

[Lee]

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.

[Sidebottom]

 

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...

[KrisZ]

The biggest deal I'm sure they have with older footage other than digitalizing it is all the editing they have to do regarding music....so many territories willfully used popular music and I'm sure editing all of that out is a bitch

[shoe]

Zellner hit it on the head. The work needed to put it on the network > the money it will draw for the network in the current climate.

[Bix]

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.

[shoe]

I totally agree with that.

[KrisZ]

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

[fakeplastictrees]

Is there a reason (not that I am REALLY looking forward to it) that the WWE movies aren't on The Network? By my count WWE has about 25-30 movies they should be able to add to The Network without issue.

[Sidebottom]

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.

[goc]

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.

[goc]

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.

[WingedEagle]

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.