WWE to Netflix, Network presumably doomed

[garynysmon]

Tuesday Night Titans is never going to Netflix is it? ?

[The Dart]

With them trademarking "Raw Vault", are they perhaps going to just put the full Raw archive on YouTube as its own seperate channel with Netflix just having a rotating selection from the archives?   Maybe this is the way they are going to go with more archive material.  A channel for WCW, a channel for ECW etc - that would be pretty good.

PWInsider did speculate months ago that YouTube might become the default home of Classic Content.

Edited December 10, 2024 by The Dart

[DavidB6937]

Wouldn't surprise me. I've seen similar things happen with stuff like Power Rangers where the episodes disappear from free steaming and end up on their YouTube accounts instead.

They'll know how much the old content was bringing in numbers wise and might decide YouTube is a better place for it.

[Hannibal Scorch]

25 minutes ago, The Dart said:

With them trademarking "Raw Vault", are they perhaps going to just put the full Raw archive on YouTube as its own seperate channel with Netflix just having a rotating selection from the archives?   Maybe this is the way they are going to go with more archive material.  A channel for WCW, a channel for ECW etc - that would be pretty good.

PWInsider did speculate months ago that YouTube might become the default home of Classic Content.

They can set a subscription up on YT for access as well can’t they? Sure Impact/TNA did

[SaitoRyo]

Meltzer on WOR this morning basically said there won't be much archive content on Netflix. No Mid South, Mid-Atlantic etc. (which everyone assumed). There'll be some old episodes of Raw, SmackDown and NXT, but no ECW and WCW. Stuff might be added eventually, but don't hold your breath. Also, there'll be around 40 WWE PPVs to start, but very random selection not based on quality (December to Dismember is there, for example). 

[LCJ]

26 minutes ago, SaitoRyo said:

Meltzer on WOR this morning basically said there won't be much archive content on Netflix. No Mid South, Mid-Atlantic etc. (which everyone assumed). There'll be some old episodes of Raw, SmackDown and NXT, but no ECW and WCW. Stuff might be added eventually, but don't hold your breath. Also, there'll be around 40 WWE PPVs to start, but very random selection not based on quality (December to Dismember is there, for example). 

Looks like if anyone in the UK wants the archive then they might as well get a VPN and Peacock subscription. I’d rather WWE had just kept the Network active and as an archive at perhaps a lower subscription fee. I realise we’re a small market compared to the USA and not seen as important as the American fans but this seems like a crap deal. Disappointing.

[DavidB6937]

9 minutes ago, LCJ said:

Looks like if anyone in the UK wants the archive then they might as well get a VPN and Peacock subscription. I’d rather WWE had just kept the Network active and as an archive at perhaps a lower subscription fee. I realise we’re a small market compared to the USA and not seen as important as the American fans but this seems like a crap deal. Disappointing.

Problem is if they lower the sub fee but they're still having a mass of content that potentially not many people use, there's no point. On the surface it seems like a nice idea for people who are actually interested in it, but how much demand is there for old Mid South eps? You would think they'd be smart enough to know if something like an archive network would be viable financially or not so I would imagine there's a fair reason why they're not bothering.

[SaitoRyo]

32 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

but how much demand is there for old Mid South eps?

I, for one, am DEMANDING old Mid-South episodes. 

[The Reverend]

I'd love to know the numbers that viewed all of the old regional shows on the network - I'd bet some of the episodes didn't even reach four figures. Not knocking it though as the old stuff was all I used it for really. 

[LCJ]

Nice to have the freedom of choice of what to watch. I’ve got a friend who’s bipolar and unemployable and watching old stuff on the Network is one of the few things in his life that makes him happy.

[Infinity Land]

8 hours ago, SaitoRyo said:

Meltzer on WOR this morning basically said there won't be much archive content on Netflix. No Mid South, Mid-Atlantic etc. (which everyone assumed). There'll be some old episodes of Raw, SmackDown and NXT, but no ECW and WCW. Stuff might be added eventually, but don't hold your breath. Also, there'll be around 40 WWE PPVs to start, but very random selection not based on quality (December to Dismember is there, for example). 

The random selection of PPVs isn't so random. It just seems to be the WWE/WWF produced PPVs. IYH seem bundled together. UK PPVs, Tuesday in Texas is up there. That's why ONS and D2D are there but not the original ECW shows.

Based on how Meltzer quotes go these days, guessing this has happened. People noticed all the WWE tiles going up on Netflix. Just as happened on here. Social media asks Dave about it, then he repeats what he's been told (by people asking not so much sources) and no real additional investigating has taken place.

[Devon Malcolm]

36 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Social media asks Dave about it, then he repeats what he's been told (by people asking not so much sources) and no real additional investigating has taken place.

Why break with the habit of a lifetime.

[JNLister]

4 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

The random selection of PPVs isn't so random. It just seems to be the WWE/WWF produced PPVs. IYH seem bundled together. UK PPVs, Tuesday in Texas is up there. That's why ONS and D2D are there but not the original ECW shows.

Based on how Meltzer quotes go these days, guessing this has happened. People noticed all the WWE tiles going up on Netflix. Just as happened on here. Social media asks Dave about it, then he repeats what he's been told (by people asking not so much sources) and no real additional investigating has taken place.

That is exactly where he's got the info, but there is some randomness -- it looks like all the WWE PPVs are going up, but only some on the first day and some on various days over the first few months of the year. I can't find it, but somebody went through the full list of shows and found the scheduled addition dates for them all.

The optimist view is this is just a staggered rollout and once all the WWE PPVs are up they'll move to other stuff. The pessimist view is that this is it.

[Doog]

Holding back slightly as maybe something will happen with WWE Champion Cody and The Rock, but I'm getting increasingly concerned with the lack of importance being put on the World Titles.

The Netflix RAW already looks like it's being built around Seth v Punk and Roman v Solo, neither of which include the World Title or make any reference to it. Your two World Champions, Cody and Gunther are mentioned as being there but as yet have no direction.

Gunthers belt is a waste of time anyway with him messing around with Finn Balor so really hoping they have something big with Cody.

As it is though, if you're a new viewer, or lapsed, tuning into this show, you'll come off thinking the World Titles mean absolutely nothing as the real main events and big matches involve the big stars with no reference to them. If they go into it with Owens and Gunther as champions then even more so.

[DavidB6937]

Lack of importance when tonight's show has both titles being defended? Obviously they're not booking title stuff for January at the moment.