WWE Network Lowdown: 1M Subs! Catching Up & Looking Toward New Shows…

This past week was the week where the WWE Network officially hit 1,000,000 subscribers and WWE announced their plans to make February a FREE month for new subscribers.

However, in terms of new and original content, it’s been a little quiet. Other than the Royal Rumble and the debut of WWE 24 (get the lowdown on WWE 24 right here) we’ve had no new original series or specials. The lack of new content does offer one positive though… we can try and get caught up with all the classic content; that is if the Royal Rumble didn’t push you to #CancelWWENetwork. After all, catching up was the order of the week, it’s snow joke – even RAW offered everyone the opportunity to get caught up on the Rumble.

So in this week’s edition of WWE Network Lowdown we’re going to take a look at some awesome episodes which have all recently been added to five series on the WWE Network – get these added to your watch list ASAP!

The ninth episode of Tuesday Night Titans was LOADED! The episode features not only the newly crowned Women’s Champion – Wendi Richter, but also the WWE Champion – Hulk Hogan. Plus, they are also joined by legendary manager “Classie” Freddie Blassie, Nikolai Volkoff and of course TNT’s hosts: Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes.

Regretfully the episode does feature a few imperfections with the video quality, but it shouldn’t hinder your enjoyment too much – this is all classic, classic stuff which you can’t miss, regardless of the quality.

This episode of TNT features one of the most memorable TNT video features – the Hulk Hogan and Gene Okerlund training package. That’s not the only fun part of the episode though as other highlights include Hulk’s Nutrition Tips, Freddie Blassie providing commentary for a match where he served as guest referee and the episode also features one of the few WWE appearances by The Fabulous Freebirds.

If you’re thinking about watching a little TNT, then this would be a really great place to start. TNT was way ahead of its time and the episodes still hold up really well, even almost 30 years later, so even folk who don’t like “old” ‘rasslin will still really enjoy some Tuesday Night Titans.

Speaking of being LOADED, head to SmackDown Replays on the Network and check out the September 23, 1999 edition of SmackDown – the show features Triple H competing in an Inferno Match, a Casket Match, a “Brahma Bull Rope” match, a “Chokeslam Challenge”, and a Boiler Room Brawl – all in the very same night!

Why? Trips was at odds with Vince McMahon at the time, who made Hunter go through all 5 of those matches, laying down the stipulation that he’d have to win at least 3 of them in order to qualify for the Six-Pack Challenge for the title at Unforgiven. The matches didn’t exactly turn out to be too breathtaking and Undertaker pulled out of the casket match, but a few are rather cool (particularly the Boiler Room Brawl with Mankind and the Inferno Match with Kane).

Aside from those matches, two other stand-outs are the New Age Outlaws taking on The Rock and Mankind for the tag titles, and Chris Jericho vs. Ken Shamrock in a First Blood Match.

Did you know that you can now watch any SmackDown episode from August 26, 1999 all the way through to January 27, 2000 on the WWE Network? All of the gaps were filled recently and that full run of episodes is uploaded and ready for viewing!

Episode two of Tough Enough gave us a taste of what we should expect to see for the rest of the series. The episode sees the 13 contents experience their first training session at Trax with Al Snow, Jackie and Torri before they head off to Titan Tower to work out for the afternoon. Given that the first series of Tough Enough was filmed in Connecticut there felt like more involvement from the WWE Superstars with the contestants, and oftentimes we would have multiple superstar appearances in different guises throughout the series. In fact while the contestants are working out at WWE HQ, they “bump” into Stephanie McMahon. The true highlight of the show however had to be when Tazz made a surprise appearance at the house and going off when he spots a Goldberg poster.

If you have only seen the newer seasons of Tough Enough, I’m sure you will really love the original series. In all honesty this was the best series as it offered a true window into WWE. As the series continues look out for lots of guest appearances as the contestants continue to train and even go on the road for a PPV weekend. Lastly, the final interviews are conducted by none other than Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon. Hopefully the new series coming to the USA Network takes a few notes from the first season.

It’s okay to admit to liking Total Divas and not be ashamed of it. Even if you’re in it only to delve into a backstage look at WWE (I think that’s me for the most part.. that’s my story and I’m sticking to it) you’d still probably enjoy the show. The drama of it all and seeing the personal lives of WWE Divas gets quite entertaining while you’re there – just looking of course.

“Wedding Mania” finished off another enjoyable run of episodes, which all led up to Mr. and Mrs. Bryan Danielson’s (B+B, Braniel, etc) wedding. It looked to be the perfect day that they were planning for, which came less than a week after WrestleMania 30.

Two other “storylines” were running through the episode alongside the wedding and the term “storyline” seems apt for one of them which seemed rather scripted, while the other one seemed legit. I’m talking about Nikki Bella keeping a secret from John Cena that she had been married before (which looked set up for the show), and Ariane being unable to tell her boyfriend Vinny that she loves him (the reasoning and emotion behind that looked genuine).

Scripted in parts or not, Total Divas remained good viewing.

The difference between RAW from 1996 and 2015 is almost like night and day. Traditionally the RAW after WrestleMania has always been a new beginning for WWE, and this show is no exception. On this night RAW emanated from San Bernardino, CA and featured the in-ring debuts of both Mankind and Marc Mero (who would also go on to have night and day careers, ha). The show also features the very first promo from the newly crowned WWE Champion – Shawn Michaels.

It’s really fun to go back and see the evolution of Monday Night RAW and honestly the show just flew by when watching it (bet you can’t say that about a modern day RAW!).

The big new show debuting on the WWE Network comes TONIGHT after RAW and is the second edition of The Stone Cold Podcast – live!

This time Steve Austin with be joined by WWE’s Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events & Creative – “The Game” – Triple H. After the hugely successful and highly touted Vince McMahon episode, this one promises to be CAN’T MISS!

Tuesday night on the WWE Network will see the return of WWE Countdown for a brand new episode. The topic to be looked at will be the top 10 most unique matches of all time. For those of you who love some wrestle-crap, you might just enjoy this episode, as the choices for the most unique matches were as follows:

• Piñata on a Pole Match (Nitro, 11/11/99)
• Junkyard Invitational (Bash at the Beach 1999)
• The Undertaker vs. The Undertaker (SummerSlam 1994)
• Bar Room Brawl (Vengeance 2003)
• Empty Arena Match (The Rock vs. Mankind)
• Hollywood Backlot Brawl (Roddy Piper vs. Goldust)
• Shawn Michaels & God vs. Vince & Shane McMahon
• Kiss My Foot Match (Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler)
• Chamber of Horrors (Halloween Havoc 1991)
• Gulf of Mexico Match (CM Punk vs. Chavo Guerrero)
• Blindfold Match (Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martel)
• Evening Gown Match (Pat Patterson vs. Gerald Brisco)
• King of the Road Match (Blacktop Bully vs. Dustin Rhodes)
• Kennel from Hell Match (Big Boss Man vs. Al Snow)
• Viagra on a Pole Match (Billy Kidman vs. Shane Douglas)

Which will be ranked “The Most Unique Match“? Find out Tuesday at 5pm EST.

ICYMI… WWE Network added lots of new content yesterday to celebrate Black History Month.

The new content included complete episodes of Mid-South, Mid-Atlantic, Global Wrestling Federation and 1970s/80s WWF TV shows. This marks the first time many of these series have been represented on the WWE Network – and the first time in which ANY GWF footage has been used other than very brief clips! Find out about ALL the new content here.

Did you hear that Philadelphia crowd last Sunday? I have my suspicions that Philly didn’t want Roman Reigns pointing to that WrestleMania sign as the pyro went off.

It’s not the first time that Philly has turned on WWE and their booking – that brings us to this week’s classic match…

King of the Ring Tournament Final
Mabel vs. Savio Vega
King of the Ring • June 25, 1995

Basically, this match sucked… in fact the whole show sucked! But it’s fun to see the crowd turn on it. Who would have thought that a tournament which featured Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker would come down to the recently re-gimmicked Kwang and half of Men on a Mission? The Philadelphia crowed weren’t fans of the match/competitors/show either as they vehemently chanted “ECW” and proceeded to pelt the new King with trash. — I’ll bet Rock was glad he wasn’t around in 1995 otherwise he might have been sent out to try and save Mabel.

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If you haven’t subscribed to the WWE Network before (why haven’t you?!) then February is your chance to get an entire month for FREE! Sign up now at WWE.com and take advantage of a free month and see the Fast Lane PPV and the latest NXT Take Over special.