WWE Superstars

Vorlage:Unreferenced Vorlage:Infobox Television Superstars is a professional wrestling program that debuted on September 6, 1986 as Superstars of Wrestling and was aired until 2001. Superstars was the flagship of the World Wrestling Federations (now World Wrestling Entertainment) syndicated programming from its inception until being eclipsed by Monday Night Raw in 1993. The show is set to return in April 2009 on WGN America.

History

Origins

In 1986, Superstars replaced WWF Championship Wrestling. Before that, Superstars was the name of a weekly recap show hosted by Vince McMahon and Lord Alfred Hayes. Superstars was where all the angles began and at times ended and where the majority of title changes took place if not at a pay-per-view (e.g. WrestleMania or SummerSlam). Matches primarily saw top tier and mid-level talent versus jobbers; pre-taped interviews with the WWF's roster of superstars; and promos featuring the wrestlers. At times, there was a "feature" match between main WWF talent. As with all syndicated WWF programming, another major aspect of the show was to promote house shows and TV tapings in each market.

Title changes

Note: Many of these title changes were not aired for up to several weeks after they took place. As these shows were aired in an era before the Internet, the previous title holder sometimes defended his title at house shows as though he were still the champion until the title change was aired on television.

• The Hart Foundation beating the British Bulldogs for the WWF World tag team championship February 1987 (taped January 26, 1987).
• The Honky Tonk Man defeating Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat for the WWF Intercontinental title in June 1987 (taped June 2, 1987).
• Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) beating the Hart Foundation for the World tag titles in October 1987 (taped October 27, 1987).
• Demolition defeating the Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) for the Tag Team titles in November 1989 (taped October 2, 1989).
• The Colossal Connection (André the Giant and Haku) beating Demolition for the Tag Team titles in December 1989 (taped December 13, 1989).
• Mr. Perfect defeating Tito Santana for the vacant Intercontinental title in May 1990 (taped April 23, 1990).
• Mr. Perfect beating Kerry Von Erich for the Intercontinental Championship in December 1990 (taped November 19, 1990).
• Diesel defeating Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Championship in April 1994 (taped April 13, 1994).

Repackaged

Superstars ended its syndication run in September 1996, moving to the USA Network. Beginning with the March 9, 1997 episode, the format of Superstars was changed from original matches back to a recap show. In addition, the show got a new theme song performed by the DX Band. This version of Superstars aired on the USA Network until 2000 when the WWF moved all of its programming to TNN in the fall of 2000. Superstars would continue to air on TNN until it was canceled in the summer of 2001. Along with its sister show WWF LiveWire, Superstars was replaced by WWF Excess, which aired on Saturday nights.

On December 19,2008, it was announced that WWE and WGN America reached an agreement to create a new weekly, one-hour prime time series entitled "WWE Superstars" that will debut in April 2009.

Hosts

The commentary team on Superstars underwent many changes as the years passed. With a few rare exceptions, the team would always consist of one or two commentators who supported the face wrestlers, and one who supported the heels (this presentation is, to a lesser extent, still used today). The hosts of Superstars are listed below in chronological order with the debut episode of the team in parentheses:

• Vince McMahon, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and Bruno Sammartino (September 6, 1986)
• McMahon and Ventura (March 26, 1988)
• McMahon and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (August 25, 1990)
• McMahon, Piper, and the Honky Tonk Man (November 8, 1990)
• McMahon, Piper, and Randy "Macho Man" Savage (March 30, 1991)
• McMahon and Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig (November 30, 1991)
• McMahon and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (briefly, after Mr. Perfect's face turn in 1992)
• McMahon, Heenan and Jerry "the King" Lawler
• McMahon, Savage, and Lawler (December 11, 1992)
• McMahon and Lawler
• McMahon and Reo Rodgers (for one week only)
• McMahon and Stan Lane
• McMahon and Johnny Polo
• McMahon and Dok Hendrix (April 15, 1995)
• McMahon, Jim Ross, and Lawler
• McMahon, Ross, and Hennig (December 2, 1995)
• Ross and Hennig
• Ross and Jim Cornette

Internationally

Canada

During its syndication run, the program was repackaged and aired in Canada as Maple Leaf Wrestling, despite the fact that it contained almost no Canadian content other than interviews promoting matches that were to be held in Canada.

United Kingdom

WWF Superstars of Wrestling began airing in 1986 on Saturday nights on The Sky Channel. For a short time, it was shown on Tuesdays on Eurosport. In the mid-1990s, Superstars was moved to a Sunday morning timeslot. In 1997, WWF Superstars was used as a Raw is War recap show. From 1999 onwards, SmackDown! was also recapped. In January 2003, the UK version of WWE Superstars was replaced by Heat.