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WWE is taking a lot of hits today, what with fan unrest for the decision to end Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania 30 last night (April 6, 2014) in New Orleans, a lower than expected number of subscribers announced for the WWE Network, and a huge stock drop.
Oh and Jeff Jarrett has a new promotion that will surely rise up to challenge the number one pro wrestling promotion!
What you haven't been hearing or reading about is how the Network stream held up during the biggest show of the year. And you haven't been hearing about it because there is nothing to complain about.
It was damn near flawless.
Here at the Mrosko house, we streamed the show through a PS4. Our plan going in was to watch the event through the Network and, if the stream crapped out for any longer than five minutes, order the pay-per-view (PPV) through our cable provider. Our nerves were frayed when the audio went lame during the pre-show just before the tag team title match, but right as The Usos were making their entrance, the audio was fixed and there wasn't another issue on that end throughout the remainder of the evening.
As for video, the quality was almost perfect the whole way. There were maybe four times when the picture got a bit fuzzy but it corrected almost immediately each time. There was only one major glitch, during the Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar match. There was one sequence that was replayed roughly six times in a row like a CD skipping back due to a scratch.
Other than that? No problems.
It's actually amazing WWE managed to pull this off, considering the unrest caused by so many other streaming services failing. That includes MLB.TV in the week leading up to WrestleMania, run by the same folks, MLBAM, in charge of streaming the Network. Hell, even HBO's streaming service failed when broadcasting Game of Thrones last night.
This could be the deciding factor for potential subscribers who were waiting to see if the stream would hold up during such a big event.
It sure as hell did.