The WWE Network

I remember back in 1996 when at that time WWF had debuted a new television show on the USA network. LiveWire was a new concept on the WWE at the time in the fact that fans could call in and ask questions and voice their opinions on the WWF product at the time. The program was hosted by Todd Pettengill and Doc Hendrix as well as Hall of Famer Sunny and featured many guest to discuss their current storylines all while maintaining the illusion of Kayfabe. Eventually The WWF would become the WWE and LiveWire would be canceled but a newer version would appear on WWE.com under the title Byte This.

On one particular Saturday morning Vince McMahon himself was on the program to address some of the events that were happening in the federation at the time.

The relevance of this is that on that episode a caller asked a question that was relevant to the current storylines and then he out of the blue asked McMahon when will someone create a 24/7 wrestling network? When that question was asked McMahon’s scalp shifted and his eyebrows raised and he remarked “That’s an interesting Idea and we have a lot of Archives”

18 Years later that question was answered with the debut of the WWE Network that launched of Febuary 24^th 2014.

The Network shares more traits with sites like Netflix and Hulu Plus rather than USA or TNT but what becomes more interesting is that the content is uploaded to the site weekly instead of a whole season being introduced so Binge Watching is more difficult.

One of the advantages that the WWE has in this area is that in the past decade and a half WWE has acquired many wrestling archives with the well documented purchase of WCW in 2001 and the purchase of the ECW archives. WWE also has access to the World Class Championship Wrestling Archives and being that I grew up in the Dallas area that is a definite bonus for me.

New original programing on the network includes Countdown which is an hour long countdown of some of the various types of events in the history of the WWE including Backstabs and Blunders.

One of my favorite programs on the network is the Legends of Wrestling Specials that were filmed for the WWE On-Demand until 2012 and I hope that they continue the programs in the near future.

Legends of Wrestling features panels of Hall of Famers as well as current WWE Legends that Discussing a assortment of topics in the world and history of not just the WWE but the entire world of Professional Wrestling all while enjoying Cigars and their own brand of humor.

WWE Legends House was produced in 2012 to be played on the network and features just what the title states in a style similar to The Surreal Life many past WWE Legends all living together in a house in Palm Springs struggling to get along and bonding together. 

At first I thought that this show was making fun of the age of the LEgends in the House with their ages but at many points in the show The real world of wrestling does appear and we see the human side of these "SuperStars" which is the real treat of the show. 

The Legends are aided by the Beautiful Ashley Roberts. 

The program also features cameos from celebrities like Gary Busy and WWE Hall of Famers Shawn Michaels and the Iron Sheik.

I hope to see more seasons of this series featuring different characters. It would be nice to see WWE Legends House Attitude Era. 

On a sadder note the Network has a documentary that was in production detailing the career of the Ultimate Warrior before his tragic passing this past spring. The emotional Documentary Warrior: The Ultimate Legend is a must see for all fans and features Sting in his first appearence on an original WWE Production. 

The programing is nice but there are few drawbacks to the network.

There is a section of the network named WWE Beyond the Ring that features the documentaries on the Current Superstars and the new Hall of Famers. These are nice but you can get them on NetFlix and I was hoping that the site would feature some of the older Documentaries that were released in the past and not the current ones. The Rise and Fall of WCW and ECW and the tragedy and Triumph of WCCW would be nice additions to the site.

There are also some good specials on the Hall of Fame but I would like to see the previous years specials in their entirety.

I also wish that there would be less emphasis on the PG rating on these projects and more from the Attitude Era featured on the Network.

Now there are some TV 14 shows on the network and they do disclaimers before these videos.

That is my issue with the PG era of WWE, Now I do understand that they are able to reach a larger market but there are ways to separate this content from the rest of the network. Now I admit that I have not checked out the Capital Carnage PPV on the network which there is much more content in that site.

Now I did check out some of the recent Pay Per Views on the network and that is a nice touch and far more convenient to have the shows rather than the other ways to order the events.  

All in All the WWE Network is a great monthly purchase for WWE fans and $9.99 a month with a 6 month commitment seems intimidating at first but was not what I thought it would be with the commitment part.

Wrestling fans should Check it out