Saturday Six – Shows missing from WWE Network

Welcome to the Saturday Six, where each week I let you get to know me a bit better with the help of a list. Any idiot can do a Top 5 list, which is why I kicked it up a notch to a Top 6. This week’s topic: Content Missing from WWE Network

If you’re a wrestling fan, WWE Network is a great bargain and full of great original content. There’s just one problem. I’ve watched all the original content, and most of the pay per views, leaving me with little I haven’t seen already. WWE has in its library almost all the recorded video of the sport of wrestling going back over 70 years, totaling over 100,000 hours. Only 1 percent of that is currently available to see on WWE Network, including some pretty sizable holes. So here’s my list of things that are not yet available on WWE network and totally need to be.

1. Prime Time Wrestling (USA Network, 1985-1993) – This was the immediate predecessor to Raw, and I clearly remember staying up late to watch this as a kid because Bobby Heenan had some crazy secret he was gonna tell. What that was, I have no idea, but I stayed up anxiously waiting for the reveal. There have been clips in some of the recent original shows and documentaries, but I want to see the back and forth between Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon uncut in its original form. At some points during its run in apparently turned into a weird variety/talk type show, and Heenan had a troop of sidekick dancers. That just sounds awesome, and I need to see it!

 

2. OVW (1998-2008) and FCW (2007-2012) Developmental shows – While both territories had shows, they were regional in nature, and a wider audience has probably never seen them. I’d love to see a young John Cena when he was wrestling in his generic “The Prototype” gimmick, or see the excellent work Paul Heyman and CM Punk did in OVW. While many older stars like Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton went through OVW, almost every star on the current roster spent some time in FCW, and I’d love to see the early days of AJ and Kaityln as the Chickbusters, and Brad Maddox actually taken seriously as a wrestler. The ability to see just how far your favorite wrestle came from their early training days should be an easy win for WWE.

 

3. ECW on SciFi (2006-2010) – I know it was the C-show, and being from Philly I know it doesn’t compare to the original, but I wasn’t watching wrestling at the time it aired. This again goes back to wanting to see the full rise of CM Punk. Plus I want to see all of Kelly Kelly’s dance segments in full HD, not grainy youtube clips.

 

4. Tough Enough(MTV/UPN 2001-2004) and NXT (2010-2012) – Sensing a pattern? I want to be able to see the growth of the current stars. The only real star to ever come from Tough Enough was The Miz, but I’ve never seen him not in character and would like to see the build for that. I was not around for the whole Nexus invasion angle from NXT season 1, and would like to see what the big deal was at the time was, because everyone in the Nexus who isn’t named Daniel Bryan is just a jobber now. Plus all the NXT shows are already in HD and season 5 was streamed on WWE.com, so it should be easy to get them online.

 

5. Old Old Old School Dumont wrestling (pre-1960) – The WWE owns all kinds of crazy footage from the 40’s and 50’s, that I don’t think anyone in the current generation of fans (or even the past two) is even aware of, that really needs to see the light of day to show the history of the sport. They also own some of the only footage remaining that ever aired on the Dumont Network that didn’t end up in the bottom of the East River, making them pretty important in the history of television as a whole, not just wrestling history.

 

6. WCW Monday Nitro (TNT 1995-2001) and WCW Thursday Thunder (TBS 1998-2001) – The biggest glaring hole in the network, besides the middle part of the RAW run, is no full episodes of WCW at all. There are some parts in Best Of DVDs and there will be some in the upcoming Monday Night Wars show, but they need to do like what they were doing on WWE on Demand. They had a series where you could watch one week’s Raw, then it would show you the opposing episode of Nitro so you could compare. I was never a WCW guy, but being able to see them side by side during the Monday Night Wars really helps you appreciate just how good it all was. And with the recent signing of Sting, it just makes sense to be able to relive all the shows he was the franchise face for.

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook