I started watching WWF in 1999 and could not get enough of it, waiting for Raw is War and Smackdown was difficult. Luckily there were other shows to give me more wrestling. One of those was WWF Livewire. Now the show went through many phases but I will mostly focus on the recap version of it. Let’s login…
The original premise had other hosts like Michael hayes and Sunny as the hosts with many others joining in episodes like Jim Cornette, Jim Ross, Paul Heyman and even Vince McMahon. This version was live and had phone calls even if at least many of them seem scripted. I have to admit it helped move storylines actively with what was going on instead of only recapping. A reality show in a way when superstars would show up. The clips I’ve been able to see are all usually goood and would’ve made a great complement.
The version I watched had arleady moved to a less chaotic and far easier to produce recap show. It was hosted by Michael Cole and he did a great job telling you waht happened in WWF that week, it felt real and almost as a concerned fan telling you the news. And that’s what it felt to me like the “news” of WWF of the week, informing the viewer. That also made the Raw and Smackdown feel like you were watching the actual action happening live giving those shows a boost.
Eventually Smackdown! was no longer airing where I lived so LiveWire and Sunday Night Heat were my only ways of finding out what had happened in those shows. In that way the show really also worked as intended, especially since it also censored the more risque stuff that happened making it far more family friendly for those who couldn’t watch the main show had this saturdy morning alternative.
We would get different hosts from time to time although they did become permanent at some point. Jonathan Coachman was also a good host, his style was different form Michael Cole since Coach felt more like an excited fanboy telling you what happened. Eventually, we got Marissa Mazolla as the host; she wasn’t as experienced or great at it, but I really liked her style as more of a fish out of water entering a new world, not to mention having a woman gave the show a different feel.
I stopped watching most likely around 2001 as I in general disconnected from the now called WWE. It’s a shame that Livewire never really made it to the WWE Network and there’s barely any clips of it online since it was basically a recap show. It deserves abit more love for the show that would hype us up for the next PPV.