List of WWE pay-per-view events

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This is a chronological list of pay-per-views promoted by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Each month, WWE holds one or two annual pay-per-view events. One event is usually three hours long and features six to twelve matches. Pay-per-view events are a big part of the revenue stream for WWE.[1][2]

History

It is a commonly held misconception that the first WWE, then known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), pay-per-view was November 1985's The Wrestling Classic, a tournament held at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, but the first WrestleMania event, in March of the same year, was available on pay-per-view in some markets.[3][failed verification] The first two WrestleManias were financial successes, and after WrestleMania III became a popular event in wrestling history, the WWF then decided to expand their pay-per-view offerings.

The first Survivor Series event occurred on November 29, 1987, scheduled to conflict with NWA's Starrcade. The WWF informed cable companies that if they chose to carry Starrcade, they would not be allowed to carry future WWF events. The vast majority of companies showed Survivor Series (only three opted to remain loyal to their contract with the NWA), and the resulting financial blow to Starrcade was in many ways the beginning of the end for Jim Crockett Promotions.[4] The debut of the Royal Rumble in January 1988 was actually shown on the USA Network, where it drew the highest rating to that time in the network's history. The event became a pay-per-view the following year.[5]

The first SummerSlam was held in Madison Square Garden in August 1988.[6] The Royal Rumble in January, WrestleMania in March or April, SummerSlam in August, and Survivor Series in November - were the only annual pay-per-view offerings other than the King of the Ring from the WWF until 1995. Previously rival World Championship Wrestling had expanded the number of their pay-per-view shows. Initially, the WWF used the In Your House brand, but beginning in 1996 began using other names to complement the In Your House name (such as Bad Blood and No Way Out), to avoid confusion. By the end of February 1999, the In Your House name was nonexistent. This trend escalated to the point that by 1996, both companies showed monthly events on pay-per-view. Until recently, World Wrestling Entertainment had a once-a-month pay-per-view schedule, which they had from the late '90s until 2003 totalling twelve a year. The pay-per-view events in the United States are offered by iN DEMAND,Dish Network or DirecTV.

The WWE ran twice yearly pay-per-views which were exclusive to the UK up to 2003, but after the brand extension occurred they were removed in favor of international tours, with a TV taping included. Currently, WWE has the WrestleMania Revenge tour, after WrestleMania, at the beginning of the year and the Survivor Series tour, at the end of the year, in the UK. Each includes a RAW, SmackDown!, and an ECW taping. In Australia, WWE's pay-per-views are shown on Main Event. In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, some pay-per-views are shown on Sky Sports 1 and others on Sky Box Office. Starting with the 2008 Royal Rumble, all WWE pay-per-views were broadcast in North America in High-definition, with similar HD broadcasts starting in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland from WrestleMania XXIV.

Brand extension

In June 2003, WWE announced to continue with their brand extension and make their pay-per-view events each exclusive to a particular brand (Raw, SmackDown!, and in 2006, ECW). The only exceptions to the pay-per-view split were the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series events which remained exclusive to all WWE brands. The pay-per-view split allowed WWE to eventually add more pay-per-view events to their pay-per-view line-up. From late 2005, pay-per-views would start to frequently have inter-branded matches. In March 2007, it was announced that pay-per-view events would go back to the old format, where the events would all be tri-branded, with the last uni-branded event being No Way Out (2007) and the first tri-branded event being Backlash (2007) (after WrestleMania 23).[7] The brand-exclusive events were:

Pay-per-view Brand Years Note
New Year's Revolution RAW 2005-2007
Backlash RAW 2004-2006
Bad Blood RAW 2003-2004
Vengeance[8] RAW 2004-2006 In 2003, Vengeance was a SmackDown!-exclusive event.[9]
Unforgiven RAW 2003-2006
Cyber Sunday RAW 2004-2006 From 2004-2005, the event was promoted under the name Taboo Tuesday.[10][11][12]
Armageddon SmackDown! 2004-2006 In 2003, Armageddon was a Raw-exclusive event.[13]
No Way Out SmackDown! 2004-2007
Judgment Day SmackDown! 2004-2006
The Great American Bash SmackDown! 2004-2006
No Mercy SmackDown! 2003-2006
December to Dismember ECW 2006 Was the only ECW exclusive pay-per-view.[14]

Upcoming pay-per-view schedule

Date[15] Event Venue and City[16]
October 26, 2008 Cyber Sunday US Airways Center Phoenix, Arizona
November 23, 2008 Survivor Series TD Banknorth Garden Boston, Massachusetts
December 14, 2008 Armageddon HSBC Arena Buffalo, New York
January 25, 2009 Royal Rumble Joe Louis Arena Detroit, Michigan
February 15, 2009 No Way Out KeyArena at Seattle Center Seattle, Washington
April 5, 2009 WrestleMania XXV Reliant Stadium Houston, Texas
April 26, 2009 Backlash Dunkin' Donuts Center Providence, Rhode Island[17]
May 17, 2009 Judgment Day Air Canada Centre Toronto, Ontario
June 7, 2009 One Night Stand TBA TBA
June 28, 2009 Night of Champions TBA TBA
July 26, 2009 The Great American Bash TBA TBA
August 23, 2009 SummerSlam TBA TBA
September 13, 2009 Unforgiven TBA TBA

Non-pay-per-view supercards

Supercard Year(s) Active Note
Saturday Night's Main Event 1985-1991, 2006-present The show was revived in 2006.[18]
The Main Event 1988-1991 Was a spin-off of Saturday Night's Main Event.

See also

References

  1. ^ "WWE Corporate 2003 Quarter 1 Issues". WWE Corporate. 2003-08-13. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  2. ^ "WWE Corporate 2003 Quarter 2". WWE Corporate. 2003-11-17. Retrieved 2007-12-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Survivor Series 1989 Venue history". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  4. ^ Cohen, Eric. "The History of Survivor Series". About.com. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  5. ^ "Royal Rumble History". Bella. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  6. ^ "Summerslam Venue 1988 Venue History". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  7. ^ "WWE Pay-Per-Views to follow WrestleMania formula". WWE Corporate. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  8. ^ WWE: Schedules > Live Events > Event Detail > WWE presents Night of Champions - June 29, 2008
  9. ^ "Vengeance 2003 Homepage". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  10. ^ "Cyber Sunday All time results". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  11. ^ "Taboo Tuesday 2004 Results". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  12. ^ "Taboo Tuesday 2005 Homepage". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  13. ^ "WWE Armageddon 2003 Homepage". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  14. ^ "December to Dismember 2006 Homepage". WWE. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  15. ^ Scherer, Dave (2008-08-23). "2009 WWE PPV DATES ANNOUNCED". PWInsider.com. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
  16. ^ "Greatest Moments in Pay-Per-View History". WWE Magazine: 64–65. 2007. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  17. ^ 411mania.com: Wrestling - WWE News: Backlash 2009 Location, SD Rating, Press Release
  18. ^ "WWE returns to NBC with Saturday Night's Main Event". WWE Corporate. 2006-02-22. Retrieved 2007-12-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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