WWE Network... It's Here

[ElHijodeGorgeousGeorge]

 

Hindu peace symbol, not a Japanese peace symbol. And there is a huge difference between Hitler appropriating the swastika, which is still used in India ubiquitously, including on the wall of the apartment I am living in currently, taking the word "Aryan" from the Sanskrit language, and using it to his own end, and people continuing to use the Confederate flag, when the very origin of that flag was mired in bigotry and hatred. Horrible analogy.

I used the analogy because it's the same as what that poster is doing - imposing current standards onto something that had a different meaning, or at least multiple meanings, in the '70s and '80s.

There was a point in the 70's and 80's where the Stars and Bars were just a "rebel" thing, aka Dukes and Skynard. It was ignorant to how it probably made black people feel, but that's what it was.

Exactly. People need to take historical context into account if they're going to argue about something. You can't just take 2016 standards and retroactively apply them to 1985.

 

Characters in Twain's books owned slaves, which obviously isn't good, but you can't suddenly say Twain wrote them as villains when he didn't necessarily do that. It was a different time, with different standards and different perceptions. You can look back and say how backward those characters were by today's standards, but you can't say the author intended them to be bad people just because that's the way they'd be seen now.

 

I understand not wanting to give Michael Hayes the benefit of the doubt because of Mark Henry and other incidents, but the fact is, the Rebel Flag outfits the Freebirds wore did not give them racist heat at the time. That was clearly not the intention back then.

The sad reality is that we live in a world where anytime someone tries to discuss this kind of issue it just draws ignorant and overblown arguments. In other news, I'm actually digging this collections idea they're going with. Helps encapsulate careers or eras.

[ElHijodeGorgeousGeorge]

 

Hindu peace symbol, not a Japanese peace symbol. And there is a huge difference between Hitler appropriating the swastika, which is still used in India ubiquitously, including on the wall of the apartment I am living in currently, taking the word "Aryan" from the Sanskrit language, and using it to his own end, and people continuing to use the Confederate flag, when the very origin of that flag was mired in bigotry and hatred. Horrible analogy.

I used the analogy because it's the same as what that poster is doing - imposing current standards onto something that had a different meaning, or at least multiple meanings, in the '70s and '80s.

There was a point in the 70's and 80's where the Stars and Bars were just a "rebel" thing, aka Dukes and Skynard. It was ignorant to how it probably made black people feel, but that's what it was.

Exactly. People need to take historical context into account if they're going to argue about something. You can't just take 2016 standards and retroactively apply them to 1985.

 

Characters in Twain's books owned slaves, which obviously isn't good, but you can't suddenly say Twain wrote them as villains when he didn't necessarily do that. It was a different time, with different standards and different perceptions. You can look back and say how backward those characters were by today's standards, but you can't say the author intended them to be bad people just because that's the way they'd be seen now.

 

I understand not wanting to give Michael Hayes the benefit of the doubt because of Mark Henry and other incidents, but the fact is, the Rebel Flag outfits the Freebirds wore did not give them racist heat at the time. That was clearly not the intention back then.

The sad reality is that we live in a world where anytime someone tries to discuss this kind of issue it just draws ignorant and overblown arguments. In other news, I'm actually digging this collections idea they're going with. Helps encapsulate careers or eras.

[Robert S]

I caught up on the Edge & Christian show. After the first show was pretty average I must say that there are surprisingly many funny segments. My favorites were WWE guys reading Twitter hate posts about themselves (Cena and the Big Show are great in that), Edge, Christian (and Stardust) showing Wrestlecrap gimmick pictures to pre-schoolers and "Will WWE talk about it" (a fake game show with AJ Style as "candidate" making fun about his wrestling past and TNA).

[goc]

Yea I wish they did the bit about reading hateful Twitter posts on every show.

[Loss]

Full disclosure: tomk originally made the comparisons to Rick Steiner and Sting when he was making a point about how it seemed like HHH was trying to redo all of his favorite Flair matches with guys he saw as similar opponents. So I'd love to take credit for that one, but he came up with that part. That time being the closest WWE ever would be to being JCP is all me though.

[sek69]

So Rene Dupree is heading up a class action suit against WWE over royalties from the network. I'd imagine this will either end up being Jerry McDevitt's next snack or perhaps the end of the network as we know it since they don't seem to fare too well in cases involving royalties.

[Loss]

How is this different from the Doug Gilbert suit that was dismissed?

[Robert S]

Judging by the trailer the next Edge & Christian show will have both Virgil and Sean Mooney as guest stars. This week's show had Pete Gas (plus Brutus Beefcake) on.

[sek69]

How is this different from the Doug Gilbert suit that was dismissed?

 

 

Apparently he just withdrew it all of a sudden, which doesn't at all come off as someone throwing him a few bucks to make it go away....

[flyonthewall2983]

I'd love it if they added WCW Saturday Night at all. We'll probably get every episode of Thunder before that ever happens.

[supremebve]

 

Hindu peace symbol, not a Japanese peace symbol. And there is a huge difference between Hitler appropriating the swastika, which is still used in India ubiquitously, including on the wall of the apartment I am living in currently, taking the word "Aryan" from the Sanskrit language, and using it to his own end, and people continuing to use the Confederate flag, when the very origin of that flag was mired in bigotry and hatred. Horrible analogy.

I used the analogy because it's the same as what that poster is doing - imposing current standards onto something that had a different meaning, or at least multiple meanings, in the '70s and '80s.

 

There was a point in the 70's and 80's where the Stars and Bars were just a "rebel" thing, aka Dukes and Skynard. It was ignorant to how it probably made black people feel, but that's what it was.

Exactly. People need to take historical context into account if they're going to argue about something. You can't just take 2016 standards and retroactively apply them to 1985.

 

Characters in Twain's books owned slaves, which obviously isn't good, but you can't suddenly say Twain wrote them as villains when he didn't necessarily do that. It was a different time, with different standards and different perceptions. You can look back and say how backward those characters were by today's standards, but you can't say the author intended them to be bad people just because that's the way they'd be seen now.

 

I understand not wanting to give Michael Hayes the benefit of the doubt because of Mark Henry and other incidents, but the fact is, the Rebel Flag outfits the Freebirds wore did not give them racist heat at the time. That was clearly not the intention back then.

 

This is completely and totally untrue. The confedrate flag was always a symbol of hate, especially when you take into consideration that it essentially disappeared from American society until the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. After the Civil War the only people who flew the confederate flag were hate groups like the ku klux klan, until racist politicians decided to fly it over southern state houses to support segregation. I'd bet every dollar I've ever made that if you were to ask any black person who was alive in the 60s/70s/80s in the American south what that flag meant to them they would say it was racist no matter what decade it was flown.

[sek69]

So it looks like the latest content dump was 2000-2001 Smackdowns if that's anyone's bag.

[MikeCampbell]

I'd love it if they added WCW Saturday Night at all. We'll probably get every episode of Thunder before that ever happens.

It doesn't seem like such a big stretch. They lumped in ECW on TNN with ECW Hardcore TV, so lumping in WCW Saturday night with the existing World Championship Wrestling episodes would work.

[Frankensteiner]

Has anyone else watched the DX public workout that was put up in the DX Collection section? I think this is the first time this footage is available, although it's kind of a waste of time. Shawn gets out to start his promo in front of the crowd then gets pelted with something right in the face and just storms off. This leaves Triple H to improvise and stall until Austin hits the ring at the end and then Shawn suddenly re-appears for the beatdown and getting Austin tied up in the ropes.

 

Probably only good for a representation of how far Shawn was ahead of Triple H in terms of presence and charisma.

[clintthecrippler]

I loved that DX Public Workout segment. Overall it was a giant waste of time for the most part - especially after Shawn Michaels says screw it 30 seconds im and walks away after getting beaned right in the face by an object thrown by a fan - but it was fun watching Hunter keep the crowd worked up to where they still seemed like they wanted to legit kill DX.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Wasn't it a battery that hit Micheals?

[Woof]

The E&C show has really found it's groove as the ultimate smark show. The "WrestlersOnly.com" dating service bit, the "Hot Tag" ad where Christian blind tagged in to bang the dude's wife, the AJ Styles fan segment where they're dragging him off and Edge (I think) says, "have him back by Monday, he's gotta put Heath Slater over!" were all gold. I think its genius can be summed up in the exchange between E&C and Mean Gene this past week: "Gene: Does Vince watch this show? Edge: FUCK NO!". Good times.

[The Chief]

The E&C show has really found it's groove as the ultimate smark show. The "WrestlersOnly.com" dating service bit, the "Hot Tag" ad where Christian blind tagged in to bang the dude's wife, the AJ Styles fan segment where they're dragging him off and Edge (I think) says, "have him back by Monday, he's gotta put Heath Slater over!" were all gold. I think its genius can be summed up in the exchange between E&C and Mean Gene this past week: "Gene: Does Vince watch this show? Edge: FUCK NO!". Good times.

The first episode was pretty bad. I'm glad I gave it a chance because there's some pretty funny stuff. Tommy Dreamer is great.

[goc]

Yea I liked the episodes I watched during my free trial. Still wish they did the "Wrestlers read mean tweets" segment on every show though, it's not like the material isn't there.

[JRH]

Thursday Raw Thursday has finally been uploaded.

[Al]

"I don't care how many championships your LinkedIn account says you won!" was a highlight for me.

[raul]

is there a list anywhere of recommended shows? last night i watched COTC VII because of an older 'unruly crowds' thread i found on here

[DMJ]

Don't know if there's a rule against it, but I'll plug my blog here. I review everything I watch on Network.

 

If you go to August 2015, you'll find my database (I plan to update again and repost at the end of the summer with everything I've reviewed since). At that time, the best stuff I watched/rewatched, in terms of whole cards being generally entertaining (this might even include segments that are "so bad-they're great"), were:

 

SuperBrawl II, Spring Stampede 94', Slamboree 94', Bash at the Beach 94', Fall Brawl 95', WrestleManias 17 and 19, Great American Bash 96'...

 

To be sure, I'm not calling my list anything close to definitive as it only includes stuff I've reviewed on the site. For example, I'm a mega-mark for the 92' Rumble and SummerSlam 91', but I've seen them a dozen times each and I went into my blog-making with the goal of kinda watching stuff that I hadn't seen before (and that includes the big NXT/WWE shows from 2014 on, if you're curious about that stuff).

[flyonthewall2983]

Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard shot an episode of Table For 3

[EricR]

Any idea when the most recent season of Total Divas goes up on the Network? It just ended last week on E!