WWE Digital Update (December 2011), Blu-ray vs. HDX & More News

Welcome to the first monthly “Digital Update” where we bring you all of the WWE & TNA digital download news from the past month in one handy place.

WWE has continued to release all of their Home Video titles in a digital format through platforms such as iTunes, Zune, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, PSN Store and Cinemanow. Most “movie” releases are made only available to purchase for the first 30 days before being made available to rent.

The biggest titles this time around include Stone Cold Steve Austin and Greatest Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart, which saw only the documentaries portions released. WWE Studio’s The Reunion staring John Cena is also available to view.

Both “The Ladder Match 2” and “Best of King of the Ring” have been released in a volumed format (each disc is one volume). However, both of these titles are limited to certain platforms.

It’s also worth noting that no new WWE Home Video title has been added to Netflix since the OMG! Top 50 Incidents back in September. Before that every title was made available through a Netflix subscription.

WWE’s PPVs including Hell in a Cell and Vengeance have also been released (usually a day before the DVD) and each match is available to download separately through most digital platforms (except for CinemaNow) and are priced at $1.99 (SD) and $2.99 (HD).

David Bixenspan sent word that Vudu (available to stream with a PS3, $5.99 sign up credit) offer all of the WWE PPVs this year in 1080p “HDX” (high variable bitrate H.264 quality). They also have a more recent selection of Raw and Smackdown episodes than Amazon. HDX is not quite Blu-ray, but it looks good and is easily the next best thing in terms of audio and video quality

In an interesting note about the PPVs on Vudu, the WWE and WWEHD logos are not present for whatever reason. The Raw and Smackdown shows still have them, though.

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In some TNA news, TNA’s own subscription site TNAondemand.com has added Bound for Glory 2011, No Surrender 2011 and Turning Point 2011, all of which have been released online before their DVD counterparts. Also, Enigma: Best of Jeff Hardy Volume 2 is also available to view via TNAondemand.com.

Currently both iTunes and Zune are only listing PPVs up to Slammiversary 2011 as digital releases for TNA are usually months after their DVD primarily because they offer the download for just a couple of dollars.

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YouTube personality “itsmeliam1” added a new video of his wrestling DVD collection thus far, which you can check out below.

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Over on our Facebook page we asked: “If you were given the authority to choose one WWE DVD (3 or 4 discs maximum) to be released next year, what would it be?”. Get involved with the discussion!