It's a bit under the radar, but WOW has returned with a "new season". It's syndicated, like the original incarnation of the show; in New York it's on channel 10 (technically a Long Island station, but carried on most cable systems in the tri-state area) on Saturday and Sunday nights at 11. (The same episode runs both nights.)
It's still a David McLane production, so as you'd expect there are a lot of cartoonish gimmicks, but the wrestling isn't bad. AJ Mendez (AJ Lee) is an executive producer/trainer and does color commentary, which certainly contributes some gravitas. (WOW veteran Selina Majors aka Bambi has a similar off-camera role, although I haven't seen her onscreen.) Chik Tormenta from AAA was on the first episode I watched as well.
One thing they do which is NOT typical of David McLane productions is that on each of the two episodes I watched, they had a segment where one of the main event wrestlers talked about serious challenges in their lives. (I'm thinking this is a shoot, but I'm not sure.) Last week the aforementioned Tormenta talked about having to be apart from her son to seek bigger matches to make ends meet; this week Ice Cold (not the same Ice Cold from the c. 2000 version of the show) not only talked about her father and brother dying, but about being sexually assaulted. NOT what I ever would have thought I'd hear on a McLane show! Furthermore, they were both wrestling as heels, which is even less McLane-like, to make the heels humanized and even sympathetic rather than over-the-top evil.
Anyway, I've missed the tradition of watching b-level wrestling when I'm home on Saturday nights (think WCW Saturday Night after Nitro became the main show and Shotgun Saturday Night along with the original WOW), so I'm thinking I'll keep watching when I'm not otherwise engaged. Anyone else seen this yet? Anything notable I'm not aware of?
(If nothing else, the icon gets what I assume is its first use in many years.)
I watched the second episode and wrote about it in my column last week in the Torch newsletter. It definitely feels more toned-down than some of McLane's previous offerings - perhaps a combination of Lee's involvement and where we are as a society in general.
The wrestling still isn't all that good, and the characters are still pretty broadly drawn, so unless you just really like and want to support anything to do with women's wrestling, I'm not sure there's much of a draw here. There is a camp factor, I guess, that will attract some that are curious about the product.
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I tuned in for about five minutes when I happened to notice it was on over the weekend. (It airs Saturdays at noon AND midnight on my "The CW" station. Also, "The CW" is still a thing!)
The ring looked tiny, but that may have been the camerawork, which was....well, not great. Commentary was inoffensive. Work was "well, they tried" which is kinda how I remembered WOW before, but I probably watched the wrong match because I seem to recall they had a name or two but they were probably used in the main event later in the show.
Anyway I set my DVR to record it and I'm sure I'll never watch it just like most of the other pro wrestling I'm recording and never watching.
BucsFan: I'd expect the title match to kick off the second hour next week, and the draft to dominate the overrun. Also, when the champion loses a belt, it's easy... he goes into the roster that the challenger was a part of.
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