News

WWE and Rogers Sportsnet Announce That NXT Will Air Live on Wednesdays in Canada Starting This Week

By John Canton • Published 22nd February 2021

Good news for Canadian wrestling fans, which includes myself. The WWE’s third brand NXT will now air live on Sportsnet 360 on Wednesday nights from 8-10pm ET starting this week. Prior to this announcement, Sportsnet would air a one-hour version of NXT on Fridays prior to Smackdown. Another option for Canadians was to wait until Thursday night for WWE Network to upload NXT on there.

Here’s the information from the WWE Corporate website:

02/22/2021

TORONTO & STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Sportsnet and WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced an expanded agreement to air live broadcasts of NXT on Sportsnet 360 and SN NOW beginning this Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. ET.

Now airing live every Wednesday night on Sportsnet 360 and SN NOW, 52 weeks a year, NXT is revolutionizing the world of sports entertainment with innovative styles from trend-setting and unapologetic Superstars including Finn Bálor, Adam Cole, Io Shirai, Karrion Kross, Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae. In addition to NXT, Sportsnet 360 will continue to air WWE’s weekly flagship programs Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown, as well as WWE Main Event, and This Week in WWE. Sportsnet is also the exclusive distribution partner for WWE Network in Canada offering all WWE pay-per-view events and groundbreaking original series as a premium linear channel.

“Our fans in Canada have been all in on NXT since day one,” said Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Global Talent Strategy & Development. “We’re thrilled about this expanded partnership with Sportsnet which will help us grow NXT’s reach throughout the country and introduce even more fans to the newest generation of WWE Superstars.”

“WWE provides some of the most electrifying entertainment in all of sports, and the passion of their fanbase in Canada is second to none,” said Greg Sansone, Vice-President, Programming, Sportsnet. “Reinforcing our already robust slate of live WWE programming with NXT was an easy choice and one our audiences have been asking for. We can’t wait to see the newest generation of Superstars live in action every Wednesday night.”

In 2014, Sportsnet and WWE signed a historic 10-year broadcast agreement, making Sportsnet the exclusive distributor of WWE programming in Canada through 2024.

About Sportsnet

Sportsnet is Canada’s #1 sports network. Uniting Canadians through sport, Sportsnet’s multimedia offerings include Sportsnet (consisting of 4 regional channels: East, Ontario, West, and Pacific), Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet World, the Sportsnet Radio Network, Sportsnet.ca, Sportsnet NOW, SN NOW+, the Sportsnet app, and podcasts. Sportsnet is the official Canadian NHL national multiplatform rights holder, and is the regional broadcaster for the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. Sportsnet also has extensive coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors, as well as NBA, MLB, Grand Slam of Curling, Rogers Cup, CHL, IndyCar, WWE, Super League Rugby, Premiership Rugby, Bundesliga, FA Women’s Super League, and FA Cup. Sportsnet is part of Rogers Sports & Media, which is a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX, NYSE: RCI). Visit Sportsnet.ca.

About WWE

WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms. WWE’s TV-PG, family-friendly programming can be seen in more than 900 million homes worldwide in 28 languages. WWE Network, the first-ever 24/7 over-the-top premium network that includes all live pay-per-views, scheduled programming and a massive video-on-demand library, is currently available in more than 180 countries. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, Munich and Tokyo.

Here’s a tweet from Triple H about it.

TJR Thoughts: I love this news since I review NXT every week. For the past few years, my process has been to download it off a website and write about it on Thursday morning. Now I don’t have to do that because I get Sportsnet 360, which also streams it on Sportsnet Now, so that makes it a lot easier for me.

NXT’s rival show AEW Dynamite has aired live in Canada on TSN 2 since Dynamite started in October 2019. Now there will be competition in Canada.