Fans Shake Their Fists at WWE Over WrestleMania Streaming Woes

Critical reaction to last night's WrestleMania 32 can charitably be described as mixed, but one thing is clear: For some people, the WWE Network streaming service did not work as well they had hoped.

The WWE Network, of course, is the sports entertainment company's $10 per month streaming video service that includes access to live events like the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, as well as a library filled with more than 1,000 hours of archival content. When it works well it's a great value, but when there are problems, as many users reported last night on social media outlets like Twitter and Reddit, it can be an exercise in frustration.

@WWENetwork needs to fix their problems. Really tired of watching "Loading, please wait" it's getting ridiculous. @WWE #WrestleMania
— Mike (@mike_harris1974) April 4, 2016

"Am I the only one with garbage feeds?" asked one user, kingcozbundy, on the F4W Online message board. "I have a good internet connection, but the feed sucks on my [Xbox One], my Chromebook (especially my Toshiba 2, which has been dreadful all week), my Kindle Fire, and my PHONE!"

"Total trash," responded another user, dan_bliss, on that same message board. "Can't watch it for more than a couple minutes on my computer, phone or tablet. I've given up for tonight."

Many of the social media complaints centered on a particular error message that appeared during the event saying "media not found: the content or event is not found."

I personally had no problems watching the Network during the event. I use a Roku 2 and have a 100 Mbps connection from RCN, a smaller broadband provider in New York.

It's unclear what percentage of the WWE Network's 1.82 million subscribers experienced problems during the live WrestleMania 32 broadcast. The company did not address the complaints in a Monday afternoon conference call about the Network's financial performance, nor did it respond to Motherboard's request for comment.

The WWE Network first launched in February 2014, and is marketed as a way for hardcore WWE fans—ahem—to keep up with the company without having to pay upwards of $50 per month to your local cable company for monthly pay-per-view events. Again, it's a great value when it works properly, but at least for some users the vagaries of online streaming may still be too opaque to fully rely upon it during critical events.