10 Things Still Missing From WWE Network

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that SmackDown Live has emerged from the Brand split as WWE’s most consistently enjoyable weekly show. The blue brand has soared with acclaimed former NXT writer Ryan Ward at the helm, and while far from perfect, its logical storytelling and exciting matches have made every wrestler feel important, and every angle purposeful.

This was often the case during the original split too. Paul Heyman’s SmackDown (2002 onwards) is widely considered one of the best weekly products that WWE has ever produced. The SmackDown Six (Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Edge, Rey Mysterio, and Eddie and Chavo Guerrero) were already among the best wrestlers on the planet, and they helped take the brand to the next level.

The wrestling-centric focus was a breath of fresh air, but 2002 was not SD’s only boom period, and they regularly outshone Raw until the split’s dissolution in 2011. Despite all this, the WWE Network’s SmackDown archive is still far from complete, and there are a number of big holes in the catalogue.

Everything up to late 2008 is present and correct, but it’s hit and miss thereafter. WWE have spent the past few months gradually piecing the archive together, but a lot of SD’s best content is still missing, and there’s no sign of big highlights like the fantastic CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy feud (2009), for example.

We’ll get the footage eventually, but it’s a slow process, and one WWE would do well to expedite.