Wrestling on Polish TV

Polish wrestling has only very recently gained any media attention and coverage. It has never been very popular in Poland, and rarely featured on TV.

1990s-2002

Probably the first Polish channel to air wrestling, was ATV, itself, one of the first commercial channels to be granted a broadcast license. As early as 1995, they were airing WCW Worldwide with amusing Polish commentary by the team of Mariusz Szkwał (Włodzimierz Osiński) and Krzysztof Zadziorny (Grzegorz Pawlak), who notably attempted to translate and localize names of wrestlers, wrestling moves and terms.

As early as 1994, DSF (Deutsche Sport Fernsehen), a German sport TV channel available through satellite receivers and later also in several cable networks, was showing World Wrestling Federation's shows after 22:00, on various days through the years, settling on Saturdays. Later listings from 2002 advertised WCW in that timeslot, which may have been an error.

TNT, an American TV channel that mainly focused on classic films, reached Poland in late 1990s, becoming available in several cable TV networks. It initially shared its programming with Cartoon Network, which ran from the morning hours until 22:00 (10 PM), when TNT content would start broadcasting. TNT aired World Championship Wrestling's Nitro flagship show, later joined by Thunder (the B-show) directly afterwards, on Friday at 22:00. Notably, this was broadcast with original English commentary only. This lasted until the organization went defunct in 2001.

In 1998, a new general TV channel named Wizja 1 (Vision 1) was launched. Its programming also included wrestling, on Saturdays at 18:00 (6 PM), airing WWF Superstars with commentary by Tomasz Lorek, Grzegorz Kalinowski and Andrzej Supron.

Also around 1998, general purpose channel Polsat 2 aired WCW, though not the flagship show but older episodes of Worldwide and recaps. The show was named "Wszystkie Chwyty Dozwolone" (No Holds Barred) and aired on Saturday mornings, with commentary by Michał Olszański and others.

2003-2019

After the boom and flop of wrestling on general-purpose channels, they moved to sports-oriented channels instead. The first one was Extreme Sports Channel, which started airing WWE Raw episodes on tape delay. They were soon joined by Eurosport, which aired TNA Wrestling on Fridays. Starting in 2009, Eurosport replaced TNA with WWE recaps and their Vintage Collection show, on Mondays.

In the long run, Extreme Sports became the only place for wrestling on TV, later gaining rights to show WWE Raw and Smackdown on tape delay, with Supron and Borkowski on commentary.

During this time, the Polish wrestling scene was beginning to form, but with no interest by the media save for short news reports. DDW wanted to air their wrestling, but it never happened due to lack of interest. TBW planned to air their two shows and future events on Orange Sport in 2011, but both the organization and channel folded not long afterwards.

In 2012, FightBox, a channel dedicated to combat sports entered cable TV. Since at least 2016, the channel aired NEW, a German wrestling promotion from Hessen, later joined by UK Wrestling, from Leeds, England. Notably, the English commentary for NEW was none other than Don Roid.

2020

In 2020, local branch of the national broadcaster TVP3 Wrocław published a short piece on MZW, titled "Staged and seemingly menacing. Wrestling gains popularity in Wrocław". The narrator talks about the staged nature of wrestling as entertainment, while several rookies and wrestlers practice bumps in the ring wearing face masks (as this was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic). Shadow, introduced as PAW's coach, talks about training and safety. MZW's flag is clearly visible in the background.

2021

The newly created Prime Time Wrestling streamed their first ever show, PTW#1: REVOLUCJA on both YouTube and TVP Sport. While only streamed, not broadcast, it is notable because TVP Sport is the national broadcaster's sports channel.

2023

In September, PpW's social media announced that Czyste Intencje would be available not only on their YouTube channel, but also on TV. The channel was sportowa.tv, a general sports-oriented channel available in several smaller cable networks in Poland and over the Internet. Social media graphics for that event show the channel's logo among other partners and sponsors. This cooperation appears to have been short-lived, as the channel was not mentioned on any of the later shows, and there is no video of the event on their YouTube channel.

During the opening moments of Arena 23, chairman Malinowski announced that from this moment on, KPW's events would be broadcast on FightBox. The first show to air was indeed Arena 23. The following shows were recorded with the intention of airing them later, after recording a commentary.

2024

In August 2024, PTW launched a format on TVT, which is a local Silesian TV station. The show is titled "Czas na Wrestling" (Time for Wrestling) and hosted by Pawłowski, who typically interviews a single guest from the organization, either a wrestler or crew member, talking various wrestling or PTW-related topics. Some of these episodes are hosted by TVT on their website, and available on YouTube.

On Sunday, Sep 29, 2024, breakfast TV programme "Halo tu Polsat" featured a brief segment with PpW's wrestlers Biesiad, Jacob Crane and Gustav Gryffin. Gustav brought his custom PpW Championship belt, which was prominently displayed on a coffee table, with PpW's logo clearly legible. The hosts asked the wrestlers several questions, including about the nature of kayfabe and their roles and characters. Biesiad was portrayed as a pure fighter, while Gustav promoted himself as a man of culture and means, deserving the championship he carried. Crane was referred to mostly as "coach".

Some time later, in October, PTW announced that their shows would be aired on Extreme Sports channel, starting with PTW#1: REVOLUCJA, which aired on October 27th. This was later followed by Extreme starting to air the Underground series of shows. The first one to air was PTW Underground 4, scheduled on Monday, November 18th, 2024 at 22:00 (10 PM), and was followed by more Underground shows on the following days.

On November 11th fans noticed that Extreme Sports website now promoted Legacy of Wrestling. The following day Legacy officially confirmed their media partnership, and that their first show would air on Extreme one week after the event, on December 8th.

One week later, on November 18th, Extreme and KPW also posted about signing a deal to air their shows, starting with KPW Arena 23: Zabójcze Wyzwanie on Saturday, November 23rd. It is unclear if their shows will continue to air on FightBox.

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