For some of us older wrestling fans, most of our wrestling memories as children come from VHS tapes. A lot of us grew up watching WWF & WCW on tv and as we got older we'd record their weekly shows or main events on our tapes. VHS tapes made it possible for people to record HOURS of televised wrestling and/or ''dub'' your friends best VHS video full of awesome wrestling. In the 90's wrestling tapes were sold by all major wrestling companies and also dubbed by fans to pass along to their friends. The late 90's brought internet sites dedicated to tape trading and selling. You could pay a few bucks for a Best of Rey Mysterio Jr. In Japan VHS tape or get a couple WWF, WCW or ECW PPVs to add to your collection. The internet brought great things to wrestling fans. It helped your wrestling knowledge expand by discovering new wrestlers from all over the world. For the average American fan, most Japanese, Mexican and European wrestlers were unknown to us unless we've seen them perform on American television. Through these websites and tapes, we learned to appreciate all those wrestlers who were unknown to us.
The 2000's brought the explosion of DVD releases which included conversions of some old VHS favorites to DVD and once again sold through many websites. The DVD technology brought a more clear product to wrestling fans. No more lines in the picture or loss of audio duo to over watching or re-recording. Now with DVD's the wrestling companies would include "Extras" such as "Behind the Scene" interviews or post match celebrations, sometimes even a music video. DVD was definitely the way to go in the 2000's. Many fans didnt care that they had already accumulated hundreds of VHS wrestling tapes because they knew that the DVD was the future. Some of us even owned the same pay per view on both VHS and DVD because not all of our friends had DVD players! With all of those tapes and DVD's flooding the net, we also had (& still have) YouTube and other video related sites where you could find some funny and over the top crazy moments of wrestling for your viewing pleasure. YouTube still holds thousands, if not millions of wrestling and wrestling related videos. Who hasn't seen the Booker T promo where he calls Hogan the n-word? That video alone holds over 4 million view counts. What about the hilarious BotchaMania videos uploaded by the user BotchAtThe Beach? With all the innovative technology wrestling has gotten better. A single Blu-Ray disc can hold anywhere from 25 to 50 GB of video. Most wrestling Blu-Ray releases include a ton of extras that just won't fit into the DVD version of the release. The Blu-Ray market hasn't taken off like the DVD has. Some fans still prefer DVD to Blu-Ray just based on the price and packaging of the releases. So with all this said, where does the WWE Network fit? Do loyal wrestling fans give up on their WWE collections once they sign up for the Network or do they keep collecting? The WWE Network is said to offer everything WWE / WWF, WCW and ECW. ECW?! Yes, ECW... Amazing right? Who wouldn't wanna see Taz suplex people all day? Who doesn't wanna see crazy rabid ECW fans chanting to Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka? Thank you WWE? The WWE Network is only $9.99 a month. They will include ALL live pay per views and of course their library. Ten bucks is what we'd pay for two VHS tapes back in the day or ONE DVD. Is this too good to pass up? Will we see a decline in WWE video sales after the launch? Or will it boost video sales? The new era of the WWE begins February 24th! LONG LIVE THE NETWORK!
- RICKY RUDE
