1. The Stephanie McMahon Network
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTNdz2fLphc The hype for the WWE network is in full swing. You may have heard, but for only $9.99 a month you can see every WWE pay-per-view ever! Now, we've seen Hulk Hogan and John Cena tell us this is a great deal in short soundbites, but now we were given a personal story to really give us the hard sell. Who was assigned this task? Why it was Stephanie McMahon, someone who has wrestled an amazing 22 matches in her entire career. Oh yeah, she also just happens to be the daughter of the owner. And oh yeah, she's a heel. What was WWE thinking? Why would Stephanie of all people be the one to pitch us the network? Her touching story was about how she can now sit around with her young daughters, and watch her father before he was the evil owner on TV. What? She couldn't do that before? She didn't have access to any WWE DVD or VHS from the past 30 years? Oh yeah, she can also watch old matches from her husband's career. Sounds like a good sleep aid. As bad as that was, later that night, she berated Daniel Bryan in front of the world, and reminded him that she owns everything in the company. So why should we give her our money for the network? So she can be even more powerful and cruel to the babyfaces? Couldn't we have instead seen Ric Flair talking about how he's excited that a new generation of fans can see his old matches? How about The Hulkster? They must have spent a bit of money bringing him back into the fold, put him to work! Heck, I would have settled for Disco Inferno telling me to watch Road Wild 1998. Anyone but Stephanie. Having her on multiple times, in multiples roles on Raw just ruins the suspension of disbelief. Imagine watching the Star Wars prequels, and halfway through the film George Lucas shows up in front of the camera and tells us how after the movie is over we can go buy all of the original films on DVD! Then he walks away, and everything goes back to normal in the film. It would be idiotic! But that's what WWE does on a weekly basis. No other TV show takes a villain, turns them into a good guy in one segment and then back to a villain in the next. What's next? Will Bray Wyatt come on TV and tell us how excited he is now to watch old matches on the WWE Network of his dad I.R.S.?
Andrew Soucek
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
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