Remembering New Year’s Revolution… and Cable Woes
Man, thinking about WWE New Year’s Revolution really takes me back. Not always for the wrestling itself, you know? Sometimes it’s the stuff around watching it that sticks in your memory.
I remember one year, must’ve been 2006 I think? The one with the big Elimination Chamber match. Me and a couple of buddies were all set to watch it at my place. Got the snacks, the drinks, everything ready to go. We were hyped.
So, time comes to order the pay-per-view. I grab the remote, navigate through the awful cable box menu. You know the ones, slow, clunky, probably designed by someone who never watched TV. I find the event, hit ‘Order’. Nothing happens. Just a spinning icon, or maybe it was just frozen. Tried it again. Still nothing.
Panic starts setting in. The preshow is already on, and we can’t even get the order screen to work. My buddies are looking at me like, ‘Dude, fix it!’. Easy for them to say.
So, next step, call the cable company. Oh boy. Get ready for the automated system from hell.
- Press 1 for billing…
- Press 2 for technical support…
- Press 3 if your screen is blank…
You know the drill. Waited on hold for what felt like an eternity, listening to that terrible hold music. Finally get a human. Explain the situation. “Sir, have you tried unplugging your box and plugging it back in?” Yeah, genius, tried that first. Then they run some ‘tests’ on their end. More waiting.
By the time they ‘fixed’ it, supposedly by sending a ‘refresh signal’ or whatever magic they claimed, we’d missed the first match entirely. The signal finally came through, pixelated at first, then cleared up. We caught the rest of the show, including Edge cashing in, which was wild. But that frustration, that whole ordeal with the cable company, that’s what I really remember about New Year’s Revolution that year.
It’s funny, technology’s changed so much with streaming now, but sometimes dealing with companies, getting things to just work when you want them to, still feels like the same old struggle. Makes you wonder what kind of ‘revolution’ we really got, eh?
