WWE in Canada | |
---|---|
Created by | Vince McMahon |
Promotions | WWE |
Brands | Raw SmackDown NXT |
WWE (formerly World Wrestling Federation and World Wrestling Entertainment), an American professional wrestling promotion based in Stamford, Connecticut in the United States owned by the McMahon family, has been promoting events in Canada since its founding in 1980.
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 disagree 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]
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]
Date | Name | Brand | Venue | City | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
October 23, 1995 | Raw | Brandon, Manitoba | |||
October 23, 1995 Aired October 30, 1995 | Raw | Brandon, Manitoba | |||
October 23, 1995 Aired November 6, 1995 | Raw | Brandon, Manitoba | |||
October 23, 1995 Aired November 13, 1995 | Raw | Brandon, Manitoba | |||
January 31, 1997 Aired February 3, 1997 | Raw | SkyDome | Toronto, Ontario | This was the first 2-hour Raw | |
July 7, 1997 | Raw | Northlands Coliseum | Edmonton, Alberta | ||
July 21, 1997 | Raw | Halifax Metro Centre | Halifax, Nova Scotia | ||
November 10, 1997 | Raw | Corel Centre | Ottawa, Ontario | ||
November 11, 1997 Aired November 17, 1997 | Raw | Cornwall Civic Complex | Cornwall, Ontario | ||
February 8, 1999 Aired February 13, 1999 | Raw | SkyDome | Toronto, Ontario | ||
May 29, 2000 | Raw | General Motors Place | Vancouver, British Columbia | ||
Bret Sergeant Hart is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background, wrestling at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College. A major international draw within professional wrestling, he has been credited with changing the perception of mainstream North-American professional wrestling in the early 1990s by bringing technical in-ring performance to the fore. Hart is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time; Sky Sports noted that his legacy is that of "one of, if not the greatest, to have ever graced the squared circle". For the majority of his career, Hart used the epithet "the Hitman".
Scott Ronald Garland is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling as a producer and coach. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWE) under the ring names "Too Hot" Scott Taylor (1991–1999) and Scotty 2 Hotty (1999–2007). During his WWE career, Garland held the WWF World Tag Team Championship, WWE Tag Team Championship and WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.
Bryan Lloyd Danielson is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under his real name and is a member of the Blackpool Combat Club. He rose to fame for his time in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Daniel Bryan from 2009 to 2021. Noted for his technical wrestling style, ability to transform his on-screen character with ease, and popularity with fans, he is widely considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all-time.
Rami Sebei is a Canadian professional wrestler. He has been signed to WWE since January 2013 where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Sami Zayn. He is the current WWE Intercontinental Champion in his fourth reign.
Kevin Yanick Steen is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Kevin Owens.
Shayna Andrea Baszler is an American professional wrestler and a former kickboxer and mixed martial artist. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand. Baszler is a former two-time and longest combined-reigning NXT Women's Champion and a former record-tying three-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion.
Theodore James "TJ" Wilson is a Canadian retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name Tyson Kidd. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a producer.
Heath Wallace Miller is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE under the ring name Heath Slater, and for his tenure in Impact Wrestling, under the ring name Heath.
Brian Myers is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. He is a member of The System and is one-half of the TNA World Tag Team Champions with Eddie Edwards in their first reign as a team and his second individually. He is a former one-time TNA Digital Media Champion. He is best known for his tenures in WWE from 2006 to 2014 and 2016 to 2020 under the ring name Curt Hawkins.
Frederick Douglas Rosser III is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former Strong Openweight Champion. He is best known for his time with WWE under the ring name Darren Young.
Joseph Curtis Hennig is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed under the ring names Michael McGillicutty and Curtis Axel.
Yuvraj Singh Dhesi is an Canadian professional wrestler of Indian descent. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Jinder Mahal and is a former one-time WWE Champion, WWE United States Champion, and two-time WWE 24/7 Champion.
Matthew Adams is an Australian professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Buddy Matthews as a member of the stable House of Black and is a former one-time AEW World Trios Champion. Adams also makes appearances on the independent circuit and is best known for his time with WWE where he performed under the ring names Buddy Murphy and Murphy.
Tom Büdgen is a Dutch professional wrestler and martial artist. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs as leader of the House of Black stable under the ring name Malakai Black and is a former one-time AEW World Trios Champion. He is also known for his work in WWE, where he performed as Aleister Black from 2017 to 2021.
Sunny Dhinsa is a Canadian professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler currently signed to the WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Akam as a member of Authors of Pain, as a subgroup of The Final Testament stable.
Sarah Rowe is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where she performs under the ring name Valhalla as the manager of The Viking Raiders. She is currently inactive due to maternity leave. From 2017 to 2019, she was a member of the stable The Riott Squad with Liv Morgan and Ruby Riott and performed under the name Sarah Logan. Bridges is also known for her tenure on the independent circuit, performing under the name Crazy Mary Dobson.
Keith Lee is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is also known for his time in WWE from 2018 to 2021 and Ring of Honor (ROH), as well as on the independent circuit with promotions such as Evolve, All American Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Stamford, Connecticut in the United States, owned by Endeavor. It has been promoting events in the United Kingdom (UK) since 1989. From 1989 to 2001, WWE was promoted under concert promoter's, brothers Harvey and Martin Goldsmith, for UK and European shows.
The Survivor Series match is a professional wrestling tag team elimination match held in WWE. The match typically sees two teams pitted against each other and members of the teams are eliminated one-by-one until one entire team is eliminated. Members of the winning team are deemed the "survivors", and in some cases, there may only be one survivor. Although the matches typically see four or five people per team, there have been as many as 10 on a team, and as few as one on a team in a pre-stipulated handicap situation. The match is typically held at WWE's annual Survivor Series pay-per-view and livestreaming event with only the 1998, 2002, 2022, and 2023 events not including the namesake match.
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