Wrestling Streaming: Honor Club, WWE Network, or Impact Plus

It’s a new digital age for wrestling and the options are overwhelming. Every kind of wrestling product is on-demand and you can find one that fits your fancy. We didn’t always have endless content libraries like the WWE Network on Peacock. We used to have to rely on TNT or the USA Network to show our beloved programming.  Now, wrestling’s past, present, and future is available with the click of an app. For as little as $10 a month you can watch every WrestleMania or catch a secret underground show meant for the most loyal fans. Every wrestling promotion worth its salt is moving to a streaming subscription format, so it begs the question. Which one should I invest in?

I tried every popular wrestling subscription (Honor Club, WWE Network, and Impact Plus) and this is what I found

Best subscriptions for major events

Many major and special events are no longer hidden behind PPV walls. We do not have to shell out $40 per special on top of our cable bill to see a wrestling conclusion. Honor Club, WWE Network, and Impact Plus offer exclusive events at no extra cost, but not all of them are created equal.

Honor Club will let you sift through Ring of Honor’s rich PPV library and gift you with live tours, but if you want to catch the latest PPV then you will need to pay for it at 1/2 price (I realize that the last 2 PPV’s they hosted were free, but that might be more of a temporary quarantine solution).

Impact takes it one step further. You can watch all the past and upcoming PPVs except for the three or four major events per year. There’s no discount either, so you will just have to suck it up and pay the $40 if you want to see Bound for Glory.

WWE went full-scale generous. Now with a subscription to Peacock, you see every PPV from the past (WCW, WWE, ECW). Some reports hint at the possibility that big events like WrestleMania will be available at an extra cost, but that is not the current state. What used to be $50 a pop has become nearly unlimited to the $10 subscription. I honestly don’t know how they make ends meet in this business model.

Best Production Value

Just because your brand has a lot of content, doesn’t mean it’s good or worth watching. A lot of indie subscriptions give you great shows, but they are recorded on single cameras with bad sound and lighting. When Impact Plus first started airing exclusive shows the quality was terrible. The sound would cut out, the ring set up was just a few curtains in a school auditorium, and the camera angles were limited. They have improved vastly now that they are stuck inside a studio.

ROH had similar problems with their tours. The one thing I could not stand about ROH’s live tours is that they were three weeks ahead of their TV tapings. The tours referenced stables and rivalries that no one knew about because the TV shows had not aired yet. Now that the pandemic has forced them into a studio, ROH has no live tours to worry about.

WWE has the money to produce high-budget shows. The sound, visuals, and value have always been phenomenal. Seems like every year the WWE gets another LCD screen. With WWE, you will get squeaky clean showmanship wrestling instead of grungy underground fight clubs (unless you watch old ECW tapes).

Best Weekly Show Offerings

A pro wrestling subscription is worthless if it does not progress forward. There are subscriptions that have collected old indie promotions (High Spots) and I will never invest in them. Why? Because I can’t get invested in a random pick of shows that don’t go forward. It’s like watching a rerun of the Super Bowl. That is why the weekly content is just as important.

ROH and Impact have one major flagship show that is easy to follow. ROH has the weakest weekly offering as of now. A roster of over 50 wrestlers and different storylines and the weekly show will feature two wrestling matches. It’s important that viewers see all the major champions and stars on a weekly basis. ROH is emaciated content-wise. Impact shows cover most of their major storylines in a single episode.

The WWE is an example of overloaded content. NXT, Smackdown, Raw, NXT UK, 205. It is very hard to care about storylines when you have to devote 6 hours of watching a week to get the whole picture. In WWE’s case, pick your brand and run with it.

Best Other Content

This is not nearly as important, but it is a good bonus. The guest promotions are always welcome on a subscription service. Only WWE and Impact feature guest brands. On Impact you can watch Smash Wrestling and other Alpha-1. On WWE Network you get PROGRESS, Evolve, ICW, ECW, and WCW. The WWE Network wins by a mile in terms of choice. Unfortunately, you also get lame offerings like reality shows and featurettes that are far from the business of wrestling. Who cares what karaoke songs Braun Strowman can sing? ROH is dedicated to their product and nothing else. That is fine.

Which one will you choose?

Obviously, you are going to pick a brand based on what federation you are loyal to. This article is for wrestling fans who love the sport and can’t get enough. Here’s an easy guide for picking.

If you want to save the most money: Impact Plus (2 dollars cheaper)
If you want the closest thing to NJPW in English:  Honor Club
If you want the best independent wrestling:  Honor Club and Impact Plus
If you want the latest PPVs at no extra charge: WWE Network and Honor Club (temporarily)
If you want the best Canadian wrestling brands: Impact Plus (Smash Wrestling and Alpha-1)
If you want the best British wrestling brands: WWE Network (ICW and PROGRESS)
If you want exciting weekly shows with twists and turns: WWE Network and Impact Plus
If you actually want 80s and 90s content: WWE Network
If you don’t like weekly shows in an empty studio:  WWE Network (albeit with fake audience reactions)
If you want the most hardcore, no DQ matches: WWE Network (ECW and ICW)
If you want to see Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks: Honor Club and Impact Plus
If you want to see the best submission style wrestling: Honor Club