WWE Network Additions: New Episodes of Main Event, ‘This Week’ & SmackDown

As evidenced by our WWE Network Updates page, new episodes of Main Event, “This Week in WWE”, and SmackDown were all added to the WWE Network this past weekend.

Before we get started, the WWE Vice President of Digital Media Content and former commentator Joey Styles revealed on Twitter today that he plans to have a meeting with the WWE Network staff later this week over the future of ECW, AWA, WCCW, Mid-South Wrestling, and Florida Wrestling content. Perhaps future additions will have more of an old school flair?

On June 23, 2015, WWE Main Event emanated from the Huntington Center in Toledo Ohio. Since Main Event stopped airing live on the WWE Network and has found a two and a half week delay, the interest for the show has dropped considerably, both from fans and seemingly WWE itself. A show that started off being relatively important then became one focused primarily on the mid-card. Since losing its regular time-slot (thanks to Sky Sports), it has become even less important.

With that said, it still has some quality matches and some decent names and this week is no exception as it features “The Man That Gravity Forgot”, Neville. “The New Sensation” took on “The One Man Band” Heath Slater and no nicknames were on the line. In addition, we ended up with a tag team match between former NXT Tag Team Champions The Ascension and fan favorites, the Meta Powers. We also had “King What’s Up” R-Truth taking on Adam Rose with King Barrett sitting in on commentary. Then in the main event of, ahem, Main Event, Luke Harper took on Cesaro!

I thought this episode was slightly below average until the last match. While having Neville on is always a treat, just seeing him have a match with Slater the night before this was uploaded made me not care as much, plus this one was shorter. The tag team match was pretty decent, though certainly not stand out. While having King Barrett on commentary was a nice change of pace, as was having The King there instead of JBL, I already miss having Jimmy Uso on commentary. A lot of people aren’t fond of his commentary but I enjoy it for tag team matches, as he obviously brings a lot of credibility to the table in that regard. At this point in the show, I wasn’t super into what we’ve seen so far but then the final match came – Luke Harper vs. Cesaro – and it was quite good. In fact, it’s probably worth watching the show for this match alone.

— Neville vs. Heath Slater

— The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) vs. The Meta Powers (Macho Mandow and Axelmania)

— Adam Rose (with Rosa Mendes) vs. R-Truth

— Cesaro vs. Luke Harper

— RAW Highlights: The Authority’s beat down on Brock Lesnar

Give it a chance.

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“This Week In WWE” is this generation’s version of Afterburn, The Bottom Line, etc. It’s a recap show hosted by Scott Stanford. With that said, it’s a well produced recap show with a few unique segments including the best Superstar Selfies of a particular week.

This week keeps its usual RAW focus, but it also gives some attention to the Live In Tokyo special event. A show like this has a limited appeal, as you’ve likely seen pretty much everything it highlights if you’ve watched RAW this week, but for those who don’t follow it or can’t, this is a good alternative to follow the major stories or just an entertaining half an hour of background entertainment while looking at pictures of people’s dinner on Instagram or reading your favorite DVD and WWE Network news site, right here at the new WrestlingDVDNetwork.com.

Skip it (unless you missed RAW).

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This episode of SmackDown is titled “The Magnificent Seven” coming from the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana and airing June 11th. This was the final SmackDown on the road to Money in the Bank and Dean Ambrose still has Seth Rollins’ WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Seth Rollins needs to get that back, but he also has issues with the Director of Operations, Kane along with getting over his loss to Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury, JJ Security, the previous Monday.

I really enjoyed this go-home show to MITB. Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins together is always great and the main event was really fun. Keep an eye out for Neville’s big moment that was more exciting than anything he did in the actual Money in the Bank match itself. Beyond that, the show was mostly average, but the Ryback, Miz, and Big Show feud continued to be built up, as was Paige’s issues with the Bella Twins. We even get some build to the Money in the Bank kickoff show thanks to R-Truth on commentary. Solid at worst with a few really good matches; one to check out.

— Ryback vs. The Miz

— King Barrett vs. Jack Swagger

— Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins

— Alicia Fox vs. Paige

— Neville, Randy Orton, and Roman Reigns vs. Kane, Sheamus, and Kofi Kingston (with Big E and Xavier Woods)

Watch it.

 

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