Recently while I was typing up my review for the Black History Month themed collection on the WWE Network, I started a brief rant. Maybe rant isn’t the proper word, but I made my case that one show included in that playlist needs to return to the WWE Network. That show? Well quite clearly, the show in question is the WWE Legend’s of Wrestling.
For those unaware, Legends of Wrestling was a round table style show featuring a collection of professional wrestling legends discussing different topics. These five or so panelists would include a host, who was usually Jim Ross or Gene Okerlund, and then four different legends, most of whom would be relevant to the topic at hand.
An example of this would be for “The Soul of Wrestling”, which as a Black History Month themed episode. This featured Teddy Long and Tony Atlas, both long time African American talent who broke barriers, either in Tony’s case as the first African American WWF Tag Team Champion or Teddy Long who was the longest tenured General Manager in WWE history. In addition to them was the legendary Dusty Rhodes and Bill Watts. Bill Watts is a controversial figure, and is often called racist, but he was also hugely influential by giving the Junkyard Dog a mega push in a period that certainly wasn’t the most kind to African American talent.
And that is how the show works. Different guests have appeared from all different walks of life in the business. Those listed above appeared, but so did a Michael Hayes, a Bret Hart, a Mick Foley, a Taz, and an Eric Bischoff among numerous others.
With over 30 episodes over the course of half a decade, the WWE Network has plenty of older episodes for us to enjoy. All of these classic episodes are readily available in the Vault section of the WWE Network, so those interested in reliving them certainly can, and those who hadn’t yet watched them can give it a try.
But does that have to be it? Do we really need to just re-live the past episodes? I don’t believe so. I think legend themed programming is already lacking on the service. Sure, we have Legends with JBL. And it is incredible. I believe every episode has delivered big time, thus far. That, however, shouldn’t be it. There is so much more potential for content with legendary talent. There is so much more potential for nostalgia mixed with fresh programming. And I believe this would be a great way of going about that.
I’ve ranted quite a bit about the lack of original content WWE has been putting up lately. But what if we had an extra hour or two of programming a month by using legends at their disposal? Sure, in a perfect world we would have select legends flown out to WWE HQ or to the Performance Center and we’d film several episodes at once with a plethora of different guests. But we could just as easily use the different road agents the WWE uses each week mixed in with any legends who happen to be relevant or in the area and film them on the road. We have Michael Hayes, Pat Patterson, Dean Malenko, Finlay, JBL, Jerry Lawler, Ric Flair, Brian James, and plenty of modern day legends like The Big Show and Mark Henry who are regularly on the road. Why not film them discussing a topic?
I can’t see a reason not to produce this content. Is it “easy” content? Yes, it is. And I don’t consider that a bad thing. I believe that this content is cheap, easy to produce, and something a lot of people would be interested in. And really, if people are interested, isn’t that the point?
So what do you think? Do you want to see more episodes of The Legends of Wrestling? If so, what legends would you like to see on the show? What kind of topics could they cover? Should they re-cover past topics they already have or only focus on something new? Give your thoughts in the comments section and let us know!
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