WWE Network on Netflix

[Dolfan in NYC]

That old thread was too long and needed to die.   (Some) WWE Network stuff is on Netflix!  

Enjoy!

[Swift]

I'm pretty much a very casual wrestling viewer these days. I've only been watching the WWE PPVs this year and some Raw highlights on Youtube. The move to Netflix has excited me (I no longer have to pay for Sportsnet) and I'm hesitantly telling myself I'll tune in each week but at the same time, the shows are 3 hours long so maybe not?

However, I was very excited to see a lot of the back catalogue on there yesterday. I've gone back to the beginning and started watching the Wrestling Classic. I haven't watched older stuff in years, so this won't be news to any of you, but it's immediately noticeable how unpolished the whole thing is. Half the wrestlers are doughy fat guys (I miss that look in my wrestling; yeah there are guys like Bronson Reed and Otis, but they still look athletic in a way that Adrian Adonis just doesn't), McMahon talks over Alfred Hayes, Jack Tunney stumbles through his bit to the point where Okerlund just cuts him off, promo bits take place while the ring announcer is yammering on in the background, the camera misses a finish where Tito Santana has his foot on the rope during a pin, etc. I think I prefer the rough and tumble, unslick nature of it all.

[zendragon]

the way netflix works you could easily chop the show into 3 hours or 6 halves or what ever works for you

[Cobra Commander]

I wonder if Raw would be paced any differently on Netflix than on cable

[Swift]

Hadn't thought of that. Will there be ad breaks built into it? Or just lots of recap videos?

[Peck]

Possibly a stupid question, but will the Peacock version of WWE Network here in the States continue to have the whole RAW back catalog?

[Niners Fan in CT]

32 minutes ago, Peck said:

Possibly a stupid question, but will the Peacock version of WWE Network here in the States continue to have the whole RAW back catalog?

Nope.  The RAW (and NXT) archive is now gone from Peacock. 

[caley]

This is the first time I've had the majority of the back WWE catalog at my fingertips as a longtime Netflix subscriber. So far, I've watched the first two 'In Your Houses'. It's actually no wonder the NWO was so big because the WWF is so CORNY, here. I was a bigtime WWF watcher but kinda lost interest in high school/after Bret Hart lost the title, but I gravitated back toward it when Hart formed the Hart Foundation group. 

But these shows are SO clique-heavy (Which I know in retrospect but wasn't aware of at the time), the first show has Razor match, a Diesel main event, a phonecall from 123 Kid recovering from injury and SO many references to Michaels even though he isn't on the card. The second show has another Razor match, a 123 Kid match, a Michaels match and another Diesel main event. But it's actually quite funny because Diesel does a promo on both shows and they're pretty dreadful, Michaels does 2 promos on the second show and they're REALLY bad, even forgetting what the name of the show is but Vince is just enamored of them, praising them non-stop, laughing at all their jokes. it's WEIRD, man. It's kinda like Vince finally got to sit at the cool table with Shawn and the clique and he's so worried about screwing it up.

But the funniest thing on the two shows is Jeff Jarrett doing his concert because, even though Jim Johnston has the songwriting credit on it, I assumed Vince had a lot of input because No. 1. He LOVES the song and No. 2. It sounds like a song you could imagine Vince singing; in the car, in his office, angrily over the phone to Jim Johnston when the early versions don't do what he wants. So, Jarrett "performs" it, Vince keeps saying things like "Wow!" and doing that "fun" Vince chuckle and talking about how surprised he was at it. Then they cut to Petengill in the crowd surveying the fans about it and, of course, Jarrett being a heel and these being WWF fans of the era, the kids are like "It's not bad", "it's terrible" and "it's ok" and you can practically hear Vince's heart breaking going "Oh.", "Well?" and "Tough crowd". I laughed really hard thinking of Vince ranting afterwards "Goddamn kids wouldn't know good music if it kicked them in the ass!" then driving home, listening to 'With My Baby Tonight' and weeping.

Also, somebody is really monkeying with the lyrics that are displayed when you try to Google it. 
"You call me narrow-minded
About music and stuff like that
So I called you retarded
And I'm sorry If I ruined our little chat"

No, Musicmatch, I do not think those are the lyrics to "With My Baby Tonight"

[zendragon]

Kinda weird that when JJ did his concerts (didn't he do another one with Sawyer Brown?) he's a hell but he's presented as non-terrible. Like the fans are supposed to boo a guy for doing a decent job?

[caley]

Watching the first Monday Night Raw and Rob Bartlett is clearly terrible, but it's funny how he seems to genuinely irritate and befuddle Vince McMahon to the point that when Bartlett spots Doink the Clown in the crowd and calls him "Dork the Clown", Vince McMahon forgets the name of his own creation: "That's Dork! What a name for a clown. Dork?" before Macho goes "His name is Doink" and McMahon echoes it "It's Doink, not Dork."

[DreamBroken]

On 1/4/2025 at 11:14 AM, zendragon said:

Kinda weird that when JJ did his concerts (didn't he do another one with Sawyer Brown?) he's a hell but he's presented as non-terrible. Like the fans are supposed to boo a guy for doing a decent job?

Unforgiven 98 with Sawyer Brown, performing "Some Girls Do", always loved that one

[zendragon]

On 1/6/2025 at 1:44 PM, caley said:

Watching the first Monday Night Raw and Rob Bartlett is clearly terrible, but it's funny how he seems to genuinely irritate and befuddle Vince McMahon to the point that when Bartlett spots Doink the Clown in the crowd and calls him "Dork the Clown", Vince McMahon forgets the name of his own creation: "That's Dork! What a name for a clown. Dork?" before Macho goes "His name is Doink" and McMahon echoes it "It's Doink, not Dork."

I watched this on The Vault. Certain things didn't age well.. The Guy who paid off Rita Chatterton settled to avoid the cost of litigation says he thinks Mike Tyson got a raw deal in his rape case and ends the show with a joke about the Woody Allen child abuse allegations 

[caley]

In a much sillier part, I LOVE how they try to get over a catchphrase where one announcer says "It's Raw", the next one says "It's uncensored" and " It's uncooked! " which is genuinely a bad catchphrase (You really want people to think "uncooked" when describing your show? Is that a positive descriptor?) but is made even better that Macho and Bartlett keep forgetting to do their part, then later Vince says "It's uncensored" and Bartlett, who has most likely been talked to during a break, robotically adds "It's uncooked" and Vince stumbles not figuring on Bartlett's Pavlovian response. Eventually at some point they basically stop what they're talking about as Vince says let's get this right, and they go through the whole deal again and Vince is laughing but you know he's just seething underneath. 

It's a genuinely terrible show in almost all aspects (The Mike Tyson thing with Bartlett doing a bad impression is just interminable) and a hilariously entertaining car-crash especially knowing Vince's desire to control everything about WWE's presentation and his craving of creating a mainstream entertainment show and how badly it fumbles away from that.

[zendragon]

I'll never complain about JR on AEW or pretty much any wrestling commentary after that Mike Tyson bit

[RazorbladeKiss87]

I thought about trying to run through the early episodes of RAW earlier this year but the first episode just stopped me dead. That commentary team was the drizzling shits. 

[twiztor]

23 hours ago, caley said:

In a much sillier part, I LOVE how they try to get over a catchphrase where one announcer says "It's Raw", the next one says "It's uncensored" and " It's uncooked! " which is genuinely a bad catchphrase (You really want people to think "uncooked" when describing your show? Is that a positive descriptor?)

back when my buddies and i were doing wrestling in my backyard (so...2002ish?), we were taping it with a shitty camcorder and called it "Uncooked" precisely because it was such a stupid name. I really need to get those tapes digitized and uploaded to YouTube.

[DangerMark]

Uncooked before uncensored might have worked? Uncooked last is baffling.

[caley]

Watching the 1988 Royal Rumble and the Dino Bravo tries to set a weightlifting record is INTERMINABLE. This is clearly such a Vince segement! The crowd doesn't care but they keep slowly increasing the weight amount and Mean Gene marvels at how much Bravo is lifting, gets into little verbal spats with Frenchy Martin, Jesse argues with Vince, and the crowd continues to boo him and there is no payoff. Okerlund: "You could be eye witnessing history in the making!" Crowd: "Boo!" It is in the neighbour of 16-17 minutes and the entire point is that Dino and Jesse Ventura cheat (?!) to break the record. No one comes out and goes "Hey he cheated!" Vince just says it over commentary. Truly remarkable un-entertainment.

[Curt McGirt]

That reminds me of Al Snow telling a story about how Tony Atlas was brought into Georgia by Ole and they made his big intro the weightlifting deal. I don't remember who came out to do the injury but you know the drill. Well, the next week they had a match, Tony did absolutely everything he knew how (not much probably) and won in 12 minutes. Ole fired him immediately because he couldn't do shit with him after that, there was no arc, it just killed the gimmick and he had to return months later to retrain the people and Tony as well and do it right this time. This is weird because it's asshole Ole Anderson not giving green Tony VERY specific instructions; it's unlike him to do that just on a personal level and a real stupid mistake

[Niners Fan in CT]

Is there any way to watch all the Hidden Gems content?   I don't even think their YouTube Vault channel has it.   

[Technico Support]

I'm still watching old WCW but it's honestly too boring to review.  One thing that struck me is how awful the singles scene has gotten (I'm at Halloween Havoc 1990).  89 was built around Flair, Funk, Muta, Sting, Steamboat, and Luger, with guys like Pillman contributing as well.  By year's end/early 1990, Muta, Funk and Steamboat left and Sting got hurt, and they never elevated anyone else to help out. They'd seemingly been building Steve Williams, but he left after the program with Luger got scrapped.  Even after Sting came back, it was just Flair, Sting, and Luger at the top, and then a rotating troupe of guys who would never be elevated, working meaningless matches.  The tag division was stacked and most cards had more tag bouts than singles -- Capitol Combat 90 had THREE singles bouts on an eight-match card, with one being the world title bout, one pitting Mean Mark vs Johnny Ace, and one manager vs manager match.  So really, outside the main event, you got one singles match.  Meanwhile, at various times, we got past their prime guys like Sheik, Harley Race, Buddy Landell, Tommy Rich, guys like PIllman and Z Man who should have been teaming instead, and guys like Vader showing up for one-shots and disappearing.  Look at Bash 90, where we got, IN A ROW, Pillman vs Landell, Rotunda vs Sheik, Furnas vs Mantell, and Race vs Rich.  Jesus Christ, what a bleak singles division.  I have no idea why they couldn't split up some tag teams and put guys like Simmons or the Steiners on singles runs.  Because as it stood, it felt like they completely punted on a division that was supposed to support three belts.  When does this shit get better?  Dangerous Alliance era?  Because this is bad.

Also, LOL at WCW pushing a legit top 10 on the same show (Clash 12) where unranked Black Scorpion got a world title match.

Edited February 12 by Technico Support

[worldcupfever]

34 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Also, LOL at WCW pushing a legit top 10 on the same show (Clash 12) where unranked Black Scorpion got a world title match.

They should have had someone in the top 10 under the hood so they could justify the title match when the Scorpion was unmasked.  

[Technico Support]

Flair, fresh off losing the world title, challenging Luger for the US title at the Clash in order to “regain the top contender spot.”  Fuck’s sake.

I’m grateful to the wrestling Gods that Havoc 90 on Peacock is the (shortened) video tape release, which cut out 2-3 meaningless singles matches and Southern Boys vs Master Blasters.

Imagine how much better this era could have been with Sid and Windham doing their own thing at the upper midcard or top of the card instead of in the Horsemen.

 Also, and it’s just personal taste, but Flair is so exposed as a regular TV and PPV act.  His style was perfectly suited for a touring champion.  But as a guy on TV, doing the same routine in every match regardless of opponent or storyline, he’s so repetitive and dull that I’m wearing out the +10 button.

Edited February 12 by Technico Support

[SirSmUgly]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

Also, and it’s just personal taste, but Flair is so exposed as a regular TV and PPV act.  His style was perfectly suited for a touring champion.  But as a guy on TV, doing the same routine in every match regardless of opponent or storyline, he’s so repetitive and dull that I’m wearing out the +10 button.

His entire philosophy is built around what he'd want to see from a touring champ as a fan. I am lower on Flair as a worker for this reason. He didn't even try to adjust to being on weekly television in the post-territories era. 

It's also why, IMO, his best matches post-territories are all as a babyface, when he was forced out of his same fucking heel routine that he ran into the ground. Unfortunately for him, he was much better on the stick as a heel.

I also have limited love for guys like Flair who can't adjust as they get older and less athletic. Flair continues to try spots that he really can't do anymore deeper into the 1990s. 

I hope no one gets too mad at me for this, but old Flair is basically old Chris Jericho, but with better mic skills and a more limited sense of creativity. 

 

 

[Technico Support]

22 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

His entire philosophy is built around what he'd want to see from a touring champ as a fan. I am lower on Flair as a worker for this reason. He didn't even try to adjust to being on weekly television in the post-territories era. 

Yes!  Thank you.  On Clash 12, he challenged Luger for the US title but still worked like a touring world champ, like Luger had to beat him.  He called (I assume Flair called the match) for a press slam four separate times.  Flair was so limited it's ridiculous.  Exact same shine, heat, comeback as every other Flair/Luger (or Flair/anybody) match ever.  They worked a 15 minute match that felt at least 10 minutes longer, clearly there just to fill time, and ended with a Stan Hansen run-in to microwave book Hansen vs Luger for Havoc.

Edited February 12 by Technico Support