10 Major Shows Missing From The WWE Network

Though the WWE Network continues to add to its already-vast library of content, there are still some gaps that really need to be filled.

Yes, it’s great having every episode of Raw, Smackdown, Nitro, Thunder, countless documentaries, stuff from the territories, a glut of pay-per-views and a million other things, but, as the old saying goes, you always want what you can’t have.

And we want some Shotgun Saturday Night, Action Zone, WCW Pro and any other show WWE are willing to throw our way!

Most, if not all of those shows, will likely be uploaded in due course, but there are some standalone specials we're less sure about.

Now, WWE has a lot of footage sitting and waiting in their insane vault, so don't expect absolutely everything to be made available, but some things that are missing from the Network have aired elsewhere, such as on the old subscription channel WWE 24/7, Classics on Demand or video or DVD.

Since Classics on Demand is now defunct no one has owned a DVD player since around 2015, it would be nice to have these ready to enjoy at the press of a button.

So, to mark the seventh anniversary of the WWE Network going live in the States, here are ten such shows that need adding to the service as soon as possible!

10. WWE Mayhem in Manchester

There are plenty of WWE’s UK-exclusive pay-per-views for you to enjoy on the WWE Network, with One Night Only, Capital Carnage, No Mercy, and every Insurrextion and Rebellion just a mouse click away.

The one that you won’t be able to watch, however, is Mayhem in Manchester.

Taking place just a week after WrestleMania 14 at a packed Manchester Arena, the show brought the new WWE Attitude to England for the first time.

While an abbreviated VHS tape of the show, with highlights and some complete matches, was released (and there are a few clips on WWE’s YouTube channel), it has not since found its way onto the Network.

Why? Not a darn clue, because the show wasn’t half-bad based on what we can tell.

It was by no means spectacular but any show with a double main event of Steve Austin versus Triple H in a WWE Title match and The Undertaker battling Kane is worth at least a curious glance.

While Stone Cold versus The Game is the best thing on the card (and even then it was pretty short), the most notable thing about the event is that The Deadman was forced to wrestle in street clothes after the airline lost his luggage, giving fans a sneak peak at biker ‘Taker, two years before the arrival of the American Badass.

10. WWE Mayhem in Manchester

There are plenty of WWE’s UK-exclusive pay-per-views for you to enjoy on the WWE Network, with One Night Only, Capital Carnage, No Mercy, and every Insurrextion and Rebellion just a mouse click away.

The one that you won’t be able to watch, however, is Mayhem in Manchester.

Taking place just a week after WrestleMania 14 at a packed Manchester Arena, the show brought the new WWE Attitude to England for the first time.

While an abbreviated VHS tape of the show, with highlights and some complete matches, was released (and there are a few clips on WWE’s YouTube channel), it has not since found its way onto the Network.

Why? Not a darn clue, because the show wasn’t half-bad based on what we can tell.

It was by no means spectacular but any show with a double main event of Steve Austin versus Triple H in a WWE Title match and The Undertaker battling Kane is worth at least a curious glance.

While Stone Cold versus The Game is the best thing on the card (and even then it was pretty short), the most notable thing about the event is that The Deadman was forced to wrestle in street clothes after the airline lost his luggage, giving fans a sneak peak at biker ‘Taker, two years before the arrival of the American Badass.

9. WCW Millennium Final

There wasn’t much to celebrate about WCW in its dying days, but as bad as things were in the United States, the company knew they still had a big international fanbase and could pack arenas on the other side of the Atlantic.

So the entire crew flew to Oberhausen, Germany on November 16th, 2000 for an exclusive pay-per-view called Millennium Final, capping off a successful European tour that had also included a Thunder taping in Manchester.

Attracting 9,000 fans, Millennium Final resoundingly outdrew Halloween and Havoc, the two US pay-per-views that bookended it.

As for the show itself, there are various versions floating about on the great wide web but it has not, to this point, been made available on the WWE Network.

One reason for this might be the absence of an English-language commentary track, but surely WWE are capable of recording one.

There were some big matches on the card, including a WCW Title match between Booker T and Scott Steiner, a Kevin Nash and Sting bout for the prestigious WCW European Cup and an actual title change, with countryman Alex Wright and fill-in partner Hugh Morrus winning the tag straps from the Natural Born Thrillers.

9. WCW Millennium Final

There wasn’t much to celebrate about WCW in its dying days, but as bad as things were in the United States, the company knew they still had a big international fanbase and could pack arenas on the other side of the Atlantic.

So the entire crew flew to Oberhausen, Germany on November 16th, 2000 for an exclusive pay-per-view called Millennium Final, capping off a successful European tour that had also included a Thunder taping in Manchester.

Attracting 9,000 fans, Millennium Final resoundingly outdrew Halloween and Havoc, the two US pay-per-views that bookended it.

As for the show itself, there are various versions floating about on the great wide web but it has not, to this point, been made available on the WWE Network.

One reason for this might be the absence of an English-language commentary track, but surely WWE are capable of recording one.

There were some big matches on the card, including a WCW Title match between Booker T and Scott Steiner, a Kevin Nash and Sting bout for the prestigious WCW European Cup and an actual title change, with countryman Alex Wright and fill-in partner Hugh Morrus winning the tag straps from the Natural Born Thrillers.

8. Terry Funk’s WrestleFest

I think we can all agree that the WWE Network could use a little more – OK, a lot more – Terry Funk.

The Funker is one of the all-time greats and, given his long, journeyman career, he pops up on the app everywhere from the territories, to WCW, ECW, WWE and beyond.

There’s no shortage of Terry Funk for you to enjoy for your tenner, but one thing conspicuous by its absence is Terry Funk’s WrestleFest from 1997, AKA the Terry Funk retirement show.

Even though ‘Terry Funk retirement show’ is an oxymoron and the man from the Double Cross Ranch was back lacing up his boots just weeks after his own send-off, WrestleFest is a great show and celebration of an extraordinary life and career.

And while the main event between Funk and then-WWE Champion Bret Hart is on the Network as a Hidden Gem, WWE could do us all a favour and upload the rest of the bloody show already.

Because, in an era of intense competition and the Monday Night Wars, WWE, WCW and ECW wrestlers were all present to wrestle and pay their respects, leading to some intriguing matches like Rob Van Dam against Dory Funk Jr. and Mankind taking on Sabu.

8. Terry Funk’s WrestleFest

I think we can all agree that the WWE Network could use a little more – OK, a lot more – Terry Funk.

The Funker is one of the all-time greats and, given his long, journeyman career, he pops up on the app everywhere from the territories, to WCW, ECW, WWE and beyond.

There’s no shortage of Terry Funk for you to enjoy for your tenner, but one thing conspicuous by its absence is Terry Funk’s WrestleFest from 1997, AKA the Terry Funk retirement show.

Even though ‘Terry Funk retirement show’ is an oxymoron and the man from the Double Cross Ranch was back lacing up his boots just weeks after his own send-off, WrestleFest is a great show and celebration of an extraordinary life and career.

And while the main event between Funk and then-WWE Champion Bret Hart is on the Network as a Hidden Gem, WWE could do us all a favour and upload the rest of the bloody show already.

Because, in an era of intense competition and the Monday Night Wars, WWE, WCW and ECW wrestlers were all present to wrestle and pay their respects, leading to some intriguing matches like Rob Van Dam against Dory Funk Jr. and Mankind taking on Sabu.

7. WWE Road to WrestleMania 22

Wikipedia

Though WWE have long had a presence in Australia, it took them a little longer to find their way to neighbours New Zealand.

WWE finally found themselves putting on a show in the Land of the Long White Cloud on the Road to WrestleMania 22 in March of 2006.

Entertaining around 24,000 inside the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, the show was a hot ticket and, capitalising on the enthusiasm generated by the fans starved of live wrestling, WWE brought a camera crew with them and filmed the show.

Matches from the event – including a triple threat World Heavyweight Title match between Kurt Angle, The Undertaker and Mark Henry, Booker T taking on Chris Benoit for the US Title and a grudge match between Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio – were edited and broadcast on WWE 24/7, with Michael Cole and Tazz laying down commentary from Stamford.

Though the action never really got above house show level, the fans went wild for it and it was a good sampling of what could be seen on Smackdown around that time.

WWE officials were happy enough with the response that they continued touring the country for years after, though whoever makes decisions on the WWE Network is clearly in no hurry to add this show any time soon.

6. WWE XPerience (1996)

WWE

A decade to the day after WWE drew almost 70,000 people to Exhibition Stadium in Toronto for a show entitled The Big Event (headlined by Hulk Hogan defending the WWE Title against Paul Orndorff), WWE attempted to replicate that feat with a show in the same stadium.

Dubbed WWE XPerience, the 1996 event only drew a fraction under 22,000 fans, by no means a bad crowd but one that quite obviously looked a bit smaller in such large surroundings.

There are stories circulating that the show was broadcast as the first-ever internet pay-per-view, but  you’d probably get a better picture quality by trying to stream it through a calculator than by using mid-90s dial-up.

WWE cameras were there to document the occasion, as footage of the event, as well as the related festivities during the day, such as the fan fest, was shown on the September 6th episode of Raw.

So perhaps one day we’ll what all the fuss was about.

It’s certainly a loaded card, with a main event of Shawn Michaels versus Goldust in a WWE Title ladder match ably supported by a Mankind versus The Undertaker casket match and a Sid versus Vader lumberjack affair.

Speaking of The Master and Ruler of the World, he might have been a tad tired come bell time after having a tug-of-war with an elephant earlier in the day. And no, that’s not a euphemism.

5. WWE WrestleFest 1988

WWE

While a lot of the Coliseum Video releases have been made available on the WWE Network, there are nonetheless some notable omissions.

One of those is WrestleFest 1988, an event that wasn’t a pay-per-view or televised but was taped for home video release. Some of the matches cut from the video were aired on Prime Time Wrestling in the weeks following the show.

Emanating from the Milwaukee County Stadium on July 31st, WrestleFest drew around 25,000 people, most of whom came to see the Cage Match between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.

A marquee match if there ever was one, The Hulkster against the Eighth Wonder of the World inside the big blue bars wasn’t a classic by any means – Andre was really suffering physically at this point – but the fans are very into it and it has an incredible aura about it.

Elsewhere on a stacked show, Randy Savage defended his WWE Title against Ted DiBiase, a bout that showed up on the Macho Madness video, The Ultimate Warrior took on Bobby Heenan in a Weasel Suit Match, Rick Rude and Jake Roberts collided and Demolition defended their Tag Titles against the British Bulldogs.

As well as matches from the event showing up here, there and everywhere, an edited version did air on WWE 24/7 and there was a Tagged Classics DVD release in the UK but, as of now, your 9.99 a month doesn’t give you access.

However, if you search WrestleFest 1988 on the Network, you do get a 58 second clip of Macho Man talking about the event. So there’s that...

4. WWE Super Tuesday (2002)

WWE

In the early days of the original WWE brand split in 2002, wrestlers from Raw and Smackdown were typically kept away from each other, only sharing the same space on pay-per-views, which were co-branded productions.

In a bid to hype the upcoming Survivor Series, UPN aired a one-hour special called Super Tuesday on November 12th.

The concept was simple – one match from Raw, one from Smackdown and a little bit of inter-promotional fun with a Red versus Blue (or tan versus black) bikini contest.

From the Smackdown side, Eddie Guerrero took on Chris Benoit and Edge in a predictably decent triple threat match, with Latino Heat getting the win and planting a seed for his and Chavo’s triumph in the three-way Tag Team Title match days later in Madison Square Garden.

Then there was the aforementioned bikini contest – between Trish Stratus and Torrie Wilson – which had no official winner since Nidia interfered.

And from Raw, a ten-man tag match pitting Triple H, Chris Jericho, Christian and Three Minute Warning against Booker T, Kane, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy and Bubba Dudley.

The Cerebral Assassin pinned the Big Red Machine.

Aside from that there were the requisite interviews and video packages.

It wasn’t an important show, but it should still be on the Network.

3. AAA When Worlds Collide

WWE

You may be wondering why an event produced by Mexican promotion AAA should be included in the WWE Network.

Because even though it was a showcase for lucha libre, it was actually produced and broadcasted via pay-per-view thanks to Eric Bischoff and WCW, who helped get the show picked up by American providers.

And what a show it is, too.

Likely the first exposure to this style of wrestling for many fans in the States, the card is stuffed with quality action and provides a look at some performers who would become major stars in years to come.

Like Rey Mysterio and Psicosis, who tore it up in a thrilling six-man tag match. Or Eddie Guerrero and Art Barr, AKA Los Gringos Locos, who wrestled their last match as a team, losing a thrilling two-out-of-three-falls Hair versus Mask match to El Hijo del Santo and Octagon.

And Konnan, the biggest star in Mexico at the time, who was in the Steel Cage match main event.

Heralded by WWE.com as the Best Pay-Per-View You’ve Never Seen (here's an idea, why don’t you put it on the WWE Network so we can see it?) When Worlds Collide is an important historical show of real class.

2. WWE Showdown at Shea 1980

Described by WWE themselves as the precursor to WrestleMania, the company’s shows at New York’s Shea Stadium in the 1970s and early 80s are an important part of its history.

Of all the Showdown at Shea events, the one from 1980 is probably the most interesting and the one that should definitely be on the Network.

Attracting a not-too-shabby 36,000 people, the card was headlined by a super-personal Steel Cage match between Bruno Sammartino, former mentor to his opponent, Larry Zbyszko.

It was a hell of a fight and a great way to cap off what had been a superior show.

Other highlights include Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales winning the Tag Titles from the Wild Samoans, a decent Intercontinental Title affair between Ken Patera and Tony Atlas, some cutting-edge Junior Heavyweight action courtesy of Chavo Guerrero and Tatsumi Fujinami, an appearance from another Japanese legend, Antonio Inoki and an early meeting between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan.

Clips of select matches are on WWE’s website and you can see Inoki’s bout on the Network as a Hidden Gem, but the rest of the show is AWOL, despite the complete version airing on WWE 24/7 (with commentary by Mick Foley and Michael Cole).

Perhaps WWE want to preserve the myth that the Hulkster only slammed Andre at WrestleMania 3 and not here, seven years earlier, but it really ought to be available to subscribers.

2. WWE Showdown at Shea 1980

Described by WWE themselves as the precursor to WrestleMania, the company’s shows at New York’s Shea Stadium in the 1970s and early 80s are an important part of its history.

Of all the Showdown at Shea events, the one from 1980 is probably the most interesting and the one that should definitely be on the Network.

Attracting a not-too-shabby 36,000 people, the card was headlined by a super-personal Steel Cage match between Bruno Sammartino, former mentor to his opponent, Larry Zbyszko.

It was a hell of a fight and a great way to cap off what had been a superior show.

Other highlights include Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales winning the Tag Titles from the Wild Samoans, a decent Intercontinental Title affair between Ken Patera and Tony Atlas, some cutting-edge Junior Heavyweight action courtesy of Chavo Guerrero and Tatsumi Fujinami, an appearance from another Japanese legend, Antonio Inoki and an early meeting between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan.

Clips of select matches are on WWE’s website and you can see Inoki’s bout on the Network as a Hidden Gem, but the rest of the show is AWOL, despite the complete version airing on WWE 24/7 (with commentary by Mick Foley and Michael Cole).

Perhaps WWE want to preserve the myth that the Hulkster only slammed Andre at WrestleMania 3 and not here, seven years earlier, but it really ought to be available to subscribers.

1. WWE Donnybrook Theater

WWE

If there’s one thing that’s better than terrible wrestling, it’s a terrible wrestling-themed show without any actual wrestling on it.

Back in the dark days of the mid-90s, WWE tried to prove they were still down with da kids by producing a show called Donnybrook Theater. Because if there’s one thing that’s going to show how hip you are, it’s naming the show after an expression that hadn’t been in widespread circulation since the days of silent movies.

Donnybrook Theater was Vince and company’s stab at a Saturday Night Live/Mad TV type sketch show, sort of like an obscure, terrible spinoff of Tuesday Night Titans.

The pilot – and that’s all that was ever filmed – was a disaster, with Todd Pettengill narrating a couple of unfunny segments (with a dodgy accent), including Yokozuna and Fuji playing cards, only to be interrupted by ‘The Huckster’ (played by Howard Finkel), who was then sat on by Yoko.

It’s abysmal and, while you’re not missing much if you never, ever see it in your life, it should still be on the Network. It’s an odd piece of ephemera and, since it once aired on WWE 24/7, there’s no real reason why it shouldn’t be.