WWE.com have officially announced the shows that will air on Hulu Plus and there's good news for hardcore fans of the promotion. Not only will you have next day access to the latest episodes of their flagship TV shows Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, WWE Superstars and WWE Main Event once that starts airing on ION Television on Wednesday nights in October, but also to WWE NXT which is currently unavailable anywhere in the United States. Strangely absent from the published list is Saturday Morning Slam, which may mean that their deal with The CW precludes it being made available on other platforms.
WWE has been looking for an American broadcaster for this show ever since it was cancelled from SyFy in September 2010. Until June 13th, 2012 it aired for free on WWE.com, but was removed from their website when the decision was made to completely overhaul the show by predominantly showcasing developmental talent from Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) instead of using solely main roster castoffs and also taping the show monthly at the state of the art facilities in Full Sail University instead of at the Smackdown tapings each week. The end result has been a bright and breezy show that has been praised as the best TV produced by WWE on a week to week basis, thanks to being kept to a tight one hour format, a greater focus on in ring action and there being several workers like Kassius Ohno, Michael McGillicutty, Seth Rollins and Richie Steamboat who are technically more proficient than most of the wrestlers on the Raw and Smackdown brands and have shone in this environment.
The WWEonHulu.com website is currently offering a free trial, which must be worth a gander, just to get a taste of the new NXT. What do you think Cagesiders, is what WWE offering you enough to get you to subscribe to Hulu Plus, if you aren't already?
P.S. -- The latest word is that this deal with Hulu Plus will have no affect on WWE's current plans to launch The WWE Network in the not too distant, but unspecified, future, likely as a subscription channel.