WWE Network--The First Year

Let's go back to one year ago.  The Winter Olympics had just ended, winter weather here in the northeast was beginning to wane, and WWE Network was born. In the weeks leading up to the launch, all wrestling fans were discussing just exactly how WWE Network would impact their wrestling viewing.  Even here on the blog I brought up the ways that it could possibly impact collecting. The first day was rough, with servers crashing due to volume of sign-ups. I, myself, even lashed out at a friend when he accessed the page and I didn't! Even after one was finally able to become a subscriber, various problems kept the always complaining Internet wrestling fans well stocked with ammunition.  On my end it was the inability to watch any on demand programming without the shows coming to a crashing halt.

After the first few weeks the initial kinks were fixed and focus shifted to WrestleMania paranoia.  How would the biggest show of the year fare as the first such undertaking on the Network? Would the servers be able to handle the high number watching? What would WWE do in case of a mishap? Rumors even circulated that some fans would purchase the event via traditional pay-per-view "just in case."  Needless to say, WrestleMania XXX on WWE Network went down without any widely-reported problems.

One year later and WWE Network has proven to be well.worth the ever-pushed $9.99 per month.  No matter what you look for in wrestling, you'll find something worthwhile.  Even the most jaded fan, still holding onto their grainy, Clash of the Champions videos taped off of TBS should find solace in the Network.  They can see those specials, and tons of other shows, in unheard of quality.

Even with all of the pluses, there are still areas that could use some major improvement.  There is still an untapped, albeit small, market that wants nothing but old territorial shows and matches. We've seen a recent trend towards these shows, but if the Network started regularly airing some of these shows in order (some may be a tad incomplete due to condition), they may very well latch onto some new consumers.

Another area that needs addressed is the live feed.  With everything available at any time on demand, is there really a need for a 24/7 live feed?  Why not just "switch it on" when actual live content is being presented?  Is it an ego thing?  Was it such a dream of the company to have a nonstop network that they keep it up for vanity?  At the very least, I would put more thought into the programming than what goes into it now. Sure, WWE will throw past WrestleMania events up at WrestleMania season and that sort of thing, but that isn't enough. Triple H recently referenced the first Clash of the Champions event.  Why not air that?  If events in the current product can be accentuated by things out of the past, program them for the Network and have a programming note during Raw that you can "relive" this reference or that moment.  It's not that difficult.

Most everything that has been added has stayed (I hope that the treasures in the Black History Month section don't disappear in March) and some things have even been improved upon.  Many WCW shows were "fixed" once WWE fully had the rights to certain themes.  It would be nice if they would go back and do the same for some WWF shows with the same issue.

My last, but least worrisome gripe is with the search function.  As it stands it is incomplete, difficult to navigate, and generally worthless.  Most of the time I watch full shows anyway, but with the addition of more and more episodes of various shows, it would be nice to know who pops up.  Along the same lines, a "Newly Added" menu wouldn't be a bad idea either.  I can only see so many "Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan welcome the WWE Universe to more Prime Time Wrestling" descriptions before I forget if I've seen the episode or not.

So far, WWE Network has been doing a whole heckuva lot right.  It's great for throwing on as background noise or settling in and enjoying an entire event.  This is how we will know wrestling for the foreseeable future.  I wouldn't toss those DVDs just yet, but hopefully WWE Network keeps all of this content available to us for a long, long time. Originally, this entry was to end with a question as to why us early adopters have not been rewarded for our loyalty. After all, newbies have had a ton of "#FreeFreeFree" deals. Just before press time, WWE began to send out gifts via e-mail to us "lifers." Icing on the cake for those of us who have been pleased with the product.

On a note unrelated to the Network, this week also marked a sad anniversary in professional wrestling.  February 22, 2015 was forty years to the day of the tragic plane crash that killed Bobby Shane and injured Buddy Colt, Austin Idol, and Gary Hart.  By and large, Shane's contributions to the wrestling world are unknown to fans my age and younger.  Some of us have sought out to learn more about him, and I dedicated an entry of this blog to him late last year.  Hopefully, the original "King of Wrestling" will never be truly forgotten.

Bobby Shane * August 25, 1945-February 22, 1975

The Wonderful (& Forgotten) World of Bobby Shane

From this point forward, nearly every wrestler who has even a fleeting brush with success will have their career highly documented.  Their matches, even at an indy level, will be recorded by someone and kept whether the wrestler has a career of two months or twenty years.  Forty years ago, that was not the case at all.  Unless your matches were filmed at the arena or you wrestled in an area that miraculously didn't tape over or destroy their tapes, your work could largely be lost to history.  Such is the case of Bobby Shane.

Thankfully, wrestling has quite the number of followers who enjoy documenting history.  Many undercard or journeyman wrestlers would be completely forgotten without these folks.  It wasn't that their in-ring work was sub-par, it was just that due to their positioning on the card, these wrestlers didn't get the press and fame that the larger stars did.  Bobby Shane is a relatively unknown name to fans my age and younger, but not for these reasons.  Instead, Shane was struck down just as his career began to rise.

There are many great biographies of Shane available on the net by those who've studied him.  My intentions are to instead familiarize those who, like myself, knew the name from two particular instances that are often retold, as well as various magazine covers and stories.  Like so many of us, Shane grew up as a fan of pro wrestling.  He got his foot in the door of the business like others in that era, doing odd jobs for the local wrestling promotion, St. Louis in his case.

Shane fulfilled his dream of becoming a pro wrestler, and wrestled through much of the 1960's as "Wonder Boy" Bobby Shane.  Accounts say that Shane was a popular babyface, but much of the reverence for the young grappler comes from his run as "The King of Wrestling" that he adopted in roughly the last five or so years of his career.  Sadly, there is little footage of Shane remaining.  Although a clip of the end of a match pitting Shane against Jack Brisco is currently available and old discussions seem to indicate that a bit more exist, Shane is mostly lost to time.

Still, an interested fan that does research on Shane will see a wrestler that could probably even fit into the scene today, were he born twenty years ago.  His charisma comes through with the many still photos of him, especially in his "King of Wrestling" stint.  A 1972 issue of Wrestling Monthly proclaims Shane to be one of the top five most hated wrestlers, along with the likes of Dusty Rhodes, Ivan Koloff, The Sheik, and Pampero Firpo.  That's quite the "evil" company right there.  His promos were said to be very good and had the tone of a spoiled brat always wanting to get his own way.  One can only wonder if he'd have eventually became another great manager in the era of Bobby Heenan, Jim Cornette, and Jimmy Hart.  He was also said to have had a great mind for the creative end of the business, and began to work in that capacity at the time of his death.

The two tales that you may remember regarding Shane are from the end of his life.  A young wrestler named Jerry Lawler approached Shane to inquire about how he could obtain similar "King" attire.  Shane provided Lawler with the name of the company that he ordered his garb from.  Since Shane was shortly thereafter going on a tour of Australia where he would not be using the gimmick, he lent Lawler his crown. Shane returned from that trip and began wrestling in Florida, but never did retrieve the crown from Lawler. On a February night in 1975, Shane boarded a small plane piloted by top wrestler Buddy Colt.  Gary Hart and Mike McCord, later to be known as Austin Idol, were also aboard.  Bad conditions contributed to the plane never reaching its intended destination.  Although Colt, Hart, and McCord suffered horrible injuries, Shane did not survive.  He was 29 years old.

While he'll never have an action figure or appear in a video game, Shane memorabilia does exist.   He and fellow wrestler Gerry Monti had a fan club sometime in the '60s which featured some well-produced publications.  An exotic-looking color post card is another Shane item that features probably his most often seen pre-King image.  It was that "royal" look that saw Shane appear on many magazine covers, often with his valet and then-wife Miss Sherri.  The mustache and colorful attire that he wore may date the images, but actually shows Shane in an "old school cool" air that keeps him timeless.

It isn't likely that WWE is going to teach their universe about Bobby Shane any time soon. It's up to fans who truly want to learn about the lost past of the business.  Men and women who have every right to be remembered just as well as the names that are, but who are forgotten for whatever reason.  They're unsung heroes who, had life played just a bit differently, might be looking back fondly on the fruits of their labor today.  By learning and remembering, we can help make up for it.