The Irish Curse: At Paper Wing Fremont

In the interest of full disclosure, I am preparing to direct my first show  with the same company responsible for this production. I have a clear business and personal relationship with Paper Wing Theatre and with various people involved with this particular production. I maintain this blog out of a personal interest in keeping my writing skills honed and in promoting the local arts in my immediate vicinity. If you believe this will color my opinion, there’s nothing I can say to change your mind- if you want to read my thoughts, by all means continue and see what I thought of this show.

“The Irish Curse”

Wee Willy Winkies are funny. Admit it- you’ve probably made a couple cliché jokes regarding a man’s car, the size of his feet, or his eagerness to carry a gun. It’s a pretty common thing- I use the word cliché for a reason, obviously. It’s virtually a stereotype- more on that term a little later. So Paper Wing Theatre’s Fremont Location plays host to a show devoted entirely to the Irish Curse and a support group for men whose package may be little more than the envelope found in the bottom of a Cracker Jacks box.

The Irish Curse opened this past Friday and I was lucky enough to attend- Not only that, but I also won a free ticket, my family was out of town, and I needed a good laugh for the weekend. Now- if I want a good laugh there’s definitely one performer that I know who has done more to explore the nature of comedy as an art form than any other person I know. Jody Gilmore was advertised to be helming this puppy from the director’s seat and I have yet to see him go wrong with ANY show he’s ever been involved with. And he doesn’t fail to deliver here, either.

The ensemble cast are New York Irish men brought together by the genetic inconsistency regarding the size of particular body parts. They meet on a weekly basis and they discuss their problems, but it isn’t until the latest newcomer to the group arrives that the men are forced to expose far more than they thought they had- that their feelings run a little deeper than the resentment of God’s little “gift” and involves moments of shame, humiliation, depression, loneliness, and rage.

The group was started out of a dare between the groups two primary organizers, Father Kevin and Joseph, a middle aged and slightly uptown lawyer coping with the end of his marriage. Endlessly chatty and a little on the gullible side, Phil Livernois plays a ranting, raving, and emotionally damaged grump of a man with a bizarrely optimistic outlook on the direction of his life. He’s also the member of the group most willing to confront his demons head on despite (or perhaps in spite of) his nebbish nature. He’s bookended well by the youngest member of the group; Rick (played by Brian Benjamin Balistrari). He’s a brazen braggart boasting about one conquest after another to anyone that might listen. He stuffs his jock strap and has a girlfriend back home and he plays off Josef’s nebbishness and courage in reverse- he’s the first member to speak up and he’s the first person challenged to go a little deeper and expose more than he’s prepared to. And everyone gets in on the the discussion here, so don’t forget about Father Kevin (played by Richard Mueller). Even he has a few personal demons to exorcise on this rainy night.

Everyone has their story- and for every story there are questions, and that’s where Kieran comes in. 

Robert Feeney delivers his best performance to date. He’s been best known on the coast for is turn as “Trekkie” in the local production of Avenue Q, but I’ve never seen him tackle the range of a character like Keiran before. That he delivers such a nuanced performance with a thick Irish Brogue that never once threatens to spill out into Python-esque ridiculousness is testament alone to Feeney’s depth as a performer. But the nuances are what plays best- his sense of timing, his ability to expression emotions without a word, and the clear art of “listening” are what brings the character to life in the story. His character acts as a sort of audience surrogate at first, posing questions and then listening to the answers- but it’s that listening that brings him away from the audience. It’s the listening and the emotional impact of what he hears that lures the audience into identifying and caring about the group as a whole.

And for every good “hero” there has to be a good villain- LJ Brewer hits the ground running as an undercover NYPD officer whose life revolves around the Job and a series of meaningless flings with other men. Stephen’s a bitter, cynical, wise-cracking blowhard who lashes out at those around him with one biting insult after another. He’s an antagonist to the core- but maybe he doesn’t always want to be that- he’s forced to confront more of himself than he ever wanted when he’s repeatedly challenged by the other members of the group. And each of them regain a little more of their own self worth as they present their challenges- to stereotypes, religion, the authority of a police officer, the culture of sex in marketing, and the perception of society’s pressure around them.

Which brings me to my one problem with the script itself. As nearly every rant or assertion is met with a challenge, one politically pandering rant felt like it came straight out of left field (pun intended).  It’s met with cheers from a contingent of the paying audience, but it took me completely out of the story for a moment. Unlike so much of the play, it was met with no challenge, no discussion, and simply accepted as an “as is” sort of declaration. And let me be clear- I’ve never made it a secret where my own political inclinations lie, but I’m not usually prone to getting butt-hurt when a few lines of dialogue betray the playwright’s beliefs. I’ve even been in plays that were often very clearly leaning in a direction opposite of my own- but for a play that deals with challenges to nearly every other declaration, this brief moment took me out of the action that I thought it bore mentioning.

The Irish Curse is a funny play about men facing their insecurities. It’s deeply challenging but there’s plenty of comedy and camaraderie between the cast members that audience members can choose to accept the cigar for what it is. It continues to run throughout most of September at the Paper Wing Fremont location, Fridays and Saturday nights at 8:00 PM. The language and graphic subject matter may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

4 out of 5.

(Back there was an attempt at making a Freudian joke- it relies very heavily on my reader being aware that Freud once said “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”- this was clearly meant to be a joke regarding the phallic nature of his interpretations. It’s a not-too-obscure reference but one that I felt may require explanation so that you, my dear faceless reader, might not feel too lost. You must completely forget that my over-explaining the joke undoubtedly destroyed any shred of humor that may have been in that all so brief and yet overly explained moment in reading the review… PS. I’m not doing this for word count, but rather because I’m writing most of this as a stream of conscious thought.)

The Summer Sizzle reviews! Guardians and Turtles

            

It’s been a long time my dearly faceless so let’s get to it:

Guardians of the Galaxy:

Marvel Studios announced production on Guardians a short time ago- it’s got some big names attached to the project, it’s part of the Marvel Universe, and it’s a summer blockbuster- almost all of these things are promises that guarantee at least a decent return in the box office: But it also has director James Gunn at the helm and this changes the dynamic quite a bit for little old me. You see, director James Gunn is a ringer- he’s a guy I keep my eye on. Troma alumni, risk-taker, and the guy who brought us one of the best zombie-alien-comedy-horror hybrids to ever feature Nathan Fillion in a starring role. (Counter THAT argument!) So these are some pretty strange hands to place a huge project of this magnitude- the end question is whether or not the risks were worth taking.

Let me make something clear: Guardians of the Galaxy is NOT a superhero film. Despite taking place in the Marvel Universe, there’s very little that connects this film to any of the previous films beyond the existence of Thanos (who appeared very minimally in the Avengers film and was quite often forgotten by most non-hardcore comic book fans). So there isn’t much to keep the film grounded in the current mythology of the Marvel Universe, and that allows the film to exist on its own merits. And that merit is “Space opera”!

Okay, here’s the thing about Space Opera- there used to be a lot of them. It’s a sub-genre of a sub-genre with a specific niche that has recently been filled by Star Wars and Star Trek with almost total exclusivity. Few movie companies are willing to risk a Space Opera venture- Serenity having been the last one I can remember while everything else is either hardcore science fiction or a “Future War” sort of deal like the Terminator. Whatever- Space Operas are fun little hero quests set in space and Guardians of the Galaxy never lets you forget it. It’s light, it’s fun, the effects are stunning, and the world hopping is always impressive with beautiful shots of the most wondrous and horrifying places to see in the known galaxy.

Be on the look out for cameos galore- Rob Zombie, Nathan Fillion, and Lloyd Kaufman all poke their heads into the film and I’m sure there were more but I lost track. Great fun film for the whole family- well, assuming you’re okay with the occasional cuss word, hand gesture, or body melting laser blasts… okay, fun for a geek family like ours who enjoy Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

4 out of 5. A definite must see.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Heroes in a half shell- with turtle power! Cowabunga dudes! And all that-

Okay, truth be told I wasn’t a big Turtles fan when I grew up. Let me be clear- I was alive and in my early tweens when the show hit the airwaves and my brother got big-time into the turtles. We had the figures but that was largely HIS show- I had my own stuff, he had his stuff, and we didn’t often mix our interests. I could enjoy the turtles but they weren’t the biggest thing in the world to me- but I didn’t hate them either. They were just sort of there and it was a time waster- the movies were interesting if a little on the cheesy side. The comic books were much better…. Darker, grittier, something a bit more vicious and therefore more in my line of interests.

The Michael Bay-produced “Turtle” film is based more on the comic book in regards to the general look and atmosphere- it diverges from traditional source material with regard to some of the background, but not at the cost of the characters themselves. We still have the Turtles, their master Splinter, and the evil dreaded Shredder in all their glory. And it’s a fun ride- Bay’s traditional race-baiting, chauvinism, and potty humor is in low supply (It’s still there, but the supply runs very low) so the film doesn’t drag itself down too much. Action is good, the Ninjas are well animated, and I don’t have all that much to complain about.

On the other hand, it’s not really all that much to talk about either. It’s just a fun little summer film and I’d recommend it if you enjoy genre films. That’s about the best I can say.

3 out of 5.

Well, I certainly have some "Nerve".... hah!

“Nerve”

I don’t have much experience on the dating scene. Let me be totally honest, I haven’t been on too many dates myself. I think the last real date I went on was back in my late teens, maybe my early twenties. I wasn’t the kind of guy who did that sort of thing on a regular basis. I’ve been with the same woman since my mid-twenties, we were married when I was twenty-eight, and that’s really all there is to any of that. I’m not too much of a romantic, so there’s a bit of a challenge for me to identify with the two main protagonists in the latest play at Paper Wing Fremont- but I do remember enough about dating to know just how awkward and uncomfortable it can be.

That’s the main premise of the show- a young couple meet for the first time and go on a date after some on-line interaction. He’s a co-dependent control freak with a history of stalking and she’s a borderline schizophrenic with issues of depression and self-abuse. HILARITY! No, seriously, the show is uncomfortably hilarious and plays to the issues of the severely scarred potential lovebirds with moments of genuine affection interlaced with sudden desperation, fear, and honest introspection. The two characters talk about their lives, their interests, their expectations, and reveal parts of themselves that are both beautiful and ugly.

Director Kate Faber steps into the role of Susan in what I’ve heard was the last minute, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell from the performance I saw. She adjusts to the choreography of expressive dancing, captures the manic confusion of a personality disorder in a way that’s actually honest and compassionate while maintaining a good sense of comedic timing. And actor Richard Westbrook matches her moves and intensity with an awkward possessiveness that straddles a fine line between endearingly comedic and blatantly creepy-scary obsession.

I liked the play. I thought it was a funny character study during a moment in the lives of two very unstable people. There’s enough here left open to audience perception and we’re only privy to the single date on this single night, but this is what theater should be about anyone… an exploration of the human the experience and what different people can experience.

4 out of 5.

3 Guys in Drag Selling their Stuff (thoughts)

Three Guys in Drag Selling Their Stuff

This past weekend found me, once again, attending at a show at the new Paper Wing Fremont location where “Three Guys in Drag Selling Their Stuff” opened to raucous laughter. It’s hard to really capture an experience with the written word and then share it with a nameless faceless reader (that would be you), especially when so much of what you experienced can be truly personal. Such was the case when Jay Devine, Phil Livernois, and Jody Gilmore (pulling double duty as director) hit the stage in this gender bending comedy that pushes the envelope and always aims for the funny bone.

The title of the show is either really on the nose or just a little misleading- there ARE three guys in drag, but I'm not sure they're playing 3 Guys in Drag. It's debatable, I suppose- to me I thought they were playing high society women. I thought the casting of men just added to the comedy, but that the characters themselves were not in drag due to some "plumbing" comments. And the jokes come fast and hard when the lights come up as Diva stands in front of her yard with a number of personal belongings on display. She’s trying to raise money in order to purchase a Faberge Egg with which to inter the ashes of her Dentist husband. Lillian (Gilmore) is her best friend and likely the only person who will put up with Diva’s overbearing personality. Lillians’ verbal non-sequiturs left me in stitches throughout the show and it’s her advertised “free punch” that drives much of the narrative as the product is consumed by all three characters. Much of the play consists of verbal sparring, one liners, and a good deal of interaction with (the fourth wall) unseen attendees of the Yard Sale. Devine and Gilmore are quick, well oiled, perfectly timed machine with their quick back and forth dialogue.  Paper Wings full immersion theatrical experience is on full display here as members of the audience become targets to the wit and wisdom of both Lillian and Diva.

Rounding out their little social group is the wheelchair-bound Tink (Livernois), the eldest, likely dying, almost comatose diabetic who is left in the incapable hands of her two friends. Tink speaks in monosyllables, struggles to be understood, and seems just a step away from hilarious oblivion. It’s this character who not only addresses the fourth wall, but breaks it absolutely when she pulls the audience into her head and speaks with clear precision about the precarious nature of her predicament and the eagerness in which she looks forward to an end of her suffering with the two nitwits taking care of her. As an audience member, Livernois’ performance reminded me of Harvey Korman in the Carol Burnett show as the actor struggled to maintain composure and played it up with comedic attempts to hide his face during some of the more physical aspects of the shows performance. It cracked me up, man. I loved it and it’s an experience you’re only really able to capture with a life show when the actors on the stage are having as much fun as the audience themselves.

One could easily see this as a long routine between some of the most impressive comedy teams throughout the ages. From the Three Stooges to the Marx Brothers, and so on so forth. The verbal sparring, the physical bits, and much of the pacing feels like those old zany comedies but the subject matter pushes an envelope and brings a modern sensibility to the material.

The show continues throughout the month of May, with a start time of 8:00 pm. Doors open at 7:30 and I definitely encourage anyone in need of a good laugh to attend, let loose, enjoy the atmosphere and other audience members, talk with the performers after the show, and, as always, support the local arts.

Captain America sequel and a few other movies.

Manborg:

As the armies of Hell march on our world, small pockets of humanity take a stand against the onslaught of evil. We’re introduced to a pair of brothers on the frontline of the last great battle, both of whom are murdered one after the other by Lord Draculon. The younger brother, however, awakens to find himself encased in a body that is more machine than man. He’s quickly drawn back into the battle for Earth and dubs himself “Manborg”, joining the resistance, battling in the arena, and on a quest to find his past and get revenge.

Manborg was shot entirely on green screen with a handful of actors and a variety of special effects; from classic make-up to stop-motion and green screen CGI. It’s an homage to the classic Z-Grade sci-fi movies of the 80’s complete with bad dialogue and ham-fisted acting. It brings up memories of The Exterminators, Laser Blast, Cyborg, The Road Warrior, and a number of post-apocalyptic Terminator, Robocop, and Total Recall rip-offs that swarmed the local video stores in the mid to late 80’s. It probably owes its very existence to the success of the Grindhouse films and seems to want to follow the trend with its’ devotion to another kind of film experience. The movie is balls out one of the funniest, twisted, bizarre, and utterly insane films I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying in recent months. With character names like Justice, #1 Guy, and Draculon the film never dwells on taking itself too seriously and barely pays too much attention to its own plot. Characters hate one another at the drop of the hat, offer forgiveness for past crimes, hug, hate each other again, and the dialogue is either dry and generic or brilliantly comedic. Don’t bother to riff the film, because the movie winds up doing that itself at various points. It’s makers knew what they were making and they revel in it.

4 out of 5.

Knights of Badassdom

So this dude gets dumped by his High School Sweetheart. His best friends (Peter Dinklage and Steve Zahn) decide that the best way for him to get over it is to drag him out into the middle of the woods, dress him up in armor, hand him a rubber sword, and have him join in their LARP (Live Action Role-Playing game for the people who don’t know). It’s been years since he last played D&D, and he’s definitely a stranger in a strange land when it comes to joining the Game. And while he’s not overly enthused, he pitches in and is incidentally part of a ceremony that calls forth a very real Succubus from the gates of hell.

I’ve been looking forward to this movie for years. It was announced several years ago, it had a significant following online, it garnered plenty of interest from the Comic-Con panel, and included a number of stars that included genre favorites like Dinklage, Summer Glau, and some dude from that Vampire show on HBO- I don’t know the name and I don’t feel like looking it up on IMDB. Everything about the film just screamed “AWESOME!”- even the director Joe Lynch, whose only real major previous contribution consists of the Direct to DVD cult classic, “Wrong Turn 2”.

I wasn’t totally disappointed. It delivered the grue, it was funny, there were plenty of jokes that would appeal to the geek and norm community with equal hilarity, and there was plenty of sword play violence to be had by all. The rocking Black Metal soundtrack not only drives the action but becomes a focal point of the story in a few places, and the characters are all very likeable and easy to sympathize with.

There were a number of things that I found a little irksome about the film itself, though. Specifically, I don’t think the writers had nearly the respect for LARPing that the director, actors, or crew seemed to express in a number of interviews. Most of the gaming characters are portrayed as complete social outcasts more focused on experience points than they are on the relationships around them. This isn’t entirely a false premise to create. Many people in the gaming community are exactly that, they’re people who don’t tend to fit in with many social settings. It’s a humorous stereotype that I pretty much expect to see in a movie like this. That’s the whole premise for the game of “Munchkin”! But when its revealed that the two least socially awkward characters also happen to not actually BE gamers themselves? That makes it a little insulting. One is there at the behest of his friends, the other is there to “babysit” their game-obsessed cousin. Can you cop out any further in a movie that’s supposed to appeal to the gaming community as it is? Is it possible for the one character dragged in by his friends to actually enjoy the experience and actually meet a fully formed and well developed character who also happens to be a gamer? Did we have to excuse their lack of munchkin tendencies as just being someone who doesn’t really like to play the game anyway? I admit, it’s probably me being a thin-skinned geek who’s long been tired of the taped horn-rimmed glasses, chest high pants, and pocket-protector image conveyed by the geekist leaning media and their jock-led corporate masters.

3.5 out of 5. (Ignoring the stupid post-film “What happened after” bits would probably pump the rating up to a 4, but screw them.)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Good movie. Go see it.

5 out of 5.  

That was my bait and switch, in case you missed it… everyone reading this and hoping to get my thoughts on Captain America, well you can all find one review after another and another. My buddy Shane has one on his Facebook page, check it out. It pretty much says the same thing- I’d rather tell you about the much more obscure movies I’ve been watching with a hope that you lift a curious brow and give them a play on your DVD, Blu-ray, or some form of streaming media.

The Mighty Roar of a Lyon... thoughts on "The Lyons"

The Lyons.

Many families are warm, forgiving, gentle, and supportive of one another.

The Lyons are none of these things.

When the family patriarch lies on deaths door the gathering of wife and children are anything but comforting in the older man’s last moments.  The longstanding battle between husband (Richard Mueller)  and wife (Andrea MacDonald) has boiled over and he is done with being polite. Ben’s dropping F bombs left and right, he’s abrasive, he’s upset, and he’s very resentful toward the family he’s helped to create. And Rita’s basking in the glow of that resentment, she’s bathing in his hate as she promises to redecorate the living room once he’s gone and persistently feigns to misunderstand every warm memory the patriarch tries to share. The wordplay between the two is as hilarious as it is cruel.

And that right there is what you’re going to find at the The Lyons; wordplay that’s savage, cruel, hilarious, and maybe a little sadistic. I know I laughed out loud- I know that it was feeding a little dark part of my own self, holding a mirror to some of the shadows in my own family life and giving me a certain degree of ventilation and schadenfreude. I admit there’s a little sadistic part of me that found it a pure joy to laugh at all the horrible things these people said to one another. I’m not ashamed to admit that I virtually guffawed at various points. I had to laugh or I would cry, and there’s plenty to laugh about when you realize that these people most likely deserve one another. None of them are put upon by one another, their suffering is often self-inflicted, and each one of them have fallen into a pattern of abuse and codependency.

Daughter Lisa shows up with an excuse for being late, blaming the traffic and a lack of parking that her family is quick to demolish. She immediately starts in with her own melodrama, making semi-veiled references to her “sponsor”, her youngest being with a sitter while the oldest is spending time with the father, and we are quick to find out that she systematically attempts to make every struggle and pain into something she can own, protect, and cater in an attempt to gather what she sees as sympathy or attention. Actress Penelope Morgan is fantastic and her comic timing is spot on when she’s taking offense at a perceived slight or reacting to the dramatic revelation of her father’s impending death.

Curtis arrives and sparks immediately fly between the siblings, showing a rivalry that’s been going on for their entire lives. More than that, Curtis is homosexual, much to the displeasure of his dying father. And where Lisa is the poor victim, Curtis lives his life as anything but- he’s snarky, arrogant, dismissive, and maybe even a little cruel with his personal interactions. And all of that is played to the hilt by Lucas Tovey. He’s absolutely brilliant in the role and makes the deliciously unpleasant Curtis into a mesmerizing character you can’t help but enjoy watching as he copes with both personal and family drama.

Both children are the product of their parents never ending feud, both embittered and morally questionable brats with few redeeming qualities. Their mutual sniping is virtually encouraged by the parents, and all four snipe at one another throughout the first act with the occasional interruption from a nurse (Marjorie Lowery) who goes nameless throughout much of the play. Don’t be afraid to laugh because the situation seems so bleak. These reprehensible creatures deserve every chuckle you can muster up.

The second act follows Curtis as he continues to cope with the impending loss of his father and certain revelations that have left him too exposed for comfort. He works through several of these issues with his real estate agent, Brian(David Naar). Maybe we start to see a gentler side to Curtis, or maybe this is just more manipulation and cruelty, or maybe something between- I’m not going to say much more beyond the fact that the scene is as powerful as it is comedic.

When the family eventually reunites again, the gloves come off and the fur starts to fly. Watch yourself, because emotional blood is poured out on the stage and all participants gleefully stomp on the gory remains and swim through all that soup for the smallest opportunity to stick another dagger in. If you’ve never had dealings with these kinds of people, you are blessed and you’ll be absolutely shocked into outrageous laughter. If you’re familiar with these people, I sympathize and highly recommend laughing at these people who have so negatively affected our own lives.

The Lyons plays at the new Paper Wing Fremont on Fridays and Saturdays, from 8 pm to 10. The show closes on 4/19/14, so take advantage of the opportunity while it lasts and support the local arts.

So I broke down and ordered the WWE Network.

WWE Network

Okay, so I’ve been playing with this thing for a little over a week now and I have some thoughts to share- maybe a sort of review, maybe not. But whacha’ gonna’ do, brutha’- ?

I signed up for the WWE network and purchased a Roku-2 in order to watch the programs through my television rather than my computer. I prefer the television and a remote control in my left hand for some strenuous thumb work as I sip from my diet soda with the right. I’m a machine, bay-bee. The Network offers options through a constant live stream in addition to “on-demand” options that I’ll discuss in further detail.

THE GOOD:

The WWE Network features just about every WCW, WWE, and ECW pay per view. I haven’t been able to identify any events that were truly “missing”, per se, but I’ve heard a few were excluded from the line-up. So what this means is that I can travel back through time and revisit some of my favorite memories in professional wrestling. Ricky Steamboat vs. Savage, Hart Foundation vs. The British Bulldogs, Mankind vs. Undertaker- and that’s just in the WWE. WCW shows like Jericho vs. Mysterio or ECW shows where Tajiri faces Super Crazy are all up for offer through the WWE network and that’s not half bad in and of itself. That’s a dang good chunk of time if I decide to go for a few marathon sessions.

The Network also offers past and rewind episodes of RAW, Smackdown, Superstars, and Main Event (Not the Saturday Night version, though… yet) in addition to the weekly NXT broadcast. The regular shows also feature “backstage” pre and post-shows to further promos and storylines in minor ways. The company is currently padding their additional material with episodes of ECW after midnight, episodes of WCCW broadcasts, and their “Legends of Wrestling” show once a highlight of the WWE On-Demand format from cable. There are plans for a further expansion down as time progresses, so this is by no means an expansive list on everything the Network plans to offer in terms of programming.

The true highlight of the network has absolutely been the focus of attention on NXT. The first live broadcast from the network featured a 2 hour live production of NXT that battered just about every other RAW and WWE pay per view I’ve seen in recent years. The fact that this is where the Wyatts, the Shield, Big E, Cesaro and various others were cutting their teeth for a long while should take a step in telling the level of competition and entertainment within the training camp. It works like a classic territory production with a weekly pre-taped broadcast and featuring talents like Adrien Neville, Bo Dallas, Emma, Sami Zayn, and The Ascension. Their “ppv”-quality broadcast may have served a dual purpose in testing the networks’ ability to broadcast Mania the end of the month as well as introducing fans to a new brand with an alternate format and new characters.

THE BAD:

The current search engine through my Roku is a little limiting with some key searches disabled with regard to availability or promotional concerns. Most notably, a search for Chris Benoit will not yield any results despite his appearing in many Pay Per Views without edit. Those matches are still available but you will not find them through the WWE search engine. This isn’t a major fault with the service, however, so it largely becomes a non-entity.

The first week’s broadcast saw few problems, if any, with the live feed. The scheduled broadcasts seem to go off without a hitch. There were, however, a good many problems in coping with the on-demand features as some programs froze or brought error-messages to my Roku box. The week’s progress did improve the performance however and I am finding fewer and fewer stalls, glitches, or error messages with the on-demand features.

THE UGLY:

Here I’m just going to nitpick about what I am hoping to find… the WWE Old School option of programming seems limited to a very small number of MSG broadcasts. Tuesday Titans, Saturday Night Main Event, or the Saturday Morning and afternoon shows that I grew up on are missing and there are a number of moments from that period of time that I would love to relive. I would also like to see a look back at the old WCW regularly scheduled programming from TBS, their big broadcast show that was sort of like a PPV, and maybe some material from the USWA, Georgia, and AWA along with all the rest of the WWE programming. And with the advent of WWE movie studios, I’m sure the network will start to pad their broadcast material with movies like No Holds Barred, The Marine, and 12 Rounds.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

At 9.99 a month and the additional promise of receiving every WWE PPV, this package absolutely delivers the goods. The only reason to not have the channel is if the budget is excessively tight or if a fan simply doesn’t own a single device through which the programming can be streamed. Purchasing the network does require a six month commitment but they really do charge only 9.99 a month as noted in my current billing information.