If you’re reading this site, there’s a good chance you are a child of the 1980’s. We spent our youth watching cartoons every Saturday morning, and in most television markets that also meant the glory days of professional wrestling in the afternoons and nights. WWF Superstars. WCW Saturday Night. WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event. Once those children grew up, so did wrestling.
The glory days of the WWF vs WCW “Monday Night War” and the underground force known as ECW hit when most of us were exiting high school and entering college. While we have spent our thirties and forties buying up DVD sets of cartoons from our childhood like He-Man to Silverhawks, it would be near impossible nor affordable to release such sets for wrestling. WWF Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro aired 52 weeks for 2-3 hours each week. Plus all of the pay per views, the B shows, and even the VHS releases.
Well, there is an affordable way for us children of the 80’s to have immediate home access to hundreds of hours of classic pro wrestling…
With the WWE Network you don’t get hundreds of hours, you get thousands. Classic content, original content, archived and new events. All for the low price of $9.99 per month. That ten dollars not only gives you access to 95% of every previous Superstars, Raw, Nitro, ECW, but every former pay per view. That’s right: WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, In Your House, and even WCW ones like Starrcade, Halloween Havoc, Bash at the Beach. You’ll also see special events from cable like Clash of the Champions plus nearly every special ECW event no matter if it was in a bingo hall or live in Japan. As a subscriber you also get access to the brand new live WWE events as they air. (At the time of writing this, I am six hours away from watching the 2020 Royal Rumble, live. Includes a live pre-show with a match and then every minute of the over the top rope spectacle.)
Over the last year, I’ve planned my nights around watching the monthly event formerly known as a pay per view. Plus NXT Takeover, the WWE Hall of Fame, and various extra events over the year. Enjoying what’s current would be enough, but there is no better way to spend a weekend than with a deep dive into the archives.
This month I’ve rewatched the rise and fall of the Macho King Randy Savage. The Prime Time Wrestling episode featuring the coronation of the King, with a great speech from his real-life brother and poetry master, the Genius. Then the Royal Rumble in which Sgt Slaughter beat the Ultimate Warrior, the Warrior’s revenge against Savage at WrestleMania, the marriage of Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. Then, thanks to everything being in the same place, I can skip forward years to watch Elizabeth attack Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan with her shoe then side with the Nature Boy Ric Flair.
One of the best features on the WWE Network are the many interviews and documentaries giving a respectable level of history to all of pro wrestling. “Table for 3” is a continuing series in which three wrestlers with some sort of connection sit down for a meal and discuss their careers. The Nation of Domination discusses all that they accomplished during the Attitude Era. Sting, Ric Flair, and Ricky Steamboat sit down to reminisce about their NWA World title matches.
The number of options is far more than any of us had access to as a child outside of a massive video rental store. If you remember those days then you’ll also remember the glory days of WWF home video from Colosseum. Legendary home video releases like Invasion of the Body Slammers, Unusual Matches, Crunch Classic, and more.
Some of the greatest times in my youth was getting together a big wrestling pay per view party. Those times are NOT gone. My wrestling circle has gotten together to watch old shows like other people have classic movie nights. I can type in any wrestler and bond with my son over 15 year old Rey Mysterio matches as if they’re brand new. Come this spring, I can plan a WrestleMania party that dwarfs your Super Bowl gathering with a guarantee that everyone is happy at the end of the evening.
The WWE Network isn’t a niche idea for the black t-shirt replica title crowd. It is a perfect way for the entire family to enjoy the eternal battle of good vs evil. Then. Now. Forever. Sign up now for a free 30-day trial of the WWE Network.
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