The "Road to Wrestlemania XXX" Wrestling Thread

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slidecage said:
i think they made a major mistake not putting the wwe network on Cable. i would of paid 14.99 a month if it was like the on demand channel now. Not hooking up my ps3 just to watch wwe crap. I say the channel last less then a year before its either pulled or they have to do a deal with cable companies
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I dont think it is possible for me to disagree with this anymore. Cable would have been the major mistake. This Netflix like setup is perfect for what this is offering. I dont see how hard it would be to plug in your PS3 to use this. And come summer time you wont even need to do that. Just turn on your smart tv and watch it on there, no box or anything. You are the minority here and I for one will be signing up day one.

 
I was already in with the rumors of it being $15 a month and all PPVs except the big 4 (RR, WM, SSlam, SSeries). But $10 and all 12 PPVs? Definitely must buy now for me.

Hopefully when they said unedited, they mean it. First thing I'm gonna do is load up WM20 to see if you know who is in the main event (I think they will, if the other reports are true that they're gonna put a disclaimer at the beginning of each show). Next one is to check out any ECW show and see if the themes are intact.

Also about Raw/SD/Main event being shown live on the network, no way in hell. They're making tons off that ad revenue, best case you'll see is them probably putting it up hours after the show's already aired.

 
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I've drifted in and out of watching wresting at various times in my life...    I've always liked it but I've always gotten tired of not seeing any of the big payoffs because I just couldn't bring myself to pay for the PPE (Just way too much money) and I would drift away from it again... 

This Network....  Is wow.  Its an amazing deal I never thought I would see from the WWE...  I don't see how I don't pick this up.  My two big thoughts.  I wish it would be in place for the Royal Rumble and my big one...  I hope they add the old Saturday Night Fights programs to the In Demand section.  Seeing all of them again would be worth far more than 10 dollars a month. :)

 
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Call me a pessimist but I feel like this ridiculously low introductory pricing is just to get people hooked and then later start raising the price. It just seems too good to be true. That having been said, I'll definitely be signing up on day 1.

This whole thing feels surprisingly ahead of the curve for WWE. I feel like this being successful could show other networks that going individual service subscription based online could start becoming the norm. I gotta believe the cable providers aren't really going to like this.
 
I was a fan of the WWE Classics they used to have online and I think that was close to 10 bucks a month.  This is like taking vanilla ice cream and making the best damn sundae ever.

 
I imagine not only will the price for the Network eventually increase, but that the Network will start to incorporate advertising like Hulu to increase profits.

That's not to say it doesn't offer a good value to customers. The PPVs alone cost $660 per year. In order to make that money back, the WWE will need over about 200,000 subscribers to earn as much money.

Lets take a quick look at this year's Summerslam buyrate. 298,000 people ordered that PPV. At $60 per PPV, that's $1,788,000 the company earned from that show.

In order to equal those profits, the WWE would need to sell exactly 178,800 subscriptions. With the current hype about the Network, I could see them doing close to those numbers while only losing 50% of their typical PPV buyrates. That would be a huge year over year profit increase for the corporation. By locking customers in for 6 months, they potentially increase their PPV revenue by double by getting money for B-Show PPVs that people normally wouldn't have ordered. 

All in all, this looks to be a big deal for the WWE.

 
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Mike Mooneyham of The Charleston Post & Courier in South Carolina, who has been reporting updates on Mae Young since she was hospitalized in December, says she has not passed away after incorrectly reporting it earlier. Mooneyham tweeted:
 
“Mae Young has not passed away. The source who reported her passing received incorrect information. Mae is gravely ill, but still alive.”
 
I was wondering why WWE hadn't updated their website with the news of Mae Young's death... Still, I can't imagine it being very long now. 

She's lived a very long and interesting life.

 
Sucks to hear about Mae Young, but she's had a very long and storied life, which is more than you can about a lot of the guys in the business. I don't even know many guys in the business who could still go the way she did in her 70s-80s, and I'll never forget that Bubba Bomb she took a few years back.

They don't make 'em like her anymore.

 
NOW THIS IS A WRESTLING POSTER!

iw6FNnfN9SMpD.jpg

NJPW is also coming back to the States soon. Shibata vs. Hero entices me to no end. Please come to NYC!

 
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The idea of a WWE Network was tempting to me because of their massive library of non-WWE programming, but I'm not gonna bite.  This is actually quite bad for the business due to the imbeciles that will be fully, FULLY immersed exclusively in the WWE product everywhere they are.  It will be hard for young wrestling fans and future wrestling fans to venture outside of The WWE Universe.  Good for the the WWE - not good for the business.  Sadly, most "wrestling fans" are actually "WWE fans" these days, so "The Business" is actually "Just WWE" anyway.

Still, I gotta hand it to them for figuring out a way to charge every WWE fan 9.99 a month each for the rest of their lives.

 
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Antiques Roadshow said:
The idea of a WWE Network was tempting to me because of their massive library of non-WWE programming, but I'm not gonna bite. This is actually quite bad for the business due to the imbeciles that will be fully, FULLY immersed exclusively in the WWE product everywhere they are. It will be hard for young wrestling fans and future wrestling fans to venture outside of The WWE Universe.
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No different than how it is now without the WWE Network. So not sure you really have a point there. I would LOVE for WWE to reach reach out and let those small companies who are stuck doing iPPVs and let them put their stuff on the WWE Network. Maybe one day that will happen. Until then we will just have to watch all the WWE, WCW, ECW ppvs, and I am sure the AWA and other libraries WWE owns will show up on there sooner than later.

 
TheRock88 said:
Hopefully when they said unedited, they mean it. First thing I'm gonna do is load up WM20 to see if you know who is in the main event (I think they will, if the other reports are true that they're gonna put a disclaimer at the beginning of each show). Next one is to check out any ECW show and see if the themes are intact.
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I will be keeping an eye on this.

If it's truly unedited, then I'm in. Only if, tho.
 
TheRock88 said:
I was already in with the rumors of it being $15 a month and all PPVs except the big 4 (RR, WM, SSlam, SSeries). But $10 and all 12 PPVs? Definitely must buy now for me.

Hopefully when they said unedited, they mean it. First thing I'm gonna do is load up WM20 to see if you know who is in the main event (I think they will, if the other reports are true that they're gonna put a disclaimer at the beginning of each show). Next one is to check out any ECW show and see if the themes are intact.

Also about Raw/SD/Main event being shown live on the network, no way in hell. They're making tons off that ad revenue, best case you'll see is them probably putting it up hours after the show's already aired.
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Rumor from CES is that he will indeed be included, but that his matches will all contain warnings before watching them.

Edit: Added link: http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/443625-backstage-batista-wwe-news

 
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MushaOne said:
No different than how it is now without the WWE Network. So not sure you really have a point there. I would LOVE for WWE to reach reach out and let those small companies who are stuck doing iPPVs and let them put their stuff on the WWE Network. Maybe one day that will happen. Until then we will just have to watch all the WWE, WCW, ECW ppvs, and I am sure the AWA and other libraries WWE owns will show up on there sooner than later.
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I can see this happening when professional wrestling isn't the WWE's main source of income.

 
DirectTV doesn't like Double Double E.

"Clearly we need to quickly re-evaluate the economics and viability of their business with us, as it now appears the WWE feels they do not need their PPV distributors," DirecTV said in a statement, adding that the audience for its events "has been steadily declining, and this new low-cost competitive offering will only accelerate this trend."
 
Antiques Roadshow said:
Explain.
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Not much to explain. Most wrestling fans are more casual fans. Casual fans watch whatever is the most popular promotion. WWE is the most popular promotion in USA and also already had 4 (maybe more) television shows on each week. I cant see any of these casual fans looking online to see what some smaller promotion is doing.

The more hardcore wrestling fans will watch the WWE Network as they would watch any other WWE programming, but will also go online to see what else is out there. They will go to smaller shows that come to their area even if John Cena isnt part of that organization.

 
KaneRobot said:
DirectTV doesn't like Double Double E.

"Clearly we need to quickly re-evaluate the economics and viability of their business with us, as it now appears the WWE feels they do not need their PPV distributors," DirecTV said in a statement, adding that the audience for its events "has been steadily declining, and this new low-cost competitive offering will only accelerate this trend."
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Makes sense, why carry a $40 PPV that will have even lower buyrates now that the actual company producing it is now a competitor that's offering it for free with their service?

Saw mention around September/October that DirecTV is also considering dropping TNA PPVs too as the buyrates for them on the service have been abysmal.

 
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MushaOne said:
I dont think it is possible for me to disagree with this anymore. Cable would have been the major mistake. This Netflix like setup is perfect for what this is offering. I dont see how hard it would be to plug in your PS3 to use this. And come summer time you wont even need to do that. Just turn on your smart tv and watch it on there, no box or anything. You are the minority here and I for one will be signing up day one.
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who knows what speed you will need to stream this. I dont think they have gave any details yet. Im tempted to do it. Since the ps3 can be hook up using the cord that runs from the modem (yes my router sucks and dont feel like having my router on 5 hours a day)

Depends on what sort of deal my cable place works out with me in MARCH if i buy it or not come march..

right now getting

Basic cable around 50 channels

BLAST SPEED 50MB

and hbo show,cin, and stars for 50 per month...

if i can get that price for the next 6 months in march i may join the wwe network

 
KaneRobot said:
DirectTV doesn't like Double Double E.

"Clearly we need to quickly re-evaluate the economics and viability of their business with us, as it now appears the WWE feels they do not need their PPV distributors," DirecTV said in a statement, adding that the audience for its events "has been steadily declining, and this new low-cost competitive offering will only accelerate this trend."
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Well, the WWE has been selling PPVs themselves for awhile now. I've been able to get them on Xbox 360 and PS3 for quite some time.

I honestly think Cable Providers should be worried. They are dinosaurs in the industry of entertainment and content providers don't really need them anymore.

 
slidecage said:
who knows what speed you will need to stream this. I dont think they have gave any details yet. Im tempted to do it. Since the ps3 can be hook up using the cord that runs from the modem (yes my router sucks and dont feel like having my router on 5 hours a day)

Depends on what sort of deal my cable place works out with me in MARCH if i buy it or not come march..

right now getting

Basic cable around 50 channels

BLAST SPEED 50MB

and hbo show,cin, and stars for 50 per month...

if i can get that price for the next 6 months in march i may join the wwe network
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They're using the MLB.tv platform. For live programming you'll need 768kbps for SD and 3mbps for HD. http://mlb.mlb.com/tools/bandwidthdetect/index.html

With your internet you'll be able to run it just fine. I've used iPTV networks using the same platform and it's always been good, even when I only had 6mbps DSL.

 
MushaOne said:
Not much to explain. Most wrestling fans are more casual fans. Casual fans watch whatever is the most popular promotion. WWE is the most popular promotion in USA and also already had 4 (maybe more) television shows on each week. I cant see any of these casual fans looking online to see what some smaller promotion is doing.

The more hardcore wrestling fans will watch the WWE Network as they would watch any other WWE programming, but will also go online to see what else is out there. They will go to smaller shows that come to their area even if John Cena isnt part of that organization.
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When 24 hours of WWE programming is available at their FINGERTIPS, I highly doubt this generation, their kids, and so on, will venture outside of the WWE Universe when they can watch Total Divas on the toilet.

The future of our civilization, unfortunately, will be the family unit each gazing at their own, individual tablets and devises on the couch.

 
lxDrDtY.png


I wonder if the bandwidth will hold up when two million people are streaming from their servers during Wrestlemania time. I completely expect the service to go to shit and A LOT of complaining to go down ESPECIALLY during Wrestlemania.

I also wonder how quickly the PPV shows will be added to VOD once they've aired. Instant replay? 24 hour delay? Or until the PPV markets have been tapped? 

 
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Hirooki Goto vs Katsuyori Shibata
Wrestle Kingdom 8 - 01.04.14

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QloFFF6nDMo[/youtube]

Here's my favorite match from Wrestle Kingdom 8. They beat the heck out of each other! This an early MOTYC for 2014.

Plus the promo to kick things off blew me away. It was so down to Earth in comparison to the usual WWE promos we see. The story here is that Goto broke his jaw a number of months ago. Shibata tell hims to hurry up and get better sooner so that they can settle things between them about who the better man is. 

Give it a shot. It's a wrestling style you don't normally see here in the States, WWE or Indy. One thing I really like about the show is that every match got a unique entrance. The WWE usually saves this for Cena, HHH, or Undertaker. But NJPW made every match feel like a big deal by pulling this.

 
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HeroToTheMasses said:
Hirooki Goto vs Katsuyori Shibata
Wrestle Kingdom 8 - 01.04.14

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QloFFF6nDMo[/youtube]

Here's my favorite match from Wrestle Kingdom 8. They beat the heck out of each other! This an early MOTYC for 2014.

Plus the promo to kick things off blew me away. It was so down to Earth in comparison to the usual WWE promos we see. The story here is that Goto broke his jaw a number of months ago. Shibata tell hims to hurry up and get better sooner so that they can settle things between them about who the better man is.

Give it a shot. It's a wrestling style you don't normally see here in the States, WWE or Indy. One thing I really like about the show is that every match got a unique entrance. The WWE usually saves this for Cena, HHH, or Undertaker. But NJPW made every match feel like a big deal by pulling this.
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Honestly, their Dominion 2013 match was more epic than the WK8 match you've linked, as splendid as that match was in story-telling. That headbutt in the Dominion match... Ridiculous. I'll spoiler link the match, but the headbutt's at 9:45.

http://youtu.be/2dYgVr7XN7I

I really hope that as the Young Bucks travel to Japan more for NJPW as the IWGP Jr. Tag Champs, we can see them moving up higher on the card, because if NJPW is the best promotion in the world as some might contend (such as you, Hero, I still think PWG is awesome) then the Young Bucks are the best (and the most exciting) tag team in the world.

But it's no doubt that I've been hooked recently by NJPW. It's pretty fantastic. 2014 looks to be a great year for all of pro-wrestling, with the continued rise of NJPW, PWG being PWG (imo) and WWE with its WWE Network. Maybe pro-wrestling will never be as prominent as mma is nowadays, but I really think that wrestling is now hitting its strides after a good 15 year lull on TV. I don't think I've been more excited as a fan in a long time. And now that I'm back in NYC since graduating last summer, I've been going to DGUSA, ROH, and FWE shows. I'm excited, man!

 
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Yggy87 said:
Honestly, their Dominion 2013 match was more epic than the WK8 match you've linked, as splendid as that match was in story-telling. That headbutt in the Dominion match... Ridiculous. I'll spoiler link the match, but the headbutt's at 9:45.

http://youtu.be/2dYgVr7XN7I

I really hope that as the Young Bucks travel to Japan more for NJPW as the IWGP Jr. Tag Champs, we can see them moving up higher on the card, because if NJPW is the best promotion in the world as some might contend (such as you, Hero, I still think PWG is awesome) then the Young Bucks are the best (and the most exciting) tag team in the world.

But it's no doubt that I've been hooked recently by NJPW. It's pretty fantastic. 2014 looks to be a great year for all of pro-wrestling, with the continued rise of NJPW, PWG being PWG (imo) and WWE with its WWE Network. Maybe pro-wrestling will never be as prominent as mma is nowadays, but I really think that wrestling is now hitting its strides after a good 15 year lull on TV. I don't think I've been more excited as a fan in a long time. And now that I'm back in NYC since graduating last summer, I've been going to DGUSA, ROH, and FWE shows. I'm excited, man!
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I'll check out the Dominion match while I eat dinner. I imagine it'll be better than SD anyway. I really like PWG and think that company puts on the best shows in the US. My only issue that is that I watched their 2012 / 2013 shows pretty much daily for a while and I got burnt out on their stuff. I have my eye on Matt Rushmore and will be watching that soon. Will probably rave about it here when I check it out.

I also agree that The Young Bucks are the best tag team in the world. For as long as they've been around now, they're fantastic heels. Ring of Honor dropped the ball on them and so did TNA. It blows my mind how hard it is for those companies to book two talented guys like the Young Bucks on National TV. Give them a mic. Let them draw some heat and earn that money. I'm really happy for them to find success in NJPW and I hope 2014 is even better for them than 2013 was.

With the announcement of the Network, there's definitely been a tangible change in the aura of the industry. I can feel it right now. This upcoming Wrestlemania is probably going to be the most watched Mania in history and I think that can only be good for the industry on the whole. They just announced the first match for Wrestle-Con. It's going to be Kevin Steen vs. Masato Tanaka. Here's to looking forward!

Speaking of Steen, here is a podcast he did with good old Stone Cold:
http://podcastone.com/downloadsecurity?url=aHR0cDovL3NlcnZlLmNhc3RmaXJlLmNvbS9hdWRpby8yMDEyNTI2LzIwMTI1MjZfMjAxMy0xMi0xMi0xMzA1MjYuNjRrLm1wMz9hZF9wYXJhbXM9em9uZXMlM0RQcmVyb2xsJTJDTWlkcm9sbCUyQ1Bvc3Ryb2xsJTdDc3RhdGlvbl9pZCUzRDE2NzkqKnwxMzg5NDA2NTkxNzUwKip8.mp3

 
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I work for a cable company and WWE doesn't get all of the $60 for a PPV, I'm thinking around 30% last time I checked.. rest goes to cable companies and the ppv provider like InDemand.  Also if it would have gone to regular TV not every provider would carry it.  I think it'll be awesome, I'm just glad it'll be on the PS4.  I'm more stoked for the WCW/ECW PPVs than anything.  I know you can watch them on youtube just it's usually crappy VHS conversion.  The live PPVs are great also,  I get them for half off now with PPV, but this is even better.

 
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Crazy Twitter Ryback is the best Ryback has ever been.

"I've been released." (by the police after being pulled over)
::deletes all tweets and starts over::
"I have wrestled my last match." (of the night, after wrestling twice)
::deletes all tweets and starts over::
 
axlrose4183 said:
I work for a cable company and WWE doesn't get all of the $60 for a PPV, I'm thinking around 30% last time I checked.. rest goes to cable companies and the ppv provider like InDemand. Also if it would have gone to regular TV not every provider would carry it. I think it'll be awesome, I'm just glad it'll be on the PS4. I'm more stoked for the WCW/ECW PPVs than anything. I know you can watch them on youtube just it's usually crappy VHS conversion. The live PPVs are great also, I get them for half off now with PPV, but this is even better.
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I've heard with DirecTV something around 50% goes to them with WWE PPV. Regardless I could see down the road the linear channel stream being available on cable/sat companies namely due to pressure from customers to have it added. Keep in mind that while stuff like Roku boxes and streaming on gaming systems is more common not everyone is in love with it either for multiple reasons (ie: bandwidth, lack of familiarity with streaming, etc).

Not to mention cable/sat companies are living in constant fear of the "cutting the cord" movement and the WWE Network is a huge move towards that right now. If companies like DirecTV want to keep subscribers happy they'll have to sooner or later cave into some kind of deal with the WWE.

We'll see what happens. This is a huge risk by the WWE and honestly one I can fully respect them for doing. If they succeed at doing this then this will open some doors down the road for other companies to bring their channels to the Internet ala carte. If it fails then it'll be very hard for the WWE to really go back to the PPV model since the WWE pretty much has told its fan base that $65 for one PPV is too much now.

What I'm really curious about at this point is what the buyrates for the next two PPVs (Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber) will end up being? Especially since the WWE Network launches the day after the Chamber PPV and I'm assuming that will be up for on demand watching when it launches so who the heck is going to pay to order that PPV when they can watch it on delay 24 hours later for far less (and legally mind you).

 
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I don't think the Royal Rumble buy rate will suffer all that much....the Elimination Chamber however I expect to tank. You are 100% right, why would you buy it when you could just watch it 36 hrs later on demand?
 
cgarb84 said:
I don't think the Royal Rumble buy rate will suffer all that much....the Elimination Chamber however I expect to tank. You are 100% right, why would you buy it when you could just watch it 36 hrs later on demand?
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There are some people that do want to see the PPV before Raw on Monday to avoid spoiling the match results from the PPV.
 
I expect that they think they will make up the buyrate with subscriptions, hell my wife is practically demanding we sign up and she doesn't watch nearly as much as I do...

 
To think there was a time where these threads were praising Santino and The Miz.

I think there is so much potential with this year's Rumble PPV that, as a fan, I can't see why I shouldn't buy it. I also bought a mini HDMI cord so I plan to stream it through my tablet via the WWE app (which ran the WWE CES conference very well) onto the TV.

Just like console launches, I'm thinking there will be some bugs with WWE Network in the beginning so I'm going to wait until next year so I can sign up and get Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, and (if they decide to bring it back) King of the Ring for my first six months as a subscriber.

Some people were commenting on a price increase. On one hand, $10 a month is low. On the other hand, it's more expensive than Amazon Prime and Netflix (Will WWE leave Netflix like HBO and Viacom did?). I think the only way the price will be raised is if it doesn't meet that buyrate posted earlier OR they decide to add another tier which includes live Raw and/or Smackdown streaming.

 
They are still going to be on TV through whatever their next contract is, I doubt they'll have live streams of Raw/Smackdown til after that is done. I currently watch that stuff on Hulu anyways so it'll actually be a benefit as I can actually watch all of Raw instead of an edited 90 minute version.

 
cgarb84 said:
I don't think the Royal Rumble buy rate will suffer all that much....the Elimination Chamber however I expect to tank. You are 100% right, why would you buy it when you could just watch it 36 hrs later on demand?
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The Royal Rumble might actually benefit in a weird way... I normally don't buy the Royal Rumble ever, but I'm thinking about it since I'm so hyped up about the WWE Network. It's an expensive event, but with all of the PPVs I'll get with the network it doesn't seem like that big of a deal in the long run.

Although, I'd be a crazy person if I purchased Elimination Chamber a day before the WWE Network launches. As it stands right now, I have to watch the replays of Raw and Smakdown on Hulu anyway, so as long as I stay away from spoilers I'll be fine.

...Would people be all that upset if it had 30-45 second commercials like Hulu? I kind of assumed that they would since it's being marketed as a IPTV "Network" and not a streaming "Service."

 
Erad30 said:
They are still going to be on TV through whatever their next contract is, I doubt they'll have live streams of Raw/Smackdown til after that is done. I currently watch that stuff on Hulu anyways so it'll actually be a benefit as I can actually watch all of Raw instead of an edited 90 minute version.
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Raw and Smackdown will not be live but you will be able to stream them on-demand after the live broadcast ends.

 
I've not watched wrestling regularly for probably 5 years now, but at $10 a month I'll probably be in for the network.

It's good for me as I don't have cable and good for the WWE as they'll go from getting nothing at all off me to getting $10 a month.

 
I'll wait to see what it's like. If all the old events are knackered to hell with logo/music edits, stupid intros by a C-level announcer, and ads I may just decline. The other thing is that if it's anything like their old WWE Classics service, then I'm not paying $10 a month to get a limited amount of the library per month. Obviously they won't be able to host everything at once but I don't want to go looking for something like Survivor Series 1994 and the search approximation gets me Kane vs. Shane McMahon from Survivor Series 2003 and nothing else.

 
Ryback has been killing it on twitter this weekend. First time I have ever cared about him. Hes been gold. He went from 400k followers to 800k+ last i saw. He keeps deleting all his tweets and working everybody.

 
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