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WWE TV Network

T

TVCOOL

What channels carried WWWF / WWF / WWE programs from 1956 - 2005 (i'm not counting SmackDown which aired on UPN / CW / MyNetwork TV from 1999 - 2010 ,Saturday's Night Main Event [and its friday night spinoff Main Event] 1985 - 1991 NBC and 1992 Fox and its recent relaunch 2006 - 2008 NBC, WWE Saturday Morning Slam 2012 - 2013 CW and WWE Main Event Ion 2012-14 ) ?

The programs i'm thinking about is WWWF Heavyweight Wrestling, WWWF/WWF Championship Wrestling , WWWF/WWF All-Star Wrestling, WWF Superstars of Wrestling(renamed WWF Superstars by 1992), WWF Wrestling Challenge, WWF Spotlight, WWF Shotgun Saturday Night/ Shotgun, and WWF/WWE Metal/Jakked and WWE Bottom Line(Raw) and WWE AfterBurn(SmackDown).
 
Back when WWE was still a regional promotion (as WWWF, and later WWF), (W)WOR carried their programming in the New York City market. When WWF/E went into national syndication in the mid-80s, most, if not all, of the Fox-owned station carried its two main syndicated shows, Superstars of Wrestling and Wrestling Challenge. Here in Los Angeles, KTTV carried Superstars on Saturdays, and Wrestling Challenge on Sunday back at noon. Shotgun (and later Metal/Jakked) was carried here locally on KTLA, and the last two WWE syndie shows were carried on KCOP (one on Saturday afternoons, the other on Sundays).

Going back to Superstars/Wrestling Challenge, from my recollection (circa mid-to-late 80s), WFLD carried both shows in Chicago, while in Rockford, WREX carried Wrestling Challenge on Saturday afternoons, and WIFR carried Superstars late-night Saturdays after the 10pm news. Milwaukee's WVTV carried at least one of the two on Saturday nights, at one point in-tandem with GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling).
 
ShawnHill1 said:
Going back to Superstars/Wrestling Challenge, from my recollection (circa mid-to-late 80s), WFLD carried both shows in Chicago
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...and, in their earliest weeks, WWF had WFLD/32 run the tapes that had promos for Sacramento house shows (!!) which made them look absolutely ridiculous. In Milwaukee, WVTV ran WWF shows that promoted house shows in Madison, with the announcer stressing on-camera that Madison was "part of the Milwaukee area." Interestingly, it seems as if quite a few of the WWF affiliates in the Upper Midwest -- WVTV/18 Milwaukee and WLUK/11 Green Bay I recall immediately -- grabbed WWF when it was offered after being dumped by the traditional territory, the Minneapolis-based AWA, for other stations in their markets (WCGV/24 and WTMJ-TV/4 in Milwaukee and WLRE/26 Green Bay in these instances)...
 
Wrestling in Hartford/New Haven: It was mostly via channel 20 of Waterbury in the 1980s and early 1990s. They aired WWF Superstars Saturdays at 11 AM while WWF Wrestling Challenge was usually on at midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning. By late 1992 and into 1993, WWF Wrestling Spotlight (kind of the best from the other two shows) aired on channel 26 of New London on Friday evening. By 1993, WWF Wrestling Challenge was airing on channel 26, sometimes as early as Fridays at 3 PM!

By late 1988, channel 26 was also airing an AWA wrestling show.

One of the NWA syndicated shows aired on channel 61 of Hartford on Saturdays.

By the mid-1990s, WCW Worldwide was airing on channel 20.
 
Going back to the late '60s, the WWWF had two shows, from Philadelphia with Bill Cardille (a legend in Pittsburgh, where he also hosted "Studio Wrestling" for the local promotion) and Washington with Ray Morgan. Earlier in the decade, there was also a show from Bridgeport, CT; unsure who the announcer was. In the early '70s, the Washington show was dropped and Morgan fired, and Vince McMahon replaced Cardille on the Philadelphia mic. Tapings were also added in Hamburg, PA, also with McMahon, and shortly afterward, tapings in Allentown, PA, replaced the Philadelphia shows, with McMahon on the mic for those as well.

In the Boston area during those years, stations that had no deals with the WWWF would occasionally air TV wrestling from other areas. The Detroit show ("Big Time Wrestling") aired for a while on WSMW Worcester, and "Championship Wrestling from Florida" aired briefly on WSBK Boston. When the WWF went national in the mid-'80s, other promotions started to appear more frequently on Boston TV.
 
From what I remember, the Fox station in Philly, WTAF/WTXF-TV 29, always aired WWF Superstars from 1986 to 1996 when it moved to USA. They also aired WWF Wrestling Challenge from 1986 to about late 1992/early 1993 or so when it moved to WPHL-TV 17. WGTW-TV 48 picked up Wrestling Challenge late in its run (I wanna say they picked up in about early 1994) to when it was cancelled. I'm sure Championship Wrestling also aired on WTAF on Saturday mornings in the early 1980s.

WWF Wrestling Spotlight for the most part always aired on WPHL-TV 17 though WGTW-TV 48 picked it up in about the fall of 1993 or so.

WWF Shotgun Saturday Night, Metal/Jakked, and WWE Bottom Line and AfterBurn all aired on WGTW-TV 48, where pretty much of the syndicated wrestling shows (including the ECW and WCW shows) aired during the late 1990s/early 2000s. Bottom Line and After Burn aired on WGTW until October of 2004 when they switched from being an indie to being affiliated with TBN.
 
While we are at it what stations used to carry NWA / WCW TV (i.e. Worldwide 1975-2001, MACW / Pro 1960s - 1998, syndicated version of WCW Main Event), AWA, WCCW, Mid-South / UWF, ECW and even TNA Xplosion?
 
I know in the Boston area from mid/late 70s into the early 80s Championship Wrestling was on WLVI-TV, Ch. 56 on Saturdays and All Star Wrestling was on WMUR Ch. 9 (New Hampshire) on Sundays. The cards for the Championship show seemed more "entertaining" than the All Star cards.
 
I think WGTW-TV 48 also aired NWA Worldwide and NWA Wildside in the late 1990s-early 2000s in addition to airing CZW and ROH TV(the Feinstien era). I long for those days when weekends aired wrestling on OTA television and not paid programming and reruns of the same shows one can see up to 10 times a week on weekdays.
 
Ok, as I recall, prior to late 1984, early 85, the Philly market only showed WWF programming. I am 43 years old so someone older could refute my testimony and that is fine. The old channel 48 showed wrestling back in the day until it went off the air in the early 80s. On Saturdays, PHL 17 aired All-Star Wrestling, while WTXF 29 aired Championship Wrestling. In either late 84 or beginning of 85 (memory is murky on this), Jim Crockett Promotions busted through the market and started airing NWA World Wide Wrestling on PHL 17 Saturday's at 2pm. Then in November, 1985, Philly 57 came on the air and they started airing any wrestling they could, including WCCW, AWA, GLOW, Pro-Wrestling USA, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, and even a few episodes of Continental Championship Wrestling, although both were repeats (main event featured NWA Champ Ric Flair defending against Austin Idol). In late spring of 86, Bill Watts' was attempting a national expansion and got TV in the Philly market. First he got on a weak channel out of Vineland, NJ - ch. 65 which came in fuzzy with rabbit ears. Sat @ 8pm was Mid-South Wrestling, @9 pm was Power Pro Wrestling. A few weeks later he moved the shows to Philly 57 and by then the Mid-South was renamed to the UWF. By then, Championship Wrestling was renamed to WWF Superstars and All-Star Wrestling was renamed to WWF Wrestling Challenge. To be continued...
 
Mobile - Pensacola

Before 1985, Continental Championship Wrestling was the only show on local TV, carried at 10:30 Saturday on WKRG. I think local TV studio wrestling ended circa 1980.
Circa 1985, new local indie WJTC started airing NWA World Wide Wrestling, WWF Superstars and UWF.
GLOW was carried for its entire run but it may have been on WPMI instead of WJTC.
At some time after the Monday Night Wars started, WCW's syndicated show got a midnight Saturday slot on WEAR. They may have had a second WCW show on at like 3 am Sunday.

Mid South, WCCW, Championship Wresting from Florida and a local studio show featuring Kevin Sullivan as booker all had short 1-3 year runs, all on WJTC.

ECW was on cable throughout Florida on Sunshine Network but was never available in Mobile, AL.
 
Interesting that this topic came up. Flipping the channels this morning (Mobile, AL DMA) I found a show called Championship Wrestling from Hollywood on indie WFBD. I never did figure out if it was from Hollywood, FL or CA. We also have 4 showings a weekend of ROH on 3 full power stations.
 
seedless said:
Interesting that this topic came up. Flipping the channels this morning (Mobile, AL DMA) I found a show called Championship Wrestling from Hollywood on indie WFBD. I never did figure out if it was from Hollywood, FL or CA. We also have 4 showings a weekend of ROH on 3 full power stations.
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Championship Wrestling from Hollywood is from California; the UHF indie here in Los Angeles is the originating station of the program.
 
My home market (Traverse City-Cadillac) gets two showings of ROH on ABC affiliate WGTU (Sat 11:30pm and Sun 5pm). Not sure if any of the past wrestling shows were cleared up here (it was a three station market until 1989)
 
...in the early 1980s, the Shockley stations in Wisconsin -- WKOW/27 Madison, WAOW/9 Wausau, WXOW/19 La Crosse and WQOW/18 Eau Claire -- all carried AWA All-Star Wrestling. They stopped after a year because it turned out Verne Gagne was using extremely old tape stock that had hundreds of runs on it, making it very difficult to properly track on the stations' equipment...
 
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