WWE Money In The Bank 2016 Review

WWE Money In The Bank has come & gone and the event that WWE kept hyping up as the “biggest MITB in history” lived up to expectation & was strong from top to bottom. We are writing about this now because we wanted to see what happened on the Raw afterwards that would explain some of the events that took place at Money In The Bank. Great move.

We are going to review some of the key moments of the event here. Some matches that don’t mean anything in the grand scheme of the storyline will be skipped because – well, we don’t want to bore you & lose viewers.

Dean Ambrose Cashes In Money In The Bank

This was very unexpected, but made the WWE universe completely happy. Ambrose has been one of the most consistent workers since he showed up in 2012 as a member of The Shield with Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns. While all of the guys have become stars in the company in their own ways, Ambrose had the personality & ring style to be a true brawler and could deliver this era of hardcore matches & can also talk people into the building.

The actual Money In The Bank ladder match was a strong one. While it wasn’t one of the greatest of all time, it was a solid match with all of the guys involved having a chance to show off their skills. Ambrose winning immediately made us think that he would be out teasing the contract for about 2-3 weeks & maybe have a cash in either on the night of the upcoming WWE Draft or shortly after that. With the rosters getting ready to be split up, we don’t know if each show is going to have their own world championship as it was back in the day, or if the champions are going to go between shows.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eukIRKaf2Nc%5B/embedyt%5D

Ambrose cashing in on Seth Rollins in the same night that Rollins wins the belt makes so much sense, especially with Roman Reigns having a suspension for 30 days due to a wellness policy violation, more on that later. With Ambrose as champion, he & Rollins can carry the bulk of the promotion for their triple threat match at Battleground in July, which would have been the case anyway due to Reigns being limited on the mic.

Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns Delivers in WWE Championship Match

Not knowing what we knew about Reigns going in, it was a bit of a surprise to see Rollins go over Reigns in this match. Reigns looked as though he was going to have the John Cena complex, in that he wouldn’t lose for a relatively long time, unless it happened at a major event like Summerslam, Survivor Series, Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble. Rollins winning the belt & having that time to enjoy his moment looked like a testament to his career & the hard work he has put in to get back in the ring and reclaim the belt he really never lost.

Obviously, Dean Ambrose beat Rollins to win the championship with the cash-in, but one of the coolest moments of the match was that a member of The Shield all held the WWE Championship at some point in the night, showing the depth of the NXT system & shows that WWE really knows how to cultivate the upcoming talent, all under the watch of Triple H.

The match itself told a great story, with Reigns actually looking as though he was working heel at times & chasing around Rollins. From a physical standpoint, Reigns definitely got in a ton of offense until later in the match when Rollins & Reigns traded excellent near falls that had the Vegas crowd at the new T-Mobile Arena on their feet the whole time.

Another interesting part of the match was that it didn’t begin until around 11:00 p.m. eastern time, after the Cleveland Cavs defeated the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA Championship. The show didn’t end until shortly after 11:30 p.m., showing the power of the WWE Network & why it was put in place anyway – give matches time to really build up, promos to do well, & more talent has the chance to show their skills on a bigger stage.

A.J. Styles & John Cena Had Strong Match

This feud came together pretty fast in the last three weeks, but after MITB, it looks as though Styles & Cena could have a few matches to build up some great chemistry. Both men told a great story, one that saw that Cena was trying to get in some kind of normal power offense on Styles, but the “Phenomenal One” was just too fast for him & was running circles around him in the ring. Once that pace slowed down & more of the actual wrestling came into play, they really tore the house down & had a phenomenal match.

Seeing Styles go over, even with the help of Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, was a great tone setter for this feud. It shows that WWE is showing faith in the new wave of superstars coming in. Cena didn’t need the victory because let’s face it – he is the face of the franchise no matter what happens, but it shows that WWE is going to put some serious money in to Styles & possibly the rest of the Club – formerly the Bullet Club.

It was too early in the feud for Styles to get a pure clean victory over Cena, and if Cena went over, all of the solid momentum that Styles has built up from his great matches with Chris Jericho & the New Day (as part of The Club) would have completely disappeared. Styles and Cena should be on pace to have a rematch at Battleground, most likely with some stipulation that would have Gallows & Anderson barred from ringside yet again. The possibilities for these two in the ring could be really interesting going forward, as long as WWE doesn’t waste a rematch on an episode of Raw or Smackdown.

Natalya Goes Heel on Becky Lynch

According to several websites, it was supposed to be Becky Lynch who was supposed to go heel on Nattie, but right now, it honestly doesn’t matter right now. Natalya could be leaving WWE at some point to take care of her husband, Tyson Kidd, who just can’t get over his injury situations right now to be a regular on the road, particularly after being injured taking a muscle buster finisher from Samoa Joe.

Becky Lynch desperately needs a good feud right now & on Raw, Sasha Banks returned and it looks as though she will be going after Charlotte’s women’s championship now. Lynch has an awesome look with the orange hair & the steam punk style. She has the rocker image, but is crazy hot at the same time. She is incredibly marketable, but right now, she needs more ladies to come up that she can have solid matches with, & Nattie is one of those women.

As for Nattie, with the rumors of her leaving at some point, she could be using this feud to push Becky over the top & give her the rub going forward with some strong matches in the next several weeks before the WWE Draft gets going. We don’t see this having a big match at Battleground, but some great TV matches could be coming up for these two, which just adds depth to the women’s division.

Going Forward

Having the suspension of Roman Reigns is going to be huge for the company for the next 30 days. Many guys mess up sometimes, but WWE went ahead with having Reigns in the main event at WWE Battleground, meaning that they knew about the suspension days ago going into the MITB WWE Championship match. He definitely had to lose the championship, but if he has to be away for 30 days, this was the best scenario for WWE right now to make sure he isn’t missing any big money time that the company has helped to promote, especially having the dynamic of all Shield members facing each other, probably for the last time for a bit.

WWE NXT Takeover: The End Preview

Tonight, WWE will present NXT Takeover: The End, an event that will feature the first ever steel cage match in the history of NXT as the main event when Finn Balor takes on Samoa Joe. The event will be on WWE Network starting with a pre-show at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Many people in the IWC (internet wrestling community) have been wondering what “The End” means. If you read groups on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else online, people think that “The End” meant that the end of NXT Takeover specials. This is far from the truth because during the week, WWE COO & one of the main producers of NXT – Triple H – confirmed that NXT Takeover: Brooklyn will be taking place during Summerslam weekend in August.

We feel as though NXT saying “The End” is meaning two things: the end of the Balor/Joe feud & the end of this crop of NXT talent. While the entire roster won’t be moving up to Raw & Smackdown, with the brand extension coming in July, there will no doubt be some NXT superstars brought up to the main WWE level. Balor is one of those guys who has been rumored to be coming up. Many thought he would be a part of “The Club,” which features former Bullet Club members Karl Anderson, Luke (Doc) Gallows, & AJ Styles. While that would remind many fans of the Bullet Club, knowing WWE as well as we do, they will have Balor doing something completely different for a while, hopefully something that won’t diminish his character & momentum that he has formed in NXT.

All of that said, here is the Detroit Sports Outlet preview for NXT Takeover: The End:

 

Shinsuke Nakamura Is About To Become The New Face of NXT

The match at NXT Takeover: Dallas during Wrestlemania 32 weekend that Nakamura had with Sami Zayn was one of the best matches in the history of the WWE & will surely be a contender for match of the year – no matter what show. Nakamura is hands-down the most charismatic & dynamic superstar in all of NXT & WWE. He commands attention from the minute his music hits, to his knee-bend when he walks through the ropes, all the way to his finishing moves in the ring.

We expect the “King of Strong Style” to have an epic encounter with Austin Aries, who is absolutely one of the best wrestlers in the world, but will be in NXT as a franchise staple of the brand for a bit & frankly because Vince McMahon has shown in the past that he is not a fan of the smaller wrestler, but Triple H is. Aries & Nakamura are going to have a phenomenal match, especially because Aries needs a five-star match at this point in his NXT career. Most hardcore wrestling fans know about his work in ROH & TNA, but he needs to have a technical masterpiece with a guy, such as Nakamura, that he can have a great dance with.

Aries had his brief feud with Baron Corbin, which was the match & mini feud that sent Corbin off to the WWE. We would have liked to see a bit more of what they could do with that feud, but it is what it is. We see Nakamura going over here because WWE is clearly building him up to be the Japanese face of the WWE, at least until Hideo Itami (the former KENTA) comes back, which should be very soon if the recent reports are correct about him almost being 100% ready to compete again. With the WWE Network about to make major waves in the Asian markets, it will be important to see Nakamura be booked strong for a while.

Aries is going to have his time to build up & there could be room for a series of matches with Shinsuke, however, it will be up to WWE to make sure to build it up a bit. We have a feeling that Nakamura could be pushed up to the main roster quickly, which is probably somehow included in his deal, but he will get more of a chance to shine in NXT than we will at Raw or Smackdown, depending on what the rosters will look like when the brand extension takes place. There are some matches taking place in Hawaii this summer where Nakamura is scheduled to take on John Cena. That could be because Hawaii has a strong Asian base or a trial run to see how Nakamura’s chemistry with one of the WWE’s top stars comes across to the crowd.

Finn Balor & Samoa Joe Will Have a Physical, Brutal Cage Match

The Finn Balor-Samoa Joe series has been a strong, very well build-up storyline throughout the winter & into the summer. Their match at NXT Takeover: London was an outstanding match & a great preview of things to come. In Dallas, they turned a match that could have been great, came off awkward because blood, into an instant classic because they just didn’t stop & they fought a physical style despite probably having to cut out some parts of the match due to Samoa Joe’s blood & time lost dealing with it.

This cage match is going to be one of the better cage matches that we will see for a while for a variety of reasons. First off, the creative team at NXT, along with Triple H, have done a tremendous job with building up the importance of the match, which already gives it a different feel & expectation than most cage matches we have seen in the last few years. Second, these two are two of the greatest technical wrestlers in the world, but can wrestle a physical, more intense style that a cage match calls for. Im expecting the level of this match to match the Bret Hart/Owen Hart cage match at Summerslam 1994.

With that said, we are going to go with Samoa Joe in this matchup. Balor has had a tremendous run as NXT Champion & there isn’t much else he can gain by having the belt. Would we all like to see a Balor/Nakamura match for the NXT Championship – sure. But Samoa Joe vs Nakamura can & will be a huge draw coming up. Joe & Nakamura wrestle very similar styles, yet approach the matches in a completely different style.

As far as Balor goes, we fully expect for him to be called up to Raw or Smackdown in the brand extension. The online insiders have teased it for a while & while im sure WWE has been waiting for the right time to bring him up. What better time than the extension when you have time to get him into a good program and get him ready for a prime position at Summerslam in August at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. If this match – basically a send off for Balor – isn’t a 30-40 minute match, that will be very disappointing. This is a stacked card in terms of talent but in terms of amount of matches, it is looking very light as of right now. Should be more than enough time for Balor & Joe to truly show why they are among the best in the world at their craft.

Asuka vs Nia Jax Will Be Strong, But Will Have Room To Grow Later

Asuka & Nia Jax are two of the growing NXT women’s wrestlers right now. Both of them have a distinct look, can go in the ring, but right now, we don’t have the big fire & excitement for this match. I think Nia Jax has a phenomenal look & has great athletic ability, but she needs more time in-ring before its time for a classic match against Asuka.

This should be pretty easy in the sense that Asuka should retain, with a rematch set-up for NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. Jax needs more time to build up her character & really make people believe that she can be a long-term women’s champion. She had a solid match against Bailey at NXT Takeover: London, but it showed there that she had a long way to go. She has come a long way from her initial debut & she is definitely unlike any women’s wrestler on the roster, but this is not the time to be the face of the NXT women’s division. We should learn more after the next round of tapings take place leading up to Takeover Brooklyn.

American Alpha & The Revival Have Taken Tag Team Wrestling To A New Level in NXT and WWE

The tag-team scene in NXT has been good ever since the brand first got going on WWE Network in 2014. Triple H has done a great job to put more emphasis on the tag-team dynamic & showing that the right teams & athletes together can make absolute magic. The Revival & American Alpha have done that. AA looks very much like the World’s Greatest Tag Team combination of Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas from back in 2003. Not many people probably thought much of Jason Jordan & Chad Gable individually at first, but once they came together as a team, they have been able to show their personalities & true athletic ability in big time ways.

On the other side of the ledger, Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder seem like two guys who wouldn’t be WWE superstars. They sound like enhancement guys for the most part. However, they are a hard-hitting, in-your-face team that can also tell a great story & wrestle a finesse style in the ring, that complements the American Alpha speed & intense cardio action. Both teams know how to control the pace of a match & all have strong athletic ability, and are getting much better on the microphone.

From a title standpoint, I think the Revival actually gets the titles back to set up the rubber match at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. This rivalry has room for a three-part series where the teams can have some phenomenal matches. There is word that American Alpha could go to the main roster at some point. I would like to see them stay on NXT for a bit longer as they can be a real force there for a bit & help develop some new rivalries in NXT & bring up some of the young teams on the rise. Tomaiso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano would have some great matches with both AA & Revival, and HHH has to make sure the guys aren’t going up too fast before they are ready, only to get buried in matches & in storylines where neither team will have a chance to fully show their skills.

Andrade Cien Almas vs Tye Dillinger

Poor Tye Dillinger. He was the guy that Shinsuke Nakamura went through at the taping after NXT Takeover: Dallas that helped propel him to the top of NXT, and it sounds like Andrade “Cien” Almas will be on the same road here.

Obviously, he won’t lose to Dillinger, but depending on the presentation & if he has changes the La Sombra ring style he used in CMLL & New Japan for so long, he will be built into a rising star quickly.

 

If you want to watch an event on Wednesday where there will be some actual action that won’t disappoint (hello NBA Finals), then give WWE Network & NXT Takeover: The End a view. No matter what or how our predictions turn out, guaranteed there won’t be any down time.

WWE Summerslam 2015 – First Preview

The biggest event of the summer is set & we are going to a tried & true matchup – Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar for the main event. The pieces were set in motion after WWE Battleground on Sunday night when Undertaker cost Lesnar the WWE World Heavyweight Championship during his match with Seth Rollins.

Many remember that Lesnar defeated the Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXX, thus ending Taker’s famed Wrestlemania streak, which was at 21-0. WWE is going back to the well & going back to the good money draw, which is always Lesnar & Taker. This is special for Undertaker especially because this will be the first Summerslam that Taker has participated in since Summerslam 2008 when he defeated WWE Hall-of-Famer Edge.

Brock Lesnar will face The Undertaker in the main event of WWE Summerslam 2015.

WWE is clearly putting all of its chips on the table for this Summerslam weekend – having NXT Takeover: Brooklyn is the Saturday night before Summerslam with NXT being the hottest overall brand in the company because of the wrestling styles & having the top stars. Since Triple H has had much more of a say in the company in terms of booking & matches, he has been able to put his finger on what is clearly working.

Having Undertaker & Lesnar – while people may say that it shouldn’t be the main event because you are putting on part-time guys at the top of the card thus taking away from the up-and-coming stars, the idea is to push sales of the WWE Network & boost up subscriber numbers for the 3rd quarter, which will probably include a Stone Cold podcast special either right before or right after Summerslam on Monday night.

At this point, we know that Undertaker has only so many matches left in his WWE career & the fans realize this so it will be a real treat to have Undertaker at this event, especially since it looks as though he is going to work the heel to Lesnar’s face. It doesn’t sound like it would work, but if you watch how Undertaker was being so aggressive towards Lesnar when he interfered at Battleground, you realize that its a much different Taker than what was being seen at the past Wrestlemanias. Undertaker should avenge his loss to Lesnar here so that he looks strong in a potential match against Sting in Dallas at Wrestlemania 32, which WWE has been teasing as a big money match. Undertaker & Sting both have to look good going into Wrestlemania season, especially with trying to fill up at 100,000 seat stadium at AT&T Stadium, which looks to break the all-time indoor attendance record held by the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit for Wrestlemania III.

However, Undertaker/Lesnar won’t be the only big match on the card. For the first time in a long time, the WWE Divas are being heavily promoted as former NXT divas Charlotte, Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks all made their debuts in the last couple of weeks on Raw.  This is after the WWE Universe voices made themselves heard with the #givedivasachance campaign

NXT (now WWE) Diva Charlotte.

NXT (now WWE) diva Becky Lynch.

Sasha Banks, the NXT Women’s Champion.

Having the Divas so prominently focused in what will most likely be high-profile & well wrestled matches shows how far WWE has come in showing what these ladies can do inside the ring as well as outside. It shows that women can be beautiful but just as good performers as the male counterparts.

We will write more about Summerslam soon.

WWE Old School Review – Starrcade 1997

Recently, the Sports Fan Playground loaded up the WWE Network & of course, checked out for old school WCW stuff. This week it was Starrcade 1997, the big event that had Sting against Hollywood Hulk Hogan for the WCW title.

The entire event was based around this idea of Sting not wrestling for a year & coming down from the rafters all through 1997 & terrorizing the New World Order (NWO), the big wrestling group that was all the rage from 1996-1999. WCW did an angle that wrote Sting off TV where in the War Games the year before, WCW didn’t trust him to be on their team against the NWO in the match.

Sting gave the perverbial up yours to the “top guys” in the company & decided to go watch some Crow movies & come back as this crazy bad ass who would come down from the top of the rafters in all black & just whoop ass with a baseball bat in hand.

Sting vs Hollywood Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title at Starrcade 1997.

The event as a whole was kinda terrible, but the match itself was pretty entertaining, especially given that Sting hadn’t seen any in-ring action in over a year. It was very well worked & SPOILER…Sting wins the belt after Bret Hart, who had JUST come over from the WWE after the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series 1997, was the main ref & showed his allegiance for the WCW after being a “free agent” coming into the company.

If you watch this event on WWE Network – here are the parts to watch:

– Sting vs Hogan

– Larry Zbyszko vs Eric Bischoff for control of WCW Monday Nitro……………yup….i know, but that really did happen.

– Eddie Guerrero vs Dean Malenko. Awesome match to start the show. Damn I wish the cruiserweights had more time to show their skills, but I digress.

The entire Sting/Hogan match is available below for your viewing.

 

2014 WWE Survivor Series Preview – At Least Its Free

This weekend, the WWE is going to present to us the 2014 WWE Survivor Series on the WWE Network, which is completely free this month. When you see the card on this show, you probably realize why.

The WWE Survivor Series is very indicative of the current day WWE product – stale, boring & doing the exact same things again & again. The Survivor Series match itself tells quite a bit about the company – you have John Cena & his team against The Authority & WWE completely tipped its hand by saying that if Cena’s team loses, the team would be fired.

Well, considering that they can’t live without Cena & especially Dolph Ziggler on TV, this pretty much guarantees Cena’s team should win rather easily. Plus, with the rumors of Stephanie McMahon being pregnant, it would perfectly give she & her husband, Triple H, time to be off of television with Brock Lesnar scheduled to come back to TV soon & remind us all that he is the WWE World Champion, despite having not defended the championship since the Night of Champions event in September.

Could Survivor Series be the last time we see a lot of Stephanie McMahon for a while? Rumor has it she may be pregnant.

As for the rest of the card, there are 4 other matches that are really ways to just get guys on television & a check for being on PPV.

The Divas championship match between Nikki Bella & A.J. Lee should be interesting as Nikki should be the one who goes over & further her storyline with Brie Bella with the whole servant deal, which still has a few days left on the stipulation.

Nikki Bella should go over at WWE Survivor Series as the new WWE Divas Champion.

Should WWE DIvas Champion A.J. Lee leave WWE after Survivor Series, there will be a massive void of true female competitors in the company.

As it is shaping up, A.J. Lee could be leaving the WWE after the Survivor Series to be around more with her husband, former WWE Superstar C.M. Punk. If Lee does leave, a big void will need to be filled in the Divas division, which could be happening soon with some of the great NXT Divas that are doing great work down in Orlando.

The only other big event on the card that is worth really talking about is Dean Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt. From a character standpoint, this should be a phenomenal contest, but oddly enough, its Wyatt that needs a fresh boost. His promos are still excellent, but all we have heard about is how he saved Luke Harper & Erick Rowan, which is fine & all, but there needs to be an evolution to his character in some drastic way.

Ambrose is the future of the WWE right now. He has the mic skills & has shown the ability to evolve his character much more. Ambrose will have many other opportunities to go big in the company, Wyatt absolutely needs to go over to reestablish himself in the ring, not just on the mic.

But right now, its very hard to get excited about the current WWE product. With so much emphasis on the WWE Network & making it the best that it can be, there has been a major disconnect with the audience & the programming, which the ratings have reflected. Its as if the WWE is telling everyone to forget watching what’s on right now & just go strictly to the WWE Network exclusively, which, admittedly, I have done much more of over the last few months because the Network has been absolutely outstanding & has constantly gotten better over time.

WWE NXT has been amazing; the show is arguably the #1 show in all of WWE right now, the vault content has been strong & the Monday Night War, WWE Rivalries, WWE Wrestlemania Rewind & the other random specials that end up on the Network have been absolutely remarkable.

But because WWE has put so much emphasis on the Network, which is the smart business move, WWE has let some of the current go away. Survivor Series is one of the major events of the fall & winter & essentially the “end of the year” show that helps get people ready for the next year & the Royal Rumble & road to Wrestlemania. This doesn’t feel like a major event – it feels like an event that I wouldn’t pay a lot of money to watch anyway, & that is a shame.

When you have many of your top stars – Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, Brock Lesnar – not advertised for the card, that hurts the bottom line & the event loses much of its luster. Somehow WWE is going to have to circumvent this issue – but it may be too late to save this event card. If you want to see the rest of the Survivor Series card, check out Bleacher Report here.

At least its only $9.99 per month.

WWE Network Showing Massive Signs Of Promise – Forget What You Read Otherwise

The WWE has been going through a period that many top companies have to go through from time to time. They have to lay off quite a few workers, cutting & trimming the budget quite a bit, & basically trimming the “fat” off of the company in order for it to work efficiently.

That business practice has never been more evident for the company than with the launch of the WWE Network. It was announced on Thursday that the WWE Network has 700,000 subscribers to its service, which is currently only available in the United States. While many analysts believe that this is a low subscriber number, it actually isn’t bad at all.

Streaming networks are still a very new practice around the world & the technology is still being worked on to make them stronger, but WWE is not doing anything different than what Netflix & Hulu Plus had to do when they first started their streaming services, especially Netflix, which was originally just renting out DVDs for customers.

This week, the WWE had to cut 7% of their workforce in an on going effort to get $20 million off of their budget, which im guessing is either to save actual money or free up some extra cash to put back into the Network, which will end up being a complete cash cow in the next year or so. The company understands that this is the future of entertainment as we know it, but getting there is obviously no easy task.

The WWE Network recorded 700,000 subscribers as of June 30. That number should increase significantly with the international expansion beginning on August 12.

On Thursday, WWE announced that the Network will be going international beginning on August 12. The service will be available in Australia, Canada, Russia, Spain, Nordic countries, New Zealand, Mexico, & Latin American nations. It will be available to other nations in October 2014 & in the U.K. around the beginning of 2015.

The WWE will get to the 1 million subscriber mark that is being used to break even & turn a profit with the network, that part is not to be questioned. The WWE is huge around the world & if you were to go on Twitter, fans consistently write about when they will be able to have the WWE Network in their country. Many fans, however, have been able to use various devices & programs that allow for users to hide their local IP address & access the network, which the WWE will undoubtedly sure up as time goes on.

In Canada, the rollout of the WWE Network will be very unique, in that it will be an actual paid cable channel on Rogers, the big cable provider in Canada. WWE signed a new 10-year deal that will keep their flagship shows, Monday Night Raw & Friday Night Smackdown, available on the network & the WWE Network itself will be a paid channel, similar to what HBO is. The on-demand content will then be able on the internet based channel, exactly what the WWE Network is in America, but a better comparison will be HBO Go for the Canadian customers.

The regular paid channel will carry the WWE Network streaming programming lineup, with everything still being archived later.

The media has always had a thing against the WWE because of not understanding how the “wrestling” business worked. They could never understand what drew so many people into watching something that is so “scripted” & “fake” & why people spend hard earned money on this type of entertainment. So when the WWE Network launched, the pundits were already trying to find a way to rip it & let the world know that it wouldn’t or couldn’t survive.

They didn’t understand that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is one of the most ingenious people of this generation. Yes, some of his business practices haven’t always been on the up & up, but who’s really is? McMahon had enough foresight to see that Pay-Per-View was the way of the future with entertainment & was one of the first companies to put sports on PPV, before boxing was available in that medium.  The same guy made Wrestlemania into one of the biggest events of all time after taking a major gamble on the event being a success back in 1985 with Wrestlemania 1.

30 years later, we are at Wrestlemania 30, being in the biggest stadiums around the country & now it gets ready for Wrestlemania 31, which will be held next year at the new Levi’s Stadium, the home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.

In fact, Wrestlemania was the first major event to be shown on the WWE Network & it went off very smoothly. The company knows what its doing with this channel, despite what the other internet pundits might want you to believe. Im not saying this because I am a wrestling fan, but as an internet & tech guy, this is going on the perfect path to success right now.

The company did announce that there would be a change in the pricing for the network at some point – the price would be either $20 per month or $60 for an entire 6-month subscription, which many people actually have been asking for for quite a long time. Many people didn’t like the idea that they were committed to paying $9.99 per month for 6-months due to not wanting to have that on their cards or just flat out being cheap (many wrestling fans love to watch things that stream online for free with crappy service most times instead of just playing the fee & being able to watch so much more).  For the life of me, I have never fully understood that idea of watching entertainment, but I digress.

The company is still in solid standing, & again, nothing that any other company doesn’t have to go through when they are launching something that is very revolutionary. It’s the exact same thing that the NFL is doing with their new NFL Now package, which will have games available as well as other NFL Network content available on demand through a streaming service. Major League Baseball has done the same thing, & other companies as well. The Watch ESPN app & the ESPN3 app on Xbox 360 & Xbox One has been a major source of revenue for the ESPN brand & has allowed them to carry far more sports than their regular TV networks can handle at one time.

The big difference is that all of those leagues have some kind of cable deal for their actual channels. While WWE has a TV deal with NBC Universal, they have yet to launch a cable or satellite deal in the United States, which they may not for a while. If they were to at some point, it would be a complete game changer & bring in more revenue, but at the same time, it would cause WWE to have to split revenue with the cable providers & in Canada, its a bit different simply because there aren’t as many competitors for cable there & not as much distribution of profit would have to be sent to as many companies.

Along with the distribution of the WWE Network worldwide, some of the biggest documentary series will be coming up shortly in August for the company. The highly anticipated series, The Monday Night War, will be available along with the show, WWE Rivalries, which will give in-depth analysis of the hottest feuds & matches in the history of the wrestling industry.

The Monday Night War, in particular, will be the series that most wrestling fans will probably get the Network for because for many, it was the golden age of wrestling for this generation during the rivalry of WWE against WCW with their respective shows, WWE Monday Night Raw & WCW Monday Nitro going head-to-head against each other.

The WWE Network isn’t perfect, but it has strong satisfactory ratings & will only continue to grow more as time goes on. Until you look at the numbers that the network will draw in in the long term, the pundits can’t speak on WWE getting smacked down or not so early in the game.

 

 

 

 

WWE Network Needs Presence on Cable, Satellite

For wrestling fans, old school & new school, the WWE hit a strong home run with their WWE Network, launched February 24, even with some of the bugs that were in the program ( & still are depending on the medium that you are watching the network on). Even though the network hasn’t launched around the world yet, the fact is that the network would help from having some kind of presence on cable & satellite providers.

The WWE Network is one of the better bargains in entertainment, having thousands of hours of classic wrestling content for $9.99 per month.

Yes, the WWE Network is amazing as an app, & it should stay available in app form, but many people around the country don’t have the access or capability to watch the network, especially if you live in a rural area. For example. I happened to be in Nevada in April for business & being in the mountain areas there, there was no way I could pull in the WWE Network because of the big signal there & that high-speed internet wasn’t completely available in that area.

With so many people in the United States who still live in very suburban & rural areas, the WWE is missing out on a large chunk of the population who would probably purchase the Network & with all of their pay-per-view events in the United States on the Network, the company is losing a strong chunk of customers.

According to Worldbank.org, over 54 million people live in rural areas of the United States. If you figure that about 3-4 million of those people might be wrestling fans & another 1-2 million would be willing to actually purchase the WWE Network, that would have taken care of the WWE’s goal of hitting 1 million subscribers in year one & wouldn’t have to go through the massive cost-cutting measures that the company is going through right now, as WWE CEO & Chairman Vince McMahon announced that the company was trying to trim $20 million off of their regular budget.

At the $9.99 a month price for the channel, fans would easily pay for it & the company would become much stronger overall & reach those people in the rural areas that the network isn’t currently reaching.

If the channel were to launch on cable or satellite, it would work as an alternative for the people who don’t have the other systems, or the company could make the WWE Network app strictly their on-demand channel & let the live stream be exclusively on the cable & satellite channel & make the content that shows on the channel immediately available on the app when the shows are completed.

By having the WWE Network live stream running as a regular network on Xfinity, DirecTV & others, yes WWE might have to share some of the revenue streams, but due to so many customers not being able to cut the cord yet with their satellite & cable services, the company will still bring in a strong revenue & be able to turn a profit far faster than just being on an app that many people who are past the age of 55 may not understand.

Right now, the WWE Network is one of the best entertainment apps in the United States, hands down. The collection of shows & events that are available is unprecedented & looks to only get better with shows coming such as the Monday Night War, which looks as though it will be a slam dunk for the company, similar to how WWE Legends House was earlier this year.

It just seems to be, as a die hard wrestling fan, that the WWE Network is poised to succeed, & once more people have access to the service, it will take off the way the fans & the company believe that it will & it should have from the very beginning.

WWE Monday Night War Review

On Monday Night, the WWE Network presented a sneak peek of their new show, the Monday Night War. And yes, it was everything that the previews made it out to be, & that much more.

The WWE Network had their sneak peek of the Monday Night War show on Monday night to rave reviews.

The documentary did a phenomenal job of getting the show started by talking about Hulk Hogan’s defection to WCW, Randy Savage not being happy as just a commentator – as Vince McMahon wanted him to be – & him going to WCW & restarting his career.

Some of the footage was seen in the previous Monday Night War DVD, but much of the footage was truly never-before-seen. A great touch was having archived footage of former WCW owner & media mogul Ted Turner talking about the rivalry & hearing his personal comments on McMahon pulling WWE content from TBS when Vince came in with “Black Friday,” as well as his comments on the “Billionaire Ted” skits.

The show really gets interesting when you hear about Bischoff saying he wanted to get rid of the “southern style” of wrestling, which was what WCW was portrayed as in the 80s because of their low production costs as compared to the WWE. Bischoff mentioned that he wanted to get rid of any announcer with a southern accent, so basically most of the announcers with the exception of Tony Schiavone were let go.

Speaking of Schiavone, he came out of the woodwork & he gave some great insight to the history of the company & what was going on during that period. Schiavone hadn’t been on a wrestling program since the last episode of Monday Nitro on March 26, 2001, so many people will enjoy his commentary.

Another area that the show was good was having the extended discussion about when Medusa tossed the WWE Women’s Championship in the basket on Monday Nitro & Lex Luger showing up on the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro, mentioning that Luger had worked a WWE house show the night before.

From an organizational standpoint, the show moved very smoothly & it proved that it can be a true anchor show for the WWE Network going forward. When it comes on in August, do yourself a big favor & check it out if you are a true wrestling fan, you will absolutely not be sorry.

WCW Clash of the Champions or WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event

This coming Monday, as we reported here on the Sports Fan Playground months ago, the WWE Network will begin having episodes of Saturday Night’s Main Event in its vault section. For many wrestling fans, this will be incredibly exciting as SNME was one of the true staples of WWE throughout the 80’s & into the early 90’s with a brief return in 2006. It was an answer to WCW’s big TV special, the Clash of the Champions.

WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event will be available on the WWE Network on Monday, July 7.

Both shows had an amazing reputation for having high quality matches, great storylines & a way to keep the wrestling audiences engaged at a low price. The Saturday Night Main Event show was shown on NBC on certain weeks at the Saturday Night Live spot at 11:30 p.m., which is one of the prime spots in all of television. The show would features top matches against the top competitors as opposed to just enhancement matches that would be shown on many of the other shows such as Prime Time Wrestling, WWE Superstars of Wrestling & WWE Wrestling Challenge.

The Clash of the Champions ran on TBS normally 3-4 times per year, normally on a Wednesday or Thursday night at 8:05 until 10:05 or 10:35. The Clash shows ran until 1997, when WCW realized that they should probably put more focus on Monday Nitro & their pay-per-view events as opposed to giving all of their big matches away, basically for free, on TBS.

The Clash of the Champions & Saturday Night’s Main Event were the two biggest non pay-per-view shows of their era, but which one was better? We break them down below.

WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event Put WWE on the Global Scale.

The Main Event was one of the precursors to WWE Monday Night Raw & WWE Friday Night Smackdown. It featured great comedy skits, tremendous interview segments & in a 90-minute frame, you got two main events (one of the main events would start off the show) & another big time main event at the end of the show.

The show was one of the main shows used to hype up a big pay-per-view event that was coming up, such as Wrestlemania or Summerslam, & because it was on NBC, stars such as Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, Bob Orton, Andre The Giant & many others could have their talents showcased in front of a far bigger audience then they would normally ever have on the syndicated shows. While the company had shows in regional networks in New York, Philadelphia, Boston & Toronto, the shows were very restricted to only those markets.

The show always drew tremendous ratings, but the highest rated show was the night when Andre The Giant had his rematch with Hulk Hogan for the WWE Championship as the follow-up to their epic Wrestlemania III match in 1987. Hogan won that match, but in the Saturday Night’s Main Event special, Andre won off of a terrible call from the referee & it showed that the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase actually bought the WWE Championship from Andre & paid off the referee Earl Hebner to have a fast count. That show drew a 15.3 (33 million viewers approximately).

At the time, it was one of the most intriguing storylines in the WWE & it was the show that set up the WWE Championship tournament at Wrestlemania IV in Atlantic City, where the “Macho Man” Randy Savage won his first WWE Championship over DiBiase.

That is what the power of the Main Event had for the WWE & professional wrestling at that time. Before the internet & dirt sheets & the infamous “internet wrestling community” became strong, fans would wait for months to get ready for the Saturday Night’s Main Event because everyone knew that they were going to get something incredibly memorable & something that they could talk about at the watercooler & at school the next Monday.

The show was on NBC until 1991, when it went over to Fox for two years & then the show was gone until 2006, when the WWE had a new deal with USA Network, which was owned by NBC Universal. The company produced an episode in 2006 which was the precursor to Wrestlemania 22. WWE produced a few more episodes until 2008, but the show wasn’t the same magic that the shows of the 80s really brought on.

If you really want to know the true magnitude of the Saturday Night’s Main Event, watch all of the episodes from the beginning until 1992, then it becomes the usual WWE stuff that we see now, so if you are a huge fan of today’s wrestling, you will appreciate it, but if you are more of a fan of the old school time in wrestling, considered by many to be the “golden age,” then catch the classic episodes. You won’t be disappointed.

WCW Clash of the Champions Had The Guts To Go Right Up Against Wrestlemania.

The Clash of the Champions premiered in 1988, with the first event going directly against Wrestlemania 4. The main event of the Clash of Champions was Ric Flair vs Sting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in a 45-minute classic that is highly regarded as one of the greatest world championship matches of all time.

The WCW Clash of the Champions episodes are currently available on the WWE Network.

WCW/NWA, in the 80s, was known for having better classic wrestling matches, while the WWE had more of the “sports entertainment” aspect. WCW would routinely have top quality classics with all of their top talent & wrestling fans knew that when they tuned in to a WCW show, they were going to see at least one top quality match on each & every one of their shows.

The WCW had a few pay-per-view events going at the time, in fact, they were the first to go into the Pay-Per-View game via closed circuit television with the Starrcade events that were held during November & December of each year from 1983 until 2000. Starrcade was meant to be their version of Wrestlemania & did very well for many years. But then-TBS president Ted Turner wanted a show that could compete directly against Vince McMahon & wanted to have the best quality shows & action on every program that he could.

So, in 1988, Dusty Rhodes created the Clash of the Champions, which would be many of the top matches & feuds culminating or just starting up. Outside of Starrcade, WCW didn’t make a ton of revenue in the pay-per-view section & at least with the Clash events, they could run strong advertising & still be seen to a worldwide audience. The company already had success with their Saturday night shows, titled World Championship Wrestling in the early days, but later changed to WCW Saturday Night, as well as the Sunday morning show, WCW Power Hour & on Sunday evenings, the WCW Main Event would come on at 6:05.

The Clash events went on quarterly, & continued until August of 1997, when the company phased out the Clash events & put all of their focus on WCW Monday Nitro, which had become one of the hottest wrestling shows on television. The company also realized that they needed to put more effort into making their pay-per-view business stronger, an area that WCW always seemed to struggle in, & by doing that, they had to stop putting all of their big money matches on free cable television.

The Clash had some amazing matches & definitely was a great launch spot for WCW in terms of developing new stars & being on a worldwide stage. Many wrestling fans would say that the Clash of the Champions events were replaced by WCW Thunder when it debuted in 1998 on Thursday nights weekly.

No matter your feeling, both SNME & the Clash events were some of the most important wrestling shows on television during the 80s & early 90s, but which one is your favorite of all time?