WWE

WWE’s beginnings can be traced back to the 1950s, when the inaugural event under the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) was produced on January 7, 1953. The identity of the CWC’s originator remains unknown. According to some accounts, Vincent J. McMahon founded CWC, while others credit McMahon’s father, Jess McMahon. The CWC then joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and Toots Mondt, a well-known New York promoter, soon followed.

Vincent J. McMahon and Toots Mondt were extremely successful and quickly controlled over 70% of the NWA’s booking authority, owing to their supremacy in the densely populated Northeastern United States. McMahon and Mondt clashed with the NWA in 1963 over “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers’ booking to hold the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Mondt and McMahon were not only promoters but also his managers, and were accused by other NWA promoters of restricting Rogers from defending in other towns in favor of only defending in Mondt and McMahon’s, so keeping a monopoly on the world championship.

On January 24, 1963, the NWA dispatched former five-time world champion and genuine wrestler Lou Thesz to Toronto to face Rogers in a now-infamous incident. Thesz says that this was not premeditated and that he told Buddy before the bout, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Rogers agreed to lose the fall and the championship in a one-fall match, as opposed to the conventional two-out-of-three fall fight in which most world titles were defended. When word of the title change reached Mondt and McMahon, they first dismissed it. Rogers was marketed as the NWA World Champion, or simply the World Heavyweight Champion, throughout their territory from January to April 1963.

The World Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was not formed immediately following Rogers’ one-fall loss to Thesz. Both Mondt and McMahon subsequently quit the NWA in protest and founded the WWWF. Willie Gilzenberg, a long-time boxing and wrestling promoter in New Jersey, joined them. The WWWF World Heavyweight Championship was established in April 1963, with the promotion reporting that Rogers won a tournament in Rio de Janeiro on April 25, 1963, defeating long-time Capitol Sports favorite Antonino Rocca in the finals.

In reality, Rocca was no longer in the area, as he was working for Jim Crockett Sr. in the Carolinas. Rogers also had already suffered what would later be a career-ending heart attack on April 18 in Akron, Ohio, and was in an Ohio hospital during the time the alleged tournament took place. Rogers lost the championship to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17, with the promotion beginning to be built around Sammartino shortly after.

Gilzenberg was chosen as the WWWF’s first president in June 1963. Mondt departed the promotion in the late 1960s, and despite the WWWF’s withdrawal from the NWA, McMahon discreetly rejoined in 1971. In 1979, the WWWF was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

Vincent J. McMahon’s son, Vincent K. McMahon, and his wife Linda founded Titan Sports, Inc. in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, in 1980, and registered the letters “WWF” as a trademark. The firm was founded on February 21, 1980, in the offices of the Cape Cod Coliseum and later relocated to Holly Hill Lane in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In 1982, the younger McMahon purchased Capitol from his father, thus gaining control of the corporation. The exact date of sale is still uncertain, but the widely recognized date is June 6, 1982; nevertheless, this was most likely merely the date the purchase was agreed upon but not finalized. Capitol Wrestling Corporation retained copyright and control for WWF television after June 1982. The World Wrestling Federation was co-owned by Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland, and Phil Zacko in addition to Vincent J. McMahon. The agreement between the two McMahons was on a monthly payment basis, with ownership reverting to the elder McMahon and his business partners if a single payment was missed.

In an effort to close the deal as soon as possible, McMahon entered into a number of loans and agreements with other promoters and business partners (including the assurance of a lifetime employment contract) in order to acquire full ownership by May or June 1983. The estimated total was around $1 million, with the three business partners splitting that amount among themselves while Vincent J. McMahon received about $185,000 in full.

He started an expansion plan that radically altered the wrestling industry in an effort to establish the WWF as the top wrestling organization in the nation and eventually the whole world.

The McMahons and Jim Barnett, a longtime employee of the Capitol, all left the NWA during its annual meeting in 1983. Additionally, McMahon worked to get syndicated television stations all over the country to carry WWF programming. The territory system, which had been in place since the NWA was created in the 1940s, was finally abolished as a result of this infuriating other promoters and upsetting the well-established boundaries of the various wrestling promotions.

Additionally, the business bought talent from rival promoters using revenue from advertising, television deals, and tape sales. When McMahon hired American Wrestling Association (AWA) wrestler Hulk Hogan, who had garnered notoriety outside of wrestling, most notably for his role in the movie Rocky III, he got a lot of momentum. Roddy Piper, who would compete against Hogan, and Jesse Ventura, an announcer, were both signed by McMahon shortly after. Along with already-established stars like Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco, Sgt. Slaughter, and André the Giant, new wrestlers like The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Junkyard Dog, Paul Orndorff, Greg Valentine, and Ricky Steamboat were added to the roster. Many of the wrestlers who later joined the WWF had previously competed for the AWA or NWA.

The WWF would go on a nationwide tour that would demand a substantial money outlay and put the organization in danger of going bankrupt. The outcome of McMahon’s innovative idea, WrestleMania, would determine whether or not his experiment would continue. WrestleMania was promoted as the Super Bowl of professional wrestling, and it remains so today. In North America, the idea of a wrestling supercard was hardly new; the NWA had started Starrcade a few years before.

However, in McMahon’s opinion, what distinguished WrestleMania from other supercards was that it was designed to be accessible to those who did not watch wrestling. He recruited superstars such as Mr. T, Muhammad Ali, and Cyndi Lauper to participate in the event and secured broadcasts from MTV. Because of the cross-promotion of popular culture and professional wrestling, the event and the hoopla surrounding it gave rise to the moniker Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection.

For the next several years, McMahon and his babyface hero Hulk Hogan carried the WWF business to new heights. Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC in 1985 was the first time professional wrestling had been televised on network television since the 1950s, when the now-defunct DuMont Television Network aired matches from Vincent J. McMahon’s Capitol Wrestling Corporation. The “Wrestling Boom” of the 1980s peaked in 1987 with the WrestleMania III pay-per-view at the Pontiac Silverdome, which established an attendance record of 93,173, which held for 29 years until WrestleMania 32.

In 1992, the WWF was accused of steroid misuse and distribution. The next year, charges of sexual harassment by WWF workers surfaced. McMahon was subsequently exonerated, but the charges harmed the WWF’s public image and general reputation. The steroid experiment cost the corporation an estimated $5 million at a time when revenues were at an all-time low. This influenced several WWF performers, notably 1980s babyface star Hulk Hogan, to leave for rival organization World Championship Wrestling (WCW). During this time, the WWF promoted younger wrestlers as “The New Generation,” which included Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, The Undertaker, and Sycho Sid, among others, in an effort to bring new talent into the spotlight.

The WWF began its flagship television program Monday Night Raw in January 1993. In September 1995, WCW responded with its own Monday night program, Monday Nitro, which aired in the same time period as Raw. The two shows would swap victories in the subsequent rating war (dubbed the “Monday Night Wars”) until mid-1996. Nitro started a nearly two-year rating dominance at that moment, powered in large part by the debut of the New World Order (nWo), a group fronted by former WWF stars Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall (the former Razor Ramon), and Kevin Nash (the former Diesel).

As the Monday Night Wars between Raw Is War and WCW’s Nitro persisted, the WWF evolved from a family-friendly offering to a more adult-oriented product known as the Attitude Era. WWF VP Shane McMahon (son of owner Vince McMahon) and head writer Vince Russo oversaw the period.

McMahon faced real-life controversy in 1997, following Bret Hart’s dramatic departure from the organization, nicknamed the Montreal Screwjob. This was one of the key causes in the establishment of the Attitude Era, as well as the formation of McMahon’s on-screen persona, “Mr. McMahon.”

Prior to the Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 Survivor Series, the WWF was hiring former WCW talents such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind, and Vader. Despite being promoted as an antihero, Austin was gradually introduced as the company’s new face, beginning with his “Austin 3:16” speech shortly after defeating Jake Roberts in the tournament finals at the King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1996.

The WWF returned to terrestrial television on April 29, 1999, with a special program called SmackDown! aired on the nascent UPN network. On August 26, 1999, the Thursday night show became a weekly series, directly competing with WCW’s Thursday night program dubbed Thunder on TBS.

Titan Sports, Inc. was renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. in the summer of 1999. On October 19, 1999, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. began trading as a publicly listed business on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with an initial public offering of stock valued at $172.5 million. WWE is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WWE.

The Attitude Era had swung the Monday Night Wars in WWF’s favor by the autumn of 1999. Ted Turner’s authority with WCW was significantly decreased after Time Warner combined with America Online (AOL). Due to a lack of interest in professional wrestling as a whole, the newly amalgamated corporation opted to sell WCW in its entirety.

Although Eric Bischoff, who was fired as WCW president by Time Warner in October 1999, was close to a deal to buy the company, McMahon purchased the rights to WCW’s trademarks, tape library, contracts, and other properties from AOL Time Warner in March 2001 for a reported $7 million. The WWF initiated the Invasion storyline shortly after WrestleMania X-Seven, using the new talent rosters from WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). With this acquisition, the WWF became by far the largest wrestling promotion in North America and the globe. WWE bought the assets of ECW, which had dissolved after filing for bankruptcy protection in April 2001.

The WWF developed the XFL, a new professional football league that began in 2001, in partnership with the television network NBC in 2000. The league achieved good ratings for the first few weeks, but early enthusiasm waned and viewership plummeted (one of its games was the lowest-rated prime-time broadcast in American television history). NBC dropped out after only one season, but McMahon planned to continue on his own. However, after failing to reach an agreement with UPN, McMahon shut down the XFL. WWE retained custody of the XFL trademark until McMahon recovered it in 2017, this time under a distinct shell business from WWE, with the intention of relaunching the XFL in 2020.

The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) changed both its corporation name and the name of its wrestling promotion to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on May 6, 2002, after losing a trademark dispute with the World Wildlife Fund. Despite the fact that it was primarily due to an unfavorable ruling in its dispute with the World Wildlife Fund over the “WWF” initialism, the company noted that it provided an opportunity to emphasize its focus on entertainment.

Start of WWE Draft

Due to an overabundance of talent left over from the Invasion storyline, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, with each group of wrestlers appearing on one of their main programs, Raw and SmackDown!, in March 2002. The term “brand extension” was used to describe this.

Since 2002, a draft lottery has been performed nearly every year to decide the rosters, with the initial draft determining the first split rosters and following draughts aimed to renew the rosters of each program. On May 26, 2006, WWE extended the brand divide by relaunching ECW as a third brand. WWE modified a more family-friendly approach two years later, and their programming acquired a TV-PG classification. The final episode of ECW aired on February 16, 2010, and it was replaced by NXT.

WWE quit using the entire term World Wrestling Entertainment and referred to itself exclusively as WWE on April 7, 2011, through the WWE Corporate website, rendering the latter an orphan initialism. According to reports, this reflects WWE’s worldwide entertainment development away from the ring, with the eventual objective of purchasing entertainment firms and focusing on television, live events, and film production. WWE said that their new corporate model was implemented with the relaunch of Tough Enough, a non-scripted program, and the introduction of the WWE Network (which was originally intended to start in 2012 but was later pushed back to 2014). However, the company’s legal name remains World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

Beginning with the August 29, 2011 broadcast, Raw – dubbed Raw Supershow – featured talent from both Raw and SmackDown (the “Supershow” moniker was abandoned on July 23, 2012). Wrestlers from any show may fight for championships that had previously been exclusive to one show or the other; the “Supershow” format would mark the end of the brand split, as all programming and live events (until July 2016) would include the entire WWE roster.

WWE Performance Centre, a sports medicine and training facility in east Orange County, Florida, was developed in 2013 in collaboration with Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. The training facility is designed to help wrestlers advance their careers and athletic abilities. WWE’s NXT brand, which operated as a developing area for WWE, is also based at Full Sail.

WWE Network was introduced on February 24, 2014, as an over-the-top streaming service that would offer archive video from WWE and its predecessors, all pay-per-views (which would still be distributed through television providers), and unique programming.

Beginning in 2015, WWE began to promote Roman Reigns as the company’s face when he won the 2015 Royal Rumble event, despite conflicting reactions. By 2017, Roman Reigns had become their top merchandise seller.

WWE reintroduced the brand split as the “New Era” on May 25, 2016. Following that, Raw and SmackDown each had their own rosters, announcers, championships, and ring sets/ropes. To choose which wrestlers would perform on which program, a draft was held. SmackDown also switched from Thursdays to Tuesday evenings, beginning on July 19 (the night of the aforementioned draft), and now airs live rather than pre-recorded.

WWE 205 Live, a new program for their cruiserweight division (wrestlers 205 pounds and less), debuted on November 29, 2016. The program is just for wrestlers who have qualified for the category. The cruiserweights, who rose to prominence in WWE with the Cruiserweight Classic competition, were first confined to the Raw brand before gaining their own.

WWE introduced a new WWE United Kingdom Championship on December 15, 2016, with the inaugural champion determined via a 16-man tournament comprising wrestlers from the UK and Ireland to show on WWE Network in January 2017. WWE executive Paul “Triple H” Levesque stated that the new championship and tournament will eventually be used to develop a UK-based brand with its own weekly television program. In June 2018, WWE debuted NXT UK, a UK-based spinoff of NXT, with Johnny Saint acting as the initial general manager.

Beginning in September 2019, NXT had a weekly, live, two-hour broadcast on the USA Network on Wednesday evenings, and WWE began pushing NXT as their “third brand.” However, after ceding the Wednesday Night Wars to rival promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), NXT was moved to Tuesday nights in 2021, and in September of that year reverted to its original function as the developmental brand for the main roster (Raw and SmackDown), under the name “NXT 2.0.”

The American start of the COVID-19 pandemic began to have an influence on WWE in March 2020. As a preventive move, three of the four major sports leagues closed locker rooms to the media in mid-March. As other sports announced cancellations and postponements, WWE began filming its weekly programs at the Performance Centre without spectators and with only essential staff present, beginning with the March 13 episode of SmackDown – the March 11 episode of NXT had been recorded at the Performance Centre with paying fans, making it WWE’s final event with ticketed fans in attendance before the pandemic took full effect.

WrestleMania 36 was originally set for April 5 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa but was relocated to Orlando on March 16 to be held behind closed doors. WrestleMania, as well as Raw and SmackDown for a time before and after WrestleMania, switched from live to pre-recorded broadcasts. NXT continues to air from Full Sail University, however with the same limitations.

On April 13, live broadcasts resumed as usual. According to WWE, the company’s programming “bring[s] families together and deliver[s] a sense of hope, determination, and perseverance,” and that”we believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times.” Later, it was revealed that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had added an exception to the state’s stay-at-home rule for staff members of a “professional sports and media production” that is closed to the public and has a national audience. DeSantis had deemed WWE to be a business essential to the state’s economy.

Live broadcasts recommenced as usual on April 13. WWE claims that its programming “bring[s] families together and deliver[s] a sense of hope, determination, and perseverance,” and that “we believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times.” Later, it came to light that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had added an exemption to the state’s stay-at-home law for employees of a “professional sports and media production” that is not open to the public and has a wide audience. According to DeSantis, WWE is a vital industry for the state’s economy.

In response to the pandemic, WWE began a series of layoffs and cuts on April 15. These actions included the firing of several wrestlers (including Karl Anderson, Kurt Angle, Aiden English, EC3, Epico, Luke Gallows, Curt Hawkins, No Way Jose, Sarah Logan, Mike Kanellis, Maria Kanellis, Primo, Erick Rowan, Rusev, Lio Rush, Zack Ryder, Heath Slater, and Eric Young), three producers ( Additionally, WWE executives had their salaries reduced, and the firm has put a minimum of six months’ worth of construction on its new headquarters on hold.

Fans responded angrily to the firings, with Business Insider describing them as “livid.” The WWE stated that these moves were “necessary due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic,” although various media outlets and fans pointed out that the WWE also claimed to have “substantial financial resources.” Currently, there is about $0.5 billion in available cash and debt capacity. According to DeSantis, WWE was “essential,” thus any income losses for the business would be minimal.

WWE moved from the Performance Centre to Orlando’s Amway Centre in August 2020 for a protracted residency, broadcasting episodes of Raw, SmackDown, and pay-per-views via WWE Thunderdome, a virtual fan-watching environment. Drones, lasers, pyro, smoke, and projections were used inside the Thunderdome to enhance the wrestlers’ entrances to a degree comparable to that of pay-per-view productions prior to the epidemic. The installation of about 1,000 LED boards made it possible to create endless rows of simulated fans. The ability for spectators to virtually attend the events was free, but they had to secure a spot in advance.

WWE shifted WrestleMania 37, which was initially scheduled for March 28 in Inglewood, California, to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida — WrestleMania 36’s original venue – as a two-night event on April 10 and 11, 2021, with spectators in attendance, but in a reduced capacity. With COVID-19 regulations in place, this was WWE’s first event during the pandemic to have ticketed people in attendance, with a cap of 25,000 spectators for each night. Around the same time, Peacock began exclusive distribution of the WWE Network in the United States on March 18, 2021 (ahead of Fastlane and WrestleMania 37). Outside of the United States, the merger of the WWE Network and Peacock had no effect on the service.

WWE announced a collaboration with On Location, a firm recognized for offering exceptional hospitality experiences for key events, on February 24, 2022. Spectators will get access to hospitality packages for WWE’s five largest events, including WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, thanks to the agreement. WWE’s first event to sell premium hospitality packages was the 2022 Money in the Bank. These ticket and travel packages feature premium seats, premium hospitality, and meet-and-greets with current and legendary WWE superstars.

Mr. McMahon stepped down as chairman and CEO of WWE on June 17, 2022, during an inquiry by WWE’s Board of Directors into claimed “hush money” paid to a former employee by Vince McMahon following an affair, and was replaced as temporary chairperson of WWE by his daughter, Stephanie McMahon. Regardless of the change, Vince McMahon appeared on WWE SmackDown that night, opening the show with a brief speech, the highlights of which “then, now, forever, and most importantly together” were quoted by various news outlets as Vince letting people know that he was still in creative control from behind the scenes. Vince McMahon formally retired on July 22, 2022.

Stephanie McMahon was formally designated chairperson upon Vince’s retirement, and she and Nick Khan were made co-CEOs of WWE. Triple H would take over as Creative Director while remaining as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and ultimately being appointed to Chief Content Officer. Commentators have emphasized the significance of McMahon’s retirement, claiming that it signified the beginning of a new era in WWE history. The 2022 SummerSlam event, held on July 30, 2022, was the first WWE pay-per-view event staged under Stephanie McMahon and Triple H’s leadership. WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels was elevated to WWE Vice President of Talent Development Creative on August 18, 2022.

Vince McMahon announced his plan to return to the organization in January 2023, ahead of media rights talks. The WWE’s broadcast rights with Fox and USA Network expire in 2024. That same month, JPMorgan was hired to handle a potential sale of the company, with rumored suitors including its media partners Comcast and Fox Corporation, The Walt Disney Company (owners of ESPN), Warner Bros. Discovery (media partners of rival All Elite Wrestling), Netflix, Amazon, Endeavour Group Holdings (owners of mixed martial arts promotion UFC, and Endeavour Streaming—which replaced MLB Advanced Media as the WWE Network streaming service provider in 2019.

Stephanie McMahon resigned as Chairwoman and Co-CEO on January 10, 2023, the same day Vince McMahon resumed the job of Executive Chairman of WWE and Nick Khan became the sole CEO. WWE and Endeavour signed an agreement on April 3, 2023, under which WWE would combine with UFC to establish a new, unidentified corporation that would go public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker “TKO.” Endeavour would own 51% of “TKO,” while WWE stockholders will own 49%, valuing WWE at $9.1 billion. This will be the first time that the McMahon family does not control the majority of WWE.

McMahon will be the new entity’s executive chairman, with Endeavour CEO Ari Emanuel becoming CEO and Mark Shapiro serving as president and chief operating officer. Emanuel will not take on any creative responsibility, with Nick Khan becoming WWE president following the merger (similar to Dana White’s job as UFC president). McMahon indicated in an interview with CNBC that he would be active in creative “on a higher level,” but would not be “in the weeds” as he had been in the past. Shane McMahon sought to buy the UFC many times in the 2000s, but Vince talked him out of it. The merger will be completed in the second half of 2023. Despite the merger, the WWE and the UFC continue to operate independently.