WWE Superstars

For the original show called Superstars, see WWF Superstars of Wrestling. For professional wrestlers employed by WWE, referred to by the company as "WWE Superstars", see List of WWE personnel.
WWE Superstars
Genre Sports entertainment
Professional wrestling
Created by Vince McMahon
Starring WWE roster
Opening theme "New Day Coming" by CFO$ feat. Todd Clark [1]
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 6
No. of episodes 368 (as of April 29, 2016 (2016-04-29))
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 (2009-04-16) – present
Chronology
Related shows WWE Raw
WWE SmackDown
WWE NXT
WWE Main Event
External links
Website

WWE Superstars is a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that originally aired on WGN America in the United States and is 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 features mid-to-low card WWE superstars and divas, in a format similar to the former show WWE Heat which served the same purpose. "Enhancement talent" bouts also happen 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.[2] 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.[3] Superstars had its debut show on April 16, 2009.[4]

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 is still in production for international broadcasting.

Past episodes of WWE Superstars are now viewable on the video streaming website Hulu Plus and WWE Network along with episodes of SmackDown and ECW.[5]

Production

WWE Superstars' version of the universal WWE HD set used from April 16, 2009 – July 19, 2012

The theme song for WWE Superstars is "New Day Coming" by CFO$ featuring Todd Clark, which replaced "Invincible" by Adelitas Way on May 17, 2013.[1] WWE Superstars currently uses the same universal WWE entrance set that is also currently used for WWE's other primary television programs Raw, and SmackDown.[6][7][8] The commentators are Byron Saxton and Tom Phillips, and Greg Hamilton is the ring announcer.

Matches featured on Superstars are taped earlier in the week, during the Raw events on Monday nights.[9] 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.

After August 29, 2011, all WWE programming became "supershows", featuring the entire roster.[10] Since November 2, 2012, only one broadcast team works the whole show.

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
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 – present
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

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
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 – present

International broadcasters

In addition to being broadcast in the United States on WWE Network, WWE Superstars is also broadcast internationally.

Country Network Ref
Arab World AD Sport 6 HD, MBC Action and OSN [11]
Australia Fox8
Bulgaria bTV Sports [12][13]
Canada WWE Network (Canada)
Dominican Republic Antena Latina
France RTL9 [14][15]
India TEN Sports
TEN HD 		[16][17]
Italy Sky Sport 2 [18][19]
Japan J SPORTS [20]
Malaysia Astro Super Sport
TV9		 [21]
Mexico MVS (52MX y MC) [22]
Pakistan TEN Sports [23]
Panama RPC Canal 4 [24]
Philippines Fox Sports Asia [25]
Puerto Rico Telemundo [26]
Peru Frecuencia Latina [27]
Romania Sport.ro [28]
Singapore SuperSports Arena [29][30]
South Africa e.tv [29][30]
Sub-Saharan Africa
(except South Africa)		 M-Net
SuperSport
SuperSport Maximo

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "WWE: New Day Coming (WWE Superstars Official Theme Song) [feat. Todd Clark] - Single". iTunes. May 17, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
  2. ↑ "WWE Television Schedule". WWE. Retrieved April 18, 2009.
  3. ↑ "WGN America enters WWE ring with "WWE Superstars"". World Wrestling Entertainment. January 5, 2009. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
  4. ↑ Mackinder, Matt. "WWE Superstars: Debut show a dud". SLAM! Sports - Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved April 18, 2009.
  5. ↑ "Hulu to stream full episodes of SmackDown, ECW". WWE. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
  6. ↑ "WWE Goes HD". WWE. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
  7. ↑ WWE: Mediaplayer > WWE goes high-definition with an all new set
  8. ↑ Martin, Adam. "Spoilers: Superstars taping for 4/16". WrestleView.com. Retrieved 2009-04-17.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ Ross, Jim (2009-04-15). "Draft Thoughts...Another Von Erich to Enter the Ring??...Steamboat to put tights back on?? WGN..". J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q. Retrieved 2009-04-18. All three brands will be featured weekly and each brand's announcers will call their respective bouts.
  11. ↑ "The Official Site of the WWE Universe". WWE.com. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
  12. ↑ "Bulgarian TV Guide" (in Bulgarian). TV Guide. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  13. ↑ "WWE's Bulgaria Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  14. ↑ "WWE's France Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  15. ↑ "WWE Superstars on the RTL9 Website". RTL9. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  16. ↑ "WWE's India Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  17. ↑ "Ten Sports India Schedule". Ten Sports. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  18. ↑ "WWE's Italy Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  19. ↑ "WWE Superstars SKY Italia schedule" (in Italian). Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  20. ↑ "WWE Corporate - WWE and J Sports Sign Five Year Renewal". Corporate.wwe.com. 2011-02-02. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
  21. ↑ "WWE's Malaysia Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  22. ↑ "WWE Superstars en Mexico". Superluchas. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  23. ↑ "WWE Pakistan". Retrieved 2013-03-16.
  24. ↑ "Canal 4 - Rpctv.com - Panamá". Rpctv.com. 2012-11-15. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
  25. ↑ "Studio 23 Ibakabarkada!". Studio23.tv. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
  26. ↑ "Telemundo de Puerto Rico canal líder en telenovelas, noticias y entretenimiento". Telemundopr.com. 2012-11-16. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
  27. ↑ "WWE's Poland Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  28. ↑ "WWE's Romania Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  29. 1 2 "WWE's South Africa Schedule". WWE. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  30. 1 2 "WWE Superstars on e.tv". e.tv. Retrieved 2009-10-09.

External links

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