On March 15th 2004 The Wrestling Channel will launch in the UK via Sky Digital Television on Sky Channel 427, here is some useful information about the channel and what you can expect.
The channel will be a free to air channel, which means its free and there is no subscription to pay, as long as you have a Sky Digital set top box and Digital Dish you will be able to receive the channel. However those who have other Digital formats such as NTL, Telewest and FreeView will not be able to receive the channel at this point in time.
The Programme Line Up
The channel is hoping to show 25 hours of new material each week, plus additional repeats of previous broadcasts. Although the line up has not been confirmed by the Wrestling Channel officials, promotions expected to be on the channel’s listings include:-
FWA - The Frontier Wrestling Alliances is the UK’s Premier promotion, with some of the very best UK Wrestling Talents such as Jonny Storm, Doug Williams and some of the finest imports from the United States, like A J Styles and Chris Daniels.
NWA TNA - One of the hottest and most innovative promotions in the US, TNA features some of the best free agents from around the world. Stars such as Raven, AJ Styles, D Lo Brown, Sting, Shane Douglas, Chris Daniels, plus the stars of the much talked about X-Division, with the likes of Chris Sabin, Michael Shane and many more all providing a unique blend of wrestling action not to be missed. TWC officials have said that both the weekly PPV shows and Xplosion shows will be broadcast on TWC.
Ring Of Honour Wrestling - Unique Wrestling action from the United States featuring some of the United States top independent superstars such as Chris Daniels, AJ Styles, CM Punk, Samoa Joe and many more top talents.
Major League Wrestling - More Wrestling action from the United States. MLW provides a blend of hardcore, traditional, highflying and technical wrestling with superstars such as Steve Corino, Shane Douglas, Jerry Lynn, Raven and the legendary Terry Funk. MLW has officially announced that TWC will broadcast their weekly show Underground TV once a week at 9pm.
Many more promotions are expected to be shown, with Mexican and Japanese wrestling from promotions such as CMLL, NJPW & Pro Wrestling NOAH, Classic Wrestling action from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s (including ITV: World of Sport), UK Wrestling action from the top promotions and much more from the US Indy Scene including CZW!
As well as in ring wrestling action, TWC are hoping to broadcast RF Shoot Interviews with many of the wrestling industries top and most controversial superstars.
Also TWC are planning to broadcast a weekly talk show with special guests, interviews, news, previews, reviews and competitions.
Programmes that won’t be shown
Officials at TWC have made it clear that it will not broadcast any WWE, WCW, SMW, ECW AWA, and Stampede Wrestling, in addition to this, TWC will not broadcast or endorse any Backyard Wrestling.
Also at this time TWC have decided not to broadcast any Mixed Martial Arts programmes.
Hours of Programming
TWC have stated that the channel will not air 24 hours a day; it will however broadcast from 10am to 3am, which will include repeats and new material. TWC will have a policy not to try and censor any programmes where possible. Any shows that have extreme or violent content will be broadcast after the watershed, and daytime repeats will be censored.
Other Information
The channel will be broadcast from a London based TV Broadcast company, with its production offices being located in Ireland.
TWC officials have stated that:
“ This is not a low budget channel, and will look as professional as any other top channel on air today. All content will have to meet certain production quality standards.”
The channel will be listed as "Wrestling TV" due to restrictions in the number of digits allowed.
As stated before, the channel will not be a subscription channel so you will not have to pay to watch it.
A full timetable can be found here: http://www.thewrestlingchannel.tv/timetable.html
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