WWE: DVD Set

[Mr. TM]

If you are a member of our society, you might have realized something. There is a phenomena of buying seasons of television shows. I know, I have bought 10 seasons of television shows in the past two weeks.

So here is the situation. I love wrestling. I love to watch old pay per views. Now I have heard the question being raised. Where can I find old Nitros and the such. The WWE is in potion of the biggest wrestling library on earth.

Should the WWE release seasons of weekly television shows. There are problems here. Thunder sucks, and I don't want to watch it. But I would love to watch the old Nitros from when I was a kid. Here is the situation. 52 weeks in a year. Nitro was at one point 3 hours long. Do a little match and that is over 150 hours on a box set, as opposed to say 13-25 hours for a regular box set. This would cause the WWE to have to charge around $80 a season. That is a lot of money for shows.

Now lets bring it up to speed. The WWE has two main shows right now. Would you want to buy seasons of Raw? Smackdown? That is about 100 hours meaning it would have to be around 20 discs. That would sell for at the least $60. But as I have undershot the prices, we could see it at $80. Now would this be a good investment for the WWE?

 

[Tastycles]

It's actually a very good idea. If they released all of the Raws from 1998 or all of the Nitros from 1996, I'm sure people would buy it in their droves. It would actually be quite a good money spinner. Sure, a lot of it would be shit, but some of the stuff on there would be worth paying the money for. I can't see how there'd be any rights issues, and it's not like you could get the matches, and the real selling point of the promos and segments, elsewhere. I wouldn't want it froma pragmatic point of view because it would be sayonara social life, but it would be really entertaining. It would also be good to show the IWC that there were episodes of Nitro in 1996 and Raw in 1998 that weren't actually two hours of solid gold.

 

[PEP3]

That's a hell of a lot of programming to jam into a DVD set. When I was a kid, I remember they used to release VHS tapes of old NWA broadcasts. I remember buying one of those, and it was nothing but jobber matches. The only thing worth seeing was a rare match showcasing Bret Hart -- long, long before "The Hitman" -- as a jobber.

Anyway, regarding releasing weekly TV broadcasts on DVD, I suspect the WWE would prefer to save these records for individual match usage. Who knows when some of these programs might come in handy for a "Best of ... <Insert Name of Wrestler Here>" set.

 

[TheBigCheez-It]

In my opinion this would be an excellent way to introduce more money towards the WWE. I for one remember Nitro, and personally would be interested in it, if it did in fact become a item for sale. Regardless of some of it being worthless or jobber-filled, you'll be able to examine some storylines from the past an classic matches as well.Another thing to answer which show, I would personally go with actually now I'm second guessing myself. Maybe Raw for the breakdown of Evolution or for the HHH-Flair feud.

 

[finneycom1]

I feel that wrestling dvds are the best when they are about topics, people, or promotions from the past. I love the WWE Dvds about "history of the WWE championship, or Rise and Fall of WCW, or my personal fave, "Monday Night Wars." (Could possibly be the BEST DVD the WWE has produced thus far.)

Anyway, I dont believe they could do ENTIRE seasons, say Every Nitro or Raw from '96 or say 2000. That would just be too much, plus, you know WWE would charge more than $80 for this. I consider myself a die-hard wrestling fan, but even I wouldnt have the time to sit down and watch 52 or in WWE's case 50 or 51 episodes. (Remember from the old USA days, Raw was not on for a week or two due to the Westminister Dog Show. Boy, that used to piss me off.) But, if they did sets like "Best of Nitro '96" or "Best of Raw '01, I DO feel this would be create some awesome sets for fans. I would probably get everyone of them.

BTW, does anyone know why they didnt release a 25th Anniversary set of Wrestlemanias since last year was #25? I was almost for sure they would do that. I have been looking but havent seen anything. I guess they figured since they have been releasing all of the big ppv's in anthology sets, (Summerslam, Survivor Series, WM), that people would buy those and from here on out, buy the new ones as single dvds. Just curious.

 

[London_RKO]

or my personal fave, "Monday Night Wars." (Could possibly be the BEST DVD the WWE has produced thus far.)
.

Your joking right? This DVD although good in parts was not a comprehensive story on the Monday Night Wars and was terribly one sided. I was a big WCW fan and was a bit disappointed with that release.

As for the topic, I think seasons of Raw and Smackdown on DVD would be class. Especially if you did on old Nitro's too. Sure there would be a lot of crap but you don't have to sit through it do you? Just skip through.

Also nonone has mentioned that broadcasts are only 2 hours long at the moment due to ad breaks. If you took them out, as I imagine you would on a DVD, they'd all be a t least half an hour shorter.

 

[joejoe]

I think you are highly underestimating the cost of something like this. $60.00 for 20 discs? Are you serious? Right now the WWE charges about $50.00 for volumes of anthology sets and those are only 5 discs. Granted those are PPVs but still something like this would cost at least $199.99.

Although I do think it would be a nice idea to have the DVD sets of past seasons of Raw and Nitro I’m not sure if it is realistic. For one thing when you buy seasons of TV shows they have a specific start and stop point. When would these seasons go from? One would assume Jan-Dec but that doesn’t really work because wrestling shows have storylines that start and stop all the time.

If anything maybe the WWE could do something on wwe.com again and have people vote on what episodes they want on a DVD set rather than a whole “season”

 

[makeitvab]

Hah that's weird Finneycom1, that's the same way I found it a few nights ago.. couldn't sleep so tried to browse for things to ask for from gf/to get the gf for christmas.

I doubt I'll be picking it up either, part of me is saying "do it! maybe they'll see the demand and release previous GOOD years!" and the other part is saying "or they'll confuse it with people thinking raw 2009 wasn't absolutely terrible and continue on the trend".

Anyways, if those sets were released, and even more so in their entirety, I agree with JoeJoe in thinking they'd be around $200. It'd have to be a great year for me to spend that much... or a massive sale.

I'd prefer the packaging of storylines such as evolution, mostly raw stuff, some PPV matches, maybe interviews with people after the fact *but NOT kayfabe!*.

 

[unique.enigma.666]

I've never really thought of it, but if they released, or started to release, DVD's of seperate years ... Best of Raw 1993, 94, so on, then it'd be a great idea, but to put each and every Raw off a year into one set would be a tad much. There may be some Raw or SD editions you didn't like and would've rather forgotten about.

 

[shafe_41]

I actually thought of this topic awhile back but refrained from posting it due to some previous experience of posting about releasing all the WCW and WWE PPVs on to DVD and my post got totally destroyed by people saying how stupid of an idea it was or how nobody would be interested in such a thing.

I would personally try to pick up years of Raw and Nitro if this were to happen. It would be an expensive venture, but damn it would be great to watch all those old Raws and Nitros again. I will pay any money to have "This is Your Life" from Raw in its entirety. Not the crappy version on Youtube where the voices don't match the picture. These would have to be totally unedited as well. I must have them in their original state. Nobody wants a watered down, edited version of their DVDs. Moreover, DVDs are relatively cheap to produce now. I read somewhere that a DVD costs about $2,500 for the first master copy. After that, they cost about $1.70 for each copy. So at about (and I think this is an undershoot) 20 disks, it would cost the WWE around $35 to produce 1 season set. That's a pretty hefty total. I would imagine the price of this set would have to be set at at least $100. My only fear would be who would buy these religiously? Not many. Sales won't be high enough for them to keep making these sets. Look at the show "Boy Meets World." 3 Seasons of this were released on DVD, sales weren't high enough, so they stopped making the DVDs. Leaving everybody who purchased the first 3 seasons with an incomplete set. I personally just don't believe the WWE would have big enough sales for it to continue. Would I like to see it? Yes I would. But do I think it would happen? Not so much.

The WWE needs to stick with releasing their superstar and stable sets. They seem to go over well. I would just like them to release all their PPVs to DVD. I would especially love to see all the WCW PPVs released. C'mon people. Who seriously would not want a box set of Starcade? Halloween Havoc? War Games? Bash at the Beach? I would love to revisit some of these old WCW PPVs. They should also release the original ECW while they're at it as well. I would bet my left testicle that the ECW PPVs would be a hot item in the stores and (shameless plug) wweshop.com

 

[Phoenix]

I remember owning 3 VHS tapes which were the Best of Raw, they mainly focused on the main stories that occupied the year. Volume One did 97-98, V2 did 98-99 and V3 did 99-2000. The reason they got discotinued was because when it came to trying to 2000-01, WWF was now WWE by then. While the concept was good, it was merely an hour and a half to two hours about what was going on with the main superstars and part of the midcard as well. Like in 99, they start with the Ministry vs. The Corporation and the kidnapping of Stephanie, they next go Rock vs. Mankind into Rock vs. Austin as well as the debut of Jericho, McMahon's training for the Rumble, etc. They were mainly key stories of the year, but focusing purely on the important ones first and then what occupied the rest of the year, even one off moments. They were decent, but there's not enough to fit into just two hours and skimming a lot of events that took place.

 

[trashboy]

I agree.. this is actually something i've been wanting for a few years now, i love owning my favorite shows on dvd and having the complete library of Raw and Nitro would be awesome.. they wouldn't have to put the full 1 season into an 80 dollar or more set.. they can seperate it into volumes to make it cheaper to buy each... but that'd be alot of dvds to collect, i would definately be out there grabbing 'em all

and yes, i would even buy complete sets of Smackdown and Thunder

 

[Blade]

They would have to be constantly bringing out DVD sets, there's an awful lot of Raw and Smackdown episodes out there. I think it would end up being more effort than it's worth. I mean, 16 or so years of Raw, 10 years of Smackdown. WWE would never be able to stay up to date to the point where the DVD releases catch up to the actual year it is... If that makes any sense.... Yeah, like I said, more effort than it's worth for WWE.

Would it sell? Sure. Many people would wanna relive the glory years of wrestling, seeing Bret Hart, Austin and the Rock in their prime. Fans of the past eras of wrestling and past wrestlers would lap it up. Not to mention fans of current wrestling would no doubt be curious, wanting to see what all the fuss was about surrounding that Austin fella.

But it just wouldn't be worth WWE's time in the long run. I don't think they'd make much of a profit considering how much it could potentially cost them to put all that stuff on DVDs.

 

[Y2J420RKO420]

(Moderation: Off topic comments deleted)


I just want to say that this could be a great idea. It just would not sell because it is just too late, cause WWE is PG and them bring light back to the attitude era. Which would not be a good thing because people would watch the set and bitch and moan about how they dislike WWE now. THE only thing that is even possible is if they release old PPV sets cause it would cost less and be cheaper for the fans and even then vince would have to be crazy too spend money on something that the kids will not care about like we do.

All in all ... good idea, just too costly. Most of the people who REALLY REALLY want the sets already have them illegally. If someone would pay $200 for old Raws would they be desperate enough to obtain them illegally?

 

[bxbigshow]

I don't think WWE would go for this because they'd (probably) rather you purchase, or hound your cable company to aquire the cable station WWE Classics.

I think they play old Nitros and Raws on Mondays, don't know what they do on Thursdays. But I would assume you'd get your classic wrestling in the doses they deal.

 

[jazzua]

If you are a member of our society, you might have realized something. There is a phenomena of buying seasons of television shows. I know, I have bought 10 seasons of television shows in the past two weeks.

So here is the situation. I love wrestling. I love to watch old pay per views. Now I have heard the question being raised. Where can I find old Nitros and the such. The WWE is in potion of the biggest wrestling library on earth.

Should the WWE release seasons of weekly television shows. There are problems here. Thunder sucks, and I don't want to watch it. But I would love to watch the old Nitros from when I was a kid. Here is the situation. 52 weeks in a year. Nitro was at one point 3 hours long. Do a little match and that is over 150 hours on a box set, as opposed to say 13-25 hours for a regular box set. This would cause the WWE to have to charge around $80 a season. That is a lot of money for shows.

Now lets bring it up to speed. The WWE has two main shows right now. Would you want to buy seasons of Raw? Smackdown? That is about 100 hours meaning it would have to be around 20 discs. That would sell for at the least $60. But as I have undershot the prices, we could see it at $80. Now would this be a good investment for the WWE?

I think it's an awesome idea. There are certain years I would want more than others, but I would definately love the idea. I hate that I can't always find certain moments on youtube or the like. However, I think your pricing is WAY off what it would cost. Firstly, WWE puts out three hour ppvs at 24 bucks a pop. And thats just the start. Seasons of shows like 24, which are going to normally hold say 30 hours max, sell for right around 60 dollars when they first come out. Trust me, I've got them all.

So the question becomes what would the price be? If you look at it linear, than its around 180 dollars per year. But that probably wouldn't be neccessary. You also have to think about the fact that fans are going to want some extras in there. If I am going to shell out for 52 episodes of Raw, than I better get some interviews about the episodes, moments, and storylines in that season.

I do think it's a fantastic idea, but I'm sure they've considered it before. Maybe it does come down to the pricing. If you think about it, when they do box sets of ppvs, those are very expensive. They would be including about the same amount of hours for a season of Raw or Smackdown, maybe more. You also run into the problem of the years where Raw and Smackdown held the same superstars. If you bought one without the other, you would be missing an episode every week to keep up with the storylines.

I think the way for them to go would be to release each year in, say, two or three volumes. They could add a little more content with interviews and such, and also be able to keep the price somewhat reasonable for say half the season.