FOX Philippines Is the New Home of the WWE

Daniel Bryan and other WWE superstars will have a new network in the Philippines, as FOX becomes the official home of the WWE.

WWE has come to FOX Philippines for good.

After taking over the rights to air WrestleMania XXX, FOX Philippines officially positioned themselves as the rightful home of the WWE by acquiring the broadcast rights to WWE’s flagship television program, Raw. Beginning tonight, the full three-hour serving of Raw will be seen on FOX Philippines in its entirety.

In addition, FOX Philippines also acquired WWE NXT, the weekly program that features up-and-coming wrestlers from the developmental unit of the same name. But for unknown reasons, FOX Philippines has decided not to air WWE Superstars, and instead the network will continue to pick up WWE Main Event as its tertiary program for the organization’s other top talents.

Only WWE SmackDown and WWE Vintage will remain on the air under FOX Philippines’ new programming deal, while recap shows WWE Bottomline and WWE Afterburn were removed. Pay-per-views, beginning with the upcoming Extreme Rules, will also be aired on a same-day delay on FOX Philippines. The new deal also allows FOX Philippines to air WWE programs on the same week as the American telecast.

Previously, WWE coverage was split between ABS-CBN Sports and FOX Philippines, with IBC-13’s defunct AKTV block serving as a free TV subsidiary for the latter. And prior to that, Solar USA/Jack TV served as the official broadcaster of the WWE in the Philippines.

The WWE on FOX Philippines programming schedule will be as follows:

WWE Vintage – Thursdays at 9:50 p.m.

WWE Raw – Fridays at 9:50 p.m.

WWE Main Event – Saturdays at 10:45 p.m.

WWE NXT – Saturdays at 11:40 p.m.

WWE SmackDown – Sundays at 9:50 p.m.

WWE pay-per-views – monthly; first airing on Monday at 9:50 p.m.

Replays of WWE programs will also be aired at certain points of the day.

With FOX Philippines now at the helm, watching WWE programs will never be the same again. Not only will viewers be treated to a three-hour Raw, they will also experience the same-day pay-per-views and complementary programs such as SmackDown and Main Event. Wrestling fans will definitely look forward to more action-packed storylines and matches that affect the WWE today.

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WrestleMania XXX on FOX; Is Raw Next?

WrestleMania XXX will be seen on FOX Philippines this Monday.

The mystery of the WrestleMania XXX broadcast rights has finally been revealed. FOX Philippines has announced that the highly-anticipated WWE pay-per-view will be carried by the said network on April 7 at a delayed time of 9:50 p.m. FOX’s announcement came a few weeks after WWE programs on ABS-CBN Sports+Action ceased its broadcast following the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

While it was assumed that the announcement is the first step to FOX’s full acquisition of other WWE programs (e.g. Raw, NXT, Superstars), it remains to be seen whether or not they are really committed to air all WWE programs in a similar way that rival Jack TV did several years ago. After all, Jack TV used to air most, if not all WWE programs (including live pay-per-views) for several years.

FOX Philippines needs to realize that there are a lot of angry wrestling fans who were disgusted by ABS-CBN Sports’ decision to cease ties with WWE. Yes, they have WrestleMania XXX and future pay-per-views in their resume, so why not include Raw on the list? After all, it was considered the flagship program of the WWE with over 1,000 episodes in its 21-year history.

Bringing Raw (and other programs) to FOX should satisfy the demands of loyal wrestling viewers. Even though SmackDown (in its two-hour U.S. format) is a decently good program, the main storylines are typically developed and heightened on Raw, a three-hour program that involves all active WWE superstars. And by bringing the three hours of Raw to FOX Philippines (in contrast to the one-hour ‘international’ version on ABS-CBN Sports+Action), wrestling fans should be more than content to follow a wider variety of storylines as they happen.

In the meantime, good luck to FOX Philippines as they broadcast WrestleMania XXX this Monday. And for wrestling fans everywhere, there is still a glimmer of hope for Raw to be aired on the said network.

*As of this article, the only WWE programming seen on the FOX-owned network are the following: SmackDown, Main Event, Bottomline, Afterburn, and Vintage. Meanwhile, ABS-CBN Sports+Action (formerly Studio 23) had the rights to Raw, NXT, Superstars, and the pay-per-views prior to the pullout, and also aired the one-season run of Tough Enough.