WWETV

[Guest Imarkout4chrisdaniels]

How about showing the weekly OVW TV show? A glimpse of some future stars. I like the "On the Road" show that was brought up earlier, as well. Also, I would like to see wrestling feuds broken down in a head-to-head sport outlook. They could highlight each wrestler's strengths and weaknesses, and how they wrestled similar opponents. It might give alittle bit of legitimacy to the matches, you never know.

[Guest The Hollywood Fashion Plate]

I can imagine that their editors would be working overtime to erase all references to 'the WWF' from commentary and graphics if they ever show classic WWE footage.

[Guest tetsubeav]

How about showing the weekly OVW TV show?  A glimpse of some future stars.  

ONLY if they get some production values on that show. Jeebus, it looks like it was shot on VHS by a high-school AV club.

[Guest The Metal Maniac]

You know, trying to show a significant amount of WWF footage would be a real pain in the ass. They'd have to go through ALL the tapes, and change the logo in EVERY place that it occurs. I dunno if they'd have to for the older logo (From '95) because apparantly changing to the Attitude logo was what fucked them over, but still - that Attitude logo is on EVERYTHING, and they have to take it out in EVERY instance. Did anyone else notice they blurred it off the microphones and turnbuckles during Raw Retro moments? It could just be really annoying to the production guys.

 

And I don't trust Vince to run anything like this - I mean, he's the same guy that tried to pretend that there were only ever 3 members of the nWo, and that apparantly the Wolfpac and anything else after about '97 involving the nWo never happened. They practive revisionist history to such an annoying degree that watching such a channel for more then 20 minutes at a time would more then likely piss me off.

 

Oh, and remember on Confidential when Rikishi just started dancing after his matches for no real reason? Too What?

 

If someone neutral was in charge, I'd love it, but I don't trust Vince.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Guys, this is all pretty simple:

 

They don't have to edit that stuff out as long as they have no intention of ever showing it in the UK. That's how come old video games can still be sold with WWF logos on them with no recall.

[Guest bob_barron]

Yea- if they don't market the channel in the UK isn't everything cool?

 

The blurring out is getting really funny- check out King's book

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

I'm pretty sure. The Fund tried to block video game sales, but it was only UK sales and games like WWF RAW for Xbox continue to sell on with the old logo today.

 

Bringing a channel as niche as that to the UK is probably never going to happen anyway. Getting it on the major US providers will be a huge hurdle as it is.

[Guest bob_barron]

They should try it in Canada first- not because I live there part of the year- but because according to everything I heard the ratings aren't freefalling there like they have been here

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

The ratings are pretty stable here. They're low, but usually stable.

 

Starting in Canada would be a bad idea. We don't really get any Canadian channels (for instance we have Cartoon Network, and are denied YTV and Teletoon.) I've never seen CBC or MuchMusic (although a MuchUSA exists, my Canadian friend tells me It's Just Not The Same) or any of that stuff.

 

Meanwhile, US channels can establish pretty quickly but have a long wait to get into Canada. Canadians just recently got a whole new batch of channels approved, but they're nothing we haven't had for quite a while (MSNBC is one of the new ones over there.)

 

So either start in the US and get in the queue to go to Canada, or start in Canada and maybe never make it to the US.

 

However, just getting on the major providers is difficult enough. I'd love that new Computer/Video Game Network if I could get it, and I won't be getting the new Anime Network either. One is partnered with ComCast and only appears for their cable customers, and I don't know what the deal is with the other one.

 

Getting into home is a massive wall. Even Disney can't build a new channel anymore. They bought Fox Family Channel for a disgustingly large amount of money so that they could already start out in almost everyone's home. It's just easier to spend nearly 5 billion and buy a current airwave than to grow the old-fashioned way.

[Guest Ram]

Who would the WWE buy out though?

 

QVC?

[Guest Luke Cage]

Some of the ideas in this thread sound good. IMO, people should keep their expectations low. Whenever people speculate and imagine, the reality usually disappoints.

My thoughts on a WWF network? More opportunities for Vince to market his wrestling product, not to present good wrestling. Think of it like a wrestling version of the Home Shopping Network. JMO.

[Guest geniusMoment]

they can use the old wwf logo, just not the attitude version one that came about in 1998. Haven't you noticed during the raw moments they show the old wwf logo running up the screen while the attitude logo is blurred.

[Guest Goodear]

Free of Charge Show Ideas...

 

WWE Biography - Charting wrestlers from the very beginnings of their careers to present day to see how exactly he did go from 'Stunning' Steve to 'Stone Cold'. An ideal place to air squash matches from back in the day with new commentary provided by the wrestler in question and the host.

 

The Match - Highlighting the gimmick matches all people love and the coal miner's glove match too! Imagine an hour of Royal Rumble clips from the years of the event. And for all of you that think that they're isn't enough of this to go around, they do about 15 of the things on the cage match... bingo bongo.

 

Feud for Thought... Detailing the whole of a classic feud with commentary from the participants as they analyize their own classic matches.

 

Indy 500 - uh... show indy matches! YEAH!

[Guest IB2BLACK]

I don't think a wrestling channel would work. Even thought they have a lot of tapes, how much do people really wanna see? Also, the stuff we want to see, Vince could sell it on DVD.

[Guest bob_barron]

I say start it now. Assuming wrestling is a cyclical business- in a little it may get hot again- making the channel a success

[Guest justcoz]

I don't see any problem getting WWE-TV on digital cable. I think a lot of us are having illusions of it being a wrestling purists dream however. It will still have to serve as a vehicle to promote the WWE machine above all but it could still be a cool representation of the industry's history. However, don't be suprised if you see merchandise infomercials and WWE produced television series mimicking The Osbornes and being more reminiscent of Fugi Vice on Tuesday Night Titans.

 

Hopefully Vince realizes that he has accomplished his dream - he owns the wrestling business. This all belongs to him and he should now spotlight what got the business this far... the regional territories and performers, angles and matches from then. Pro wrestling is one of the most lasting things in television history and the more archive footage they can get their hands on... the better... there should be programming to appeal to each wrestling audience over the years - pretty much EVERYONE, at some point, liked a particular era of wrestling so an audience is there.

 

Catch the older demographics in the mornings and afternoons with the 60's, 70's and 80's era wrestling.

 

In the evenings do their own production shows, perhaps hire Michael Landsberg to host a WWE Off The Record with a different guest each night.

 

Shows with Confidential/VH1 style features which look at specific moments in the business, feuds, performers, personality profiles of current stars, etc. Things like a WWE Diaries, following a wrestler on the road or a WWE Cribs.

 

Go into prime time with Raw and Nitro reruns, old MSG and Spectrum cards, Prime Time Wrestling and Tuesday Night Titans. Late night with ECW shows, Mid South/UWF and Memphis. Then just things like random matches, promos and angles - kind of like video blocks on MTV and repeating the prime time block.

 

The weekends could have different themes and I do think they should have Japan and Mexico shows with translated voice over announcing from guys who know their stuff like Mike Tenay.

 

Oh yeah, let Vince Russo write that show he keeps speaking of... you know, the It's Larry Sanders Show or Arliss for the wrestling business.

 

But knowing the McMahons we are going to see WWE stars decorating people's homes, hosting their own cook shows, daily workouts, etc. Which could be fun as long as we have all the stuff I listed above also.

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Well, here are my ideas for some of these conflicts.

 

Simulcast all cable and network shows on their respective channel and The Wrestling Channel. Also, just for the heck of it, toss the syndies on there late Saturday nights.

 

As for possibly losing money by showing old PPVs, as far as I know, one can't buy old shows like Rumble '92, or The Wrestling Classic, and so forth, from the WWF. Thus, all pre WWF Home Video non-Wrestlemania shows can probably be shown.

 

This would also be a good opportunity to show some OVW stuff.

 

As for Raw and Nitro, what could be done is to start Raw at the first Nitro, and run through the Monday Night Wars every night in a certain block, and early Manhattan Center shows can be on at a different non-conflicting time, as with Prime Time.

 

Four little words: The Bobby Heenan Show.

 

I'll get more ideas later, maybe draft a schedule that would work.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

I'd imagine that for whenever RAW and Smackdown come on, they'd want to put on something to get people to turn to RAW and Smackdown so they wouldn't split the ratings and lower the ratings on UPN and TNN.

 

Maybe those hours can have 'infomericals' for stuff that wrestling fans would want.

 

but.. why would Vince want to show the good stuff from the past when his product sucks now. Wouldn't that wake more people up to the crappiness of his product.

 

Another WWE channel show idea: Before they were Superstars. Airing matches of WWE superstars when they are just jobbers or newcomers to wrestling