We received reports this week* that the WWE programming in the Philippines airs on the same week as their live American counterparts.

The 3/19 episode of Monday Night Raw (featuring the “End of an Era” main event segment with Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and the Undertaker) aired on 3/23 at 9:30PM on Studio 23.

This should alleviate the fears of Filipino WWE fans who speculated that they were back in the “dark ages” of WWE TV airing two-to-three weeks late, as it did in the late 1990s.

The contract between WWE and Solar Entertainment ended February of this year, concluding its series of live airings of monthly wrestling Pay Per View events with WWE Elimination Chamber. Soon after, the ABS-CBN channel Studio 23 announced that they were the new home of Philippine WWE Programming.

Yesterday, via their Facebook page, cable channel Fox Philippines announced that they, too, were going to air WWE Programming.

The new schedules are as follows:

Studio 23
Friday 9:30-10:30PM – WWE Raw (one hour cut)
Saturday 8:30-9:30PM – WWE NXT
Sunday 8:30-9:30PM – WWE Superstars
Tuesday 9:30-10:30PM – WWE Raw (one hour cut) (replay)
Wednesday 9:30-10:30PM – WWE NXT (replay)
Thursday 9:30-10:30PM – WWE Superstars (replay)

Fox Philippines**
April 2 8:55-10:45PM – WWE Smackdown
April 3 12:45-2:30PM – WWE Smackdown
April 4 10:55-11:50AM – WWE Vintage Collection
April 4 3:25-4:20PM – WWE Vintage Collection
April 5 10:55-11:50AM – WWE Bottomline
April 5 3:25-4:20PM – WWE Bottomline
April 6 10:00-11:50AM – WWE Smackdown
April 6 3:25-4:20PM – WWE Afterburn
April 6 10:45-11:40PM – WWE Bottomline
April 7 10:45-11:40PM – WWE Afterburn

We at Hurry up the Cakes are happy about this new development, but until WWE TVshows air on the same day or the day after they air in the States (like they used to two years ago), we’ll keep getting our WWE fix from the internet.

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* – from my girlfriend
** – the schedules are only for the week of April 2-7–an official weekly schedule has not been announced as of press time

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UPDATE:

On Monday April 2nd, Hurry up the Cakes received reports from frustrated WWE fans that Solar Entertainment channel Jack TV aired commercials advertising WrestleMania 28, and that it would air live that day. It did not air at all.

Today we received reports that WrestleMania XXVIII (which aired 7PM ET April 1st, in the US) aired April 3rd, 8PM on Studio 23, albeit with some matches heavily edited (particularly the gruesome End of an Era match between HHH and Undertaker), and that the channel held an event at TriNoMa mall the night before, reportedly launching their new WWE lineup with a live showing of WrestleMania.

This would indicate that the new deal between WWE and ABSCBN/Fox Asia also includes free Pay-Per-View event telecasts not too long after the live US airing.

Still, many Philippine wrestling fans complained on Twitter about how Studio 23 “butchered” the highly-anticipated wrestling event but editing out the most violent parts. While we at Hurry up the Cakes understand that this might be frustrating, we would like to suggest to our fellow native wrestling fans that they take a chill pill, and remember that they are watching a $59.99 wrestling show for free.

(Special thanks to @TheDerangedWriter)