By Ryan Kester

Wednesday, September 28 - 2:34 P.M. (CT)

Last Thursday, I sat down at my computer with a freshly made coffee preparing for my live coverage of WWE Superstars. As had become a ritual for me, I waited and waited for WWE to get around to posting the show despite the schedule they were supposed to keep. This time, however, the show wasn't posted ten, fifteen, or forty minutes after they were supposed to post it, the show simply never appeared.

We've since learned that WWE wasn't satisfied with the amount of traffic Superstars was producing both on their website and on YouTube, and they have elected to stop airing the show to their North American followers.

Now, I am sure the vast majority of the fans, be they hardcore or casual, gave a resounding "meh" when they heard the news, but I am genuinely disappointed. Sure, the show WWE gave us when it aired on WGN America was often godawful, and there were certainly moments like that on the internet version from time to time.

However, WWE recently began to change things with Superstars. Rather than give us a handful of midcarders showcased on one of the main shows, we got talent like Curt Hawkins, Trent Barreta, Tyler Reks, and Drew McIntyre. They started bringing in Superstars with different managers, different theme music, and they even tried out some unique finishes or camera angles. Basically, they turned Superstars into some sort of a pseudo-testing ground.

The thing is, all of that experimenting made the show feel fresh. For once, WWE was putting out a product that didn't feel like it was just keeping the status quo. This led to the show producing some of the longest, well-wrestled, and entertaining matches we got from the mainstream wrestling companies. Matches like the recent Daniel Bryan vs. Drew McIntyre or The Uso Brothers and Trent Barreta vs. Tyson Kidd, Justin Gabriel, and Heath Slater back in June were some of my favorite matches of the year.

WWE, through some sort of dumb luck and happenstance, managed to produce a great show. It provided a bunch of the company's youngest talent the opportunity to work their craft and get some exposure. WWE had a brilliant chance to promote the show and drive traffic to their site to start letting the young guys get themselves over with their own ring work rather than wait for the brass to give them a chance. Instead, WWE has decided to throw the show away.

The part that disappoints me the most, however, is that a solid show is now gone from the American market, and so few people will remember the work that some of the brightest stars of WWE's future put into it. For me, I enjoyed WWE Superstars in its online form, and I am going to miss it.

If you have any questions or comments or just wish to chat with a fellow wrestling fan about whatever, then feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter at @TheRyanKester. Have a great week.

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