frisco
03-30-2015, 01:12 PM
Wrestlemania 31 on the WWE Network
The crash of 2015
Last night was a special night. Wrestlemania 31. I planned my weekend for a few days. I would pick up an old friend of mine I'd not seen in over a year, grab some Chinese food and head bring him down to my house to watch Wrestlemania 31 on the WWE network. It was going to be a great night. I kept hearing JBL's voice in my head. "Why pay 60 when you get Mania for $9.99 a month?" I was pretty stoked at the prospect of getting the biggest PPV of the year at a bargain price and heading into the awesome part of my weekend off.
As I waited for my Chinese food the first glimpse of an issue began to surface. I tried to log into the WWE network of my Smartphone. I got some notice about an update, then after loading it the network wouldn't start. I got a dimly lit circle as I waited for it to finally load. Five minutes later it still hadn't loaded, but my food was ready so I ignored it. I still had hours before Mania so it was just a hiccup. No big deal--or so I thought.
I get home, a good 90 minutes before Mania and time to catch the pre show. I get my wooden tables set up, plant myself of the couch in front of my plasma TV and turn on the Ps4. Waiting for the WWE Network to come on, and again greeted with the message of an update. I load it, then start of my Chinese food. Five minutes pass again, once again the little spinning wheel of WWE incompetence as I wait for the pre show to start. Five minutes turns to ten minutes, then fifteen. Nothing. I restart the application, again the spinning wheel. After a few minutes I can feel my friends eyes on me. "what's up?"
I begin to breath uneasy. I go and do the whole reset the modem thing. Unplug my router and modem, then turn off my ps4. I restart everything. I again try to log in, and again the spinning ball of incompetence. Panic begins to set it.
"I'll try the Xbox network." I blurt out with shaken confidence. "Maybe the Play station network is down."
I go to Xbox, where this time I get to see the Xbox version of the spinning ball of incompetence. I spend the next 45 minutes bouncing between the Play station Network and the Xbox network and watching each respective company fail miserably at loading the WWE network. A real panic beginning to set in.
"I have Roku" I blurt out, already sensing this is going to be a disaster.
I race to set up my Roku, then attempt to log into the network. I get a nice picture of John Cena on my set. then "retrieving" flashing for a minute or so, then back to a launch screen. I try again, clicking the WWE network. Once again, retrieving. Then back to the app screen. After four attempts I realize Roku isn't going to work either. I look at my clock...Mania has already started and by now I'm already missing in.
I race to my computer. I go the Network.wwe.com to watch, clicking my log in link. My friend, by now done him meal and very restless, gets to watch as my computer goes to the ever annoying familiar "page not displayed" mode. The first grumblings of WTF starting.
A last ditch hope, maybe its on Comcast. I wince at the idea of paying $60 for the show, but no choice at this stage. I go to On Demand, only to find Comcast isn't carrying the WWE PPV's any longer. My long awaited weekend has been majorly screwed by Vince McMahon and the WWE network.
One final, hail Mary pass. I log into a wrestling chat forum, where I am very, very lucky to find a stream for Wrestlemania 31. I access it on my computer, where I am lucky enough to get to see the final five matches on my computer screen. The quality is iffy at best, plenty of breaking up and scrambled messages, but beggars can't be choosers.
At the end of the day, all in all a pretty mediocre Mania. A few decent matches, but way to much fill and ridiculous entrances. If I never see Triple H enter the ring as the Terminator again I will be just fine. I wish the WWE put as much effort into the match as they did the entrance, but then again at that stage I just wished they put an effort into providing a network that was actually worked.
I can't believe this disaster only effected me. I know WWE isn't posting anything about it on their website. All I get from them is "what an epic show!" and, "Terminator Triple H is trending on Twitter!" I will probably cancel my subscription today, and hopefully about 300 thousand others will do the same. I would love to see WWE network take a huge hit over this. Wrestlemania is the biggest show of the year, and the WWE dropped the ball very badly on this one. I really hope it cost them dearly.
The crash of 2015
Last night was a special night. Wrestlemania 31. I planned my weekend for a few days. I would pick up an old friend of mine I'd not seen in over a year, grab some Chinese food and head bring him down to my house to watch Wrestlemania 31 on the WWE network. It was going to be a great night. I kept hearing JBL's voice in my head. "Why pay 60 when you get Mania for $9.99 a month?" I was pretty stoked at the prospect of getting the biggest PPV of the year at a bargain price and heading into the awesome part of my weekend off.
As I waited for my Chinese food the first glimpse of an issue began to surface. I tried to log into the WWE network of my Smartphone. I got some notice about an update, then after loading it the network wouldn't start. I got a dimly lit circle as I waited for it to finally load. Five minutes later it still hadn't loaded, but my food was ready so I ignored it. I still had hours before Mania so it was just a hiccup. No big deal--or so I thought.
I get home, a good 90 minutes before Mania and time to catch the pre show. I get my wooden tables set up, plant myself of the couch in front of my plasma TV and turn on the Ps4. Waiting for the WWE Network to come on, and again greeted with the message of an update. I load it, then start of my Chinese food. Five minutes pass again, once again the little spinning wheel of WWE incompetence as I wait for the pre show to start. Five minutes turns to ten minutes, then fifteen. Nothing. I restart the application, again the spinning wheel. After a few minutes I can feel my friends eyes on me. "what's up?"
I begin to breath uneasy. I go and do the whole reset the modem thing. Unplug my router and modem, then turn off my ps4. I restart everything. I again try to log in, and again the spinning ball of incompetence. Panic begins to set it.
"I'll try the Xbox network." I blurt out with shaken confidence. "Maybe the Play station network is down."
I go to Xbox, where this time I get to see the Xbox version of the spinning ball of incompetence. I spend the next 45 minutes bouncing between the Play station Network and the Xbox network and watching each respective company fail miserably at loading the WWE network. A real panic beginning to set in.
"I have Roku" I blurt out, already sensing this is going to be a disaster.
I race to set up my Roku, then attempt to log into the network. I get a nice picture of John Cena on my set. then "retrieving" flashing for a minute or so, then back to a launch screen. I try again, clicking the WWE network. Once again, retrieving. Then back to the app screen. After four attempts I realize Roku isn't going to work either. I look at my clock...Mania has already started and by now I'm already missing in.
I race to my computer. I go the Network.wwe.com to watch, clicking my log in link. My friend, by now done him meal and very restless, gets to watch as my computer goes to the ever annoying familiar "page not displayed" mode. The first grumblings of WTF starting.
A last ditch hope, maybe its on Comcast. I wince at the idea of paying $60 for the show, but no choice at this stage. I go to On Demand, only to find Comcast isn't carrying the WWE PPV's any longer. My long awaited weekend has been majorly screwed by Vince McMahon and the WWE network.
One final, hail Mary pass. I log into a wrestling chat forum, where I am very, very lucky to find a stream for Wrestlemania 31. I access it on my computer, where I am lucky enough to get to see the final five matches on my computer screen. The quality is iffy at best, plenty of breaking up and scrambled messages, but beggars can't be choosers.
At the end of the day, all in all a pretty mediocre Mania. A few decent matches, but way to much fill and ridiculous entrances. If I never see Triple H enter the ring as the Terminator again I will be just fine. I wish the WWE put as much effort into the match as they did the entrance, but then again at that stage I just wished they put an effort into providing a network that was actually worked.
I can't believe this disaster only effected me. I know WWE isn't posting anything about it on their website. All I get from them is "what an epic show!" and, "Terminator Triple H is trending on Twitter!" I will probably cancel my subscription today, and hopefully about 300 thousand others will do the same. I would love to see WWE network take a huge hit over this. Wrestlemania is the biggest show of the year, and the WWE dropped the ball very badly on this one. I really hope it cost them dearly.