The WWE Network is Real!

So for weeks the WWE has been teasing a big, company changing announcement to take place in Vegas. We heard a lot of talk about the future of the business ad all of that kind of stuff, and they managed to pay off the excitement. Now we've heard about the possibility if a network for years and what we got wasn't exactly what we expected, but is more than likely the smarter move. The Network is not its own channel on TV. It's more of a Netflix app but for wrestling. A 24/7 streaming service. This actually makes a lot more sense in the grand scheme of things. Less hassle, less hoops to jump through, and more control on their end. However if the service is as good as their love stream I don't have a lot of hope because it crashed on me multiple times and I had to refresh. Maybe that was just my end, I have no idea. For now I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. So what is the Network? It's an app. Pure and simple. You will be able to use it on your gaming consoles, any smart device like a phone or tablet, and TVs that allow apps. However some devices like certain TVs and the X Box One won't be getting the app until around the summer.

So what is featured on the WWE Network? Simply put, everything. Original programming and reality shows, PPVs will be live streamed, you have access to the entire libraries of WWE, WCW, ECW, and NXT, and they announced other shows like Top 10 Countdown and Monday Night War. Overall its a loaded package. The best part? It's only 9.99 a month! That caught me with an actual wow! I only hope there is a yearly subscription option. So if you're a wrestling fan, it's about to become a lot harder to go outside. Why would anyone anymore? I'm going to need. Lot more pairs of sweatpants and underwear, not to mention stocking up on cereal. On the images they showed during the press conference they listed Total Divas as well which is curious since that is currently on the E! Network so I'm sure there was an interesting deal going on there.

So now let's talk about the actual press conference. Stephanie McMahon was doing a lot of the heavy lifting as the host of the event. Honestly, I was expecting either a complete shit show, or a lot of boring executive talk. I was pleasently surprised. It felt a lot more like an E3 press conference on a condensed scale. We got plenty of stage talking with a screen presentation, but we also got Triple H and Shawn Michaels as DX stealing the show. These two guys have always been hilarious and that was obvious here. Its hard to tell if their mix up with the teleprinter was staged but it came off hilarious and clever nonetheless and I'm not going to ruin it. If you didn't see the video, this part alone was worth watching. The show wasn't incredibly long, or rather didn't feel that way, I think it was only an hour and a half. All honesty I missed the first few minutes because I was late. I'll say two hours at most. There were only a few superstars involved with the show including Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold, and naturally John Cena. Otherwise me mostly saw Stephanie introducing everything. There were some interesting train wrecks however. The MLB guy on stage seemed like he was having a stroke (and that relationship wasn't clearly stated either) and there was an awkward segment with an exec that just felt horribly staged with another Teleprompter gag and then him be intimated by DX. It was just awkward.

So what is all of this going to mean for the WWE and their talent? After the announcement I saw a lot of wrestlers and insiders questioning about their pay. Wrestlers get pay bonuses based on PPV buys. Well if everyone is using the app PPV buys might see a drastic drop. How many people are going to pay fifty to sixty dollars when you can pay that for the entire year? Well if this is successful chances are you will get millions of people buying the Network subscription versus the hundreds of thousands that buy PPVS. You do the math. Now as far as the pay boosts for PPVs. Well that's more insider talk that we will probably never hear about but in a perfect world the WWE will be pulling in a lot more money because it is going directly to them trough their own Network versus paying out to other networks. So hopefully they will have more money to throw at their talent. Again, in a perfect world. Those guys and gals have earned it so I just hope they don't get screwed. And what of how TV will work? Will the show lose ratings when people are watching on the app? Will they track ratings on their own Network? What if this Legends House show doesn't work? Will they cancel immediately or let it ride out? The main thing about their own Network is that it's now all on them. They have a lot more responsibility but a lot more control so maybe if their first season of something isn't working then they can keep it around longer than most other networks would and see if it picks up. It's an interesting time not only for the WWE but for television. And now we get to the cherry on top. The release day. February 24th right after Monday Night Raw, the WWE Network goes live.

So what do you think? Are you excited for the WWE Network? Was it a good presentation? What were the pros or cons? Are you going to subscribe or at least check it out? Feel free to sound off in the comments. As always you can reach me on Twitter @advent_crash. Don't have a Facebook but I am on Youtube with my own Wrestling Machinima called HCW: Hardcore Championship Wrestling. Its kind of on hiatus right now but I promise more episodes are coming soon! 

**UPDATE** So looking back on the pricing, they were purposely a little vauge. They said it was 9.99 per month but also said that's if you go in for six months. So it sounds like its 60 for 6 months and 120 for a year. Most subscriptions have a 60 a year deal so this could be twice that, but honestly, there's so much content that it's still a hell of a deal.