Peeking in the WWE's Legends House Episode 1

Peeking in the WWE's Legends House Episode 1

Since day one I have been raving about WWE Network and all footage they have been streaming. We have all heard about the original program titled Legends House. Legends House has been in the can for some time and features some of the greatest WWE veterans and Hall of Famers, mostly known from the popular times of wrestling, the 1980's. 

I will admit, I was extremely hesitant about watching this show. One, we all have to think "well, is this scripted?", or "what if this makes our heroes look really bad?" plus, how will this measure up with the other WWE reality based program Total Divas? Total Divas has become one of my favorite shows...something about seeing some drama behind close doors, even if they might be helped in making stories happen. 

One thing you notice early on, these guys still have some sort of bond of brotherhood. Its great too see guys like Tony Atlas, Hillbilly Jim, Pat Patterson (especially as you see him cook) and Howard Finkle run around a tennis court. Plus, seeing Mean Gene is always a great thing, he is someone I feel like added to the 80's more than he gets credit for. Jimmy Hart experiencing old man bladder and Hacksaw Jim Duggan busting Roddy Piper's balls about a not figuring out a blender. It was a fun first episode, and trust me, I was worried about how these guys would be represented. 

This episode featured an appearance by Hollywood actor, Gary Busey. Busey teaches mediation in a very unorthodox style, then sits and talks with the guys..which creates some tense moments. It was interesting to hear Gary drop an analogy about walking away from the spotlight and Piper quickly spun it around and shut him down. The "spotlight" for them is never off.

The stand out moment was towards the end of the episode that shows how off the wall Roddy Piper is. His inability to sit still and pace like a caged animal. What will happen next? All I can say, I enjoyed this episode and felt like it could be a lot of fun. How much truth will be in the show? Who knows...but I will be watching. 

Two shows I'm hoping to see on WWE Network

Two shows I'm hoping to see on WWE Network

As much of the Network is about today's stars and programming, for old timers like me, it's about reliving my childhood and nostalgia. When I was growing up, wrestling was my life; from grabbing issues of Pro Wrestling Illustrated and The Wrestler at the corner store, to watching countless hours of these larger than life heroes and villains on Saturdays. The whole day revolved around making sure I was near a tv to catch the action. I grew up in upstate New York, so this was my schedule:

10 am - WWF Superstars

11am - World Class Championship Wrestling

6:05 World Championship Wrestling on TBS

This was my holy day…if you will. In the middle I would run to meet my friend Tim, just to discuss the early matches and what would happen on Saturday night. We would try our best to stay up on talent from the companies that we couldn't see and up and coming wrestlers that might show up. Sure, the wrestling magazines helped fuel these incredibly outrageous stories but who cared…for us, we were loving it.

This brings me to what I'm hoping will show up on the Network.

Tuesday Night Titans

By far one of the most ridiculous shows ever about professional wrestling. TNT started on the USA network in 1985 and gave us all a chance to see our favorite wrestlers in and out of the ring. It was set up to resemble a "tonight show" style of interview. Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes as his sidekick talked with talent, had cooking segments, weddings and more nonsense all in front of a studio audience. 

I watched Kamala eat a live chicken (even though we never saw it), watched a cooking segment with the Wild Samoans, enjoyed Fuji Vice with Mr Fuji and Don Muraco. Two of my favorite segments; Dr D David Schultz home visit and Paul Orndorff teaching people how to work out ("get you hands off me you fat pig!!). Tremendous stuff. I know this was available on the WWE on demand service, so I would like to see this every Tuesday night at 8pm. 

Hulk Hogans Rock and Wrestling

Call me crazy, but this cartoon was a lot of fun. Also, in 1985, timed to coincide with Cyndi Laupers involvement to make this great "Rock and Wrestling" connection, this cartoon just continued to feed off the Wrestlemania hype. 

This show really was just laughs with some good vs evil involved. Wacky situations with some of the best in WWF at the time. This needs to have a place on the network. As a child of the 70's and 80's, everyone loved their morning cartoons…no reason why today could not be the same. I would love to see this have an hour time slot Saturday mornings 9am-10am.