WWE Byte This!
WWE Byte This! was an official World Wrestling Entertainment webcast, hosted by Todd Grisham. The show primarily consisted of call-in interviews with WWE talent, as well as notables affiliated with WWE. Clips from (mostly current) WWE telecasts and trivia rounded out the program. Droz occasionally calls in to say his picks for the upcoming pay-per-view. Over the last 6 year run, Byte This! has many different time slots, the latest being Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET, on WWE.com, with "on demand" availability throughout the week. Byte This! returned Saturday October 7, 2006 and Vince McMahon was the guest.
Notable episodes
- On the July 13, 2005 episode, Lita was an in-studio guest and Matt Hardy called in at the peak of their off-screen drama. Lita eventually got fed up and walked off the show. Despite Hardy constantly advertising his appearance in Ring of Honor later that week, (later edited from the archived broadcast) some who watched the webcast that night believe the whole situation was a work.
- On September 28, 2005, when The Ultimate Warrior was asked to come on Byte This!, he refused, issuing a paragraph-long statement, calling Todd Grisham a "queer", and frequent Contributor Droz (who was left a paraplegic by a wrestling accident) a "cripple." This led to Matt Striker coming on to Byte This! and doing a less-than-flattering impression of Warrior, including numerous references to steroids. He, Grisham and Droz had several jokes at Warrior's expense, resulting in an edited version to be released on WWE.com days later that takes a more light-hearted approach.
- On December 14, 2005, Michael Cole and Tazz hosted Byte This!, opening with their grievances with WWE, specifically discussing the supposed company perception that favors RAW over Smackdown. In addition, they talked about how RAW's announcers and other personnel have commentary forums on WWE.com, yet somehow they do not. Michael Cole also made a remark concerning WWE "repeating storylines" directly on the air. Tazz froze for a minute then pointed an "air" rifle and shot Cole. They promised some future changes to WWE.com and proceeded to storm off the set. When Grisham tried to deal with it in a non-serious way, they came back on-camera emphasizing that it was not a "storyline" or "work", then left again, vowing to "take this to Vince and Kevin Dunn" if they had to. This segment was edited from the archived version of the episode on WWE.com.
- In December 2005 and January 2006, Byte This! came under attack through its live caller system. Each week, at least one person called in to make some reference to the wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. The remarks themselves were varied, ranging from "TNA is better than WWE" to "Todd, you dodge TNA questions just like you dodge the women." Grisham responded to the criticisms by referring to the callers as "retards" or something similar and subsequently hanging up on them. One notable response made by Grisham came during an episode late in 2005 in which he told a TNA caller to "call up TNA's show, it airs at 4:00 AM in...Japan." WWE mainstay Mick Foley got in on the joke by telling Todd that;
- Mick: "Man I've just had to walk out of a room, my kids are watching Dora the Explorer. Oh they're following me."
- Todd: "You could have told us that they were watching Byte This! It would make me feel good at least."
- Mick: "Can you even watch Byte This!?"
- Todd: "Yes, online at WWE.com, live Mick!"
- Mick: "I didn't even know that."
- Todd: "I'm begging you!"
- Mick: "Actually they were watching TNA. Oh sorry, I know that makes you mad when people say that!"
- Byte This! marked Bret Hart's first appearance for the company since the Montreal screwjob He conducted a sit-down interview with Todd Grisham, talking about his opinions on the current product and his DVD, which was being released at the time.
- The Wednesday February 8th 2006 webcast of Byte This! featured a guest appearance from The Heart Throbs. The Heart Throbs went off topic in their segment, making [...] references and at one point stripping Todd Grisham of his clothing, among other things. WWE management immediately released the Heart Throbs, though claimed they were not released specifically for their appearance on Byte This. There is also a theory that the first caller from this show had something to do with the removal of the episode. The first caller was David from California that asked the question," ...Who will win the Fatal Four way and challenge that [...] Booker T..." The caller was hung up and the show went on. This might be another reason that the show was removed, however this reason could be doubtful as Byte This is heavily edited for language when it is archived but when the show was live the caller saying [...] was not Censored. The producer of the show was not fired, despite many reports claiming the opposite. The show featuring the Heart Throbs was never archived, and a show was never produced the following week. Two weeks later Byte This! was removed entirely from WWE.com along with all of its archived episodes, although the archive has since returned. The last archived show is currently RVD from February 1, 2006. Byte This will return as part of WWE.com's expanding digital services.