I found myself hesitant to subscribe to the WWE Network for the often promoted figure of $9.99 per month. It took WWE 12 months to reach their break-even point for their streaming service and let’s be honest – the PG era of WWE is great for the kids, but not so much for those of us who watched Mick Foley get tossed from the top of the cage.
Or Taker bust a hand through the center of the ring.
I subscribed for Wrestlemania with the thought that this could be the worst PPV for WWE in the last decade. They’re milking the John Cena cow dry. Brock Lesnar has been turned into a beast, but Roman Reigns? The whole lock-and-load Superman punch nonsense is more for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I find myself chanting “CM Punk” sometimes while watching Raw on Hulu Plus. But for ten bucks and the chance to not watch kids movies on a Sunday evening? Ok.
What I Like About WWE Network
The best thing about the WWE Network is that it works on all devices. I have it loaded onto the Amazon Fire TV stick and can watch in HD. Wrestlemania actually looked pretty awesome through streaming, though glitches here and there crept up. Comcast pinged our modem and made it reset as well, which was a minor headache, but overall the experience was good.
Having the live schedule is also nice. You can watch something live if you want or you can start something on-demand. For those who are crazy in love with the WWE, the network allows them to live and breathe it 24/7 and that’s a good thing for the company.
I like being able to access some of the other pay per views in the past. There were some bad ones [ok there were A LOT of bad ones for awhile], but being able to show the kids some of the Undertaker’s earliest matches was a lot of fun. Showing some of the better WCW moments was also kind of fun – the kids loved Goldberg – but they’re not ready for ECW’s Sandman yet.
What I Don’t Like About WWE Network
Much of their streaming content are little vignette videos like “The Top 10 best kisses of AJ Lee.” Bet CM Punk loves that one, especially with John Cena locking tongues with her. It’s a lot like how the internet is setup today. “The 7 best this” or “The 12 best that” gets a lot of play.
Most of the shows are pretty weak. Legends House has the novelty of having some Hall of Famers bickering with each other, but I’ve been sick of reality TV for a decade. Paying $9.99 per month for more of it is just twisting the knife deeper. The live stream is also very repetitive. The same shows tend to air live every day.
And Game of Thrones superstar crests? Blatant marketing.
There’s some upcoming programming on WWE Network that may be worthwhile. If you’re used to paying $40-$65 for a WWE PPV from a cable or satellite provider, then the $9.99 per month is a pretty good deal. From a 2015 standpoint, however, the value of the content on WWE doesn’t match what Netflix or even Amazon is putting out in original series right now. If you’ve only got $10 to spend on online streaming, other services have better stuff.
If you love WWE though, you’ll find this a pretty good value indeed.
