sek69 Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Probably important to note that WWE announced they are switching streaming providers from Disney/MLBAM to the company UFC uses for FIght Pass. They did announce some aquisitions to make it sound like they are beefing up their infrastructure, but everyone who has Fight Pass seems to think this is a step down in quality. Interestingly, the WWE announcement mentioned how this partnership will allow them to add new features going forward. Kind of implying that the reason WWE Network has had shit interface/searching options all this time was limits on the server end. Seems odd considering all the other companies that use it, but maybe WWE opted for the discount package when they first built the network and are stuck with it. Either way, it seems like another sign that WWE Network 2.0 (whatever they end up calling it) is coming sooner than later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 19 hours ago, C.S. said: WWE Network dropped BAMtech for a new streaming company. Has the service improved at all? Depending on the device, the Network sometimes felt like it was powered by a string and tin cans. The streaming itself has almost always worked quite well for me (over here on mainland Europe), though I had some issues recently. My problem with the Network is that the app (at least on PS3 and PS4) from a quality and usability point-of-view basically feels like a Beta or even pre-Beta version that no one ever has bothered to bring to a proper release state. You would think with the number of subscribers they have that at one point they would bother to invest those 500 k - 1 M (or maybe it would be 2 - 3 M, but it would be in that prize-range) that it would cost to develop proper apps. I assume they spend a multiple of that every year for the streaming service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerva Posted January 16, 2019 Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 Really enjoyed the Mean Gene documentary Monday. It was mostly a light hearted version but that was Gene basically. A good deal of revisionist history on his WCW run as except for his first 2 or 3 years, working with Heenan, and Flair stuff he has mentioned how miserable he was there. Especially at the end. But a lot of funny stuff. Gene telling Todd Grisham at the Hall of Fame that the mic was really just a prop and you could throw it in the toilet if he wanted to. I was curious I figure @khawk20 could answer easily but when was that AWA Ric Flair promo from? It would guess around 80-83 it seems and I would think it wasn't when Flair wasn't the NWA champion. I guess they did do joint NWA/AWA shows before the Supercard days when Gene would have been in the WWF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted January 16, 2019 Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 55 minutes ago, hammerva said: Really enjoyed the Mean Gene documentary Monday. It was mostly a light hearted version but that was Gene basically. A good deal of revisionist history on his WCW run as except for his first 2 or 3 years, working with Heenan, and Flair stuff he has mentioned how miserable he was there. Especially at the end. But a lot of funny stuff. Gene telling Todd Grisham at the Hall of Fame that the mic was really just a prop and you could throw it in the toilet if he wanted to. I was curious I figure @khawk20 could answer easily but when was that AWA Ric Flair promo from? It would guess around 80-83 it seems and I would think it wasn't when Flair wasn't the NWA champion. I guess they did do joint NWA/AWA shows before the Supercard days when Gene would have been in the WWF I have not seen the promo yet and I can't guess. Flair in the 80-83 time frame Seems oddly out of place. Flair defended in Chicago but not until 1985 and he did Winnipeg vs Bock in 86. Pro wrestling USA didn't start until Gene was gone from the AWA. EDIT: perhaps something that never aired that gene was doing for St. Louis. Or perhaps Houston...one of those two markets where AWA and NWA coexisted and they could have crossed paths. Might have been something just for fun committed to tape that got saved. Really looking forward to seeing that promo now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted January 16, 2019 Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 2 hours ago, Robert S said: My problem with the Network is that the app (at least on PS3 and PS4) from a quality and usability point-of-view basically feels like a Beta or even pre-Beta version that no one ever has bothered to bring to a proper release state. You would think with the number of subscribers they have that at one point they would bother to invest those 500 k - 1 M (or maybe it would be 2 - 3 M, but it would be in that prize-range) that it would cost to develop proper apps. I assume they spend a multiple of that every year for the streaming service. I've been saying the exact same thing for years. If there's a way to search for my posts within this thread + the word "beta," you'll see me mention that several times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 On 1/15/2019 at 12:55 AM, sek69 said: The content dump for January is going to be WWF Superstars, about 30 or so episodes starting from April 1992. That time frame is being chosen because it's when the show name was shortened from "Superstars of Wrestling" since there's still (!) legal wrangling about that name. I don't doubt this at all. But I was told about the Superstars drop before Christmas and the person who told me that Jesse Ventura's racial/racist commentary was a really big issue with an 80s Superstars drop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRH Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 On 1/17/2019 at 3:36 PM, rovert said: I don't doubt this at all. But I was told about the Superstars drop before Christmas and the person who told me that Jesse Ventura's racial/racist commentary was a really big issue with an 80s Superstars drop. Considering they kept in his "Roots 2!" line from the Orton/Mr. T incident (as well as other questionable lines at other moments). I doubt that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 I asked a friend if WWE Network still offered free months for new or lapsed subscribers. Sure enough... https://www.wwe.com/3-months-free This gets you a free membership through Mania. I can confirm it does work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thread Killer Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 If they think some of Ventura's commentary is racist they should go back and listen to Cornette on the Clash of Champions X. Some of the comments he makes about Mexicans are...well, let's just say in today's climate? Twitter would have the hammer and nails out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
returner82 Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 17 hours ago, The Thread Killer said: If they think some of Ventura's commentary is racist they should go back and listen to Cornette on the Clash of Champions X. Some of the comments he makes about Mexicans are...well, let's just say in today's climate? Twitter would have the hammer and nails out. Haven't they edited some of that out on the Network? Seem to recall him and Brian talking about it on the Drive-Thru a while back. Wasn't he cracking jokes about someone making a fortune off selling towels to them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 18 hours ago, C.S. said: I asked a friend if WWE Network still offered free months for new or lapsed subscribers. Sure enough... https://www.wwe.com/3-months-free This gets you a free membership through Mania. I can confirm it does work. Do they even make (or need to) any money from the Network at this point ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 20 hours ago, C.S. said: I asked a friend if WWE Network still offered free months for new or lapsed subscribers. Sure enough... https://www.wwe.com/3-months-free This gets you a free membership through Mania. I can confirm it does work. For what it's worth, this didn't work for me as a lapsed subscriber so it may be a US only deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thread Killer Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 2 hours ago, returner82 said: Haven't they edited some of that out on the Network? Seem to recall him and Brian talking about it on the Drive-Thru a while back. Wasn't he cracking jokes about someone making a fortune off selling towels to them? Good question. I'm not sure if they have edited it out, I'd have to go back and check. Problem is, I have no burning desire to watch that show again, as much as I love the idea of seeing The Dragonmaster in a Main Event. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 4 hours ago, El-P said: Do they even make (or need to) any money from the Network at this point ? They have over a million subs, so it's at least at the point where they are making money off of it. Not as much as they would be if they kept at least the Big Four on PPV, but it's making money. Does it need to? Not once the Fox money rolls in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 I just looked up the latest earning report and this stated that they had on average 1.66 Mio. paid subscribers and a total revenue (for this quarter) of 49.5 Mio. $ (though this still includes classic PPV). Content right fees revenue was at 65.9 Mio. $. Obviously these are just revenue, i.e. no costs for the streaming service itself is included (which, I assume, should be in the low 8 figures). The last annual report before the Network (2013) listed the yearly PPV revenue at 82.5 Mio. $. Sure those numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt, as I am sure there was some number-cooking done, but in general this seems to indicate that they make more with the Network than they would do without it. WWE Classics on Demand was at 3.8 Mio. $ and television right fees at 160.9 Mio. $ that year, by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Redneck Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 On 1/20/2019 at 5:38 PM, C.S. said: I asked a friend if WWE Network still offered free months for new or lapsed subscribers. Sure enough... https://www.wwe.com/3-months-free This gets you a free membership through Mania. I can confirm it does work. Got it to work, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted January 25, 2019 Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 I watched that Let Me Tell You Something Mean Gene special, and it was pretty good. Wouldn't load at first when I tried to access it from the Recommendations section. I tried something else and that worked. Tried Gene again and nothing. Ended up loading it from a different part of the service. Good to see that WWE Network still runs on scotch tape and tin foil. I was hoping dumping BAMtech would improve things. Guess not... Anyway, the Gene special was nice. How is the Nigel doc? Is it the same one he released years ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted January 25, 2019 Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 Nah. The original was Nigel's own project. This is very much a WWE production. Very good though, man. Highly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted January 25, 2019 Report Share Posted January 25, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRH Posted February 14, 2019 Report Share Posted February 14, 2019 So the next thing coming to the Network is WWE Confidential: https://www.wwenetworknews.com/2019/02/14/exclusive-update-on-february-classic-content-documentary-series-to-make-official-wwe-network-debut/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyonthewall2983 Posted February 14, 2019 Report Share Posted February 14, 2019 I wonder if any segments will be edited out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
...TG Posted February 18, 2019 Report Share Posted February 18, 2019 They dropped a bunch of WWE Confidential today. This came out during my dark period ('02-'09 or so) - is it worth checking out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted February 18, 2019 Report Share Posted February 18, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarpetCrawler Posted February 18, 2019 Report Share Posted February 18, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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