WWE News:  Sunday Night Heat episodes added to the WWE Network this week

What's the story?

The WWE announced on Monday morning that the entire first year of Sunday Night Heat was added to the WWE Network and can be viewed on demand right now.

In case you didn't know...

One of the more famous matches in the history of Sunday Night Heat occurred on January 31, 1999, during halftime of the Super Bowl. Mankind defeated The Rock in an empty arena match to win the WWF Championship. It was the highest rated edition of Sunday Night Heat earning a 6.6 rating.

The heart of the matter

Sunday Night Heat made its debut on the USA Network on August 2, 1998. The WWE was in the middle of the famous Monday Night Wars with WCW, and thought by adding a second television show, they would get the upper hand.

The very first episode featured matches such as Edge vs Jeff Jarrett, D-Lo Brown vs Ken Shamrock, and Owen Hart and The Rock vs Mankind and Kane.

Whenever an episode fell on the Sunday of a pay per view, it would serve as a live preview show with matches leading up to the event itself.

Sunday Night Heat was an important part of the WWE's focus until SmackDown premiered a year later in August of 1999. It remained on television until 2005, where it became a web-only show until it was gone for good in May 2008.

What's next?

Next up for the WWE will be the fallout from Backlash on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live this week.

The WWE is teasing the continuation of the Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar feud on Raw; while The Miz announced on the Backlash post show that he'll have a Money In The Bank qualifying match on SmackDown Live.

Author's take

I really enjoyed Sunday Night Heat in the early days because Monday Night Raw was the only live televised before then.

It was also fun to watch the editions of Sunday Night Heat just before a pay per view because the crowd was hyped up and it served as a precursor to the kickoff shows we have today.