Elimination Chamber is an unusual show, more for what’s going on in the wider business than for the actual card.  On Monday, the WWE launches its online streaming service, WWE Network, which will offer all the future “pay-per-views” as part of the subscription – a subscription which massively undercuts the cost of actually buying them as PPVs.  Subscribers will also get access to a substantial video-on-demand library, plus some original programming (though the only notable inclusion is the developmental show NXT, which is genuinely quite good these days).  This is all for viewers in the US, by the way; the international launch isn’t for a while yet.

In effect, the WWE is abandoning the PPV platform, and these shows will become monthly specials designed to draw new viewers to the Network.  In practice, anyone who’s remotely interested in the Network is likely to sign up in advance of Wrestlemania next month, and in the short term the company’s main revenue source is likely to be rights fees from TV contracts (which, incidentally, are all coming for renegotiation right now) – so there’s going to be an interesting tension between grabbing the ratings and steering people to the Network.

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To be perfectly honest, I’ve been too busy to pay much close attention to the build up for this show.  But it’s worth saying something about since, with the launch of the so-called “WWE Network” (actually an online streaming service on the Netflix model), we’re nearing the end of the current PPV model in pro wrestling.

The WWE Network has been in the pipeline for ages – they actually announced it a couple of years back only for it to drift off the radar.  Despite this, it still seems to have come as a surprise announcement to many people not following the industry.  Essentially, the big idea is to have a streaming service where, for around the price of a single PPV on the current model, you can subscribe for six months and get all the PPVs in that period, plus a ton of archive material, and, well, some blatant filler like a reality show that’s been languishing at the back of a drawer for two years.

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One of the strangest cards the WWE has given us in quite some time.  TLC is usually a pretty minor show.  It’s a hangover from the days when hardcore matches – and specifically Tables, Ladders and [steel] Chairs – were regular features in the WWE, something they’ve wisely moved away from in recent years.  It now sits on the schedule as an odd little quirk, with matches somewhat toned down from earlier years.  It’s the December show, and usually marks time before the “Road to Wrestlemania” gets under way with the Royal Rumble in January.

Which made it something of a surprise when, out of nowhere, and with only three weeks of promotion, they announced…

1.  WWE Title & World Heavyweight Title – Tables Ladders & Chairs Match: John Cena © v Randy Orton ©.  Yes, completely out of nowhere, it’s the long overdue unification match between the Raw and Smackdown titles.

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Survivor Series is meant to be one of the more important B-shows on the WWE’s PPV calendar, if only because it’s been around a good long while, but the line-up this year is, to put it politely, largely uninspiring.  There are a couple of promising matches on the undercard, but not much to persuade people to shell out.

1.  WWE Title – Randy Orton © v The Big Show.  Common sense might have suggested that after several months of being screwed out of the title, Daniel Bryan had to win the thing at some point, if only to provide some sense of closure.  Common sense, however, is in short supply among WWE writers, and so we’re simply moving on to another challenger.

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Not much in this week’s X-books to talk about, though I’ll try to do something about the second Wolverine Max TPB in the next couple of days.  In the meantime – wrestling!

The Hell in a Cell PPV is a hangover from the period when the WWE wanted to give all of their B-shows a theme.  It is arguably one of the worst ideas they ever had.  The Hell in a Cell match – basically a cage match in a bigger cage – had been very well promoted for years in a way that made it synonymous with Really Big Matches.  But having an annual show which was required to feature the match, and then failing to plan months in advance to ensure that was actually any reason to do so, has largely gutted the gimmick’s drawing power and turned it into simply a glorified cage match.  Of course, in terms of the rules, that’s all it ever was, but that’s not the point.  Presentation is everything.

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For those of you who come here for wrestling posts, I’ll draw your attention to the Chikara post just below, which, to be honest, is probably more interesting than Battleground.  The general consensus is that the WWE hasn’t done a brilliant job of promoting this one, or even giving people a particularly good reason to watch it.  But hey, it’s not a PPV in the UK, so I might as well record it…

1.  WWE Title: Daniel Bryan v Randy Orton.  The WWE Title is currently vacant.  The storyline here is that the evil owners of the company don’t want Daniel Bryan as their champion, because he doesn’t look like their idea of a champion.  In theory this is meant to get us behind him as a plucky underdog who doesn’t give up in the face of overwhelming odds.  That’s fine as far as it goes.

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Paul: We don’t normally look at indie wrestling here, but the current goings on in Chikara are worth a look – both because Chikara has always been the point where comics and wrestling meet, and because the company appears to be currently engaged in one of the strangest storylines ever attempted in wrestling.  Genius?  Insanity?  Commercial folly?  Implosion?  ARG?  Workaround?  Nobody seems entirely sure what they’re up to, or how anyone’s going to make money from it at the end of the day.

Naturally, this makes it fascinating.

Al: Paul’s right that Chikara’s current turn of events is fascinating, but we should note that it’s actually interesting enough that someone who’s a complete outsider to wrestling (i.e. me) is utterly gripped (or possibly armbarred) by what’s currently going on in the promotion. We’re going to have a look at the basics of Chikara here, and go into a bit of detail about not only what’s happening at the moment, but also what makes it sufficiently fun in general that even I’m hooked.

Paul: Since this is not primarily a wrestling blog, let’s set the scene and explain what Chikara actually is (or was).  Chikara storylines are, shall we say, a bit complicated, so let’s boil this down to the essentials.

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Ah, Night of Champions.  The annual show where the entire gimmick is meant to be that every title is defended – and so, of course, one of them won’t be.  Admittedly, that’s because the storyline in question pretty much requires a non-title match, but it shows the limitations of the company committing itself in advance to themed shows.  (I use the word “committing” loosely, obviously.  This is the WWE we’re talking about.)

1.  WWE Title: Randy Orton (c) v. Daniel Bryan.  Last month, you’ll recall, dimwitted Raw GM Brad Maddox allowed John Cena to pick the challenger for his WWE Title.  Being a solid heroic type, Cena played fair and chose Daniel Bryan, setting up the storyline that the McMahon family, who own the company, were divided about whether the misfit underdog Bryan was a remotely acceptable world champion .  As widely expected, Bryan did indeed beat Cena to win the title clean, with Triple H refereeing the match fairly – only for Triple H to attack him immediately after the match and basically hand the title to Randy Orton, who cheerfully cashed in the Money in the Bank title shot he won earlier in the year.

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(Probably the only thing I’m going to post today, but then it’s a week of middle chapters, plus some books I’m still getting in physical form and haven’t received yet…)

Summerslam is traditionally the second-biggest pay-per-view of the year behind Wrestlemania (a distant second, admittedly), as well as the occasion for the WWE’s annual excursion to California.  I suspect I’m going to be a bit busy to sit down and watch a three-hour show, and one which is basically a two-match card anyway, but let’s run it down anyway.

1.  WWE Title: John Cena (c) v Daniel Bryan (Special Guest Referee: Triple H).  Ah, now there’s quite a lot going on here.  While I’m sure this’ll be given plenty of time with the expectation of having a good match, there are a number of major storylines circulating around this one.

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