WCCW Battle Zone

**No. of episodes** | 944 (as of October 16, 2023)

***WCCW Battle Zone***, also known as ***Tuesday Night Battle Zone*** or simply ***Battle Zone***, is an American professional wrestling web television program produced by World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) that currently airs live every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on the Hulu streaming service. The show features characters from the Battle Zone brand, to which WCCW employees are assigned to work and perform. The show debuted on August 23, 2005 under the title *Tuesday Night Fight Zone!* and is currently considered to be one of two flagship shows, along with *Friday Night Intensity*.

The show originally aired on Spike from its debut until August 2013 when it moved to ESPN2. As part of The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of WCCW in May 2021, Hulu became the exclusive home to past and current episodes of *Battle Zone*. On December 10, 2023, it was reported that *Battle Zone* will move from Hulu to Disney+ in March 2024 as part of a new five-year deal.

## History

### Premiere and early years on Spike (2005–2013)

#### First brand split (2005–2009)

World Class Championship Wrestling began exploring the possibility of introducing a second television show that would serve as a companion to *Friday Night Intensity* by the mid-2000s. This new show would be announced on the November 19, 2004 episode of *Intensity*, with a planned debut of June 2005. Debuting as *Tuesday Night Fight Zone!* on August 23, 2005 on Spike TV, the program's debut was preceded by the first WCCW Draft episode of *Intensity* which aired August 19 and split the WCCW roster in two. To support the new Fight Zone brand, WCCW debuted three new championships: the Fight Zone! Heavyweight Championship, Fight Zone! Women's Championship and the Fight Zone! Tag Team Championship. The brand split was inspired by the WWE brand extension and was widely disliked by fans in the beginning. Ratings during the brand split were down constantly as fans took notice in the talent disparity and by 2009, the company decided to allow wrestlers from the Fight Zone brand to appear on *Intensity* and vice-versa. The brand split was officially declared over at the 2009 Clash of the Champions which saw the Fight Zone! Heavyweight Championship unified with the WCCW World Heavyweight Championship, the Fight Zone! Women's Championship unified with the WCCW Women's Championship and the Fight Zone! Tag Team Championship.unified with the WCCW World Tag Team Championship.

#### Final years on Spike (2009–2013)

Ratings for both *Fight Zone!* and *Intensity* would soar following the brand split, with a new found synergy between both shows thanks to them airing on the same network and now with the same talent for the first time. The shows would face competition from TNA *Impact!* though, and by 2011, the network had begun pushing for more emphasis on reality television in the midst of a network rebrand. Because of this, WCCW chose not to renew their contracts with Spike and in 2013 began negotiating a new media rights deal that would see *Fight Zone!* move to ESPN2 and *Intensity* move to Fox Sports 1.

### ESPN2 era (2013–2021)

With the switch to ESPN2 in August 2013, the program was rebranded *Tuesday Night Battle Zone* and switched its color palette from maroon to green in order to better differentiate it from the Intensity brand. On May 20, 2014, *Battle Zone* switched to a full 16:9 letterbox widescreen presentation, with a down-scaled version of the native HD feed on a 4:3 SD feed. In conjunction with this, *Battle Zone* debuted an updated stage design that would be shared with *Friday Night Intensity*.

#### COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021)

From March 12, 2020 to May 20, 2021, WCCW announced that all of its live programs would air from the Sacramento Credit Union Center in Sacramento, California without an audience until further notice beginning with the following day's episode of *Intensity* due to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in the suspension of many professional sports leagues. On May 21, 2021, WCCW announced that they will return in front of live fans with a 25 city tour, therefore the July 13, 2021 edition of Battle Zone would be the final WCCW held behind closed doors.

### Walt Disney merger and move to Hulu (2021–present)

One day before announcing their return to touring, WCCW announced on May 20, 2021 that they had agreed to a $15 million deal to merge World Class Championship Wrestling, Inc. into the The Walt Disney Company through a new subsidiary called World Class Sports Ventures. The new company would be overseen by then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek and WCCW founder and chairman Jack Thompson. Chapek would be replaced with Bob Iger as of November 20, 2022.

With the formation of World Class Sports Ventures, all of WCCW programming would be moved to Disney-owned streaming services with *Battle Zone* moving to Hulu as of June 1 with the service also hosting all previous episodes of the series on demand.

## Special episodes

Throughout its broadcast history, the show has aired episodes that have different themes. Some of them are yearly events such as the WCCW Draft or Tribute to the Troops. Others include tributes to various professional wrestlers who have recently died or retired from actively performing, as well as episodes commemorating various show milestones or anniversaries.

## Broadcast

In the United States, the show airs live every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on the Hulu streaming service. Occasionally, *Battle Zone* is aired on same-day tape delay when WCCW is on an overseas tour. *Battle Zone* is also shown live on Disney+ in most international markets with localized commentary. In Latin America, the program airs on Star+. Freeform in the United States started airing a 1-hour replay of *Battle Zone* on May 20, 2023.

## Broadcast history

 Hulu | Friday 8–10 PM. ET | June 1, 2021 – present