The Flair/Rhodes Rivalry episode is amusing enough. Nothing revelatory, but at least it seems fairly free of "oh come on!"-level revisionism, assuming you have a strong definition for that. Obviously there is the usual flattery of Dusty. Good talking head lineup.

 

Favorite moment: Discussing Flair having to go 100% around the country, they show a quick clip of him cutting a local promo for Watts. "Oklahoma, you're a nothin' happenin' state! But I'm fixin' to put you on the map!"

 

In what's likely not a coincidence, none of the new ECW uploads (other than the Heyman interview) are scheduled for the live stream.

 

Explains why Styles kept repeating "video on demand" like a mantra during the ECW Exposed special. In those bits, he appeared to be a huge Network shill - or at least a parody of one (which may have been the point).

 

Speaking of which, was anyone else disappointed by Exposed? It had some fun banter between Heyman and Styles, but most of it seemed forced. It was also too much of a clip show for people who knew nothing about ECW. I'm not sure longtime fans would've learned anything new.

 

I thought Heyman was far too obnoxious, like he was playing his advocate TV character... and then it quickly became apparent they were doing less of an "ECW Exposed" show and more of an "Introducing ECW" show for new fans. I guess that makes sense for new subscribers, but I figure 1995 ECW is of much more interest to the hardcore fan than the 12-year old WWE fan who's parents signed him up, and they basically kept saying it wasn't suitable for kids anyway which I why I found it all so contradictory and pointless.

 

Joey being a Network shill is fine, but doing it on an ECW show felt yacky. I mean, they couldn't have dug up Lance Wright?!

Yeah, that upload wasn't what I thought it would be at all. I was led to believe it would be a low key discussion between two friends. Instead it was an over produced introduction piece to a new audience.

The Flair/Rhodes Rivalry episode is amusing enough. Nothing revelatory, but at least it seems fairly free of "oh come on!"-level revisionism, assuming you have a strong definition for that. Obviously there is the usual flattery of Dusty. Good talking head lineup.

 

Favorite moment: Discussing Flair having to go 100% around the country, they show a quick clip of him cutting a local promo for Watts. "Oklahoma, you're a nothin' happenin' state! But I'm fixin' to put you on the map!"

Yeah, really enjoyed this. Nice use of 70s clips too - Andre standing in the corner, about to referee a Steamboat-Flair match was cool. Also, I'm getting used to black and white when blood appears on screen - adds a little old school charm, even if it's by necessity.

 

One thing that annoyed me was the implication that it was all downhill for the Crocketts after Bash '86. I feel that's cutting their glory days short by at least a year....

 

Does anyone have a schedule for upcoming episodes? From the intro, I'm assuming HBK-Taker, HHH-Rock, Piper-Hogan are all in the pipeline

Next one is supposed to be HBK-HHH. If they do things right, I'm certain stuff from '96-'01 will be far more interesting (even with DVD releases, they only glossed over that) than the '02-'04 feud recap.

So it looks like the network has been down for the last hour or two. Web site is gone and Roku channel isn't work. And judging from the twitter page and main WWE web site nobody knows. Oh well it had a good run. I guess the theory is if you Brits can't have the Network then none of you can have it

 

EDIT: and it's back. At least the web version

I noticed that some sort of theme music documentary was added to the Beyond the Ring section (I'm not sure when, but it must have been very recently). I don't recall anything like that ever being released on DVD/Blu-Ray. If so, it would be the first original content added to Beyond the Ring (everything else there is taken from old DVDs/Blus).

I noticed that some sort of theme music documentary was added to the Beyond the Ring section (I'm not sure when, but it must have been very recently). I don't recall anything like that ever being released on DVD/Blu-Ray. If so, it would be the first original content added to Beyond the Ring (everything else there is taken from old DVDs/Blus).

No, it's from a DVD.

I moved all the talk about the WWE 100 out of this thread. It deserves its own.

Watching random Youtube music videos tonight and one of the pre-loaded ads was for WWE Network. It was 15 seconds, one of the divas (maybe a Bella? I don't watch the divas) saying "all November, WWE Network is free including the Survivor Series PPV, that's right FREE" and that was it. They have no idea how to promote this in my mind, they focus so hard on the price and never explain the value. It's like the opposite of what every good salesperson or commercial will do. Still that's the first advertising I've ever seen for it.

Yes, WWE harping on at the price of the network rather than what you get for your money is a real head scratcher and has been for a while now.

They could have charged $14.99 per month from the start but made the promotional focus the content and while there's no way of knowing, I suspect they would have been more successful. There are a myriad of other problems and that wouldn't be a magic cure-all on its own, but it would be better than what we have.

WWE needs to show video packages on RAW of the new content that gets added to the Network. Not just "hey, Attitude era, guys!" or "Remember how CRAZY ECW was, huh?" Like 3-4 minute catch-up videos showing you what's there & why it's important. Have people on the current roster put the wrestlers over and talk about how enthralling the stories were & what not.

 

I think that could help. If you have people on RAW being excited for something fans might be more excited too & inclined to watch. Even if it's before 1995.

Looks like they are back uploading Raws, they're almost done with 1995 now. It's interesting to watch them evolve from the early 90s cartoony era to a proto-Attitude era. It's amazing how much WCW launching Nitro gave them a kick square in the ass.

 

Goldust's TV debut was one of the shows recently added and it struck me how much better he looks in 2014 than he did in 1995.

I believe this was discussed before here, but to just bring it up again, how good a chance is there of the Network being able to have Raw and Smackdown on-demand much sooner than what it is currently provided they end their deal with Hulu?

I think it's more of a situation that it's part of the NBCU deal than Hulu. NXT was only on Hulu pre-Network and there wasn't any issues putting it up immediately.

 

I believe the Network was part of the renewal talks, so perhaps when the new deal kicks in shows will be up sooner.

WWE Network should also release a time line of the expected dumps for the quarters.

 

Example:

 

Q1 2015:

 

WWF Attitude Raws 1997-2000

WCW Thunders First 2 years

The Bobby Hennan Show

WCW Saturday Night The first 3 years

 

If that was announced, people would have an idea what to expect rather then ordering The Network and cancelling because nothing new is coming down the pipe.

I watched the WWE Countdown episode about best ring attire. It was nothing substantial, of course, but it was good for what it was. Dusty Rhodes being on the list was a real head-scratcher. And while I don't entirely agree, I can understand why Undertaker made it.

 

As a kid, I remember thinking that Razor Ramon's ring gear, while never fancy, always looked sharp and colorful (not to be confused with Scott Hall's nWo gear, which was cheap looking and horrendous). Alas, he didn't make the list.

 

I'm a bit surprised RVD didn't make the list, but after thinking about it, I can't remember one thing he wore. Yeah, he had the cool "airbrushed" look, but he didn't make it memorable the way Rick Rude (who is on the list) did. No Sting either, but like Rude/RVD, that's understandable because Warrior did make the list.

 

I would've put Great Muta in my top ten, but I can understand why that didn't happen on a show like this.

 

On a side note, Adam Rose came across really well here as one of the "talking heads" - at least IMO. It makes me think that the WWE is missing whatever it needs to tap into to make that character work. Wouldn't be the first time!

 

Weird seeing people like Naomi, Cameron, and Rosa Mendes commenting on '80s stars though. Brooklyn Brawler and Terry Taylor being asked to comment on this topic must've been a rib on both of them. Ditto for One Man Gang and Hillbilly Jim. WTF?

 

Funny little segment with Michael Hayes trying to defend the fanny pack look. And to think, he was once the coolest of the cool.

 

The former Shield also had talking head segments, and it made me realize how fucking bland all of their gear is. They don't necessarily need better gear to break out into the next level, but it sure as hell wouldn't hurt.

RVD's singlets are amongst the worst wrestling attire in history. It's like they were designed by Spencer's.

RVD's singlets are amongst the worst wrestling attire in history. It's like they were designed by Spencer's.

Apart from the unfortunate sweat marks, they're actually brilliant. Even if they're not to your taste, ranking them amongst the worst is mental.

RVD has had plenty of cool designs, the artist who airbrushed his stuff also does Rybacks's. I really liked the tiger design from Invasion.

RVD's singlets are amongst the worst wrestling attire in history. It's like they were designed by Spencer's.

 

What always bothered me is that they didn't seem to *fit* him. Always looked to be too short. But yeah, the designs were the best thing about RVD's entire act.

The airbrushed singlets, while mostly unmemorable (IMO), at least worked for RVD's character. They don't work for Ryback at all.

I feel like they worked more for Ryback when he was kind of doing the more Terminator-esque/1-dimensional act. He was decimating jobbers. He was saying all of 5 words. He was a bit of a "throwback" character. He screamed yesteryear and the airbrush design just added to that "It feels like 1991" vibe for me. As he's grown as a character, the airbrush thing seems less fitting to me, but personally, I wouldn't want him to return to that 1-dimensional thing because I actually like his promos for how crazy they are and while I do think he was "exposed" a bit early, you can't put the cat back in the bag so to speak.

ICW Poffo footage on the Network with the Randy Savage documentary.

 

Probably the last time that territory will be shown on the network. Still no Memphis footage though