WWE Network went global last week. I had to check it. I would have bought it six months ago, when it was launched in United States. Back then I thought it had limited launch to fix bugs before it went global. Well, I was kind of wrong. One reason could be, they had to go global before original schedule, since WWE Network didn't sell in United States as much as WWE expected.
WWE Network reminds me little of Eurosport Player, which I had couple years ago. Both services show roots of the companies. Eurosport Player was good if you wanted to watch Eurosport live. Problem became when you wanted to watch something afterwards. Service had on demand side, but it had almost nothing. If you wanted to watch something, you had to watch it live.
WWE has TV programs and dvds. So WWE Network is good dvd library with TV channel. It lacks many things you would expect from service like this. Other things doesn't work as they should. It is like they haven't thought someone would like to use service like I want to use.
Programs are put to different sections. Pay-per-views are in one. Raws, Smackdowns and other programs in one. WWE Network original content and WWE documentaries in one. Forth section has older WWE and non-WWE wrestling shows and specials. There is lot of content. Problem is to find what you want.
There is no timeline which has programs and pvps. Both are in their own sections. Then there are some specials in fourth section. You have to jump between three categories to watch everything in order it was aired. Everything is not there, but from 1993 to half way to 1995 and from 2012 up to month ago should be in WWE Network. Yes, WWE Network doesn't have last four RAWs or Smackdowns. PVPs are shown live and available after the event. This makes following WWE in WWE Network quite pointless. You see PVPs live or right after event, but you have to wait for a month or four weeks to see what happened before PVP.
Search returns something, but you can't say it works. It seem to give only fraction of results it should give. Only matches, no promos and only some of the matches. Usually matches are only WWE matches. There might be one WCW match if wrestler has been there too. And results only include matches, where wrestler used name in search term. So if you search for Mick Foley, you only get his WWE matches, where he used name Mick Foley. No Mankind, Dude Love or Cactus Jack matches. Result descriptions aren't very informative. Sometimes they don't give enough information which match it was or when it was.
Addition to this there are many usability bugs. This service doesn't look like it has been live for six months. I don't know what this was like six months ago. It still has issues, which shouldn't gone through testing.
If big dvd library online is enough for you, you probably are happy with this. If you watch PVPs and can see Raw and Smackdown elsewhere, you are more happy with this. I will watch pvps I have wanted to see and then decide will I keep it or will I have it for a month every now and then. I didn't take it with six months commitment. At the moment I feel like couple months could be enough and then check it again later.
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