WWE Network Advice

So after listening to a bunch of Power Bombcasts and listening to the Steve Austin Show for the last few months, I decided to sign up for the WWE Network. However, when I logged in, I was a little overwhelmed with where to start given the WWE's library of footage.

Does anyone have any advice as a good starting point, or even an example of what is to be considered "good" wrestling? Should I just pick up with the most recent stuff? Or should I start with something else?

@iohannes:

If you haven't seen it before I'd recommend watching some NXT, maybe start at Takeover 2 if you want something great but relatively recent.

The Monday Night War series was pretty good for the first few episodes, especially if you aren't too familiar with the details of what happened in the ratings war with Nitro. I haven't kept up with the last few episodes though, so I can't say much about their quality.

I also started watching the Rivalries: McMahon v. Austin series and that was alright too. The only downside with the "documentary" stuff is they re-use a lot of the same interviews in different videos and re-hash the same ideas constantly.

As for just the old matches they have up there, I haven't really gotten into those so someone else might be able to help with that.

@iohannes:

I agree with what @beatsafari said, try watching NXT from the last few months to now. They are quick watches (less than an hour a piece) unlike the current RAW product (2.5-3 hours!!). I honestly can't recommend the current main WWE show. You may enjoy last year's Daniel Bryan storyline, but I'd recommend Googling a performer you think you like and finding a good list of matches.

WWE NXT is a good show to keep up with, it's short and filters out a lot of things wrong with the product by focusing on the fundamentals. So basically start keeping track on that, it's shown weekly every Thursday.

As for PPV's well I always recommend Wrestlemania 17 because it's arguably the best show they've ever put on... but Wrestlemania 30 is pretty grand as well and under a year old. Money In The Bank 2011 is probably the only other truelove essential WWE PPV put out before Wrestlemania 30 (the are plenty of good shows in 2011, 2012 & 2013 but none of them are what I'd call essential)

So yeah watch these 3 first of all: Wrestlemania 17, Money In The Bank 2011 & Wrestlemania 30 on the main show and watch NXT Takeover 1,2 & 3, they're pretty fucking rad. Also as a rule of thumb 2000 is a great year and pretty much all the shows are worth watching asides from Wrestlemania 2000 which is terrible.

Also check out In Your House: Canadian Stampede... it's not got any HUGE moments but I'd be damned if it's not the most consistently solid show the WWE ever put on. Also the WWE recently put together a very good list of the 100 Best Matches ever however this can be daunting as without any sort of playlist feature this sort of becomes rather fiddly.

Survivor Series is tonight at 8:00 EST and should be a pretty decent way of jumping in since the main story arc might be put to rest and they will probably build up to a few things leading into WrestleMania if the dirtsheetz are to be believed.

Right now since this question has been popping up recently over the past few months, over at the Wrestling Thread we've recently started to come together and make a list of matches that we'd recommend showing off to newcomers of wrestling. I haven't done any work to that list as far as presenting it goes yet, but you can find the raw list here. All of the WWF/WWE/WCW matches should have a link to the network.

I'd also point you towards the very well made documentaries that WWE puts together to document their history. Just about anything in the Original section is solid.

@yesiamaduck: Actually they just recently added playlists.

@demoskinos: can you do it for specific matches and access premade ones? If so then that 100best matches is a must

@yesiamaduck: Unfortunately, at least from what I've messed around with, it's full events and not individual matches. I also don't think there is any way to access premade playlists. That said, it's nice to see some functionality added.

Countdown is great fun.

@iohannes: Saturday night main event is a good show to go threw that gives you a taste of the eras in wwe. There usually only 1 hour long and pack in a nice bunch of matches.

Wow, thanks guys! Sounds like a lack of content won't be a problem. I'll be sure to check out some of these.