House of Hardcore announce partnership with Twitch, everything’s gonna be okay

Just shy of eleven months ago, Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore announced a streaming deal with FloSlam. Back in those heady days, before the oceans drank Atlantis before the signings dried up and promotions started leaving one-by-one, the future seemed bright.

But in the end, House of Hardcore’s history on Flo can be looked at as kind of a bellwether for the service as a whole— it started bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with a deal to stream three shows and upload selections from the back catalogue weekly, and Dreamer even spoke openly about what a huge sacrifice he was making, putting $65,000 of his own money into streaming equipment.

But almost immediately the cracks began showing, as Flo didn’t start streaming the old shows on time, and in the end, only the first three shows went up at all. HOH’s next couple events appeared on the service (featuring the Hardy Boyz’ last independent match, albeit after some trials and tribulations), but no announcement of a deal for the Australian tour over the summer or beyond ever appeared, and the promotion disappeared from Flo’s upcoming events list.

While there are plenty of other avenues for wrestling streaming, including Powerbomb.tv, the Highspots Wrestling Network— both excellent multi-promotion services that I recommend fully and without reservation— few did as much live streaming as Flo (although to be fair, I must note that in the last month or so Powerbomb have ramped their efforts up in a big way and are now streaming shows live nearly every weekend), and it felt in many ways like the end of an era that was snuffed out before it could even get going. Sure, FloSlam is still technically active, but with the World Wrestling Network promotions gone and IPW:UK pulling their events to air them on their own service, it’s a wasteland, moribund and without fruit, only the scattered leavings of what came before left.

Enter video game streaming juggernaut Twitch. Texas super indie WrestleCircus switched from internet pay-per-view to Twitch months ago, and now the tide has begun to come in. Smaller indies like Xcite Wrestling, Hoodslam, and Brian Kendrick’s Wrestling Pro Wrestling have signed on, and lucha libre giant AAA streamed their marquee event of the year on there to great effect.

So it’s really no surprise that a former Flo affiliate like HOH would officially announce a Twitch deal this week, but it’s very welcome. They’ll begin streaming for free on their channel with House of Hardcore 35 on November 18 and proceed from there, promising fresh weekly content in addition to the mainline HOH shows.

Guess the future’s kinda bright after all!

While House of Hardcore always keep their full cards close to their vest, we do have several matches announced for HOH 35 and HOH 36, so let’s list those out, shall we?

House of Hardcore 35 (November 18, 8PM Eastern)

• Guido Maritato & Super Crazy vs. Spirit Squad (Kenny & Mikey)
• Billy Gunn vs. Nick “Magnus” Aldis
• Joey Mercury vs. Tommy Dreamer (First Blood Match)

House of Hardcore 36: Blizzard Brawl Homecoming (December 2, 7PM Central)

• Abyss vs. Tommy Dreamer (Hardcore War)
• Al Snow & Hornswoggle vs. Spirit Squad (Kenny & Mikey)
• Austin Aries vs. Joey Mercury
• Candice Michelle vs. Lisa Marie Varon (Candice Michelle Retirement Match)

Of all the names I expected to see when I started scrolling through the events page to transcrible these for you, folks, Candice Michelle is not one I was expecting, but here she is, out of retirement to wrestle a proper retirement match! Plus, y’know, Austin Aries being back in the ring doing what he does best is pretty swell too.

There you have it, folks

Excited to check House of Hardcore out on Twitch, Cagesiders?