WWE Superstars
WWE Superstars | |
---|---|
Genre | |
Created by | Vince McMahon |
Starring | Raw roster |
Opening theme | "New Day Coming" by CFO$ feat. Todd Clark [1] |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 7 |
No. of episodes | 398[2] |
Production | |
Camera setup | Multicamera setup |
Running time | 60 minutes (including commercials) |
Release | |
Original network |
|
Picture format |
480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
Original release | April 16, 2009 – November 25, 2016 |
Chronology | |
Related shows | |
External links | |
Website |
WWE Superstars or simply Superstars, was a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that originally aired on WGN America in the United States and later broadcast on the WWE Network. It debuted on April 16, 2009 and ended its domestic broadcasting on April 7, 2011 . After the final domestic TV broadcast, the show moved to an internet broadcast format while maintaining a traditional television broadcast in international markets. The show featured mid-to-low card WWE superstars of the Raw brand, in a format similar to the former show WWE Heat which served the same purpose. "Enhancement talent" bouts also happened often. Big names such as John Cena, Randy Orton and Triple H appeared on the show at its beginning.
Show history
On December 19, 2008 , WWE and WGN America announced an agreement to create a new weekly, one-hour prime time series entitled WWE Superstars that was to debut in April 2009 . At the beginning, the show featured stars from all the WWE brands. In early 2009, WGN put out a press release hyping the revived series and revealed its new time slot for its debut. Superstars aired Thursday nights at 8:00PM Eastern/7:00PM Central.[3] A replay aired at noon on Sunday on WGN America. Until early 2010 the replay also aired on WGN-TV. However, it was removed, hence eliminating distribution of the show from the Canadian fanbase.[4] Superstars had its debut show on April 16, 2009 .[5]
On March 17, 2011 , WGN America announced that they would not renew their domestic broadcasts rights to WWE Superstars and the last episode they would air would be shown on April 7, 2011 . Online reports stated that the network did not renew the series because it didn't live up to its expectations. WWE.com aired the show from April 14 to September 22, 2011 and again from October 6, 2011 to September 13, 2012 . The show continued to be produced for international broadcasting until November 25, 2016 .
On November 28, 2016, it was announced that Superstars had been cancelled by WWE and would be replaced on the WWE Network by 205 Live. WWE Main Event would serve as the complementary show featuring Raw and SmackDown talents.[2]
Past episodes of WWE Superstars were viewable on the video streaming website Hulu Plus and WWE Network along with episodes of SmackDown and ECW.[6]
Production
The last theme song for WWE Superstars was "New Day Coming" by CFO$ featuring Todd Clark, which replaced "Invincible" by Adelitas Way on May 17, 2013.[1] The final commentators were Tom Phillips and Corey Graves, and JoJo was the last ring announcer.
Matches featured on Superstars were taped earlier in the week, during the Raw events on Monday nights.[7] The program aired on Thursdays until January 2015 when SmackDown moved to same night. Superstars was then moved to Fridays on WWE Network, with its first Friday night airing on January 16.
Commentators
Commentators | Dates |
---|---|
Raw brand | |
Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler | April 16, 2009 – October 26, 2010 |
Scott Stanford and Jerry Lawler | October 7, 2010 October 28, 2010 – November 11, 2010 November 25, 2010 December 23, 2010 |
Michael Cole and Josh Mathews | November 11, 2010 |
Scott Stanford and CM Punk | November 18, 2010 December 2, 2010 – December 16, 2010 |
Scott Stanford and Josh Mathews | December 30, 2010 – October 25, 2012 |
Josh Mathews and Matt Striker | November 10, 2011 |
Scott Stanford and Matt Striker | March 29, 2012 April 26, 2012 – May 3, 2012 |
Tom Phillips and Corey Graves | July 29, 2016 – November 25, 2016 |
Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton | September 2, 2016 October 14, 2016 |
SmackDown brand | |
Todd Grisham and Jim Ross | April 16, 2009 – October 29, 2009 |
Todd Grisham and Matt Striker | November 5, 2009 – December 2, 2010 |
Jack Korpela and Matt Striker | December 9, 2010 – May 26, 2011 June 9, 2011 – November 3, 2011 |
Jack Korpela and Booker T | June 2, 2011 |
Josh Mathews and Matt Striker | November 10, 2011 – October 25, 2012 |
Michael Cole and Matt Striker | April 26, 2012 |
ECW brand | |
Josh Mathews and Matt Striker | April 16, 2009 – October 22, 2009 |
Josh Mathews and Byron Saxton | October 27, 2009 – February 11, 2010 |
Full roster | |
Scott Stanford and Matt Striker | August 23, 2012 November 2, 2012 – January 11, 2013 |
Tony Dawson and Matt Striker | January 18, 2013 – June 21, 2013 |
Tony Dawson and Alex Riley | June 28, 2013 – September 20, 2013 |
Josh Mathews and Tom Phillips | September 27, 2013 |
Josh Mathews and Alex Riley | November 15, 2013 |
Tom Phillips and Alex Riley | October 4, 2013 – January 24, 2014 |
Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton | January 31, 2014 – June 26, 2014 January 16, 2015 – January 23, 2015 May 6, 2016 – June 10, 2016 |
Tom Phillips and Renee Young | July 3, 2014 – January 9, 2015 |
Tom Phillips | January 30, 2015 |
Rich Brennan and Byron Saxton | February 6, 2015 – March 27, 2015 April 24, 2015 – May 29, 2015 October 23, 2015 – April 29, 2016 |
Rich Brennan and Tom Phillips | April 3, 2015 – April 10, 2015 |
Michael Cole and Byron Saxton | April 17, 2015 |
Rich Brennan, Byron Saxton and Jimmy Uso | June 5, 2015 – August 21, 2015 |
Rich Brennan and Xavier Woods | August 28, 2015 – October 16, 2015 |
Kyle Edwards | December 25, 2015 |
Rich Brennan and The Miz | January 8, 2016 |
Tom Phillips, Dolph Ziggler and David Otunga | June 17, 2016 July 1, 2016 July 22, 2016 |
Tom Phillips and David Otunga | June 24, 2016 – July 15, 2016 |
Ring announcers
Ring announcers | Dates |
---|---|
Raw brand | |
Lilian Garcia | April 16, 2009 – September 24, 2009 |
Justin Roberts | October 1, 2009 – May 5, 2011 July 14, 2011 – July 21, 2011 November 10, 2011 December 29, 2011 – October 25, 2012 |
JoJo | July 29, 2016 – November 25, 2016 |
SmackDown brand | |
Justin Roberts | April 16, 2009 – September 24, 2009 |
Tony Chimel | October 1, 2009 – May 5, 2011 July 21, 2011 December 29, 2011 – October 25, 2012 |
Savannah | May 6, 2010 – June 17, 2010 |
Jamie Keyes | August 12, 2010 – August 31, 2010 |
Eden Stiles | July 14, 2011 November 10, 2011 |
ECW brand | |
Tony Chimel | April 30, 2009 |
Lauren Mayhew | October 8, 2009 – November 19, 2009 |
Savannah | December 17, 2009 – February 11, 2010 |
Full roster | |
Ashley Valence | November 25, 2010 – December 9, 2010 |
Justin Roberts | March 10, 2011 2014 |
Eden Stiles | May 12, 2011 – December 22, 2011 January 9, 2015 April 17, 2015 – May 29, 2015 October 16, 2015 November 6, 2015 |
Tony Chimel | November 2, 2012 – 2014 January 1, 2016 |
Lilian Garcia | October 23, 2014 – February 26, 2016 |
Greg Hamilton | March 4, 2016 – July 22, 2016 |
International broadcasters
In addition to being broadcast in the United States on WWE Network, WWE Superstars was also broadcast internationally.
Country | Network | Ref |
---|---|---|
Arab World | AD Sport 6 HD, MBC Action and OSN | [8] |
Australia | WWE Network | |
Bulgaria | bTV Sports | [9][10] |
Canada | WWE Network | |
Dominican Republic | Antena Latina | |
France | RTL9 | [11][12] |
India | TEN Sports TEN HD |
[13][14] |
Italy | Sky Sport 2 | [15][16] |
Japan | J SPORTS | [17] |
Malaysia | Astro Super Sport TV9 |
[18] |
Mexico | MVS (52MX y MC) | [19] |
Pakistan | TEN Sports | [20] |
Panama | RPC Canal 4 | [21] |
Philippines | Fox Sports Asia | [22] |
Puerto Rico | Telemundo | [23] |
Peru | Frecuencia Latina | [24] |
Romania | Sport.ro | [25] |
Singapore | SuperSports Arena | [26][27] |
United Kingdom | WWE Network | |
References
- 1 2 "WWE: New Day Coming (WWE Superstars Official Theme Song) [feat. Todd Clark] - Single". iTunes. May 17, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
- 1 2 Johnson, Mike (November 28, 2016). "WWE Superstars is no more". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
- ↑ "WWE Television Schedule". WWE. Retrieved April 18, 2009.
- ↑ "WGN America enters WWE ring with "WWE Superstars"". WWE. January 5, 2009. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
- ↑ Mackinder, Matt. "WWE Superstars: Debut show a dud". SLAM! Sports - Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved April 18, 2009.
- ↑ "Hulu to stream full episodes of SmackDown, ECW". WWE. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
- ↑ Caldwell, James (April 16, 2009). "Caldwell's WWE Superstars Report 4/16: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of debut edition on WGN". PW Torch. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
- ↑ "The Official Site of the WWE Universe". WWE.com. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
- ↑ "Bulgarian TV Guide" (in Bulgarian). TV Guide. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
- ↑ "WWE's Bulgaria Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
- ↑ "WWE's France Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ↑ "WWE Superstars on the RTL9 Website". RTL9. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
- ↑ "WWE's India Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ↑ "Ten Sports India Schedule". Ten Sports. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
- ↑ "WWE's Italy Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ↑ "WWE Superstars SKY Italia schedule" (in Italian). Retrieved 2009-10-09.
- ↑ "WWE Corporate - WWE and J Sports Sign Five Year Renewal". Corporate.wwe.com. 2011-02-02. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
- ↑ "WWE's Malaysia Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ↑ "WWE Superstars en Mexico". Superluchas. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
- ↑ "WWE Pakistan". Retrieved 2013-03-16.
- ↑ "Canal 4 - Rpctv.com - Panamá". Rpctv.com. 2012-11-15. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
- ↑ "Studio 23 Ibakabarkada!". Studio23.tv. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
- ↑ "Telemundo de Puerto Rico canal líder en telenovelas, noticias y entretenimiento". Telemundopr.com. 2012-11-16. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
- ↑ "WWE's Poland Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ↑ "WWE's Romania Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ↑ "WWE's South Africa Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ↑ "WWE Superstars on e.tv". e.tv. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
External links
- Official website
- WWE Superstars show on YouTube
- WWE Superstars at the Internet Movie Database
- WWE Superstars at TV.com