SCORE
New home for Monday Night RAW in Canada
by
"Rockin" Robin Drodge
Date: July
19, 2006
On July 19, 2006, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE™), along with the Score™ Television Network held a Press Conference in Toronto, Ontario, to announce that Monday Night RAW in Canada would be moving to the Score starting August 7, 2006.
TSN™ has aired Monday Night RAW™ for approximately eleven years. However, throughout that time there have been times when RAW™ has been pre-empted for other various sports, which resulted in RAW being aired later than when it was originally scheduled.
When TSN™ announced they had picked up the Canadian rights to air Monday Night Football, the writing was on the wall; this meant instead of RAW™ airing at 9 PM Eastern Standard Time, (10:30 PM my time), Football would take over and pre-empt RAW for most of the year until the Football season ended. As a result of this, and other reasons, TSN™ decided to let RAW™ go, and the Score was able to land the Number One rated program on Specialty television in Canada. The Score has stated that once RAW™ starts airing on their channel, it will not be pre-empted, which means that every Monday night, RAW™ would air at its new time; 10 PM Eastern Standard Time (11:30 PM my time).
The next announcement at the Press Conference was relating to SmackDown™. It was announced that SmackDown™, which currently airs on The Score™ on Thursday nights from 8 to 10 PM, Eastern Standard Time (9:30 to 11:30 PM my time) would be moving to Friday nights with the same time slot.
Along with this, it was also announced there would be a one-hour show that would go behind the scenes as an analysis show to focus on Canadian wrestlers and the various feuds they are involved in. This one-hour show is scheduled to be airing on Sunday nights, but I believe there will be more news about this in the next few months.
The final announcement, on August 16, 2006, The Score™ will air the finals of the 2006 $250,000 Diva search.
So it is clear from the Score they mean business. I think the Canadian wrestling fans will be very happy knowing that RAW, which will be aired every Monday night, and will not be pre-empted.
I think this is very good news and I think as things move forward the WWE™ and The Score™ will continue to have a good relationship.
Representing the WWE™ at the Press Conference were: WWE™ Canada President, Carl DeMarco, Shane McMahon, WWE™ Executive Vice-President, Global Media Torrie Wilson, WWE™ RAW™ Superstar Ric Flair, WWE™ RAW™ Superstar Trish Stratus, WWE™ RAW™ Superstar and WWE™ Champion, RAW™ Superstar, Edge.
Representing the Score at the Press Conference were: Senior Vice-President and General Manager, David Errington Sid Seixeiro, Score Anchor.
This
has been another commentary for The Canadian Connection by your author,
"Rockin" Robin Drodge.
(This page was last updated on 2007-01-01 )
© 2004 Robin Drodge, All Rights Reserved
WWE™™, WCW™, Wrestlemania™, SummerSlam™, Survivor Series™, the names of its events, superstars and finishing moves are all registered trade marks of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
