— Randy Orton: Evolution of a Predator and OMG! The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History are both now available to pre-order at WWEShop on DVD and Blu-ray.
— More cutbacks to WWE Blu-rays, as it looks like non-WrestleMania PPV Blu-rays in the UK and Europe are to be released as single disc editions from now on. The SummerSlam 2011 BD is available to pre-order for October as a single disc release at Silvervision.co.uk.
— OMG! The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History is rated TV-14 and blood is not censored throughout, unlike the recently released Greatest Superstars of the 21st Century DVD.
— Our fully confirmed release dates and formats from now until the end of November 2011:
Money in the Bank 2011 [DVD] – August 16
OMG! The Top 50 Incidents in WWE History [DVD/Blu-ray] – August 23
Randy Orton: The Evolution of a Predator [DVD/Blu-ray] – September 6
SummerSlam 2011 [DVD/Blu-ray] – September 13
The Ladder Match 2: Crash & Burn [DVD/Blu-ray] – October 11
Night of Champions 2011 [DVD] – October 18
Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart [DVD/Blu-ray] – October 25
Hell in a Cell 2011 [DVD] – November 1
Vengeance 2011 [DVD] – November 22
Stone Cold Steve Austin [DVD/Blu-ray] – November 29
LP1, I still believe many people are indifferent to blu ray. But if the product was hot enough they wouldnt need to worry about it. It is ironic they pulled them when money in the bank would be made. I’m almolst certain that Money in the Bank would sell enough to be worth making on blu-ray. Everyone seemed to love it. The hype was the best for ages and people would have bought it maybe just for the blu ray extras with Punk.
Going back to the ppvs themselves, I’m not a big Morrison fan but I think a lot of people are. Why on earth would you keep the match with R-Truth that has been building for months off of Summerslam and have it on the Raw before. That is bonkers. Behind the scenes melina issues or not. They need to put their fans first and stuff like that just makes no sense. It certainly doesnt help R-Truth, a man that was wrestling for the title 2 ppvs ago. The Miz retained the title in the Wrestlemania main event and barely got on the show. They have been neglecting everything else and building Cena and HHH again. If they dont handle summerlsam well and lose the punk momentum I dont think there is much hope for the future. Suddenly everything is all about Cena and HHH again. It seems to me they are being deliberately counter productive and I can’t work that out. They are lucky their fans are so loyal. Bottom line is Summerslam needs to deliver. Its pivotal. If they can turn things around I think you’ll see more ppvs on blu ray.
@LP1 Now somebody on here with a BD drive on their laptop or desktop pc would have to put a PPV and a non-PPV BD in to see how big it is at least for content. I am with you on why WWE doesn’t build up the PPVs like they did back in the Attitude Era. Capitol Punishment also saw an increase of buys from what Fatal 4 Way buys were. Another PPV that got the cut from a BD release. I’m hoping to have a year that every WWE PPV would be released on BD as well.
@JFR_WWfE79, I believe they use BD25s, but I could be wrong.
@Brad Attitude and “anonymous”, you hit the nail on the head. WWE’s PPV’s have been very repetitive, like Orton vs Christian at SummerSlam this Sunday will be their FOURTH PPV IN A ROW! Plus WWE doesn’t build up PPV’s the way they used to. As of now we’re less than 3 days away from SummerSlam and only 4 matches have been announced! It’s no wonder why WWE’s ppv buyrates are in the toilet. The lack of DVD/Blu-ray sales(the PPV ones) are most probably effected by this sane reason.
What’s ironic is the Money In The Bank ppv last month saw a 20% increase in ppv buys. And THAT’S one of the Blu-rays they pulled. Geniuses.
I agree with 2 people on here. I miss the days when the WWE loaded up the PPV DVDs with promos and other stuff, now it is only one extra. I tested a few WWE DVDs on a non-upconverting DVD player and an HDTV and it looks like crap. I see pixelating around the “scratch” and WWEHD logos. Does anybody think WWE DVDs are anamorphic? I’d rather watch WrestleMania without having to switch out discs. Does anybody know if WWE uses BD25s or BD50s?
PPVs just aren’t worth buying anymore, poor match qualities and promos. out of that list, the only sets i’m interested in purchasing are the shawn michaels vs bret hart rivalry, the ladder match and randy orton dvds.
I don’t think blu-ray is doomed. There has to be some format out there to support HD programmes. But I certainly don’t think that DVD is doomed either. Clearly most television shows were not made for blu ray. It was easy to discard VHS because it was all standard defintion and no problems transferring them. I dont think its going to be like that. If blu ray becomes the main format I still see a place for DVD and I’m sure blu ray players would play DVDs in the future too. Perhaps to illustrate my point, could you ever imagine silvervision’s tagged classics on blu ray. It would be silly. DVD will stick around and I hope blu ray does too to give people the choice. Regarding the WWE specifcally though, I think they are just being cautious business wise. They wont stop them altogether. I’d be shocked if they didnt do Wresltmania 28 on blu ray. But maybe we’ve all been looking at the wrong issue. Not enough people have been buying the blu rays they say. It could be becuase most of the ppvs have been fucking terrible and no one needs to own such crap in high definition. Its like shining a turd.
Also, my comments about the Blu-ray-DVD discussion were more to point out that the Blu-ray industry is not a failure. A couple of people were talking like it’s doomsday for the Blu-ray industry when the exact opposite is the truth.
As far as Blu-ray sales going up while DVD sales are going down, someone pointed out that Blu-ray sales are up because there are more Blu-rays being made each year, that’s not the point I was making. I should’ve been more clear about what I meant. It’s not the number of Blu-ray releases that are being used a comparison to DVD sales, it’s the format-to-format comparison. When a new movie is released, more people are buying the Blu-ray over the DVD. It has nothing to do with how many Blu-rays are being made available. It has to do with the format. if only 10 Blu-ray movies a year were being released, the Blu-ray sales over DVD sales would still be up because format-to-format Blu-ray is going up and DVD is going down. Obviously not every movie being released will have more Blu-ray sales than DVD sales, but the overall numbers are skewing upwards for Blu-ray and downward for DVD. That’s a very telling sign.
Anyway, that was the point I was trying to make. I wasn’t personally attacking anyone.
@”anonymous”, how could I have attacked you personally when your name is “anonymous”? Is every post by “anonymous” you? lol
I’ll have to watch that again and see, it would be weird if they did since they showed blood plenty of other times uncensored.
The blood censoring in 21st Century came in the main feature not the extras. I believe it was Austin’s profile and they showed his bloody face in black and white.
@Anonymous. Agreed. The transition from VHS-DVD and from cassette tape-CD was nothing short of a pure revolution. The transition changed the media industry and blu rays are only a way to get more money for the industry as the features like Netflix, better picture and more space on a disc arent really that big of a deal when compared to the vhs-dvd change. The transition made the media companies a fortune because although the change from VHS – DVD was huge it did cost money and i think they were looking for the same change when blu rays were suppossed to take over. For the person who doesnt care too much, like me, they walk in a store and see one dvd for 19.99 and see the same one in a different case for 25.99. When it comes down to it youre holding one disc up against another saying whcih disc is better, when someone did that with VHS to DVD it was no comparison and DVD won every time.
The transition to me only really matters when it comes to these WWE dvd’s. if a person is buying “The Hangover 2” and doesnt know if they should get the regular dvd or the blu ray, the subtle differences might not matter to someone who just wants to watch the movie. if you have a home theater system you might be talking about something totally different and of course would prefer blu rays. when i buy a wwe dvd i want ALL of the footage that comes on it and i want the artwork to look fantastic and thats my ONLY reason for buying blu ray. WWE is taking matches, segments and interviews off of their master tapes and video vault. it cant better than right from the source! These arent foggy bootlegs where the picture is awful. This is the WWE video library were talking about, so it cant get any better. I guess im saying that i dont care about a better picture when to me the picture is already fine
Well obviously you wouldnt carry around a bloody laptop with you. TVs come with USB slots now as does a ps3 and a USB stick is very small. And external hardrives are smaller than the size of a DVD now. In fact they are the size of a ‘passport’ and thats why they are calling them that now. I’m saying in the FUTURE that is more likely to take off in my OPINION than a better kind of disc. And yes not many people are clued in on that yet because it hasn’t really been marketted yet. They will milk the HD technology for all its worth first.
As far as blu rays increasing and DVDs decreasing. Everyone is skint so DVD sales are bound to go down, whereas blu-ray sales will be increasing each year because they are making more each year. I’m not saying blu ray isnt superior. I’m saying your average punter just doesn’t care about that. We all know they hold more information as well.
The transition wasnt ‘easier’ from VHS to DVD it just made more sense because DVD was so much more convenient than a cassette for many reasons and blu ray just doesnt make that much difference to most people for the very reason you said. Blu ray DISC players will play DVDs still, they wont play a cassette. You would do away with the casette. But keep the DVD. No need to upgrade. So you don’t have that much of a change until you actually watch it. Thats why your average person could care less about all the great points you’ve made about blu-ray. Blu ray is a disc with more on it and in better quality, but its still a disc. You’ve completely missed the point that we were making there.
Also if you’ve already replaced your collection once in the last few years you’re not likely to do it again for blu ray unless you have a lot of money. You can’t force people to buy things they don’t need. VHS was never going to be compatible with newer technology. But laptops etc all play DVDs and that would never have worked for VHS. That change was essential. This one is just for people who are very picky about their collection.
And please don’t call me clueless because I’m only giving my opinion and I said I respect that people might see it differently. I’m not anti-blu ray. I just dont think they are inevitably the future. I’m disagreeing with you on this point, but there’s no need to make it personal.
Where is Greatest Superstars censored? I didn’t notice any censoring of blood.
How much of the 21st century dvd is censored?
Another positive of a Blu-ray player I forgot to mention is the ability to get Netflix. You can stream thousands of movies and tv shows instantly directly through a Blu-ray player instead of having to wait for a disc to show up in the mail through Netflix. So it’s not just the picture quality that makes Blu-rays better than DVD’s, it’s also the disc capacity of a Blu-ray that is an advantage, plus the ability to upscale your old DVD’s and there’s also Netflix.
Another positive of a Blu-ray player I forgot to mention is the ability to get Netflix. You can stream thousands of movies and tv shows instantly directly through a Blu-ray player instead of having to wait for a disc to show up in the mail through Netflix. So it’s not just the picture quality that meks Blu-rays better than DVD’s, it’s also the disc capacity and there’s also Netflix.
I don’t have a Blu-ray player, if I got one it would be for the extra content (that’s more a concern to me than HD picture quality). But I also know if Blu-ray caught on and DVD went the way of VHS all that extra content would vanish. Look at the DVD extras on a PPV from 2002/03/04 era vesus what we get now. So I’m not surprised at all that Blu-ray’s are going down to one disc.
Wow. It’s great to see the clueless people have a voice here.
When it comes to Blu-rays, do your homework, sales of Blu-rays(across the board, maybe not wrestling) have gone up considerably year-over-year since Blu-rays debuted in 2006. DVD’s on the other hand are beginning to see a drop-off.
As far as Blu-rays only being better because of a better picture quality, umm, no,it’s also because Blu-rays hold a lot more room than DVD’s do. Why do you think WWE Blu-rays are only 2-disc while their DVD’s are 3-disc? Take WrestleMania for example. If you buy the DVD you have to watch the ppv on 2 seperate discs. On Blu-ray the full ppv is on 1 disc. It’s more convenient.
As for people saying the transition from VHS-DVD was easier than the transition from DVD-Blu-ray, really? So going out and buying a DVD player that CAN’T play your old VHS tapes(unless you buy the 2-in-1 side-by-side VHS-DVD player) and having to replace your entire VHS collection(if you choose to) is easier than buying a Blu-ray player that CAN play your old DVD’s(and upscale them, I might add)? That logic makes no sense.
The reason WWE is cutting back on Blu-ray has nothing to do with the Blu-ray business being a failure. Again, check the retail numbers of Blu-ray sales compared to DVD sales over the last 5 years and you’ll see Blu-ray has increased while DVD’s have decreased. In WWE’s case it’s a situation where their entire home video department has seen a drastic drop in sales over the last few years(both DVD & Blu-ray). They aren’t selling the same amount that they did a few years ago. And right now WWE is tightening their belt in that department. Check out the latest quarterly finances that WWE released and look at their home media revenue.
As for people saying downloads and streaming are the future, so far that has yet to be proven. It’s much easier to carry around an individual movie than it is to carry around entire hard drive(or laptop) whenever you want to watch a movie. Plus most people would rather watch their movies on a big screen tv instead of a small computer screen. Not everyone is computer saavy and dare I say the majority of people in the world don’t even know about hooking your laptop up to your tv through and HDMI cable.
That’s why Isay it’s much more convenient to get a Blu-ray player(or PS3). I saw a Blu-ray player on sale at Target the other day for $85. That’s the price of 4 WWE DVD’s. Hardly a price that will break the bank for most people.
Why has the website given me a name? My name is NOT Thomas! Anyway, I do agree that its a vast improvement in terms of picture quality but I stick by what I said and generally see things the same way as SRB. Everyone knows its a better picture, but most people dont care.
One thing that does bother me is that they want everything to be in 16:9 now when most of their archive is not. So we get those shitty distracting pieces of crap at the sides of the picture. That pretty much nullifies the efforts to enhance the picture anyway. The whole thing usually looks bad either way now unless they are shot in 16:9.
I like the TV-14 format better than this PG crap, Cena start this PG movement and it sucks, the Attitude Era was my favorite time to be a wrestling fan and during that time you had DX doing there sophomore antics and NWO taking over WCW which was awesome.
Blood is censored on the Greatest Superstars of the 21st Century? I’ve only watched the doc part so far but I saw plenty of blood in that with no censoring.
@Dave and Thomas – For me the jump to blu ray only comes when something is 100% necessary but you are correct, we are talking more money and the thought of redoing my entire collection is just not worth it. I get kind of anxious and am an organization freak when it comes to my WWE collection and when I have 100 regular WWE dvds and 7 blu rays, my shelf just doesnt look right. I also dont have much confidence in blu rays either as i just dont see them really taking over, i feel like it would have happened by now. when i walk into best buy to grab my dvds i always see 1 blu ray section and about 5 dvd sections. As far as a picture difference i have never seen anything wrong with a dvd picture enough to make me want to turn my entire collection upside down and spend all that money. also, with DVDs you get more artwork and more discs. i like having the big collection to look at rather than that tiny blu ray case and 2 discs. although the blu rays usually have more footage than the regular sets, were talking about more money, a new dvd player, and less of a package. all for what? a better picture? im like most people i dont see the difference. i really dont get it when fans say “this should be on blu ray.” Why??? so you can see HBK’s grey hairs when he talks about montreal? it’s not necessary.
I think fans just don’t buy WWE on Blu-ray. I’ve heard many people say “I don’t see the difference between DVD and Blu-ray, looks the same to me”. Those people need to get their eyes checked, it’s like night and day.
But i liked the combo packs with the DVD…just was a better bargain compared to buying the DVD alone.
Some people love the picture quality, but for most people blu-ray is just not important. People are not going to upgarde their entire collection again. Money is tight for most people these days. Also not everything you own is even a good idea for blu ray, whereas DVD accomodate everything nicely. I don’t know if blu ray will simply die out, or just be for your newer footage & films etc. But I can’t see classic sitcoms & classic stuff that people love going onto blu-ray when they wont look any better. For these reasons I think DVD is here to stay as far as discs go. In my honest opinion blu-ray is not the be all & end all & only really appeals to the minority who really worry about picture quality. Some people with bad eyes cant even tell the difference. I think downloads are the future where you will just have a huge hard drive of all your favourite stuff, some which might be in HD & some might not, but you wont have to re-buy everything because DVD is out of date. If you really think you need to upgrade everything to blu ray I fear you may be wasting your money. Also I’ve heard the comparisons that people said this about VHS. It is not the same. DVD was so much more convenient than VHS & it was a giant leap for the better that everybody liked. The difference between DVD & blu-ray isn’t as big. The proof is in the pudding. Not many people are buying them. Your average person doesn’t care, I reckon most people think its a bit of a con. It is just a better picture. Nothing like the shift from cassette to disc. That doesnt warrant replacing your collection. Its only a minority that really care. And I dont think I’m burying my head in the sand. I think by the time blu-ray overtakes DVD downloads will overtake discs. Just my opinion. Its because of convenience for most, not the quality. At the moment blu-ray is just a good money spinner because HD hasnt been around that long. I know many of you will disagree & I respect that. If you love blu ray by all means do what you think is best.
Some people love the picture quality, but for most people blu-ray is just not important. People are not going to upgarde their entire collection again. Money is tight for most people these days. And not everything you own is even a good idea for blu ray, whereas DVD accomodate everything nicely. I don’t know if blu ray will simply die out, or just be for your newer footage and films etc. But I can’t see classic sitcoms and classic stuff that people love going onto blu-ray when they wont look any better. For these reasons I think DVD is here to stay as far as discs go. In my honest opinion blu-ray is not the be all and end all and only really appeals to the minority who really worry about picture quality. Some people with bad eyes cant even tell the difference. I think downloads are the future where you will just have a huge hard drive of all your favourite stuff, some which might be in HD and some might not, but you wont have to re-buy everything because DVD is out of date. If you really think you need to upgrade everything to blu ray I fear you may be wasting your money. And I’ve heard the comparisons that people said this about VHS. Its not the same. DVD was so much more convenient than VHS and it was a giant leap for the better that everybody liked. The difference between DVD and blu-ray isnt as big. The proof is in the pudding. Not many people are buying them. Your average person doesn’t care and I reckon most people think its a bit of a con. Its just a better picture. Nothing like the shift from cassette to disc. That doesnt warrant replacing your collection. Its only a minority that really care. And I dont think I’m burying my head in the sand. I think by the time blu-ray overtakes DVD downloads will overtake discs. Just my opinion. Its because of convenience for most, not the quality. At the moment blu-ray is just a good money spinner because HD hasnt been around that long. I know many of you will disagree and I respect that. If you love blu ray by all means do what you think is best.
@Evan… I agree with you 100%… I dont think Blu rays ever really caught on as when DVDs put VHS completely out of business. Some people i know prefer blue rays to DVDs and i can totally see why. However, when a person has a choice between a disc or a disc, theyre gonna usually go with the cheaper disc. the only thing that has made me buy any blu rays is the fact that wwe loads them with extra content, not on the regular discs. For example, the blu ray of Hart/HBK will be a must for Montreal alone.
The Ladder Match 2: Crash & Burn [DVD/Blu-ray] – October 11… I am counting down the days for the content… I cant wait to see whats on this one!!!
Sad to say, But I think The blu ray market is coming to a slow end.