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. 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.
Rami Sebei is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Sami Zayn.
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, kickboxer, and former 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.
Maryse Mizanin is a Canadian professional wrestler, actress, and glamour model. She is currently signed to WWE, appearing on the Raw brand alongside her husband The Miz, under the ring name Maryse. After spending years modeling, including winning Miss Hawaiian Tropic Canada in 2003, Mizanin participated in the WWE Diva Search competition and was hired by WWE in 2006. She spent time in developmental territories Ohio Valley Wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling, before being assigned to the SmackDown brand in 2008. That year, Maryse won her first WWE Divas Championship.
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 name Curtis Axel.
Yuvraj Singh Dhesi is an Indian-Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Jinder Mahal and is the leader of the Indus Sher stable.
The Usos were an Samoan-American professional wrestling tag team consisting of twin brothers Joshua and Jonathan Fatu, better known as Jey and Jimmy Uso currently signed with the WWE, but the team went on hiatus after Jimmy turned on Jey who was later traded to the Raw brand whereas Jimmy remained on the SmackDown brand as the member of villainous stable The Bloodline. They were the three-time Raw Tag Team Champions and five-time SmackDown Tag Team Champions, making their team overall eight-time champions and holding the record for the longest male tag team championship reign in WWE history at 622 days. The Usos are members of the renowned Anoaʻi family of Samoan wrestlers.
Thomas Pestock is an American professional wrestler and former professional football player. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Baron Corbin and is one-half of the current NXT Tag Team Champions with Bron Breakker in their first reign.
Matthew Adams is an Australian professional wrestler. He is currently 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. 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 SmackDown 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 on the Raw brand under the ring name Valhalla as the manager of The Viking Raiders. 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 B-Team was a professional wrestling tag team in WWE, composed of Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. The team are former one-time WWE Raw Tag Team Champions. They also formerly performed as The Social Outcasts and The Miztourage from 2016 to 2018 before assuming their recent tag team name The B-Team.
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