The viewership figures for professional wrestling programming in Canada are in as WWE shifts off linear television while AEW & TNA continue.
This past week, Canadians seeking WWE programming were shifted to Netflix, which becomes the exclusive home of the promotion’s programming including its premium live events.
While viewership figures specific to Canada are unavailable, data has been released by Netflix (using third-party service VideoAmp) for global and U.S. homes tuning in for the premiere of Raw.
On Tuesday, Raw was ranked #1 in Canada among TV shows on Netflix’s home screen and #4 as of Wednesday. It is no longer listed among the top ten in Canada, which are currently led by Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera Action, Squid Game, and American Primeval.
Canadians are not subjected to commercial breaks with the viewing experience on Monday featuring uninterrupted matches, exclusive interview segments, and video packages. On Tuesday’s NXT presentation, there were breaks but in place of commercial inventory were graphical packages of various talent and a countdown clock until the program resumed.
COLLISION POSTS STRONG FIGURES IN USA NETWORK DEBUT
AEW made a successful launch on the rebranded USA Network (formerly Discovery) with Collision moving to the broadcaster after being restricted to subscribers of TSN+. This past Saturday’s episode averaged 99,000 viewers and 67,000 in the 25-54 demographic, which was an impressive figure, especially on Saturday when it’s a competitive night due to NHL programming. The debut of Collision of USA Network in Canada also included native stars Chris Jericho and Adam Copeland on opposite sides of the main event six-man tag where Rated FTR defeated The Learning Tree.
This past Wednesday’s Dynamite averaged 82,500 viewers and 35,300 in the 25-54 demographic on TSN 2, which compares to the New Year’s Day episode that averaged 80,200 and 44,500 respectively. These figures highlight how well Collision performed out of the gate.
IMPACT DIPS IN SECOND WEEK
TNA Impact saw a decline in its second week on Sportsnet 360.
The January 9 episode, which was another taped show from Center Stage in Atlanta, averaged 19,000 viewers and 7,000 viewers in the demo. Those figures are a decline from the first episode on the network which averaged 36,000 and 16,000 viewers in the demographic.
Impact featured Joe Hendry & Rhino defeating Nic & Ryan Nemeth in the main event and another brawl between Jordynne Grace and Tessa Blanchard leading to the Genesis pay-per-view on January 19.
COMING UP
On Saturday, UFC stages its first event of 2025 with a Fight Night card from the Apex in Las Vegas headlined by a rematch between Amanda Ribas and Mackenzie Dern.
Sportsnet 360 will air a replay of TNA Impact from 3-5 p.m. ET as a lead-in for the UFC Fight Night prelims followed by the main card at 7 p.m.
Sportsnet 360 also lists a three-hour block on Sunday at 8 p.m. beginning with another Impact replay followed by Xplosion.
An episode of Xplosion airs Monday at 7 p.m. followed by TNA Classics.
