Archived content still seems to be on a bit of a break, but with the hundreds of hours of archived content we’ve received lately, that is okay. Especially since they have been supplying plenty of high quality or downright fun pieces of original content. Speaking of original content, if you haven’t already make sure to vote in our poll on whether or not you have interest in Countdown making a return to the Network. Anyway, let’s take a look at what’s new on the WWE Network…
Unfiltered with Renee Young
For those who don’t already know, Unfiltered is a short-form series hosted by Renee Young. Short-form series on the Network tend to be between five and fifteen minutes, although sometimes they will be slightly longer. This series has Renee Young sit down with a guest and discusses wrestling, their personal life, and anything else that comes to mind. Wrestler/Diva guests are almost always very entertaining and make for a quality show. The celebrity guests on the other hand tend to be pretty uninteresting, but thankfully they haven’t been focused on much lately.
This week’s episode features WWE Hall of Famer Lita as the special guest. It was pretty good too. Talent away from “the show” always tend to be interesting and the WWE Network does excellent in bringing these kind of shows to life. With Lita recently going into the Hall of Fame, being apart of pre-show panels, doing some agent work, and being a trainer for Tough Enough she has been in the public eye quite a bit this year and this interview brings us up to speed on her current life. It is worth checking out as the sub-ten minute interview goes by quite quickly and for someone who normally doesn’t enjoy Lita all that much, I found it to be quite good.
Table For 3
Table For 3 is back again and as always, it over-delivered. Going into this episode, the intrigue seemed to be far more in what they would edit out as opposed to what the guests had to say, but Charlotte, Tamina, and Natalya were quality guests with nice conversation. The theme of being second and third generation females in a male dominated industry was an obvious one and one that worked quite well.
Now for the question you all want to know: Did they mention Jimmy Snuka? Well, spoiler alert, they did. They, of course, didn’t mention his issues and they didn’t focus on him for extremely long, but they didn’t snub him either and instead mentioned his legacy and Tamina’s ties. For the viewer, it was the elephant in the room and it was interesting to see if they’d mention him. I am glad they did. Check out this Table For 3, as like every single episode thus far, it has been good and went above my expectations. For an episode I didn’t think would deliver much in terms of interesting conversation, it definitely over-delivered.
NXT
NXT is the golden child of the WWE Network, WWE, and wrestling in general right now. It is very difficult for them to do wrong in the eyes of their fan base and while the weekly shows tend to be relatively basic, the big Takeover events always deliver top tier shows that stand up to any show the main roster produces.
This week featured a big title match with Finn Balor defending his NXT Championship against Apollo Crews. Beyond that, we had some diva action with the ever popular Asuka and the not-so-popular Eva Marie both in action while also getting appearances from the likes of Emma, The Vaudevillains, the Mechanics, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable, among others. With a big surprise on the show and a championship match made for next week, fans certainly have reason to keep tuning in.
Match List
Asuka vs. Cameron
Angelo Dawkins vs. Bull Dempsey
Eva Marie vs. Marley
NXT Championship: Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe
RAW
This period of RAW between Night of Champions and Hell in a Cell was considered to be a very rough period to many fans. Even myself, a guy who is often criticized for being too positive and enjoying wrestling too much (yeah… weird criticism) found myself not enjoying the RAW episodes in this time period very much. Especially not as much as I would normally.
With that being said, on paper the shows still look good. If you haven’t seen the show, the match listing looks like a quality show. The issue comes down to the booking, but hey, a lot of people still enjoyed these shows. If you can look past some questionable booking some good matches still take place, lots of New Day antics occur, and we even get some Brock Lesnar.
Match List
Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, and Roman Reigns vs. The Wyatt Family (Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, and Luke Harper)
Neville vs. Sheamus
Natalya vs. Paige
Kevin Owens vs. Sin Cara
The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) vs. Kane and Seth Rollins
Team B.A.D. (Naomi, Sasha Banks, and Tamina) vs. Team Bella (Alicia Fox, Brie Bella, and Nikki Bella)
United States Championship: John Cena vs. ???
Closing Thoughts
It should be noted that this content was all added on just one day, which makes it a fairly strong day. Two pieces of original content, while only equaling about half an hour total in time delivered, while NXT continues to entertain. Add in a recent RAW to add to the archives and it was a good day to be a WWE Network subscriber. Unrelated and I’ve said it on Twitter and in my previous column, but I’m hoping to see the Smackdown Pre-Show be added to the lineup come January when Smackdown officially moves to the USA Network.
Stick to The WWE Network Chronicle for more WWE Network news, reviews, and previews! Also be sure to follow me on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/AWWENetworkGuy and to join in on the discussion with your opinions, predictions, and desires about the WWE Network!