Hi Scott,
I'm pretty sure this idea has already been thrown around and I'd like to get your thoughts on it. What about a Mystery science theater 3000 type show for the network? Either using past PPV's/Shows(Thunder/Superstars etc...) or WWE movies. I know it would be a stretch that McMahon would allow people to take shots at his movies, but what about WCW or AWA since they have all that footage they can be able to put it to good use. Then again, he'd have to hire three people to run comic commentary instead of just running old footage as is. Thoughts? Would you watch?
Thanks
Brian
I do watch. It's called "Are You Serious" and it's on their YouTube channel, hosted by Josh Matthews and Road Dogg and a puppet version of HHH, and they're doing exactly what you're describing. I even follow Puppet HHH on my Twitter, he's hilarious. Given that the YouTube thing is a mostly a dry run for the network, I don't think it's a stretch in the least to think that they'd do a similar show for the actual TV channel once it gets started.
I love "Are You Serious". And if there's anything WWE needs, it's more puppets.
ReplyDelete"TV channel once it gets started."
ReplyDeleteFunniest Scott Keith comment ever.
"Are You Serious" is a fun show, but it's just not long enough. They end up showing 2 or 3 short clips and it's done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I was chuckling to myself as I was typing it.
ReplyDeleteThe idea was already being done... and MUCH BETTER... on Colt Cabana's "5 Dollar Wrestling" over on Highspots.com.
ReplyDeleteI also love Are you serious. Excepting a needless dig on Zack Ryder. I also could do without them saying. "We're trapped here under Titan Towers and forced to watch this because of something I did to Vince McMahon." Or what have you. Once they get to just watching videos it's pretty great. Is the puppet HHHs actually teh HHHs?
ReplyDeleteI'd love it if they had Road Dogg do the '"We're trapped under Titan Towers because of something I did to Vince McMahon" line only for Josh Matthews to turn to Road Dogg and say, "Why? Did you show up to work stoned again?"
ReplyDeleteI like it well enough, but I think I liked it better when it was called Wrestlecrap.
ReplyDeleteSee also, Botchamania (only covers angles when they are THAT FUCKING STUPID but still)
ReplyDeletePersonally, I was a huge fan of "Cheap Seats" with the Sklar twins and they did the whole MST riffing on shit that ESPN used to show in the 80s. There's a couple of wrestling shows they riffed on which were great.
ReplyDeleteAside from the awesome puppet HHH, Road Dogg and Josh don't really add much to the show. They should get some comedians who also grew up loving wrestling to do the riffing.
I love Are You Serious, and Puppet H routinely steals the show when he's on.
ReplyDeletePuppet H is HHH-in-2000 levels of awesome. I'd totally get one if they sold replicas.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite parts of the show aren't really the jokes, so much as the atmosphere of two pro wrestlers watching this stupid shit. You get the feeling it just is two vets (Josh Matthews has been around 10+ years, he kinda qualifies as a veteran) and their natural reaction to the footage. Sort of a behind the veil moment.
ReplyDeletethis. it's the same reason I don't have any urge to see the Shockmaster debut any time soon - if's been laughed at and made fun of a dozen times before.
ReplyDeletepuppets = the new midgets?
ReplyDeleteEarly NWO-era Hall and Nash would have been hilarious doing this.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why everyone thinks the channel is such a horrible idea. There is a fucking golf channel for crying out loud and a soap opera channel and a Oprah channel. Shit there are channels dedicated to individual college sports conferences. I could keep going with the countless amount of retarded cable channels that excist.
ReplyDeleteWWE will get their channel eventually and it'll probably get better ratings than most of the niche channels out there.
well golf is about 40,000 times bigger than pro wrestling and has demographics that are off the charts (a very affluent viewing audience). The soap opera channel made sense at one time because the people who worked could watch their soap at night, however since DVRS are now so prevalent and easy to use, it kinda kills the whole concept, which is why the channel is being shut down and switched to a Disney Jr. channel. It will be 24 hours of Disney programing aimed at the preschool set (Mickey's clubhouse, Wiggles, Chuggington, etc.)
ReplyDeleteThat said, there are many factors beyond ratings. if you are willing to put your channel on for free (see all the millions of religious stations, home shopping stations, stations showing nothing but informercials, etc.) it's not an issue. But see, Vince is expecting to get paid for putting his station on satellite and cable. And he's expecting to put the channel on a decent package. Cable providers see it differently. They don't want to pay Vince much and they are more likely to put the channel on a shit package with the regional sportsnetworks. The same issue actually happened with the BIg 10 Network. The Big 10 Network actually took less money upfront to be placed on a better package with many cable and satellite providers. They figured they would recoup it in ad revenue. Vince may want to consider the same thing, however depending on his grandiose vision, the costs may be prohibitive. If he wants lots of original programming or plans to make up the revenue from moving some ppvs to the WWE network (and will these ppvs have commercials or not?) then he needs some significant payment. If just wants to run WWE 24/7 with commercials in it and have a place to replay Raw and SD 14 times a week, then he can probably make a small profit even with tiny rights fees paid by cable providers. But I think we all know Vince generally has grand visions. I would argue his best bet is to buy an existing channel and phase in his vision. It would already have a spot on a cable package and after a couple years he can prove that the market is there. Wrestling has never got the respect from execs that the ratings would suggest, so Vince has to overcome that stigma.
Are You Serious is the only WWE YouTube show I watch. Even Ryder's is barely watchable these days. Puppet H needs to be sued by Puppet Heyman on the next edition
ReplyDeleteG4 would be the perfect channel for him to buy.
ReplyDeleteComcast has been trying to get rid of it since the NBC Universal buyout, and you might remember before the UFC signed with Fox, they were initially going to buy G4 and turn it into a 24-hour UFC channel, so you already have a channel that's built-in with the cable systems, that's much easier than trying to start a new channel from scratch.
Besides, G4 hasn't been any good since 2004 so it's not like anyone would miss it.
A 24-hour wrestling channel would be awesome, but the odds against WWE Network living up to its potential are steep.
ReplyDeleteVince McMahon has made three notorious attempts at expanding his empire (WBF, XFL, WWE Studios). Each time, he introduces it with massive fanfare, and each time, he seems genuinely shocked that the world doesn't immediately embrace his efforts, and quickly jettisons the project to some measure of public humilation (WWE Studios is still around, but its last three films have grossed less than $100,000 COMBINED).
Unlike those three initiatives, WWE actually has the horses to make this happen, owning virtually the entire history of pro wrestling in its tape library. They could show reruns all day, replete with commentary and trivia from announcers, stars, and other figures, and draw decent ratings.
But we've all seen Raw. The self-congratulatory bumpers. The oatmeal-cookie booking decisions. The phrase "WWE Universe" repeated five times per segment. In fact, that last one's the most telling of all. WWE really does exist in its own universe now, in which this strange, sterile amalgamation of the Attitude and Rock & Wrestling eras stands alone, removed from its industry and removed from reality, in favor of one where nobody in the world need question why John Cena is going over for the 74th time.
Just show reruns? Sprinkle in some insightful commentary now and then? Nonsense! WWE is a Global Entertainment Empire! Let's put Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Hillbilly Jim and Tony Atlas in a house together! That Santino guy sure is funny in the ring, he can totally carry a sitcom! Hey, let's pay tribute to the Attitude Era... but leave out the parts with boobs. And the parts with beer. And the parts with blood. Can't frighten the kids, now. Alright, what's left? ...oh. Well, air it anyway.
A 24-hour wrestling network would be pretty awesome. But it wouldn't be a 24-hour wrestling network, it'd be a 24-hour WWE network. 24 hours of everything WWE thinks entertainment is and 24 hours of where WWE thinks it ranks in the entertainment industry. 24 hours of programming from a company that still really doesn't know why its bodybuilding tour, football league and movie studio crashed and burned.
Morbid curiosity aside, it would be best for everyone if this does not happen.
agree with everything you said, except possibly the ending. Yeah a lot of the programs would suck. I can't even begin to tell you how many things I'd rather do than watch Austin visit breweries (one of the proposed programs). It stars with needles to my eyeballs and becomes even more unpleasant and they are all STILL more entertaining than that shitwad of an idea. However a WWE network still may have some stuff we want to see. We can skip the stupid reality shows and the entertainment stuff and just watch the replays they do show. It's kind like the big 10 network for me. I don't think I've ever watched a program for longer than 15 minutes other than football on saturday. But it's nice to have those games televised.
ReplyDeleteAnd let me toss something farfetched out there. the network is launched in grand fashion in Vince's vision. actual wrestling content is limited. All the stupid concepts we have heard are right there on the network. it tanks and bankrupts the company. A new promotion rises up and snaps up some talent. It's fresh and different. WWE is left as a shell of itself just putting out as many DVDS as possible to make some income while no longer running any shows. Wrestling fans everywhere are thrilled as two companies now fight for a wise open wrestling fan dollar and enjoy the massive influx of DVDs from the WWE library, all released uncensored (except for the WWF court ruling thing) because it's not worth the cost of expunging the "offensive" content.
Dare to dream.
It probably won't because all of the shows featured will be horrible. You're imagining a wonderful channel that just re-broadcasts the Attitude area episode by episode with a few PPV's and ***** matches in between.
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining the more realistic channel that replays "Legends House" and "Mick Foley's Favorite Christmas Movies" over and over the same way BBCAmerica rebroadcasts the same 5 shows over and over on a daily basis.
The idea of starting a channel when the audience is 1/8th the size it was 10 years ago just doesn't seem like a good idea.
To anyone.
Except Vince McMahon.
You might remember him from such wonderful ideas as the WBF, the XFL, WWE Studios, the New ECW, the Invasion, Katie Vick, Austin jobs to Lesnar, and of course Lesnar jobs to Cena.
But the thing is, no matter how bad it is, there are people who will watch it. Heck, I would watch every show at least once to see if it's any good. There are people who will watch any wrestling, and there are gonna be watching so they they jump on the "cool" bandwagon and riff everything on messageboards. Remember, there was a time where Vince was laughed at for even considering doing a show on the new "fly-by-night" concept known as Pay-Per-View. For all his bad ideas, he has succeeded quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteI demand Puppet HHH call out Franklin and try and hold him down!
ReplyDelete