Okay, so 2023 and WWE pay-per-views, or “premium live events” as they call ’em now. It had been a while since I really followed closely, you know? Life happens. But around the start of the year, I dunno, maybe I was just looking for something familiar, something easy to dive back into.
First thing I did was figure out how to even watch the darn things reliably. Used to be straightforward, buy the PPV. Now it’s all streaming. Had to get signed up with Peacock. That was an adventure in itself, remembering passwords, setting up the account, making sure the stream actually worked on my TV without buffering every five minutes. Tested it out on some older stuff first before the Royal Rumble hit.
Getting Started with the Rumble
The Rumble came around in January. Decided to make a night of it. Got some snacks, settled in. It felt kinda good, that old excitement building up. Didn’t know half the newer folks, gotta admit, but seeing some familiar faces was cool. The streaming held up, mostly. Had a couple hiccups, but nothing major. It was… comfortable.
After that, I kinda got into the rhythm. Elimination Chamber, then the big one, WrestleMania. Now, Mania is always a huge deal. Two nights this year. I actually planned ahead for that one. Made sure I had nothing else going on those evenings. It’s a commitment, right?
- Checked the start times like three times.
- Made sure the internet bill was paid, haha.
- Warned the family I’d be parked on the couch.
WrestleMania delivered some moments, definitely. The Bloodline story everyone was talking about? Yeah, I got invested. Didn’t always agree with the results, but hey, that’s part of being a fan, right? You yell at the screen a bit.
Keeping Up Through the Year
Then came the string of other events… Backlash, Night of Champions, Money in the Bank. Honestly, sometimes it felt like there was a big show almost every month. Keeping up wasn’t always easy. Sometimes I’d watch live, other times I’d catch the replay the next day to avoid staying up super late, especially for the international shows.
My process became pretty standard: check the date, block out time if watching live, or just avoid spoilers until I could watch the recording on Peacock. Simple enough. Didn’t really do watch parties or anything fancy, mostly just me unwinding with it.
SummerSlam was another big marker. Felt like a major checkpoint for the year’s stories. By then, I was pretty familiar with the main players again. It stopped feeling like catching up and more like just following along.
Fastlane, Crown Jewel, Survivor Series… the year kinda rolled on. Some shows were better than others, obviously. Sometimes the storylines felt a bit repetitive, other times they pulled off something genuinely surprising. The whole experience in 2023 was less about analyzing every single match like I might have done years ago, and more about just having something entertaining to follow regularly. It was a solid year for that, I think. No major complaints on my end about the process, once I got the streaming sorted. Just tuned in and watched the show.
