WWE Network... It's Here

[SteveJRogers]

21 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

I saw it live.  There really wasn't any such thing as "Pay Per View" at the time, and if there was very few people had it.  You have to remember, a lot of people didn't even have cable at that time. The majority of people saw the show on "Closed Circuit Television" where you bought tickets to go to a local arena, and they broadcast the show on huge screens with crappy audio. At the time, I didn't mind Wrestlemania 2 all that much.  I got kind of caught up in the spectacle and the experience.  You have to consider that WWF shows really weren't all that great at that time when it came to the quality of the matches, either.  At the time, I remember enjoying the Battle Royal and the Bulldogs match, and not minding the Hogan/Bundy match.

But you're not wrong, it does not hold up well at all.

Watching Vince with Susan St. James do segments, including a post match promo from Piper, from a Nassau Coliseum suite, with the arena darkened behind them was strange.  

I know people were still in the stands watching the Jumbotron, but the segments gave off the impression that they let the arena out.  Yeah I know the lights would have all been on and you’d see workers taking the ring and everything WWF owned apart, etc, but it felt like a dark and empty arena.

Wonder if there was a thought given to do it the way the two arena Starrcades were done.  Alternating from each venue all day?

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Are there any promo codes going on now?  Kind of want to watch this Mania debacle.

[gordi]

Reportedly, WWE have made every WrestleMania ever, every Rumble, and a bunch of other stuff, available for free on the network. As much as I love to hate on that company, it sure seems like a very classy move to make that available at this time. Hats off to them for doing this.

[flyonthewall2983]

It would be a great time to lean into the older stuff now. 

[WingedEagle]

10 hours ago, flyonthewall2983 said:

It would be a great time to lean into the older stuff now. 

I just started at Mania 1 and am working the old PPVs, SNMEs and any key angles/matches I can ID from Prime Time or other content I can quickly ID.  Its been very fun and a nice escape, which current TV doesn't provide since the fact its even occurring is disgustingly offensive.

[flyonthewall2983]

There's an Undertaker documentary coming out?

[BBscout]

I've been out of the loop for a while. Checking my list of matches I had saved from the decade, I left off at Lesnar-Joe from mid-2017. 

Can anyone throw out there some of the top matches since then? I caught all the Brock stuff, Styles-Orton, Styles-Balor, Bryan-Kofi, but that's probably all I can remember. 

[FMKK]

Main roster wise, there really isn't a whole lot of good stuff. Bryan vs Gualk from last month's PPV and the big time Rousey matches are worth seeking out. 

[Stiva]

The New Day/Usos Hell in a Cell match is fantastic.

[Log]

Why the fuck am I seeing Hyundai and Modelo commercials and shit on the network?  When did that start?  I haven’t had the network for a few months. 

[C.S.]

Is it just me or was the Ric Flair episode of Broken Skull Sessions the weakest yet? Flair seemed to mumble throughout it (but he was still sharp as a tack, if that makes any sense), and nothing really new was revealed. Too much time was spent on his self-confidence issues, which was a drag, to say the least. 

[Loss]

I think it's hard for most wrestlers who are not just on top but carrying companies for years at a time to accept that it's over when it ends. I understand it. In Flair's case, his removal didn't happen because they had someone younger who was just as good and ready to carry the torch forward, but because there were people trying to sabotage him for their own reasons. And that has stuck with him for the last 30 years, to the point that I think he still gets his dander up thinking about ways that people like Herd and Bischoff sabotaged his career, particularly when he sees that plenty of people have been kept strong and used in a productive way in their 40s and beyond since then, proving that it can be done. At the same time, there comes a point when you'd like to just see him accept it and be grateful that he spent so much time as the top guy, and that he's still viewed by just about everyone as a legend that is almost in a class by himself. He has some legitimate grievances, but his legacy was secure long before anyone started fucking around with it.

There is a passive aggressive fury to almost everything that Flair says, but he also strikes me as kind of a small man underneath the Nature Boy persona, and one who is not very self aware or secure in who he is at all. That comes out sometimes in some very telling ways.

[MoS]

It was interesting to see Flair say that he thought he was a terrible babyface and had very limited offence. I thought his offence, while not elite, was great, and I thought he was an all-time great face, in the Carolinas, in 1989, and in WCW in the late 90s. 

It's funny, because as good as he was, I think he would have been even better had he thought more highly of himself. 

[Alucard]

I enjoyed it and liked that it was actually the longest one yet. While the Bret one was by far the shortest one which was kinda disappointing as I felt they could've gone on a bit more. 

[The Thread Killer]

23 hours ago, Loss said:

There is a passive aggressive fury to almost everything that Flair says, but he also strikes me as kind of a small man underneath the Nature Boy persona, and one who is not very self aware or secure in who he is at all. That comes out sometimes in some very telling ways.

That's a good point.  It reminds me of that ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on Ric Flair, and the comments Shawn Michaels made about Flair, that upset Flair so much afterwards.  Michaels talked about how Flair is so wrapped up in the Ric Flair lifestyle and gimmick so much, that he doesn't even know who Richard Fliehr is anymore.  That really stuck with me, and I think in interviews like this one you really see how wrapped up in his gimmick Flair is.  I wonder if there even is a Richard Fliehr anymore, and if there is one...he isn't a very confident person.

By the way Charles, it is great to see you back here regularly at PWO and posting more regularly.  Always great to see your contributions. :)

[Robert S]

Regarding Flair vs. Fliehr in the 30 for 30 documentary: his first wife (Leslie) more or less states that she married Richard Fliehr and over time he became more and more Ric Flair. There was no accusations from her or anything (anymore), just plain acceptance on her side that the man she first fell in love with and married does not exist anymore.

[Dav'oh]

13 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

By the way Charles, it is great to see you back here regularly at PWO and posting more regularly.  Always great to see your contributions.

Hear hear! I've been burying myself in the archives lately, and Loss is one of my favourite posters. Always has well-thought and well-written arguments and seems exceedingly calm (at least, in comparison to some of the other old regulars, god bless 'em all).

[JRH]

More 1992-93 Superstars episodes are coming:

https://www.wwenetworknews.com/2020/04/17/exclusive-april-2020s-wwe-network-classic-content-revealed-classic-episodes-of-superstars-set-to-arrive/

[flyonthewall2983]

On 4/13/2020 at 3:27 PM, MoS said:

It was interesting to see Flair say that he thought he was a terrible babyface and had very limited offence. I thought his offence, while not elite, was great, and I thought he was an all-time great face, in the Carolinas, in 1989, and in WCW in the late 90s. 

It's funny, because as good as he was, I think he would have been even better had he thought more highly of himself. 

It's been my impression that most guys of his caliber prefer working heel to babyface. Piper said as much himself too. I don't think the "Nature Boy" gimmick and character is a natural fit as a babyface so I can understand his point, but for me it still worked. I thought he was a really good face in 1993-4, when his return to WCW was so welcome it would have been pointless to try and make him a heel again. It's one element that really worked against Hogan coming into the company, because they turned him heel perhaps not as gradually as they could have. 

I liked this interview a lot. He seems at more peace with himself, which could be wishful thinking on my part. I think having a wife who is watching out for him, and being part of his daughter's career has given him the motivation to age a little more gracefully. It doesn't hurt that he's got all this pop culture cred now, but it's obviously not what helps a man sleep at night either. 

[flyonthewall2983]

The WWE Untold episode about Dennis Rodman and Karl Malone in WCW was quite good. I'm surprised WWE would even do something about it but it was cool to see Rodman talk about wrestling, and seeing how him and Malone adapted to the physicality of wrestling in such a short time. 

[Coffey]

On 4/16/2020 at 10:47 PM, JRH said:

More 1992-93 Superstars episodes are coming:

https://www.wwenetworknews.com/2020/04/17/exclusive-april-2020s-wwe-network-classic-content-revealed-classic-episodes-of-superstars-set-to-arrive/

I don't understand why this shit takes so long in the first place. Is it because they have go back & rewatch everything so they can dub over old theme songs & logos and shit?

It can't be because they're worried about putting up too much content at once that people will burn through. If they were worried about that, they would stop giving away free memberships.

I'm tired of waiting for all of the episodes of WCW Saturday Night. I've never seen the majority of the Nitro-era Saturday Night shows, which is what I'm interested in, because back then I was never home on the weekend to see the shows. And I know I missed a lot of good stuff because of it. "Here's six months of one year" is frustrating. 

[Blehschmidt]

12 hours ago, Coffey said:

I don't understand why this shit takes so long in the first place. Is it because they have go back & rewatch everything so they can dub over old theme songs & logos and shit?

It can't be because they're worried about putting up too much content at once that people will burn through. If they were worried about that, they would stop giving away free memberships.

I'm tired of waiting for all of the episodes of WCW Saturday Night. I've never seen the majority of the Nitro-era Saturday Night shows, which is what I'm interested in, because back then I was never home on the weekend to see the shows. And I know I missed a lot of good stuff because of it. "Here's six months of one year" is frustrating. 

 

I just don't think we are the fans they give a damn about. I'm with you, I want more Saturday Night and Superstars and stuff like that, but I firmly believe in their minds the modern fanbase wants shit like Ride Along and The Miz Show or whatever the fuck it's called. So they pump out a ton of that crap, and then every few months we get 12 episodes of some old show to shut us up.

[FMKK]

In spite of all the evil shit he's pull recently, I'll give Vince my £9.99 for some WCW Pro. That doesn't seem like too much to ask for.

[TheDuke]

My guess is there is like one person going through classic content to put up, and he only does it part time because it maybe is secondary work added to his existing job at WWE so he isnt given a lot of time for it.

[Cornette's racket]

The last ride documentary of the undertaker first episode will premier after money in the bank and it's clear that the wrestlemania 33 match with Roman reigns was meant to be his last match but because it wasn't that good he kept going.