For example, it’s been used at the last couple of WrestleManias, as well as the NXT Brooklyn event, highlighting the performers preparing backstage for incredibly big events, and also covered Daniel Bryan’s final day as a professional wrestler before making his retirement speech on Raw. This would be WWE’s attempt at a sort of E:60 show, where they follow a wrestler around before a momentous occasion in their career, somewhat similar to a mini-documentary piece. If JBL can keep up a high level of quality interviews, this should be a must-see program for a long time to come. It almost certainly helps that he actually had a very long wrestling career all over North America, and clearly made some good friends along the way (his interview with Ron Simmons is fantastic for exactly that reason), but he also asks the important questions, such as the very revealing two-part interview with Eric Bischoff that kicked off the show’s run.
However, it turns out that when you take JBL away from ringside, he’s actually a very good interviewer.
Given how people feel about JBL the announcer, it seems laughable to think that of him as the host of a serious interview show, something like a version of Inside The Actor’s Studio, but with pro wrestlers. Admittedly, that was several years ago, when he was on Smackdown, which seems to continue lending truth to the rumor that Vince McMahon only micromanages his announce team on Raw, but we digress. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like new episodes are coming anytime soon, but what’s there is still pretty good.Īs bad as JBL has become as an announcer on Raw, we still remember a time when he was one of the best things on WWE programming. In any event, the episodes are all incredibly short, so they won’t take a lot of time to enjoy, and they really do pack a lot of humor in there. Apparently they have time to provide voices for Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, and a sequel to Surf’s Up, but not an actual official WWE product, which is strangely hilarious to us. Probably the oddest part is watching animated versions of WWE Superstars, complete with official WWE theme music, that are not voiced by the actual wrestlers. What’s important is that the episodes, which are about WWE Superstars trying to find regular jobs after they all get fired from professional wrestling, are actually really funny, and completely work as five minute long comedy bits.
Sure, it’s less a show than a series of short vignettes designed to sell children’s toys, but let’s face it, that’s pretty much what 90% of Saturday morning TV was about when we were kids. So, if you want to know where to get started, we’ve got a few ideas. However, a few years after the Network was established, WWE has really ramped up their original content, to the point that there are actually a bunch of shows that are entirely worth your time, with more coming on a regular basis. Many people were unconvinced, and WWE’s first attempts generally ranged from standard list-based shows using clips of old content and interviews, to Legends House, a lame but sometimes bizarrely entertaining attempt at a reality show. Admittedly, that’s pretty impressive on its own, but WWE also promised to treat the live streaming portion of the Network just like a real TV channel, and that meant original programming.
When the WWE Network was first announced, few saw it as anything more than a massive online archive of wrestling content and a streaming source for WWE Pay Per Views.