To give you an idea of what I was in for, the first show was called Trendiest Divas, meaning we’re already in Twitter territory.  The top of the list of course?  The Bellas, with a special video on Stephanie to close things out.  Yeah…..I need to just watch Countdown reruns.

Gah I knew they would screw this up soon enough.  Here’s a set of new shows coming to the Network.  Thoughts/descriptions included.

Camp WWE – It’s basically an animated series rated TV-MA.  There might be one or two laughs but I have no desire to watch this.

Swerved – WWE prank show.  I don’t like these kind of shows on regular TV and I’m not going to like them here.

Diva Search – Are we really supposed to want to see the search for the next Cameron and Eva Marie?

Too Hot For WWE TV – This is a clip show of INSANE WWE moments.  Basically we’re talking Are You Serious without the entertaining commentary, because bringing back Are You Serious would be too easy.

Live With Chris Jericho – Just Jericho’s podcast on the Network ala the Steve Austin Show.  Whatever.

Unfiltered – Interview show with wrestlers AND pop culture people.  In case you ever wanted an interview with whoever is hosting Raw that week I guess.  The only positive here is Rene Young hosting.

Culture Shock – Corey Graves hosts a travel show.  I’ve heard of worse ideas I guess.

The List – From WWE’s press release:  WWE The List is the best, the worst, the most bizarre and interesting of everything and anything WWE. If it’s amazing, outrageous, sexy or just plain fun, it just made #TheList.  So…..it’s Countdown?

New Episodes of Countdown, 24 and Rivalries – These speak for themselves and I have no issue with any of them.  24 is easily the best series they have and I never understood why they stopped airing Rivalries.  Countdown is a great way to kill an hour.

Hulk Hogan’s Rock And Wrestling – If you were born in the 80s, you are now smiling.

Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show – They already did a Wrestlemania Rewind on this so I don’t know why they’re doing this other than to steal some hype off the Pacquiao fight.  There’s nothing wrong with that of course.  Side note: why haven’t they done Royal Rumble, Summerslam or Survivor Series Rewind?  They can’t be expensive to produce.

NXT Takeover Live – No no no no no no no NO!  The entire appeal of NXT Takeover is that they don’t air frequently and they’re given time to grow.  You had to know this was coming but my goodness this cripples my love for those things.  NXT can try all they want, but they can’t fight WWE off forever.

The worst thing about this list is something I didn’t mention.  In WWE’s press release, most of the shows are described as short form.  In other words, most of these will be about five minutes long each.  Yeah they’re easy to sit through, but that’s what is supposed to make me care?  Really?

10. Cesaro

Not exactly a huge resume but some of his displays of strength are amazing.  This is fine.

9. Fabulous Rougeau Brothers

They have a great theme song, but they never even won the Tag Team Titles.  I’ll give them this though: they did translate the French in All America Boys, which turns out to be insulting America.  That’s amusing but this should have been an honorable mention.

8. Santino Marella

And we’re done.  Santino is a comedy character (if you call that comedy of course) and not exactly the most interesting guy in the world.  Yeah he’s a popular guy now, but ten biggest international stars ever?  Ok fine.  We’ll get to the bad stuff in a bit.

7. Nikolai Volkoff

This would be part of the bad.  Volkoff is a name and nothing more.  Other than winning the Tag Team Titles a few times with Iron Sheik, he never did anything people remember.  Oh wait scratch that.  He lost.  A lot.  Like, A LOT.

6. British Bulldog

No issue here.

5. Great Khali

Eh……..I’m not sure on this one.  Yeah he won a World Title and is a huge star in India, but fifth best ever?  That’s a stretch.

4. Rusev

Maybe in five years, but this meant we could look at Lana more so I could live with it.

Now let’s pause for a second here and consider the names we have left:

Bret Hart

Bruno Sammartino

Chris Jericho

Andre the Giant

Rey Mysterio.  What?  They mentioned him at the beginning of the show, and remember he’s from that far off nation of San Diego.

Trish Stratus

Bad News Barrett.  If the Fabulous Rougeaus can be on the list, why can’t Barrett?

I’m sure I’m forgetting some people, but that’s quite a list to pick three from.

3. Bruno Sammartino

You hold the World Title for eleven years and you’re not even in the top two?  There are only two names that could possibly top him from a star power standpoint.

2. Sheamus

This isn’t one of them.  I’m a big Sheamus fan and have been for years, but second ever?  Alberto Del Rio has won more world titles than Sheamus and he can’t even make the top ten?

1. Iron Sheik

Did Iron Sheik wrestle a classic and win the World Title in two different matches at a great Wrestlemania?  Ever headline the biggest show of all time?  Ever BEAT HULK HOGAN FOR THE WORLD TITLE?  Actually no, as he lost that match after holding the title for all of a month.  He isn’t even Ivan Koloff but he’s the #1 international star of all time?  I’m done.

This one actually made my head shake and that’s not supposed to happen on a show like Countdown.  I’ve clearly failed as an educator to the masses.

One of the people talking about Brock coming back was Punk, and the first thought in my head was that Punk would know how awesome Brock is as Punk fought him at Summerslam. The same is true of Cena. Then I heard the year 2012 and I wondered how it could have been that long. Then I thought “oh yeah. He had that year long feud with HHH.”

The trilogy between HHH and Brock Lesnar might have been the least interesting big match trilogy of all time. It’s just totally forgettable and left no impact at all. It’s sandwiched between the match of the year in 2012 and the match of the year in 2013 and means nothing, all things considered. The match headlined Summerslam, was the second main event at Wrestlemania XXIX and headlined Extreme Rules. That REALLY should be something memorable but there’s just nothing there. I remember Brock vs. Big Show better than I remember the HHH feud, and I literally couldn’t remember Brock vs. Big Show two days after it happened.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of on the History of Survivor Series at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

And check out my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:

Beyond the Ring – Not really original but it’s a really smart move.  Those documentaries can rock and they have like a million of them to air so far with more coming out every year.  They’re long so I wouldn’t recommend starting one unless you have a lot of time on your hands.

Legends of Wrestling – Maybe my favorite show they have, even though a lot of them are old.  I love listening to the legends telling stories for an hour on any given topic as there’s a very natural feeling to the idea.  It works so well but some of the panel members are just awful choices, like Mike Graham who just isn’t relevant to anything outside of “The Mike Graham Story.”

Countdown – I thought this was going to be a really generic show but I’m digging the heck out of it so far.  There are hundreds of ideas you could do for this show and it could go on for a long time.  Some of the choices have actually surprised me and the whole thing is far better than it should be.  THe talking heads help a lot and the mini features they throw in are great too.  For example there’s an episode about entrances and they throw in a retrospective about ring robes.  That’s awesome stuff for old school fans like myself and it allows for a lot of debate after it’s over.

Shockingly enough I’m loving most of these shows which are all bonus material to the huge library and all the regular programming you get as well.  The Network is everything I was hoping it would be and it’s just awesome so far.  I can’t wait for them to add even more content as they could keep putting out new stuff for years.

Anyone else excited?