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January Wrasslin' |OT| The Assassination of Daniel Bryan by the Coward Vince McMahon

On the other hand, PPV's are now even less special as you pay only 9,99 for them and there are no more buyrate incentives for WWE.

Actually, that might not be a bad thing, because why pay 5 million for a Rock WM appearance if it's not going to translate in money earned?

Because live gate and subscription spike. They'll still get their 60 for Mania, but it's gonna from boxing style to... Something new
 
I subscribed to shop.wrestlingis.com because I like Kaiju Big Battel and wanted to see what the fuss was with Chikara. At the time I thought $7.99 for that much content was a pretty good deal. Ended up unsubscribing a few months later due to technical issues with their streaming, but figured I would pick it up again at a later date when they had things in a better place.

The streaming's never been great on that site - luckily, they use an older video player without rmtp encryption, so any flash grabbing video downloader can easily download the complete .mp4 files of the shows. That was the only reason I kept my subscription up.

I think more indie companies are going to have to get behind the idea of giving people direct downloads to the files, without DRM, as SmartMarkVideo and companies like Progress & wXw have been doing. That way you don't have to rely on your streaming infrastructure holding up and, also, I think a lot of people would prefer a dowloadable file they can do whatever they want with, as opposed to a link on a website that lets them stream it.

BronsonLee said:
Basically, if you don't have a monthly subscription style deal or are New Japan, you can suck my ball because I'm not paying you that much anymore :p

Yeah, there's very few indie companies I'd be willing to pay that much to these days. PWG get my money because they're just awesome, but I wish they did .mp4 downloads on the day of the DVDs release. So annoying. Beyond Wrestling get my money, because I think they're a fun product more people need to check out. AIW & AAW get my money, because their shows are available to download at a fair price, but that's it as far as my US indie spending goes these days. I can definitely see myself scaling that back as well, once WWE Network's available here.
 

Aiii

So not worth it
Because live gate and subscription spike. They'll still get their 60 for Mania, but it's gonna from boxing style to... Something new

I suppose. It's gonna be interesting, but I'm happy they are going for it, might be a gamble but I'd like to see more OD stuff as compared to traditional network programming. WWE being on the forefront might prove brilliant (or idiotic beyond believe). Time will tell.
 

Ithil

Member
I just thought of another thing. Indie companies have been pioneering the whole iPPV market for a few years now.

Vince just made them all look like chumps. Most indie companies charge $10 - $15 per show, VOD or Live. These shows are usually low quality and are hit and miss if they work or not. Vince is giving you everything from live shows to access to the vault to new original content with professional production qualities, on all devices at $10 per month.

Biggest things you can compare it to in the indie worlds are WWNLive, Ring Of Honor's Ringside Membership and Smart Mark Video On Demand. None of them provide the level of service for the value that you'll get from WWE Network though.

This is of course, assuming that it all works....and I'm fairly certain that by partnering with the guys behind MLB.tv, it will.

To be honest, the only company to really turn iPPVs into a big business is NJPW (WK7 in 2013 had over 100 thousand buys in Japan, for instance, and it's been booming since 2012). Most places like ROH or whoever, do absolutely minute numbers.

NJPW is on the rise too, so iPPVs will continue to grow as their business, but the US indie companies don't really have the technology or money to make them viable.

On WWE and PPVs, the WON posited this a while back, which is that PPVs will become very unimportant as time goes on, more like TV specials like what Impact does, and that really WWE will be TV focused, with no "end goals" of a PPV anymore, just a straight, continuous TV thing. COmbine the Network making PPVs standardized and not reliant on buyrates, and also the new TV rights fees they're negotiating for, and they will be putting much more emphasis on RAW and Smackdown in the future.
 

Penguin

Member
On the other hand, PPV's are now even less special as you pay only 9,99 for them and there are no more buyrate incentives for WWE.

Actually, that might not be a bad thing, because why pay 5 million for a Rock WM appearance if it's not going to translate in money earned?

Mania is Mania...

Curious about the other PPVs... will they take more risks since they aren't beheld to pure numbers... or will they stack early cards to incentive the network... beyond the amazing deal!
 
The streaming's never been great on that site - luckily, they use an older video player without rmtp encryption, so any flash grabbing video downloader can easily download the complete .mp4 files of the shows. That was the only reason I kept my subscription up.

You son of a bitch pirate! I'm telling the Smart Mark guy right now!

... Well, I would if he didn't hate me apparently. Meh. I dunno, the dude is crazy! He yelled at me for unfollowing him on Twitter way back when, and I didn't know how to react (I followed him through those suggested things, then he posted some weird shit so I bailed)

But yeah, for promotions with an existing fanbase? I think they're good, but growth will decay. For new ones? Or ones trying to come back? Just give up. Go play baseball. Be in a band. Get a new hobby.
 
Only wrasslin' I pay for has to be approved by Vincent Kennedy McMahon.

moneyvl.gif
 

Penguin

Member
It's weird that it took WWF/WWE so long to give wrestlers theme music when entering the Rumble and showing their entry number.

(Re-watching Rumble 92 at work)
 
You son of a bitch pirate! I'm telling the Smart Mark guy right now!

Lol, I'm pretty sure I told him myself when I mentioned it on another board a while back, without realising he posts there. They got $80 out of my subscription, I got a bunch of old CHIKARA shows. Seems like a fair trade :p

BronsonLee said:
He yelled at me for unfollowing him on Twitter way back when, and I didn't know how to react

I've had that before, some dude got mad because I unfollowed him after he flooded his timeline with shit about baseball. What the fuck do I care about baseball?

BronsonLee said:
But yeah, for promotions with an existing fanbase? I think they're good, but growth will decay. For new ones? Or ones trying to come back? Just give up. Go play baseball. Be in a band. Get a new hobby.

I think it's still possible, given the right sort of buzz - I wouldn't have bought Beyond Wrestling's Americanrana if I hadn't seen so many people raving about the show on twitter, but now I'm a fan and more likely to buy their future events.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
It's weird that it took WWF/WWE so long to give wrestlers theme music when entering the Rumble and showing their entry number.

(Re-watching Rumble 92 at work)

Pretty much not until the new generation started did every single wrestler have theme music though the numbers who did grew steadily in the late 80's.
 

Penguin

Member
Pretty much not until the new generation started did every single wrestler have theme music though the numbers who did grew steadily in the late 80's.

Yeah that's true
But you still had folks like Hogan and Macho and Flair and the likes

Just weird to hear no real fanfare

Though guess also worked because audience reactions were pretty lively for most
 

Rapstah

Member
I don't think they play entrance music for everyone in the Rumble until 1996. They try to do it in 1995 and play music for maybe the first seven or eight people but can't be assed after them.

The 1995 Rumble is pretty surreal to watch with what a weird overlap it has of future Attitude Era guys, Hogan era leftovers, New Generation nobodies and the occasional Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

Edit: Uh, no, Hunter is in the 1996 one. My statement applies to that one too though.
 

Downhome

Member
This may be a weird question, but does there exist a YT show or some other online video show that does for wrestling what things like AVGN does for games, Nostalgia Critic does for...well random movies and stuff, etc...?
 

Rapstah

Member
The rumble with a ton of Luchadors was surreal.
1997. Mil Mascaras makes an appearance. I think it's also the Rumble where Owen enters twice because Jim Cornette attacks him upon his first entrance.

90s Rumbles were amazing.
This may be a weird question, but does there exist a YT show or some other online video show that does for wrestling what things like AVGN does for games, Nostalgia Critic does for...well random movies and stuff, etc...?
Check out OSW Review. They start off reviewing Wrestlemania 1 with pretty bad microphones but maybe ten episodes in they improve massively and are a blast to listen to and/or watch after that. They've run through every WWF PPV from WM1 through the Hogan era and have since done a three-parter on Arquette winning the WCW heavyweight belt and are moving on to the revival of ECW next.
 

BFIB

Member
I am so pumped for this network.

I honestly thought to start it'd be WrestleMainia included with the package, a few of their new shows and maybe streaming of every Monday Night Raw ever to start. Followed by things being added piece by piece later on.

To get every single PPV from ECW, WCW, and WWE/F, I am going to have a field day watching stuff.

Its rare that an announcement lives up to the hype, but this has exceeded it.
 

Downhome

Member
1997. Mil Mascaras makes an appearance. I think it's also the Rumble where Owen enters twice because Jim Cornette attacks him upon his first entrance.

90s Rumbles were amazing.

Check out OSW Review. They start off reviewing Wrestlemania 1 with pretty bad microphones but maybe ten episodes in they improve massively and are a blast to listen to and/or watch after that. They've run through every WWF PPV from WM1 through the Hogan era and have since done a three-parter on Arquette winning the WCW heavyweight belt and are moving on to the revival of ECW next.

I'll give that a look, thanks.

I was thinking about this last night, especially after the network was announced. If someone isn't doing it yet, someone needs to. There are a lot of views and subscribers and hits for whoever steps up to do it. Think - Bryan & Vinny but in an extended video format or something. Or, like I said, AVGN/NC but all about wrestling related stuff.
 

jred2k

Member
Guys, I don't we should express so much interest in the network just yet. If it gets over before Vince wants it to he'll have to bury it and only show episodes of Legends House and reruns of Hogan Knows Best.
 

bjork

Member
I'll hold off on the network until it goes through the initial bumps and reworks, I spent $0 on WWE in the last year and don't feel like I missed out. I'd mostly be interested in access to the old episodes of shows from the late 80s/early 90s, not just PPVs and selected matches. If it's fully fleshed out to have everything, then it will be worth it for me.
 

Toki767

Member
If you pay for the Network for 6 months out of a year, paying around mid March every year for 6 months would still net you Mania, MITB, and SummerSlam PPVs. The only thing you'd miss out on by not having a full year is the Rumble.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
If you pay for the Network for 6 months out of a year, paying around mid March every year for 6 months would still net you Mania, MITB, and SummerSlam PPVs. The only thing you'd miss out on by not having a full year is the Rumble.

Not acceptable. I like SummerSlam but I wouldn't give up the Rumble. Nor EC for that matter, that can be pretty good too.
 
It's sort of a shame that Mae Young will be largely remembered for being "Crazy Old Sex Lady" from the attitude era+. Reading up on her a bit more makes her seem pretty rad and as far as I know, no one else can say they've wrestled in 9 different decades, right?
 
here's one for the shoot-style fans (looking at you, Boots):

Akira Maeda vs Nobuhiko Takada - UWF, 1988
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbOfF25bhXo

not much to say, Maeda is, as i hope everyone knows, one of the biggest, stiffest assholes to ever lace a pair of boots.

Takada was the UWFi golden boy and was instrumental in starting PRIDE FC, where won a few worked MMA fights to save face after getting embarrassed by Brazilian legend, Hickson Gracie (got armbarred twice).

he was also the main driving force behind the HUSTLE promotion, which you might remember as the one where Muta impregnates a woman with his mist and she gives birth to giant egg from where Akebono pops out.

yeah.

mandatory Akebono video everytime his name is mentioned:

http://youtu.be/WR6ghxKP4rQ?t=5m18s
 

FyreWulff

Member
What's all this noise about Ric Flair speaking to a team other than the Panthers? He's older than the team itself by about 50 years. You'd think people would understand that.
 
Don't care what anybody says, but the New Generation era started when Bret Hart defeated Rick Flair for the title in 92. By this point Warrior was gone and Flair was on his way out 2 months after. This is when we started seeing guys like Razor Ramon, Yokozuna, HBK starting his singles career, Tatanka, Lugar etc.

So New Generation era October 92 - June 96.

I really can't wait to relive this era and see all leading up to 97, the GOAT year across WWF,WCW and ECW
 
I am also looking forward to pre nWo WCW. I haven't watched much of that as a kid outside of randomly catching it on TV for WCW Saturday Night, with that awful stage arena with High Voltage and Roadblock always wrestling on it.
 
Lol, I'm pretty sure I told him myself when I mentioned it on another board a while back, without realising he posts there. They got $80 out of my subscription, I got a bunch of old CHIKARA shows. Seems like a fair trade :p

That's true. You could've easily just dive bombed it in one month!

I've had that before, some dude got mad because I unfollowed him after he flooded his timeline with shit about baseball. What the fuck do I care about baseball?

I think he posted dicks or something. It was something dumb.

I think it's still possible, given the right sort of buzz - I wouldn't have bought Beyond Wrestling's Americanrana if I hadn't seen so many people raving about the show on twitter, but now I'm a fan and more likely to buy their future events.

Beyond Wrestling is an anomaly, but a good one!
 

strobogo

Banned
I am also looking forward to pre nWo WCW. I haven't watched much of that as a kid outside of randomly catching it on TV for WCW Saturday Night, with that awful stage arena with High Voltage and Roadblock always wrestling on it.

Pre Hogan, pre-NWO WCW has some excellent stuff in 1991-1993, but also some god awful shit mixed in. In ring wise, I think early 90s WCW really blew early 90s WWF out of the water in the ring.
 
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