My one true Christmas Wish… is that you all have a peace and loving holiday with the ones you love. As the year ends, this week I take a look at the new ways to watch wrestling.
Year End Awards
The Southern California Wrestling Year End Awards date back to 1999. I’ve seen a groups on Social Media are announcing year end awards for their brands. I think that’s great. I’d like to think of our awards as the Academy Awards, with these other awards like the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the MTV Movie Awards. I do hope that those who voted for those awards come back and vote for the original awards.
Wrestling on Demand
In 2003, Steve Bryant (Co-Founder of SoCalUNCENSORED) wrote about the internet and wrestling and how much things have changed. Some 12 years later and It’s amazing how radically different the Internet is today and how information and news is exchanged. 15 Years ago when this website was created if you wanted to catch wrestling outside of your area you had to tape trade. Ten years ago the advent of YouTube nearly made that practice obsolete. Now there are no less than four wrestling companies offering their products either on demand or available for streaming. With more and more families cutting the chord from cable I suspect that we’ll see more services created. I spent the better part of the year talking about the United Wrestling Network’s streaming service powered by Patreon, but here are a few more for you to try out over the holidays if you need a break from family time. These aren’t reviews just options.
Highspots: $9.99
Highspots The newest kid on the block, but a very diverse library Highspots offers Combat Zone Wrestling, Premiere Wrestling Experience, Women Superstars Uncensored, and our very own Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. They also offer original programming like $5 Wrestling, Best Friends with Chuck and Trent, The Kevin Steen Show Steve Corino’s Old School, and the Queens of Combat. Their price point is $9.99 and are offering a free 7 Day Trial to kick start their Network. This is a fair offer, what they are making available is older content from these promotions as well as some new original content as well as some old school wrestling.
NWA Classics 24/7: $9.99
The National Wrestling Alliance video library is essentially the Paul Boesch library out of Houston, Texas. The videos chronicle nearly 40 years of wrestling. This library is currently being restored by the National Wrestling Alliance. I’ve seen bits of the library through their previews. Some of the wrestlers that came through Houston in that era are Harley Race, Andre the Giant, Jake “The Snake” Roberts Butch Reed, and many more. If you have a desire to see more classic wrestling, this is the one for you.
NJPW World Roughly $8.42 (or 999 Yen)
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s streaming service that is a lot like the WWE Network, which launched a year ago. Much like the WWE it offers live events, PPVs and much of the classic content. When New Japan stopped using UStream to air their IPPVs it opened the door for the streaming service.
WWE: $9.99
The World Wrestling Entertainment offers for $9.99 original content including NXT, WWE Breaking Ground, Swerved, The Monday Night Wars, and Legends House. It also features the video libraries of WCW, ECW, AWA, WCCW, Jim Crocket Promotions, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and so much more. This is probably the most complete Wrestling Network and in all honesty the best overall value.
Can’t forget sites like Click Wrestle which has been in business before YouTube. Their matches are a la carte. If I missed one, leave a comment below so I can check it out. Who would have ever thought 15 years ago that wrestling fans could literally click on a link and watch all the wrestling they could ever hope for.
United Wrestling Network
Of course, my personal favorite is the United Wrestling Network streaming service powered by Patreon.com. For $2 a month you have access to over 30 episodes of CWFH. It’s latest offering is Episode 239 (airing December 19th 2015) featured matches with; Eli Drake and Leo Blaze, Rebel Renegades and Los Primos Rivera, Dan Joseph and Cedric King, Sasha Darevko vs. Douglas James, and in the Main Event Hollywood Heritage Championship Match “Pretty” Peter Avalon and Rocky Romero.
Word is that in the New Year CWFH will be gaining more outlets throughout California and the United States. Announced this week is that they’ve got clearance in New York, New York. They can now be watched Saturday Nights at Midnight on Hampton’s Television, WVVH-CD on Cablevision 78, Fios 14 and over the air on channel 50! New episodes air at 4PM on Saturdays or you can catch the YouToo America (from computers not mobile devices) 9PM, Pacific. Outside of SoCal you can see the show in Kansas City on Time Warner Sports Mondays at 8:00PM and WFBD-TV Channel 48 Pensacola, FL at 1:00PM.
CWFH returns to the Oceanview Pavillion in Pt. Hueneme on January 10th with the return 4th Annual PP3 Cup. Featuring: Hollywood Heritage Champion “Pretty” Peter Avalon, Hollywood Heritage Tag Team Champions Cold Cold World w/ Caesar Black, United Wrestling Network Television Champion “Main Event” James Morgan, Rocky Romero, Eli Drake, Joey Ryan, YUMA, Ryan Taylor, Kevin Martenson, Hobo, Bateman, Big Duke, Jervis Cottonbelly, Jarek 1:20, and many more!
Upcoming SoCal Events
Absolutely nothing… go spend some time with your loved ones.
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The views and opinions expressed in Jay Cal’s View are those solely of the author. These views do not necessarily reflect the views of the website. As always please email Jay Cal with any questions, comments, or concern.