WWE Network... It's Here

[BillThompson]

I think some people, not here necessarily, are undervaluing the draw of old footage. Now, I'm not saying that old footage is what will brings gobs of people to the Network. What I am saying is that the more old footage that is on the Network the more variety the Network has in it's stream and vault, and thus the happier any consumer of the product will be. The ability to choose from a large selection of viewing options is an important element for any consumer of a streaming service, and at this point the Network is too heavy on PPV and WWE footage.

[shoe]

Their had been like a freeze on the houseshows, WCCW, and ECW. I'd be happy getting one of each of these a week. Of course I want more of the territory stuff like Mid-south and AWA. If they want new subscribers they should have more territory stuff, Monday Night War stuff. Etc.

[goc]

They have access to what gets the most views and what people aren't watching. The fact that they haven't been uploading more house shows doesn't seem to indicate that was something they felt was going to interest viewers. Unfortunately I suspect that the WCCW numbers aren't inspiring them to really open up the territory library either.

[shoe]

I feel the people watching are the current fan. I feel to capture the audience they lost or are non subscribers the older stuff, and Monday night war era stuff my get more subscriptions. Of course I don't have data for this. It's just an opinion.

[C.S.]

Wow at last night's Legends House...

 

After so much stupid, silly shit, they finally "got real" with a very emotional and powerful episode.

 

They never made it clear what Pat Patterson was getting so choked up about. Was he coming out of the closet to everyone? That's the only thing I can think of. But I'd hate to read into something that wasn't there.

 

That moment with Jimmy Hart and Tony Atlas was also touching and beautiful.

 

This episode was compelling, impactful television the likes of which is rarely (never?) seen on a WWE show of any kind.

[yunro]

I can understand not putting everything up at once, but I don't understand the slow dribble of content. Why can't they just put up a whole year of RAW's, say 1994, much like Netflix releases a whole season of their shows at once.

 

Also the more variety of content the better, there might not be a lot of people who signed up to watch the MSG shows, but even a couple is better then zero.

 

And it doesn't give a good impression to the fans who signed up for the classic stuff, when it seems they half ass putting up a lot of it, they may not stick around if they feel they aren't getting anything new. And skipping random episodes of what they already have up doesn't help either.

[flyonthewall2983]

They never made it clear what Pat Patterson was getting so choked up about. Was he coming out of the closet to everyone? That's the only thing I can think of. But I'd hate to read into something that wasn't there.

 

I'd imagine that Patterson scene was chopped up to exclude any gay references. I think that's what that was all about, but I can only imagine how over that part went over the fans who necessarily don't know.

[Bix]

 

They never made it clear what Pat Patterson was getting so choked up about. Was he coming out of the closet to everyone? That's the only thing I can think of. But I'd hate to read into something that wasn't there.

 

I'd imagine that Patterson scene was chopped up to exclude any gay references. I think that's what that was all about, but I can only imagine how over that part went over the fans who necessarily don't know.

 

They've had some fairly obvious references to him being gay so it was kind of weird. Plus, my impression is that he was never really closeted within wrestling, so was it about him being open with the rest of the cast or saying it on TV?

[C.S.]

The Legends of Wrestling issue is FINALLY fixed on Roku.

 

I caught the Heatseekers episode last night. Really fun show. Wish they had another hour to go into more detail and talk about more people. By the end, it was obvious they were running out of time and couldn't really get into Buff Bagwell, Missy Hyatt, etc. the way they wanted to. Eric Bischoff was surprisingly entertaining and candid about Lex Luger and Scott Hall - and when Foley mentioned the "Uncle Eric" angle in ECW with Tommy Dreamer, Bischoff called him out on it: "You got over at my expense" or words to that effect.

 

There's a two-parter on Rivalries that should be interesting (not to be confused with the later show they also did on the same subject). I'm looking forward to watching that as well.

[Coffey]

So it seems that WWE has been holding back on a lot of stuff that we know was ready since it was previously up on 24/7 like Raw/Nitros all through the Monday Night Wars and episodes of territory TV like WCW Saturday Night. The reason that I keep hearing is they want to save something for the first round of renewals and don't want to shoot their wad all at once. OK, I can accept that. However now Network subs are not where they want them to be and they are pinning a large part of the future of the company on this taking off. At what point to they start opening the vaults a little wider and releasing more content before a large chunk of their current subs gets bored by Legends House repeats and Raws from 1994.

 

Now I'm not saying they'll get 2 million people to sign up if only they'd show AWA TV, but it seems they are missing out on the exact kind of fan the Network seems geared toward.

 

I know that the episodes of WCW Nitro can not get here soon enough. More than anything, including old Pay-Per-Views, I want to watch old episodes of Nitro in order. For the most part, Nitro was better than WCW PPVs anyway. I want to see all of the Sting Vs. nWo storyline again. That was a great time to be a wrestling fan, even if every episode ending right as it seemed things were about to get good. I miss those cliffhangers!

[goc]

I miss those cliffhangers!

I think WWE should rip that off now that they are trying to push Network subs. "We're out of time but you can see all the action on the WWE Network's Raw Backstage Pass!"

[SteveJRogers]

 

 

I miss those cliffhangers!

I think WWE should rip that off now that they are trying to push Network subs. "We're out of time but you can see all the action on the WWE Network's Raw Backstage Pass!"

If funny watching the show when they drop a curtain behind the set, but you hear a post Raw dark match or promo going on.

[thebrainfollower]

Yeah the lack of updates are starting to get frustrating. What's the point of putting up about half of the first six months of the Freebirds WCCW run for WCCW and nothing else? Only thing updated is the 94 Raw's and that's usually only 2 a week.

[Petey]

They upload more around 5 episodes of Raw per week, which I think is more than fair. That said, I am a little disappointed that Raw is the only thing that's getting constantly uploaded. There's still gaps with ECW's Hardcore TV and as you mentioned, aside from an early batch of WCCW, nothing else has been added.

 

Granted, it's not to the point where I'd ever consider not resubscribing so I guess it really doesn't matter all that much, but it would be nice to see them upload more of the stuff they already have or start adding stuff that at least was on Classics on Demand (WCW/Saturday Night, Prime Time Wrestling, etc...)

 

However, I will say that I'm happy that at this point, they haven't taken anything down (to my knowledge at least).

[BillThompson]

However, I will say that I'm happy that at this point, they haven't taken anything down (to my knowledge at least).

 

I would hope they never take anything down. I mean this isn't a Netflix deal with rights issues to deal with. Once it's up on the Network, it should stay on the Network.

[JNLister]

The fact that they leave the Raw and Smackdown pre- and post-game shows up suggests there's no reason to think they'll ever take anything down. If server space, database size or menu overload was going to be an issue, there'd be no point having a Raw pre-show from February still up.

[Petey]

That's a good point. I always thought that they'd start cutting back due to a finite amount of storage/server space but if they can afford to keep all the preshows up, I guess we're in the clear.

[flyonthewall2983]

 

However, I will say that I'm happy that at this point, they haven't taken anything down (to my knowledge at least).

 

I would hope they never take anything down. I mean this isn't a Netflix deal with rights issues to deal with. Once it's up on the Network, it should stay on the Network.

 

 

I said this before, but the one exception to this that I would accept is if they put documentaries from forthcoming Home Video releases on for one night only, for the purpose of garnering interest in the release and maybe resulting in higher sales since that department is in something of a slump now.

[Matt D]

In that case shouldn't they put a 20 minute preview or what not?

[flyonthewall2983]

That's probably a better idea (though maybe closer to 30 minutes since no commercials).

[pantherwagner]

Granted, it's not to the point where I'd ever consider not resubscribing so I guess it really doesn't matter all that much, but it would be nice to see them upload more of the stuff they already have or start adding stuff that at least was on Classics on Demand (WCW/Saturday Night, Prime Time Wrestling, etc...)

I think the problem with their strategy is that we aren't the people they should worry about. We'll keep the network pretty much no matter what.

Dave Meltzer mentioned recently how he had heard several people mentioning that they haven't subscribed after their trial period because they expected the entire Monday Night Wars era weekly TV to be there. At least I can't see why they haven't uploaded every Raw in a single batch until November 1995 already. If the MNW show and something like the entire SNME run is what they are planning to upload in August to keep people interested then it's kind of silly. Looks to me like the people who got the network early on are the ones that will keep it no matter what.

I think another underrated thing is the search and indexing tools are terrible. Try searching for "The Rock". I'd expect to see an ordered list of all of his PPV matches that you can filter by year, perhaps a different section with his TV appearances, maybe a "must see" list of classic segments or important matches from those TV shows. Instead if you do the search from the website you get about 30 pages of results and in the first three pages about 75% of them are irrelevant.

And, variety! Imagine all the goodwill they'd gain (as well as the attention of older/lapsed fans) if they released a new weekly schedule with a regular time slot for a MACW episode, some Florida TV, Stampede (though I'd save that for the launch in Canada), perhaps SMW, a weekly MSG show starting in the 70s and a Saturday "supercard" which could feature anything from a Superdome show to a Superclash or a Star Wars/Parade of Champions. I'm sure that this is what we'll eventually have in a year but right now it's clear that there's some urgency in getting their network numbers up and other than some more references during their weekly shows they aren't doing all that much.

 

[shoe]

 

Granted, it's not to the point where I'd ever consider not resubscribing so I guess it really doesn't matter all that much, but it would be nice to see them upload more of the stuff they already have or start adding stuff that at least was on Classics on Demand (WCW/Saturday Night, Prime Time Wrestling, etc...)

I think the problem with their strategy is that we aren't the people they should worry about. We'll keep the network pretty much no matter what.

 

Dave Meltzer mentioned recently how he had heard several people mentioning that they haven't subscribed after their trial period because they expected the entire Monday Night Wars era weekly TV to be there. At least I can't see why they haven't uploaded every Raw in a single batch until November 1995 already. If the MNW show and something like the entire SNME run is what they are planning to upload in August to keep people interested then it's kind of silly. Looks to me like the people who got the network early on are the ones that will keep it no matter what.

 

I think another underrated thing is the search and indexing tools are terrible. Try searching for "The Rock". I'd expect to see an ordered list of all of his PPV matches that you can filter by year, perhaps a different section with his TV appearances, maybe a "must see" list of classic segments or important matches from those TV shows. Instead if you do the search from the website you get about 30 pages of results and in the first three pages about 75% of them are irrelevant.

 

And, variety! Imagine all the goodwill they'd gain (as well as the attention of older/lapsed fans) if they released a new weekly schedule with a regular time slot for a MACW episode, some Florida TV, Stampede (though I'd save that for the launch in Canada), perhaps SMW, a weekly MSG show starting in the 70s and a Saturday "supercard" which could feature anything from a Superdome show to a Superclash or a Star Wars/Parade of Champions. I'm sure that this is what we'll eventually have in a year but right now it's clear that there's some urgency in getting their network numbers up and other than some more references during their weekly shows they aren't doing all that much.

Lance Storm in his recent article had some good ideas. Like he didn't see any rhyme or reason to the live feed. He suggested maybe when they uploadthe Saturday Night shows maybe they should air them on the live feed at 6:05 PM on Saturdays. Seemed like a pretty cool and nostalgic idea

[Petey]

I was hoping they would do stuff like that. I don't know what day/time the WCCW shows that they have up aired but it'd be neat to try to air those, Prime Time Wrestling, other stuff in their original time slots. Hell, have ECW on at 2AM on Saturday nights or whatever time it aired on MSG back in the day.

 

While I think it'd be awesome, I don't know if it'd lead to a serious increase in subscribers. I feel like most of the people who were going to get it, got it at launch. Maybe there's a few people that are holding out for more stuff to be added to the library like Attitude Era Raws, Nitros and the like, but I just don't see that being many folks. I don't know how many people who watched during the Monday Night Wars and haven't consistently watched in 10 years are gonna be all that jazzed about being able to go back and watch stuff from when they were fans.

 

As for the current fans who haven't subscribed, I'm not sure what else the Network could offer. Their biggest weapon was WrestleMania and they already fired that one. Unless they're able to figure out a way to make the PPV's more of a must see/subscribe again, I don't think they're going to see a big increase in subscribers.

[KrisZ]

Did they ever replace the guy that was in charge of programming because since then the movement of new content has stalled

[goodhelmet]

Those aren't new ideas. When we did the network podcast at P2B, we just assumed their would be a rhyme & reason to the TV schedule. We even carted out the idea of having set times and days for different territories/promotions. I haven't watched the live feed of the network since the last PPV (although I did want to watch the NXT special). There is absolutely no reason for me to tune in on any specific time.