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WWE in Canada
History of professional wrestling From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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WWE (formerly World Wrestling Federation), an American professional wrestling promotion based in Stamford, Connecticut in the United States owned by TKO, previously the McMahon family, has been promoting events in Canada since its founding in 1980.
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History
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On January 24, 1963, Toots Mondt of the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) got into a dispute with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) over "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers losing the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Lou Thesz in a one-fall match in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This disagreement led to Mondt, McMahon, and the CWC leaving the NWA in protest, creating the World Wide Wrestling Federation (the predecessor to the WWE) in the process.[1][2]
In 1984 Vince McMahon purchased Stampede Wrestling, before selling it back the following year.[3] Also in 1984, WWF acquired Maple Leaf Wrestling, and continued to run it for a couple of years. In 1986 Maple Leaf Wrestling was shut down, and the name was used for the Canadian broadcasts of WWF Superstars of Wrestling.
In 1985 WWF created the WWF Canadian Championship, which was given to Dino Bravo. Bravo was the Canadian International Heavyweight Championship for many years for Lutte Internationale. Due to his previous success, Bravo was billed as the WWF Canadian Champion in some Canadian cities until January 1986, when the title was abandoned.[4]
In 1986 WWF hosted The Big Event in Toronto which drew over 74,000 fans.[5] Ten years later, the WWF held an anniversary show of The Big Event, WWF Xperience, which drew over 21,000 fans.[6]
In 1997 Survivor Series was broadcast from Montreal and is infamous for the Montreal Screwjob.[7]
WrestleMania X8 in 2002 set the attendance record for an indoor event in Canada, at the Rogers Centre 68,236 people.[8]
In 2019, Montreal hosted the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up.[9]
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Broadcast
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In its early days, WWF/E programming was shown on TSN for Monday Night Raw and The Score for SmackDown! broadcasts. The programs were also aired on CHCH Hamilton, CJNT Montreal, CKMI Quebec and CKVR Barrie. ECW and NXT were seen on Global Television Network until 2010.
Beginning in 2014, WWE content is distributed exclusively via Rogers Media.[10] As part of this agreement, Rogers distributes WWE's weekly television shows, Raw, SmackDown, NXT, Main Event, and This Week in WWE on Sportsnet 360.[10] This deal excludes reality series, such as Total Divas (which is produced for E! and shown on its Canadian counterpart owned by Bell Media).
As part of this deal, the WWE Network's live stream was offered as a traditional TV channel for subscribers to cable providers, instead of a standalone service.[11][12][13]
On September 7, 2017, WWE and TVA Sports announced a multi-year agreement to air a weekly recap of Raw in French.[14]
Beginning January 1, 2025, all the Canadian rights to its weekly series Raw, and rights to all other programming (including content currently associated with the WWE Network), would move to Netflix in stages. Netflix and WWE confirmed on January 23, 2024 that the Canadian rights to Raw would move in January 2025—aligning with Rogers' contract having been previously announced as ending in 2024, and suggesting that other Canadian rights would move at the same time.[15][16][17]
From 2019 to 2024, SmackDown aired on Fox which is available to Canadian providers. Since 2024, NXT also airs on The CW, that is also available for distribution in Canada. In addition, Saturday Night's Main Event airs on NBC which is also available to Canadian providers, but during its first revived run from 2006 to 2008, it was simulcasted on Global and Citytv while A&E (also available in Canada) airs a two-hour reality and documentary-based programming part of the seasonal WWE Superstar Sundays: LFG and Rivals, which also appears on the USA Network (formerly Discovery Channel); as this channel airs Collision, produced by rival promotion All Elite Wrestling.
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Pay-per-view and livestreaming events
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Weekly Television shows
1995-2000
2001-2010
2011-2020
2022-present
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References
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