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Wrestling in Australia (disambiguation)

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BREAKING NEWS

Total Non-Sop Action (TNA) is currently talking to two unreaveled Australian Cable Channels to broadcast TNA Impact and possible the others as well!

Professional wrestling in Australia first became popular in the 1970s when WCW Australia was broadcasted nationally. The home-grown stars kept audiences entertained before World Wrestling Entertainment became a global wrestling empire.

Throughout the 1990s, both WCW Monday Nitro and WWE RAW were broadcasted on free-to-air networks but were put in poor timeslots and were subsequently cancelled because of poor ratings. WWE's major pay-per-views (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam and Survivor Series) were all shown up until 2001, when every pay-per-view began being shown.

WWE programming returned in 2000 with WWE RAW being shown on Fox Sports on Tuesday nights. SmackDown! followed and was broadcasted on FOX8 Friday nights but was moved to Saturday nights in 2001.

In September 2002 negotiations between FOX8 and WWE fell through and SmackDown! was cancelled. A special NWA/TNA package replaced it in early 2003 but only lasted a year. NWA/TNA pay per views were shown once a month throughout 2003 during a time when they were being presented weekly in the United States. WWE Pay-per-views were also lost to Main Event in the same deal that cost Australian fans Smackdown! Village Cinemas picked them up for a few months until August 2003 when SmackDown! returned on Saturday Nights as well as the pay-per-views with Summerslam. RAW was moved to FOX8 to Friday nights. In order to prevent spoiler hunting on the Internet, Fox8 moved the WWE Programming to timeslots closer to their US Airdate.

In February 2005, WWE HEAT, WWE Velocity and WWE Experience were added to FOX8 and set up a large wrestling program on Saturdays and Sundays which now exists today. Despite Heat, Velocity and Experience all being cancelled in the United States the shows are still shown in Australia to fulfill contractual obligations. When WWE SmackDown was moved to Friday Nights in the US, in Australia it remained on Friday Afternoons.

After just over 3 years, Australian wrestling fans will once again be treated to TNA. Beginning with TNA Sacrifice on May 27th (tape delay) TNA pay-per-view events will be broadcasted down under for the first time ever on Mainevent. No word on whether iMPACT! is ever going to be broadcasted over here, but if the pay-per-view events are popular there is a chance that a network may pick it up (probably either FOX8 or FOX Sports).

Live Events

Shows from North American promotions have been held in Australia as early as 1985 when WWE toured through Melbourne, Perth, Newcastle and Adelaide and through Melbourne and Brisbane again in 1986. That was the last Australia saw of a live North American product until WCW did a Nitro taping in Melbourne and a Thunder taping in Brisbane in 1999.

The next time WWE came to Melbourne was for the 'WWE Global Warning Tour' in 2002. A crowd of 56,000 packed into Colonial Stadium as well a pay-per-view audience throughout Asia witnessed the first WWE show on Australian soil in 16 years.

WWE has visited Australia regularly since Global Warning by touring at least once a year since 2003. An independent circuit show was organised in October 2005 called International Assault to further increase the amount of North American product showcased live in Australia.

Current Programming

Television

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Television Specials

Pay-per-view

File:Main Event.jpg

2006 PPV Calander

July 24, 2006 Indianapolis, Indiana Great American Bash

August 28, 2006 Boston, Massachusetts SummerSlam

September 18, 2006 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Unforgiven

October 9, 2006 Raleigh, North Carolina No Mercy

November 6, 2006 Cincinnati, Ohio Cyber Sunday

November 27, 2006 Montreal, Quebec, Canada Survivor Series

December 18, 2006 Richmond, Virginia Armageddon

2007 PPV SCHEDULE (Dates are for US)

WWE Raw : New Year’s Revolution™ January 7

WWE Royal Rumble® January 28

WWE SmackDown : No Way Out® February 18

WWE WrestleMania® 23 April 1, from Detroit

WWE RAW : Backlash April 29

WWE SmackDown! : Judgment Day May 20

ECW One Night Stand 3 June 10

WWE RAW : Vengeance June 24

WWE SmackDown! : The Great American Bash July 22

WWE SummerSlam August 26

WWE RAW : Unforgiven September 16.

WWE SmackDown : No Mercy on Sunday October 7. Site TBD.

WWE RAW : WWE Cyber Sunday November 4

WWE Survivor Series November 25

WWE SmackDown! : Armageddon December 16

Local Promotions

Defunct

See also

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