World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
(
WWE) ( ) is a publicly-traded,
privately-controlled
integrated
media (focusing in
television,
Internet, and live events) and
sports entertainment company dealing
primarily in
professional
wrestling, with major
revenue sources
also coming from
film,
music, product licensing, and direct product sales.
Vince McMahon is the
majority owner,
chairman
and
chief executive officer
(CEO) of the company. Together with his wife
Linda McMahon, and their children, Executive
Vice President of Global Media,
Shane
McMahon and Executive Vice President of Talent and Creative
Writing,
Stephanie
McMahon-Levesque, the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's
economic interest and 96% of the
voting power in the company.
The
company's global headquarters are
located in Stamford,
Connecticut
with offices in Los Angeles
, New York
City
, London
, Toronto
, and
Sydney
. The company was previously known as Titan
Sports before changing to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment,
Inc., and then becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
WWE's business focus is on professional wrestling, a
simulated sport that
consists of
wrestling combined with
acting and
theatre. It
is currently the largest
professional wrestling
promotion in the world and holds an
extensive library of videos representing a
significant portion of the visual history of professional
wrestling. The promotion previously existed as the Capitol
Wrestling Corporation, which promoted under the banner of the World
Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), and later the World Wrestling
Federation (WWF). WWE promotes under three brands:
Raw,
SmackDown, and
ECW. WWE is also home to three
world
heavyweight championships: the
WWE
Championship, the
World Heavyweight
Championship, and the
ECW
Championship.
Company history
Capitol Wrestling Corporation
Roderick James "Jess" McMahon was a
boxing promoter whose achievements included co-promoting a bout in
1915 between
Jess Willard and
Jack Johnson.
In 1926, while working
with Tex Rickard (who actually despised
wrestling to such a degree he prevented wrestling events from being
held at Madison Square
Garden
between 1939 and 1948), he started promoting boxing
in Madison Square Garden in New York
. The
first match during their partnership was a light-heavyweight
championship match between
Jack Delaney
and
Paul Berlenbach.
Around the same time, professional wrestler
Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt created a new style
of professional wrestling that he called Slam Bang Western Style
Wrestling to make the sport more appealing to spectators. He then
formed a promotion with wrestling champion
Ed Lewis and his manager
Billy Sandow. They persuaded many wrestlers to
sign contracts with their
Gold Dust
Trio. After much success, a disagreement over power caused the
trio to dissolve and, with it, their promotion. Mondt formed
partnerships with several other promoters, including
Jack Curley in New York City. When Curley was
dying, Mondt moved to take over New York wrestling with the aid of
several bookers, one of whom was Jess McMahon.
Together, Roderick McMahon and Raymond Mondt created the Capitol
Wrestling Corporation (CWC). The CWC joined the
National Wrestling Alliance in
1953. Also in that year, Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's associates,
brought in
Vincent J. McMahon to replace his father Jess in the
promotion. McMahon and Mondt were a successful combination, and
within a short time, they controlled approximately 70% of the NWA's
booking, largely due to their dominance in the heavily populated
Northeast region. Mondt taught McMahon about booking and how to
work in the wrestling business.
Due to the dominance in the Northeast by the
promotion, American
Wrestling Association legend and WWE Hall of Famer Nick Bockwinkel referred to the CWC as the
"Northeast Triangle" to signify a triangle-like shape covering the CWC's territory,
with Pittsburgh
, Washington,
D.C.
, and Maine
being the
"points" of the triangle.
World Wide Wrestling Federation
The NWA recognized an undisputed
NWA World Heavyweight
Champion that went from wrestling company to wrestling company
in the alliance and defended the belt around the world. In 1963,
the champion was
"Nature Boy"
Buddy Rogers. The rest of the NWA was unhappy with Mondt
because he rarely allowed Rogers to wrestle outside of the
Northeast. Mondt and McMahon wanted Rogers to keep the NWA World
Championship, but Rogers was unwilling to sacrifice his $25,000
deposit on the belt (title holders at the time had to pay a deposit
to insure they honored their commitments as champion). Rogers lost
the NWA World Championship to
Lou Thesz in
a one-fall match in Toronto, Ontario on January 24, 1963, which led
to Mondt, McMahon, and the CWC leaving the NWA in protest, creating
the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in the process.
In April,
Rogers was awarded the new WWWF World Championship following an
apocryphal tournament in Rio de Janeiro
. He lost the title to
Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17,
1963, after suffering a
heart
attack shortly before the match. To accommodate Rogers'
condition, the match was booked to last under a minute.
Mondt left the company in the late sixties. Although the WWWF had
withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon Sr. still sat on the NWA
Board of Directors, no other territory was recognized in the
Northeast, and several "champion vs. champion" matches occurred
(usually ending in a double disqualification or some other
non-decisive ending).
In March 1979, the WWWF became the World Wrestling Federation
(WWF). The change was purely cosmetic, and the ownership and front
office personnel remained unchanged during this period.
World Wrestling Federation
In 1980, the son of Vincent J. McMahon,
Vincent Kennedy McMahon, founded Titan Sports,
Inc. and in 1982 purchased Capitol Wrestling Corporation from his
father. The elder McMahon had long since established the
northeastern territory as one of the most vibrant members of the
NWA. He had long since recognized that professional wrestling was
more about
entertainment than
actual sport. Against his father's wishes, McMahon began an
expansion process that fundamentally changed the sport.
The WWF was not the only promotion to have broken ranks with the
NWA; the
American
Wrestling Association (AWA) had long ago ceased being an
official NWA member (although like the WWF, they seldom left their
own territory). However, neither of the defecting members attempted
to undermine the
territory system
that had been the foundation of the industry for more than half a
century.
Other promoters were furious when McMahon began syndicating WWF
television shows to
television
stations across the United States, in areas outside of the
WWF's traditional northeastern stronghold. McMahon also began
selling
videotapes of WWF events outside
the Northeast through his
Coliseum
Video distribution company. He effectively broke the unwritten
law of regionalism around which the entire industry had been based.
To make matters worse, McMahon used the income generated by
advertising, television deals, and tape sales to poach talent from
rival promoters. Wrestling promoters nationwide were now in direct
competition with the WWF.
Hulk Hogan, due to his appearance in
Rocky III, had a national
recognition that few other wrestlers could offer, which is what led
McMahon to sign him.
Roddy Piper was
brought in, as well as
Jesse Ventura
(although Ventura rarely wrestled in the WWF at that point due to
the lung disorder that caused his retirement, moving to the
commentator booth alongside
Gorilla
Monsoon).
André the Giant,
Jimmy Snuka,
Don
Muraco,
Paul Orndorff,
Greg Valentine,
Ricky Steamboat, and the
Iron Sheik (Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri) rounded
out the roster. Hogan was clearly McMahon's biggest star, but there
was debate as to whether the WWF could have achieved national
success without him.
According to several reports, the elder McMahon warned his son:
"Vinny, what are you doing? You'll wind up at the bottom of a
river." In spite of such warnings, the younger McMahon had an even
bolder ambition: the WWF would tour nationally. Such a venture,
however, required huge capital investment; one that placed the WWF
on the verge of financial collapse. The future of not just
McMahon's experiment, but also the WWF, the NWA, and the whole
industry came down to the success or failure of McMahon's
groundbreaking concept,
WrestleMania.
WrestleMania was a
pay-per-view
extravaganza (in some areas; most areas of the country saw
WrestleMania available on
closed-circuit television) that
McMahon marketed as being the
Super Bowl
of professional wrestling.
The concept of a wrestling supercard was nothing new in North America;
the NWA had been running Starrcade a few
years prior to WrestleMania, and even the elder McMahon had
marketed large Shea
Stadium
cards viewable in
closed-circuit locations. However, McMahon wanted to take
the WWF to the mainstream, targeting the public who were not
regular wrestling fans. He drew the interest of the mainstream
media by inviting celebrities such as
Mr. T
and
Cyndi Lauper to participate in the
event.
MTV, in particular, featured a great deal
of WWF coverage and programming at this time, in what was termed
the
Rock 'n'
Wrestling Connection.
Golden Age
The original
WrestleMania, held
in 1985, was a resounding success. This event is sometimes credited
as the debut of what McMahon called "sports entertainment", in
contrast to his father's preference of pure wrestling. The WWF did
incredible business on the shoulders of McMahon and his
all-American
babyface
hero,
Hulk Hogan, for the next several
years, creating what some observers dubbed a second golden age for
professional wrestling. The introduction of
Saturday Night's Main Event
on
NBC in mid-1985 marked the first time that
professional wrestling had been broadcast on network television
since the 1950s. In 1987, the WWF produced what was considered to
be the pinnacle of the 1980s wrestling boom altogether,
WrestleMania III.
New Generation
The WWF hit a low point in the wake of allegations of
steroid abuse and distribution made against
it in 1994; there were also allegations of
sexual harassment made by WWF employees.
McMahon was eventually exonerated, but it was a
public relations nightmare for the WWF. The
steroid trial cost the WWF an estimated $5 million at a time when
revenues were at an all-time low. To compensate, McMahon cut the
pay of both wrestlers and front office personnel – close to
40% in the latter case (and about 50% for top level managers such
as
Bobby Heenan and
Jimmy Hart, who both left). This helped drive
many WWF wrestlers to its only major competition,
World Championship Wrestling
(WCW), between 1993 and 1996. During this period, the WWF promoted
itself under the banner of "The New WWF Generation," featuring
Shawn Michaels,
Diesel,
Razor Ramon,
Bret Hart, and
The Undertaker. In an effort to promote them
and other young talent as the new superstars of the ring, the WWF
began to play on the age restrictions which former WWF wrestlers
such as
Hulk Hogan and
Randy Savage (who by now were working for WCW)
now faced. This is best seen in the "Billionaire Ted" parodies of
early 1996 (a reference to WCW's owner and patron, media mogul
Ted Turner) which culminated in a
"
rasslin'"
match during the warm-up to
WrestleMania XII.
Monday Night Wars
In 1993, the WWF broke new ground in televised professional
wrestling with the debut of its cable program
WWF Monday Night Raw. After becoming a runaway
success, WCW in 1995 countered with its own Monday night cable
program,
WCW Monday Nitro,
in the same time slot as Raw. The two programs would trade wins in
the ensuing
ratings competition
until mid-1996, when WCW began a nearly 2-year domination that was
largely fueled by the introduction of the
New World Order, a
stable led by former WWF superstars Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and
Kevin Nash.
1996–1997
The feuds and match types developed by the end of the mid 1990's
began a new era in wrestling. The fans of the WWF seemed to favor
what was posed to them as the
bad guy instead of the
good guy. The creative
changes made by the WWF creative board saw wrestling take on a
"street fighting," "bad attitude" approach, however despite the
revolutionary changes in sports-entertainment that the WWF founded,
these years remain the lowest of the WWF's financial income and a
heavy loss in fandom to rival WCW. Throughout 1996 and 1997, the
WWF lost much of its leading talent to WCW, including Razor Ramon
(
Scott Hall), Diesel (
Kevin Nash), Psycho Sid (
Sid
Eudy), Alundra Blayze (
Debra
Miceli), and the late
Rick Rude. The
WWF replaced them with former WCW talent such as Vader (
Leon White),
Stone Cold Steve Austin,
Brian Pillman, Mankind (
Mick Foley), and Farooq (
Ron Simmons). Eric Bischoff's public humiliation
of the WWF, criticising them for signing WCW's sacked wrestlers and
bragging that WWF wrestlers were signing for WCW due to higher pay,
intensified the
Monday Night Wars
only for
Nitro as the WWF struggled to regain its
popularity.
McMahon managed to keep Bret Hart from reverting to WCW, and began
a feud with Hart and Steve Austin. In Hart's absence after
WrestleMania XII, Steve Austin became the
new face of the company, starting with his
Austin 3:16 speech, shortly after defeating
Jake Roberts in the tournament finals at the
1996
King of the Ring pay-per-view.
WrestleMania 13 saw Hart beat Austin
in a critically acclaimed submission match, and shortly after saw
Hart form
The Hart Foundation.
Austin and
Shawn Michaels feuded with
them for the majority of the year. This proved to be a major
turning point in the company's marketing approach.
Despite his strong
long running image as a face, the Canadian
Hart was turned heel in an
anti-USA gimmick, whilst Steve Austin became cheered by fans
despite efforts to design him as the ultimate heel (see tweener).Rocky
Maivia joined the
Nation of
Domination stable after fans
rejected his good guy image, and Shawn Michaels formed the street
gang faction
D-Generation X with
Triple H and
Chyna;
similar to the Stone Cold Steve Austin character, DX was designed
not to care for what the fans or other wrestlers thought of them.
The
Hell in a Cell match between
Shawn Michaels and
The Undertaker
produced a fresh strong foundation for the WWF's creative board.
1997 ended with McMahon becoming widely despised by fans following
Bret Hart's controversial departure from the WWF (see
Montreal Screwjob), proving to be a
founding factor in what was to kick start
The Attitude Era.
Attitude Era
By January 1998, the WWF began broadcasting more violence,
swearing, and more edgy angles in its attempt to compete with WCW.
After Bret Hart left for WCW following the Montreal Screwjob
incident, Vince McMahon used the resulting backlash in the creation
of his "
Mr. McMahon"
character, a
dictatorial and fierce ruler
who favored heels who were "good for business" over "misfit" faces
like Austin. This, in turn, led to the Austin vs. McMahon feud,
which, along with D-Generation X, officially began the Attitude
Era. It also featured the established Monday Night Wars, where both
WCW and the WWF had Monday night shows that competed against each
other in the ratings. Many new wrestlers came into the WWF such as
Chris Jericho,
The Radicalz (
Chris
Benoit,
Eddie Guerrero,
Perry Saturn,
Dean
Malenko) and the
1996
Olympic gold medalist,
Kurt Angle,
whilst the characters of The Rock (renamed from Rocky Maivia), and
Mick Foley (as Mankind, Cactus Jack and Dude Love) were
successfully re-invented to compete at the main event level. This
era also saw the evolution of more brutal matches with different
stipulations to increase viewership, mainly the furthering of Hell
in a Cell (notably its second appearance featuring The Undertaker
vs. Mankind) and the Inferno match (introduced by
Kane against The Undertaker).
Business advances
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to
terrestrial television by launching a
special program known as
SmackDown! on the fledgling
UPN network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly
series on August 26, 1999.
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999
the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World
Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded
company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each.
WWF
announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in
Times Square
, producing feature films, and book
publishing.In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with
television network
NBC, announced the creation
of the
XFL, a new professional
football league that debuted in 2001. The
league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but
initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low
levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the
history of American television). NBC walked out on the venture
after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone.
However, after being unable to reach a deal with UPN, McMahon shut
down the XFL.
Acquisition of WCW and ECW
The Attitude Era turned the tide of the Monday Night Wars into
WWF's favor for good. After Time Warner merged with
AOL,
Ted Turner's power over
WCW was considerably reduced, and the newly merged company decided
to get rid of WCW entirely. In March 2001, WWF Entertainment, Inc.
acquired World Championship Wrestling, Inc. from AOL Time Warner
for a number reported to be around $7 million. With this purchase,
WWF was now the largest wrestling promotion in the world, and the
only one in North America with mainstream exposure. It remained so
until the launch of
Total
Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2002.
The assets of
Extreme
Championship Wrestling (ECW), which had folded after filing for
bankruptcy protection in April 2001, were
purchased by WWE in mid-2003..
Name dispute
In 2000, the
World Wide Fund
for Nature (also WWF), an environmental organization, sued the
World Wrestling Federation. The
Law Lords agreed that Titan
Sports had violated a 1994 agreement which had limited the
permissible use of the WWF initials overseas, particularly in
merchandising. Both companies used the initials since March 1979.
On May 5, 2002, the company changed all references on its website
from "WWF" to "WWE", while switching the
URL from
WWF.com to
WWE.com.
The next day, a press release announced the
official name change from World Wrestling Federation
Entertainment, Inc. to World Wrestling Entertainment,
Inc., or WWE, and the change was publicized later that day
during a telecast of Monday Night Raw, which emanated from
the Hartford Civic
Center
in Hartford, Connecticut
. For a short time, WWE used the slogan "Get
The 'F' Out." The company had also been ordered by the Lords to
stop using the old WWF Attitude logo on any of its properties and
to censor all past references to
WWF, as they no longer
owned the trademark to the initials
WWF in 'specified
circumstances'. Despite litigation, WWE is still permitted use of
the original WWF logo, which was used from 1984 through 1997, as
well as the "New WWF Generation" logo, which was used from 1994
through 1998. Furthermore, the company may still make use of the
full "World Wrestling Federation" and "World Wrestling Federation
Entertainment" names without consequence.
Brand extension
In March 2002, roughly two months before the name change, WWE
decided to create two separate rosters,
Raw and
SmackDown! due to the
overabundance of talent left over from the
Invasion storyline.
This is known as the
WWE Brand
Extension. In addition to the Brand Extension, WWE holds a
Draft Lottery every year.
Changing networks
In late 2005,
WWE Raw returned after a
five-year stint on TNN (now
Spike
TV) to its original home
USA
Network. In 2006, due to contracts with NBC Universal, parent
company of USA Network, WWE had the chance to revive its classic
Saturday night show
Saturday
Night's Main Event (SNME) on
NBC after a
thirteen-year hiatus. WWE had the chance to promote the company on
a major national network rather than the lower profile
CW or cable channels like USA
Network. SNME airs occasionally on NBC as a WWE special
series.
ECW returns, introduction of HD
On May 26, 2006, WWE announced the relaunch of
Extreme Championship
Wrestling as a
WWE brand.
The
new ECW program airs internationally and
on Tuesday nights on Syfy in the United States
. On September 26, 2007, it was announced
that WWE would be expanding its international operations.
Alongside
the current international offices in London and Toronto, a new
international office would be established in Sydney. On
January 21, 2008, WWE made the transition to
high-definition (HD). All TV
shows and pay-per-views after this were broadcast in HD. In
addition, WWE also introduced a new
state of the art set that is used for all
three brands.
WWE Universe and Cuts
On November 19, 2008, WWE launched their online social network, WWE
Universe. It initially appeared in April as
WWE Fan
Nation. Similar to
MySpace, it offers
blogs, forums, and other features for WWE fans. On January 9, 2009,
WWE announced that it was going to be cutting 10% of its staff
across the board as part of an effort to cut $20 million in
costs.
Wellness Program
The Talent Wellness Program is a comprehensive drug, alcohol, and
cardiac screening program exclusive to World Wrestling
Entertainment, initiated in February 2006, shortly after the sudden
death of one of their highest profile talents, thirty-eight year
old
Eddie Guerrero. The policy tests
for
recreational drug use and
abuse of prescription medication, including
anabolic steroids. Under the guidelines of
the policy, talent is also tested annually for pre-existing or
developing cardiac issues. The drug testing is handled by Aegis
Sciences Corporation. The cardiac evaluations are handled by New
York Cardiology Associates P.C.
WWE is currently under investigation by the
United States House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform regarding their talent wellness policy, after the
death of one of
their performers, Chris Benoit, possibly being linked to
steroid abuse.
In August 2007, the program was defended heavily by WWE and its
employees in the wake of several illegal pharmacy busts that linked
WWE performers to steroid purchases even after the policy was put
into place.
Ten professional wrestlers were suspended
for violating the Wellness Policy after reports emerged they were
all customers of Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Florida
. According to a statement attributed to WWE
attorney Jerry McDevitt, an eleventh wrestler was later added to
the suspension list.
On the other hand, because of the Wellness Policy, physicians were
able to diagnose one of its performers with a heart ailment that
otherwise would have likely gone unnoticed until it was too late.
In August 2007, then-reigning
United States Champion Alvin
Burke, Jr. (better known under his ring name
Montel Vontavious Porter) was
diagnosed with
Wolff-Parkinson-White
syndrome, which if gone undiagnosed can be potentially fatal.
The ailment was discovered while MVP was going through a routine
Wellness Policy checkup.
Expansion beyond wrestling
In addition to licensing wrestling and performers' likenesses to
companies such as
Acclaim,
THQ, and
Jakks
Pacific to produce video games and action figures, WWE has
moved into other areas of interest in order to market their
product.
- WWE Studios: A subsidiary of WWE
created in 2002 to create and develop feature film properties.
Formerly known as WWE Films.
- WWE Niagara
Falls: A retail and entertainment establishment that is located
in Niagara
Falls, Ontario
and owned by WWE
- The World, formerly known as WWF New York: A restaurant,
night club, and memorabilia shop in New York City
- WWE Music Group: A subsidiary
that specializes in compilation albums of WWE wrestlers' entrance
themes. The group also releases titles that have been actually
performed by the wrestlers themselves.
- WWE Home Video: A subsidiary that
specializes in distributing compilation VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc
copies of WWE pay-per-view events, compilations of WWE wrestlers'
performances, and biographies of WWE performers.
- WWE Books: A subsidiary of WWE that
serves to publish autobiographies of and fiction based on WWE
personalities, behind-the-scenes guides to WWE, illustrated books,
calendars, young adult books, and other general nonfiction
books.
- WWE Kids: A website and comic set aimed at the children's end
of the wrestling market, comics are produced bi-monthly launched on
April 15, 2008.
Key figures
Executive officers
- Vincent K. McMahon (Chairman and CEO)
- Shane B. McMahon (Executive Vice President, Global
Media)
- Kevin Dunn (Executive Vice President, Television
Production)
- Frank G. Serpe (Chief Financial Officer)
- Donna Goldsmith (Chief Operating Officer)
- Stephanie McMahon-Levesque
(Executive Vice President, Creative Development &
Operations)
- Edward L. Kaufman (Executive Vice President and General
Counsel)
- John Laurinaitis (Executive
Vice President, Talent Relations)
- Michael Lake (President, WWE Films)
- John P. Saboor Senior Vice President of Special
Events
Board of directors
- Vincent K. McMahon (Chairman of the Board of Directors and
Chief Executive Officer – WWE)
- Michael Sileck (Chief Operating Officer – WWE)
- Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (Former Governor of the
State of Connecticut and United States Senator)
- David Kenin (Executive Vice President of Programming –
Hallmark Channel)
- Joseph Perkins (President – Communications Consultants,
Inc.)
- Michael B. Solomon (Managing Principal – Gladwyne
Partners, LLC)
- Robert A. Bowman (Chief Executive Officer – Major League
Baseball Advanced Media)
Champions
*These titles are unified; they are accessible to all
three brands.
Other accomplishments
Developmental territory champions
Defunct championships
In its 50 year history, WWE has operated over twenty different
championships.
Its first title was created in 1958, the
WWWF United States Tag
Team Championship; it was retired in 1967. Throughout its
history, WWE formed partnerships with other international
promotions, which led to the creation of various titles for these
promotions; however, when those partnerships ended, these titles
were either retired or began operation in the United States for
WWE. Overall, the company has retired 17 championships, the most
recent being the
WWE
Cruiserweight Championship in March 2008.
See also
References
- The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA DVD
- http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2009/2009_01_09.jsp
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