RAW on Canadian TV

By Scott Keith on May 20, 2015

Just to clear up the RAW on TSN discussions that pop up from time to time…

“>Although I should note that the week after THAT is where RAW gets picked up in Canada by TSN and thus I’m able to watch it semi-live every week.

Huh? TSN started showing Raw in late 1994 didn’t they? I definitely started watching Raw in Early 1995 but who can remember which channel it was on.”
TSN showed edited versions of the show in death slots Saturday nights following the USA airing off and on from 94-95, but then lost the broadcast rights to the New VR in Ontario in 1995. In July of 96 they bought back the rights for good and actually starting airing it on Monday nights, albeit taped delayed by two hours or so or even the next day sometimes. At the end of 96 with the Mero-HHH title change they switched it to about an hour tape delayed, and finally in early 98 they went with a simulcast of the USA show and it stayed there until they got kicked off the station in 2006 for football.
And to hit another question:
So what was WWF TV like in Canada between 1990 and 1996 when you could finally get RAW? Just WWF Superstars, and Challenge? Did you get All American (yes, I’m aware of th irony)/Mania/Action Zone?

Just Superstars and Challenge, yes, although by 94 I had a big C-band dish in my backyard and I could watch all the USA shows. Traditionally in Canada the syndicated show was rebranded into Maple Leaf Wrestling for distribution, although they dropped that by the 90s. Typically we could just watch the American syndicated versions on the US network feeds anyway, so there was very little difference unless you were relying on an antenna for your TV programming. And of course we had no access to USA Network up here, so Primetime/All American/etc had no coverage in Canada and things like Jamison meant nothing to Canadian viewers because we didn’t actually get the original shows that explained the joke.

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