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World Wrestling Entertainment

2018-08-20T23:47:48Z

NF: /* Raw */

'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.

[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].

Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:

*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref>

==History==
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP).

The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.

Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.

Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.

Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.

In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.

From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.

In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.

On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming and library programming from the Capitol/WWWF/WWF eras and acquired shows from JCP, the AWA, Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling and other promotions whose program archives were acquired by WWE. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.

On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.

==Going Public==
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, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.

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 American 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 broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref>

In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref>

In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref>

Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.

Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref>

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref>

The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.

The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.

On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.

==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
* [[Royal Rumble]]
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
* [[WrestleMania]] 34
* Backlash (''Raw'')
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')
* Money in the Bank
* Battleground (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
* [[SummerSlam]]
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles
* [[Survivor Series]]
* Clash of Champions

== Current championships and accomplishments ==
==== Raw ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Universal Championship
| Roman Reigns
| August 19, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Women's Championship
| Ronda Rousey
| August 19, 2018
|-
| WWE Intercontiental Championship
| Seth Rollins
| August 19, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
| The B-Team
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship
| Cedric Alexander
| April 8, 2018
|}

====SmackDown====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Championship
| AJ Styles
| November 7, 2017
|-
| WWE United States Championship
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
| Charlotte Flair
| August 19, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
| The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
| April 8, 2018
|}

====NXT====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| NXT Championship
| Tommaso Ciampa
| July 18, 2018
|-
| NXT North American Championship
| Adam Cole
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Women's Championship
| Shayna Baszler
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Tag Team Championship
| The Undisputed Era
(Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong)
| June 21, 2018
|-
| WWE United Kingdom Championship
| Pete Dunne
| May 20, 2017
|}

==== Accomplishments ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Accomplishment
! Latest Winner
! Date Won
|-
| Royal Rumble (Men)
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Royal Rumble (Women)
| Asuka
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Men)
| Braun Strowman
| June 17, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Women)
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
| Matt Hardy
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
| Naomi
| April 8, 2018
|-
| Cruiserweight Classic
| T.J. Perkins
| September 14, 2016
|-
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
| The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly)
| April 7, 2018
|-
| Mae Young Classic
| Kairi Sane
| September 12, 2017
|-
| Mixed Match Challenge
| The Miz and Asuka
| April 3, 2018
|-
|}

===Defunct championships===
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)

===Defunct accomplishments===
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]

[[Category:Wrestling]]
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]

World Wrestling Entertainment

2018-08-20T01:49:19Z

NF:

'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.

[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].

Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:

*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref>

==History==
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP).

The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.

Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.

Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.

Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.

In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.

From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.

In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.

On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming and library programming from the Capitol/WWWF/WWF eras and acquired shows from JCP, the AWA, Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling and other promotions whose program archives were acquired by WWE. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.

On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.

==Going Public==
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, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.

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 American 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 broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref>

In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref>

In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref>

Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.

Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref>

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref>

The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.

The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.

On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.

==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
* [[Royal Rumble]]
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
* [[WrestleMania]] 34
* Backlash (''Raw'')
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')
* Money in the Bank
* Battleground (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
* [[SummerSlam]]
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles
* [[Survivor Series]]
* Clash of Champions

== Current championships and accomplishments ==
==== Raw ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Universal Championship
| Brock Lesnar
| April 2, 2017
|-
| WWE Raw Women's Championship
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| WWE Intercontiental Championship
| Seth Rollins
| August 19, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
| The B-Team
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship
| Cedric Alexander
| April 8, 2018
|}

====SmackDown====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Championship
| AJ Styles
| November 7, 2017
|-
| WWE United States Championship
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
| Charlotte Flair
| August 19, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
| The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
| April 8, 2018
|}

====NXT====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| NXT Championship
| Tommaso Ciampa
| July 18, 2018
|-
| NXT North American Championship
| Adam Cole
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Women's Championship
| Shayna Baszler
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Tag Team Championship
| The Undisputed Era
(Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong)
| June 21, 2018
|-
| WWE United Kingdom Championship
| Pete Dunne
| May 20, 2017
|}

==== Accomplishments ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Accomplishment
! Latest Winner
! Date Won
|-
| Royal Rumble (Men)
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Royal Rumble (Women)
| Asuka
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Men)
| Braun Strowman
| June 17, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Women)
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
| Matt Hardy
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
| Naomi
| April 8, 2018
|-
| Cruiserweight Classic
| T.J. Perkins
| September 14, 2016
|-
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
| The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly)
| April 7, 2018
|-
| Mae Young Classic
| Kairi Sane
| September 12, 2017
|-
| Mixed Match Challenge
| The Miz and Asuka
| April 3, 2018
|-
|}

===Defunct championships===
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)

===Defunct accomplishments===
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]

[[Category:Wrestling]]
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]

LeBron James

2018-08-15T06:15:06Z

NF: /* Achievements */

'''LeBron James''', nicknamed "King James", is a forward in the [[National Basketball Association]]. He was the scoring champion of the 2007-08 season, a 4-time NBA MVP, and a three-time NBA champion with the Miami Heat (twice) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (once). Until July 2010, James played for the [[Cleveland Cavaliers]] after being drafted by them in 2003. As a 2010 [[Free Agent]], LeBron James signed a contract with the [[Miami Heat]].<ref>[http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/07/08/general-bkn-lebron-apos-s-decision_7753495.html#feed=conservapedia LeBron James makes his pick: He's going to Miami], ''Forbes'', July 08, 2010.</ref> James has made the NBA All-Star Team every year of his professional career.

LeBron showed his tremendous character in 2014 by returning from Miami to play again for Cleveland, despite all the nasty things said about him when he left four years earlier. Pro-family and pro-community, LeBron said that he wanted to bring a championship to Cleveland, which has not had one in a major sport in a half-century.

James accomplished his goal in his second season after returning to Cleveland, leading the Cavaliers to a championship in the NBA Finals by upsetting the Golden State Warriors, who set a record for wins (73) during the regular season.

==Achievements==
2001 Ohio Mr. Basketball

2002 Ohio Mr. Basketball

2002 USA Today High School Player of the Year

2003 Ohio Mr. Basketball

2003 USA Today High School Player of the Year

2004 NBA Rookie of the Year

Bronze Medal in 2004 Summer Olympics

Gold Medal in 2008 Summer Olympics

2009 NBA MVP

2010 NBA MVP

2012 NBA MVP

2012 NBA Champion

2012 Finals MVP

2013 NBA MVP

2013 NBA Champion

2013 Finals MVP

2016 NBA Champion

2016 Finals MVP

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==

*[http://www.nba.com/playerfile/lebron_james/ NBA Profile]

[[Category:Basketball Players]]
[[Category:Olympic Athletes]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:James, LeBron}}

Overrated Sports Stars

2018-08-15T06:10:06Z

NF:

[[File:Peyton Manning.jpg|thumb|Peyton Manning]]
The [[lamestream media]] like to promote athletes based not on skill, but for [[liberal]] reasons. Here are the most overrated sports stars (none are among the [[Essay:Greatest Conservative Sports Stars|Greatest Conservative Sports Stars]]).<ref>This list includes 25% of those on [[liberal]] [[ESPN]]'s list of the top 20 athletes of the last 20 years: [http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/03/20/espn-ranks-peyton-manning-no-4-tom-brady-no-20-in-its-top-20-athletes-list/]</ref> Three on this list—Lance Armstrong, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods—have been punished for cheating.

#[[Andre Agassi]] — his rival [[Pete Sampras]] was far better,<ref>Sampras defeated Agassi four out of the five times they met in Grand Slam finals. Overall, Sampras won 20 out of his 34 matches against Agassi. [http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/295861.html]</ref> but Sampras is [[conservative]]. Agassi is a big donor to [[Democrat]] politicians.
#[[Lance Armstrong]] — favored by the [[liberal media]] because he publicly denied belief in [[God]], he pulled off perhaps the biggest scam in the history of sports by "winning" the [[Tour-de-France]] seven times with what has been described as [http://cyclinginvestigation.usada.org/# "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."] See also: [[Irreligion and unsportsmanlike conduct]]
#[[David Beckham]] — retired early to the American MLS league and then became a benchwarmer in the French League. His own [[British]] [[2012 Summer Olympics]] team did not even want him; his real skill seems to be in catering to the [[liberal media]].
#[[Tom Brady]] — probably the biggest sissy ever to play in the NFL, Brady gives up yardage rather than be tackled, and even ducks playing in Pro Bowl games.<ref>https://sports.yahoo.com/tom-brady-pro-bowl-experience-112236350.html</ref> On any team other than the Patriots, which is built around his weaknesses, Brady has played relatively poorly, such as when he did play in Pro Bowl games. He apparently required team staff to cheat by underinflating footballs for him for years, until finally caught in the 2015 AFC Championship game and suspended at length for it.<ref>Brady refused to apologize for his cheating and instead destroyed evidence.</ref> Brady has a relatively weak throwing arm, zero running speed, and requires tremendous pass protection to play well. The [[liberal media]] covers for him because his [[liberal]], foreign-born wife is [[Anti-Trump]] and bosses Brady around.
#[[Kobe Bryant]] — was an overhyped bust at the [[2012 Summer Olympics]]; didn't won a single title without super-coaching by Phil Jackson, who observed that Bryant is not on the high level of [[Michael Jordan]]; Bryant's Lakers were pathetic in 2012-2013 while he was playing.
#Jason Collins — saw constant media coverage over him for being a homosexual even though he isn't even that good at basketball.
#Jim Harbaugh — out-coached to lose the [[Super Bowl]] in 2013, Harbaugh was next paid a massive multimillion-dollar contract to coach in college, where he led his Michigan team to a pathetically weak 5-2 start, yet the media continue to promote him with absurd stories like "5 Ways Jim Harbaugh Inspires His Team."<ref>[http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2015/10/24/5-ways-jim-harbaugh-inspires-his-team/ Forbes story]</ref>
#[[LeBron James]] — over-promoted by the media to an absurd extent. [[LeBron James]] is arguably the current best NBA player but overrated compared to outspoken Christian star [[Steph Curry]] and another Christian star, [[Kevin Durant]]. LeBron has sometimes even underachieved in key playoff games. He helped Miami win two titles and helped Cleveland win a come-from-behind title in 2016, but again received absurd over-hype, such as the media claiming he is "superhuman". In Finals appearances he is a mere 3-5 (even if he were to appear in and win the next two titles, he would be far behind Bill Russell, who appeared in 10 consecutive Finals and won nine of those, en route to 11 titles in 12 overall Finals appearances).
#[[Magic Johnson]] — lucky enough to play on [[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]]'s Lakers to win some titles, but was crushed by [[Michael Jordan]] and the Bulls; no problem, Magic was a critic of President [[George H.W. Bush]], which thrilled liberals.
#*People look at him, and say, 'Hey, it's OK to get HIV because I'm living with it.' That is the wrong message. [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500202_162-57319698/20-years-since-magic-johnsons-hiv-stunner/]
#Colin Kaepernick — Quarterback Alex Smith did most of the dirty work giving the 49ers a good enough record to make it to the playoffs after Smith was injured Kaepernick was named the starter, but they lost the Super Bowl. Following Smith's release, the 49ers have struggled while Smith's new team, The Kansas City Chiefs have done well. Liberals protect him because he is likely a [[communist]].<ref>http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NFL/2016/11/27/Colin-Kaepernick-praises-good-things-done-by-communist-Fidel-Castro/9581480294777/</ref>
#Ryan Lochte — has not won an individual [[Olympic]] medal in 6 years, but still grabs headlines for bad behavior. Suspended twice, first for tainting the 2016 Summer Olympics by disparaging its host with his false allegations about having been supposedly stopped in a taxicab and robbed at gunpoint when in fact he had vandalized a local gas station, and then in 2018 for violating a ban against intravenous infusions. Even his friendly fellow swimmers "expressed no sympathy for his situation" after his second suspension.<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/martin-rogers/2018/07/24/ryan-lochte-case-doesnt-bring-sympathy-fellow-swimmers/830312002/</ref>
#[[Peyton Manning]] — a [[quarterback]] who won only two [[NFL]] championships in 17 seasons, on teams that carried him to victory with overpowering defenses; the media unjustifiably hyped Manning as one of the best ever and gave him numerous regular season honors. The [[liberal media]] treated him like the Second Coming of [[Christ]] in order to oust [[conservative]] [[Tim Tebow]] from his leadership position in the [[swing state]] of [[Colorado]] prior to the [[Presidential Election 2012]]. After replacing Tebow, Manning eventually caused a humiliatingly early exit for the Broncos from the 2013 playoffs by throwing two big interceptions and was even worse in a humiliating [[Super Bowl]] loss in 2014 and a first-round playoff loss in 2015. Called "a choke artist in the playoffs" for his many upset losses in the big games.<ref>http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1482869-denver-broncos-is-peyton-manning-a-playoff-choke-artist</ref>
#[[Steve Nash]] — an [http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2009/3/25/809516/steve-nash-on-media-bias-t outspoken liberal who supported Obama], Nash was chosen ''twice'' by the [[lamestream media]] as the [[NBA]] MVP despite never leading his team to even an NBA Finals. Even worse, the former coach of Nash was then hired by the Lakers in late 2012, rather than a far better coach who was available.
#[[Danica Patrick]] - won only a single race in the Indy Car series, and never won a race in either the NASCAR Sprint Cup or Nationwide series, finishing no higher than fourth, although ESPN promoted her first and foremost when showing highlights of the NASCAR races in which she participated. The [[lamestream media]] adores her for her participation in controversial GoDaddy television advertisements.[[File:C Ronaldo.jpg|thumb|200px|Cristiano Ronaldo.]]
#[[Ben Roethlisberger]] - he only won the Super Bowl twice, which isn't that many times, considering the team he's on has won six Super Bowl rings. Despite this, there is more hype about him then there really needs to be, in similar ways to Tom Brady.
#[[Cristiano Ronaldo]] - his spectacular talents have been ruined by his self-obsession, vanity, and cravings of celebrity. He is now officially "sad", despite being one of the luckiest men alive. His [[Portugal]] team was eliminated by [[Uruguay]] from the [[World Cup]] 2018, and Ronaldo's behavior towards officials was so disgraceful that it marred the tournament, as captured by photos.<ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5907073/We-wont-miss-behave-like-Cristiano-Ronaldo.html</ref>
#Wayne Rooney - burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old and called "The English [[Pele|Pelé]]." 10 years on and he has still failed to fulfill his potential, especially at international level, and still behaves like a childish and immature 16-year-old.
#Ronda Rousey — A bully and a jerk. She threatened to beat up Justin Bieber (who has absolutely no martial arts experience) over childish nonsense. She's only really famous because of her sex appeal & supporting [[Bernie Sanders]].<ref>http://www.maxim.com/entertainment/ronda-rousey-bernie-sanders-president-2015-11</ref> Ironically she was beaten by Holly Holm (who is supporting Trump<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/celebrities-who-support-donald-trump/16/</ref> and has predictably not received any media attention<ref>However, Holm is not helped by the lack of female MMA name fighters; the only one of note -- Cyborg -- has routinely tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.</ref>).
#Michael Sam — was heavily promoted by the media for being a homosexual despite not being a first-round draft pick and getting cut from the Rams before the start of the season.
#Mark Sanchez — while playing quarterback for the [[New York Jets]] he was touted as the team's best QB over [[conservative]] [[Christian]] [[Tim Tebow]], despite Sanchez falling apart at the end of the 2011–12 season and continuing to perform poorly in the 2012-2013 season. When Tebow came to the Jets, [[liberals]] championed the former [[USC]] star Sanchez as the superior player despite his mediocre play throughout his career. As a result, Tebow was forced out of the Jets team and released at the end of the 2012-13 season.
#Ndamukong Suh - he intentionally hurts various NFL players so that they may not play football ever again. He also really isn't near as good as people hype him up to be, considering two out of the three seasons he was with the [[Miami Dolphins]], they went 6-10. He also only made the playoffs two out of the five seasons with the [[Detroit Lions]].
#[[Tiger Woods]] — hasn't won a major golf tournament in more than a decade, and yet he's still the only one liberals want to promote while reporting on tournaments - even when he's not even playing, as in the 2014 [[Masters]]. Woods has had a string of bizarre, unexplained injuries not typical among professional golfers. Masters' winner Sergio Garcia responded to criticism of him in the media by Tiger Woods by saying that is "probably the first thing he's told you guys that's true in 15 years."<ref>http://www.businessinsider.com/sergio-tiger-woods-lying-2013-5</ref> Woods turned in an improper score card during the 2013 Masters (not taking his penalty for an illegal drop), for which a player would ordinarily be disqualified but apparently favoritism for Woods avoided the DQ.<ref>https://deadspin.com/tiger-woods-avoids-disqualification-from-the-masters-fo-472775923</ref>

{{Clear}}
== See also ==

*[[Underrated Sports Stars]]
*[[Irreligion and unsportsmanlike conduct]]
*[[Conservapedia proven right]]
*[http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/pro-football-nfl-hall-of-fame-who-doesnt-belong-worst-troy-aikman-canton "Troy Aikman and 16 others who don't belong in the Hall of Fame"]
*[[Amanda Beard]]

== References ==

<references/>
[[Category:Sports]]

Overrated Sports Stars

2018-08-15T06:06:45Z

NF:

[[File:Peyton Manning.jpg|thumb|Peyton Manning]]
The [[lamestream media]] like to promote athletes based not on skill, but for [[liberal]] reasons. Here are the most overrated sports stars (none are among the [[Essay:Greatest Conservative Sports Stars|Greatest Conservative Sports Stars]]).<ref>This list includes 25% of those on [[liberal]] [[ESPN]]'s list of the top 20 athletes of the last 20 years: [http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/03/20/espn-ranks-peyton-manning-no-4-tom-brady-no-20-in-its-top-20-athletes-list/]</ref> Three on this list—Lance Armstrong, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods—have been punished for cheating.

#[[Andre Agassi]] — his rival [[Pete Sampras]] was far better,<ref>Sampras defeated Agassi four out of the five times they met in Grand Slam finals. Overall, Sampras won 20 out of his 34 matches against Agassi. [http://www.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/295861.html]</ref> but Sampras is [[conservative]]. Agassi is a big donor to [[Democrat]] politicians.
#[[Lance Armstrong]] — favored by the [[liberal media]] because he publicly denied belief in [[God]], he pulled off perhaps the biggest scam in the history of sports by "winning" the [[Tour-de-France]] seven times with what has been described as [http://cyclinginvestigation.usada.org/# "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."] See also: [[Irreligion and unsportsmanlike conduct]]
#[[David Beckham]] — retired early to the American MLS league and then became a benchwarmer in the French League. His own [[British]] [[2012 Summer Olympics]] team did not even want him; his real skill seems to be in catering to the [[liberal media]].
#[[Tom Brady]] — probably the biggest sissy ever to play in the NFL, Brady gives up yardage rather than be tackled, and even ducks playing in Pro Bowl games.<ref>https://sports.yahoo.com/tom-brady-pro-bowl-experience-112236350.html</ref> On any team other than the Patriots, which is built around his weaknesses, Brady has played relatively poorly, such as when he did play in Pro Bowl games. He apparently required team staff to cheat by underinflating footballs for him for years, until finally caught in the 2015 AFC Championship game and suspended at length for it.<ref>Brady refused to apologize for his cheating and instead destroyed evidence.</ref> Brady has a relatively weak throwing arm, zero running speed, and requires tremendous pass protection to play well. The [[liberal media]] covers for him because his [[liberal]], foreign-born wife is [[Anti-Trump]] and bosses Brady around.
#[[Kobe Bryant]] — was an overhyped bust at the [[2012 Summer Olympics]]; didn't won a single title without super-coaching by Phil Jackson, who observed that Bryant is not on the high level of [[Michael Jordan]]; Bryant's Lakers were pathetic in 2012-2013 while he was playing.
#Jason Collins — saw constant media coverage over him for being a homosexual even though he isn't even that good at basketball.
#Jim Harbaugh — out-coached to lose the [[Super Bowl]] in 2013, Harbaugh was next paid a massive multimillion-dollar contract to coach in college, where he led his Michigan team to a pathetically weak 5-2 start, yet the media continue to promote him with absurd stories like "5 Ways Jim Harbaugh Inspires His Team."<ref>[http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2015/10/24/5-ways-jim-harbaugh-inspires-his-team/ Forbes story]</ref>
#[[LeBron James]] — over-promoted by the media to an absurd extent. [[LeBron]] is arguably the current best NBA player but overrated compared to outspoken Christian star [[Steph Curry]] and another Christian star, [[Kevin Durant]]. LeBron has sometimes even underachieved in key playoff games. He helped Miami win two titles and helped Cleveland win a come-from-behind title in 2016, but again received absurd over-hype, such as the media claiming he is "superhuman". In Finals appearances he is a mere 3-5 (even if he were to appear in and win the next two titles, he would be far behind Bill Russell, who appeared in 10 consecutive Finals and won nine of those, en route to 11 titles in 12 overall Finals appearances).
#[[Magic Johnson]] — lucky enough to play on [[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]]'s Lakers to win some titles, but was crushed by [[Michael Jordan]] and the Bulls; no problem, Magic was a critic of President [[George H.W. Bush]], which thrilled liberals.
#*People look at him, and say, 'Hey, it's OK to get HIV because I'm living with it.' That is the wrong message. [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500202_162-57319698/20-years-since-magic-johnsons-hiv-stunner/]
#Colin Kaepernick — Quarterback Alex Smith did most of the dirty work giving the 49ers a good enough record to make it to the playoffs after Smith was injured Kaepernick was named the starter, but they lost the Super Bowl. Following Smith's release, the 49ers have struggled while Smith's new team, The Kansas City Chiefs have done well. Liberals protect him because he is likely a [[communist]].<ref>http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NFL/2016/11/27/Colin-Kaepernick-praises-good-things-done-by-communist-Fidel-Castro/9581480294777/</ref>
#Ryan Lochte — has not won an individual [[Olympic]] medal in 6 years, but still grabs headlines for bad behavior. Suspended twice, first for tainting the 2016 Summer Olympics by disparaging its host with his false allegations about having been supposedly stopped in a taxicab and robbed at gunpoint when in fact he had vandalized a local gas station, and then in 2018 for violating a ban against intravenous infusions. Even his friendly fellow swimmers "expressed no sympathy for his situation" after his second suspension.<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/martin-rogers/2018/07/24/ryan-lochte-case-doesnt-bring-sympathy-fellow-swimmers/830312002/</ref>
#[[Peyton Manning]] — a [[quarterback]] who won only two [[NFL]] championships in 17 seasons, on teams that carried him to victory with overpowering defenses; the media unjustifiably hyped Manning as one of the best ever and gave him numerous regular season honors. The [[liberal media]] treated him like the Second Coming of [[Christ]] in order to oust [[conservative]] [[Tim Tebow]] from his leadership position in the [[swing state]] of [[Colorado]] prior to the [[Presidential Election 2012]]. After replacing Tebow, Manning eventually caused a humiliatingly early exit for the Broncos from the 2013 playoffs by throwing two big interceptions and was even worse in a humiliating [[Super Bowl]] loss in 2014 and a first-round playoff loss in 2015. Called "a choke artist in the playoffs" for his many upset losses in the big games.<ref>http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1482869-denver-broncos-is-peyton-manning-a-playoff-choke-artist</ref>
#[[Steve Nash]] — an [http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2009/3/25/809516/steve-nash-on-media-bias-t outspoken liberal who supported Obama], Nash was chosen ''twice'' by the [[lamestream media]] as the [[NBA]] MVP despite never leading his team to even an NBA Finals. Even worse, the former coach of Nash was then hired by the Lakers in late 2012, rather than a far better coach who was available.
#[[Danica Patrick]] - won only a single race in the Indy Car series, and never won a race in either the NASCAR Sprint Cup or Nationwide series, finishing no higher than fourth, although ESPN promoted her first and foremost when showing highlights of the NASCAR races in which she participated. The [[lamestream media]] adores her for her participation in controversial GoDaddy television advertisements.[[File:C Ronaldo.jpg|thumb|200px|Cristiano Ronaldo.]]
#[[Ben Roethlisberger]] - he only won the Super Bowl twice, which isn't that many times, considering the team he's on has won six Super Bowl rings. Despite this, there is more hype about him then there really needs to be, in similar ways to Tom Brady.
#[[Cristiano Ronaldo]] - his spectacular talents have been ruined by his self-obsession, vanity, and cravings of celebrity. He is now officially "sad", despite being one of the luckiest men alive. His [[Portugal]] team was eliminated by [[Uruguay]] from the [[World Cup]] 2018, and Ronaldo's behavior towards officials was so disgraceful that it marred the tournament, as captured by photos.<ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5907073/We-wont-miss-behave-like-Cristiano-Ronaldo.html</ref>
#Wayne Rooney - burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old and called "The English [[Pele|Pelé]]." 10 years on and he has still failed to fulfill his potential, especially at international level, and still behaves like a childish and immature 16-year-old.
#Ronda Rousey — A bully and a jerk. She threatened to beat up Justin Bieber (who has absolutely no martial arts experience) over childish nonsense. She's only really famous because of her sex appeal & supporting [[Bernie Sanders]].<ref>http://www.maxim.com/entertainment/ronda-rousey-bernie-sanders-president-2015-11</ref> Ironically she was beaten by Holly Holm (who is supporting Trump<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/celebrities-who-support-donald-trump/16/</ref> and has predictably not received any media attention<ref>However, Holm is not helped by the lack of female MMA name fighters; the only one of note -- Cyborg -- has routinely tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.</ref>).
#Michael Sam — was heavily promoted by the media for being a homosexual despite not being a first-round draft pick and getting cut from the Rams before the start of the season.
#Mark Sanchez — while playing quarterback for the [[New York Jets]] he was touted as the team's best QB over [[conservative]] [[Christian]] [[Tim Tebow]], despite Sanchez falling apart at the end of the 2011–12 season and continuing to perform poorly in the 2012-2013 season. When Tebow came to the Jets, [[liberals]] championed the former [[USC]] star Sanchez as the superior player despite his mediocre play throughout his career. As a result, Tebow was forced out of the Jets team and released at the end of the 2012-13 season.
#Ndamukong Suh - he intentionally hurts various NFL players so that they may not play football ever again. He also really isn't near as good as people hype him up to be, considering two out of the three seasons he was with the [[Miami Dolphins]], they went 6-10. He also only made the playoffs two out of the five seasons with the [[Detroit Lions]].
#[[Tiger Woods]] — hasn't won a major golf tournament in more than a decade, and yet he's still the only one liberals want to promote while reporting on tournaments - even when he's not even playing, as in the 2014 [[Masters]]. Woods has had a string of bizarre, unexplained injuries not typical among professional golfers. Masters' winner Sergio Garcia responded to criticism of him in the media by Tiger Woods by saying that is "probably the first thing he's told you guys that's true in 15 years."<ref>http://www.businessinsider.com/sergio-tiger-woods-lying-2013-5</ref> Woods turned in an improper score card during the 2013 Masters (not taking his penalty for an illegal drop), for which a player would ordinarily be disqualified but apparently favoritism for Woods avoided the DQ.<ref>https://deadspin.com/tiger-woods-avoids-disqualification-from-the-masters-fo-472775923</ref>

{{Clear}}
== See also ==

*[[Underrated Sports Stars]]
*[[Irreligion and unsportsmanlike conduct]]
*[[Conservapedia proven right]]
*[http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/pro-football-nfl-hall-of-fame-who-doesnt-belong-worst-troy-aikman-canton "Troy Aikman and 16 others who don't belong in the Hall of Fame"]
*[[Amanda Beard]]

== References ==

<references/>
[[Category:Sports]]

Professional wrestling

2018-08-15T05:55:55Z

NF:

'''Professional wrestling''' is a [[violence|violent]] form of [[entertainment]], in which entertainers appear to be having an athletic contest. In actuality, they are performing a script, and the bout nearly always reaches an agreed-upon outcome. It is not a real contest in the manner of [[sport]]s such as [[boxing]] or amateur [[wrestling]], but many bouts take a gruelling toll on the participants' bodies nonetheless.

For most of the twentieth century, professional wrestling was portrayed to the viewing public as 'real', often despite featuring laughably outlandish characters and obvious fakery; in this form it could at one point be seen as [[deceit]]ful and thus previously inconsistent with [[Christian]] [[values]]. However, in the present day the overwhelming majority of fans are 'in' on the secret, but still watch in appreciation of the entertainment value, athletic prowess and sometimes [[humor]] on display. Since professional wrestling is usually more admitting of being scripted now, it is more consistent with [[Christian]] [[values]].
==History==

Professional wrestling got its start on the county fair circuits, where collegiate wrestlers used to put on fights for paying audiences. Eventually, the trade began to develop into a profitable business. With stars now worth millions of dollars, the violence and danger was slowly replaced with theatrical combat, allowing wrestlers to appear multiple times a day and perform several times a week without suffering serious injury.

In the 21st century, the sport divided into traditional wrestling, which imposed certain rules regarding the use of closed fists and elbows and, [[mixed martial arts]] (MMA), which was a form of "no holds barred" wrestling combined with boxing and kick boxing. Both forms are regulated by the same state commissions. However, the public assumes that MMA matches are not fake. MMA is broadcast on the [[Fox Network]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2012/12/ufc-on-fox-5-ratings-overnight-numbers-show-3-41-million-viewers|title=UFC on FOX 5 ratings: Overnight numbers show 3.41 million viewers|date=December 9, 2012|accessdate=December 29, 2012}}</ref> while professional wrestling is broadcast on [[NBC]] and [[ION Television]]. The largest professional wrestling promotion has been the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). WWE has sought respectibility since 2003 by sponsoring an annual "Tribute to the Troop" performance at a military base which is also broadcast on television. Mainstream media figures, such as [[Katie Couric]], the Muppets,<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/tributetothetroops/2012/the-muppets-hang-out-with-superstars-and-divas-photos</ref> and President Obama<ref>http://www.wwe.com/videos/president-obama-addresses-the-wwe-universe-26078867</ref> made cameo appearances on the 2012 show to lend credibility to what would otherwise appear to be fake performances. Conservative Governor [[Robert McDonnell]] also appeared on the program but distanced himself by telling the troops "to laugh with the WWE."<ref>http://www.wwe.com/videos/virginia-governor-bob-mcdonnell-talks-about-the-troops-26077001</ref>
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:Sports]]

World Wrestling Entertainment

2018-08-15T05:49:05Z

NF: Updated Money in the Bank winners

'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.

[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].

Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:

*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref>

==History==
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP).

The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.

Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.

Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.

Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.

In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.

From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.

In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.

On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming and library programming from the Capitol/WWWF/WWF eras and acquired shows from JCP, the AWA, Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling and other promotions whose program archives were acquired by WWE. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.

On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.

==Going Public==
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, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.

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 American 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 broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref>

In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref>

In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref>

Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.

Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref>

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref>

The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.

The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.

On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.

==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
* [[Royal Rumble]]
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
* [[WrestleMania]] 34
* Backlash (''Raw'')
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')
* Money in the Bank
* Battleground (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
* [[SummerSlam]]
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles
* [[Survivor Series]]
* Clash of Champions

== Current championships and accomplishments ==
==== Raw ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Universal Championship
| Brock Lesnar
| April 2, 2017
|-
| WWE Raw Women's Championship
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| WWE Intercontiental Championship
| Dolph Ziggler
| June 18, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
| The B-Team
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship
| Cedric Alexander
| April 8, 2018
|}

====SmackDown====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Championship
| AJ Styles
| November 7, 2017
|-
| WWE United States Championship
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
| Carmella
| April 10, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
| The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
| April 8, 2018
|}

====NXT====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| NXT Championship
| Tommaso Ciampa
| July 18, 2018
|-
| NXT North American Championship
| Adam Cole
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Women's Championship
| Shayna Baszler
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Tag Team Championship
| The Undisputed Era
(Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong)
| June 21, 2018
|-
| WWE United Kingdom Championship
| Pete Dunne
| May 20, 2017
|}

==== Accomplishments ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Accomplishment
! Latest Winner
! Date Won
|-
| Royal Rumble (Men)
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Royal Rumble (Women)
| Asuka
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Men)
| Braun Strowman
| June 17, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Women)
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
| Matt Hardy
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
| Naomi
| April 8, 2018
|-
| Cruiserweight Classic
| T.J. Perkins
| September 14, 2016
|-
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
| The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly)
| April 7, 2018
|-
| Mae Young Classic
| Kairi Sane
| September 12, 2017
|-
| Mixed Match Challenge
| The Miz and Asuka
| April 3, 2018
|-
|}

===Defunct championships===
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)

===Defunct accomplishments===
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]

[[Category:Wrestling]]
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]

World Wrestling Entertainment

2018-08-15T05:42:32Z

NF: Updated NXT Champion and NXT Tag Team Champions

'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.

[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].

Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:

*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref>

==History==
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP).

The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.

Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.

Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.

Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.

In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.

From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.

In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.

On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming and library programming from the Capitol/WWWF/WWF eras and acquired shows from JCP, the AWA, Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling and other promotions whose program archives were acquired by WWE. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.

On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.

==Going Public==
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, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.

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 American 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 broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref>

In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref>

In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref>

Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.

Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref>

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref>

The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.

The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.

On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.

==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
* [[Royal Rumble]]
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
* [[WrestleMania]] 34
* Backlash (''Raw'')
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')
* Money in the Bank
* Battleground (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
* [[SummerSlam]]
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles
* [[Survivor Series]]
* Clash of Champions

== Current championships and accomplishments ==
==== Raw ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Universal Championship
| Brock Lesnar
| April 2, 2017
|-
| WWE Raw Women's Championship
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| WWE Intercontiental Championship
| Dolph Ziggler
| June 18, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
| The B-Team
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship
| Cedric Alexander
| April 8, 2018
|}

====SmackDown====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Championship
| AJ Styles
| November 7, 2017
|-
| WWE United States Championship
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
| Carmella
| April 10, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
| The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
| April 8, 2018
|}

====NXT====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| NXT Championship
| Tommaso Ciampa
| July 18, 2018
|-
| NXT North American Championship
| Adam Cole
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Women's Championship
| Shayna Baszler
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Tag Team Championship
| The Undisputed Era
(Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong)
| June 21, 2018
|-
| WWE United Kingdom Championship
| Pete Dunne
| May 20, 2017
|}

==== Accomplishments ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Accomplishment
! Latest Winner
! Date Won
|-
| Royal Rumble (Men)
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Royal Rumble (Women)
| Asuka
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Men)
| Baron Corbin
| June 18, 2017
|-
| Money in the Bank (Women)
| Carmella
| June 27, 2017
|-
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
| Matt Hardy
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
| Naomi
| April 8, 2018
|-
| Cruiserweight Classic
| T.J. Perkins
| September 14, 2016
|-
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
| The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly)
| April 7, 2018
|-
| Mae Young Classic
| Kairi Sane
| September 12, 2017
|-
| Mixed Match Challenge
| The Miz and Asuka
| April 3, 2018
|-
|}

===Defunct championships===
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)

===Defunct accomplishments===
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]

[[Category:Wrestling]]
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]

World Wrestling Entertainment

2018-08-15T05:24:17Z

NF: Updated United States Champion

'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.

[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].

Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:

*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref>

==History==
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP).

The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.

Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.

Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.

Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.

In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.

From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.

In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.

On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming and library programming from the Capitol/WWWF/WWF eras and acquired shows from JCP, the AWA, Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling and other promotions whose program archives were acquired by WWE. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.

On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.

==Going Public==
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, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.

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 American 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 broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref>

In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref>

In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref>

Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.

Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref>

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref>

The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.

The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.

On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.

==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
* [[Royal Rumble]]
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
* [[WrestleMania]] 34
* Backlash (''Raw'')
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')
* Money in the Bank
* Battleground (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
* [[SummerSlam]]
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles
* [[Survivor Series]]
* Clash of Champions

== Current championships and accomplishments ==
==== Raw ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Universal Championship
| Brock Lesnar
| April 2, 2017
|-
| WWE Raw Women's Championship
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| WWE Intercontiental Championship
| Dolph Ziggler
| June 18, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
| The B-Team
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship
| Cedric Alexander
| April 8, 2018
|}

====SmackDown====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Championship
| AJ Styles
| November 7, 2017
|-
| WWE United States Championship
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
| Carmella
| April 10, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
| The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
| April 8, 2018
|}

====NXT====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| NXT Championship
| Aleister Black
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT North American Championship
| Adam Cole
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Women's Championship
| Shayna Baszler
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Tag Team Championship
| The Undisputed Era
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)
| November 29, 2017
|-
| WWE United Kingdom Championship
| Pete Dunne
| May 20, 2017
|}

==== Accomplishments ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Accomplishment
! Latest Winner
! Date Won
|-
| Royal Rumble (Men)
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Royal Rumble (Women)
| Asuka
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Men)
| Baron Corbin
| June 18, 2017
|-
| Money in the Bank (Women)
| Carmella
| June 27, 2017
|-
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
| Matt Hardy
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
| Naomi
| April 8, 2018
|-
| Cruiserweight Classic
| T.J. Perkins
| September 14, 2016
|-
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
| The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly)
| April 7, 2018
|-
| Mae Young Classic
| Kairi Sane
| September 12, 2017
|-
| Mixed Match Challenge
| The Miz and Asuka
| April 3, 2018
|-
|}

===Defunct championships===
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)

===Defunct accomplishments===
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]

[[Category:Wrestling]]
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]

World Wrestling Entertainment

2018-08-15T05:21:55Z

NF: Updated Intercontiental Champion

'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.

[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].

Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:

*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref>

==History==
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP).

The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.

Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.

Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.

Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.

In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.

From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.

In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.

On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming and library programming from the Capitol/WWWF/WWF eras and acquired shows from JCP, the AWA, Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling and other promotions whose program archives were acquired by WWE. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.

On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.

==Going Public==
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, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.

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 American 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 broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref>

In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref>

In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref>

Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.

Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref>

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref>

The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.

The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.

On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.

==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
* [[Royal Rumble]]
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
* [[WrestleMania]] 34
* Backlash (''Raw'')
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')
* Money in the Bank
* Battleground (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
* [[SummerSlam]]
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles
* [[Survivor Series]]
* Clash of Champions

== Current championships and accomplishments ==
==== Raw ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Universal Championship
| Brock Lesnar
| April 2, 2017
|-
| WWE Raw Women's Championship
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| WWE Intercontiental Championship
| Dolph Ziggler
| June 18, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
| The B-Team
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship
| Cedric Alexander
| April 8, 2018
|}

====SmackDown====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Championship
| AJ Styles
| November 7, 2017
|-
| WWE United States Championship
| Jinder Mahal
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
| Carmella
| April 10, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
| The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
| April 8, 2018
|}

====NXT====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| NXT Championship
| Aleister Black
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT North American Championship
| Adam Cole
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Women's Championship
| Shayna Baszler
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Tag Team Championship
| The Undisputed Era
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)
| November 29, 2017
|-
| WWE United Kingdom Championship
| Pete Dunne
| May 20, 2017
|}

==== Accomplishments ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Accomplishment
! Latest Winner
! Date Won
|-
| Royal Rumble (Men)
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Royal Rumble (Women)
| Asuka
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Men)
| Baron Corbin
| June 18, 2017
|-
| Money in the Bank (Women)
| Carmella
| June 27, 2017
|-
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
| Matt Hardy
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
| Naomi
| April 8, 2018
|-
| Cruiserweight Classic
| T.J. Perkins
| September 14, 2016
|-
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
| The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly)
| April 7, 2018
|-
| Mae Young Classic
| Kairi Sane
| September 12, 2017
|-
| Mixed Match Challenge
| The Miz and Asuka
| April 3, 2018
|-
|}

===Defunct championships===
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)

===Defunct accomplishments===
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]

[[Category:Wrestling]]
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]

World Wrestling Entertainment

2018-08-14T19:23:01Z

NF: Updated the current Raw Tag Team Champions

'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.

[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].

Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:

*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref>

==History==
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP).

The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.

Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.

Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.

Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.

In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.

From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.

In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.

On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming and library programming from the Capitol/WWWF/WWF eras and acquired shows from JCP, the AWA, Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling and other promotions whose program archives were acquired by WWE. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.

On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.

==Going Public==
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, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.

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 American 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 broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref>

In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref>

In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref>

Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.

Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref>

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref>

The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.

The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.

On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.

==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
* [[Royal Rumble]]
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
* [[WrestleMania]] 34
* Backlash (''Raw'')
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')
* Money in the Bank
* Battleground (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
* [[SummerSlam]]
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles
* [[Survivor Series]]
* Clash of Champions

== Current championships and accomplishments ==
==== Raw ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Universal Championship
| Brock Lesnar
| April 2, 2017
|-
| WWE Raw Women's Championship
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| WWE Intercontiental Championship
| Seth Rollins
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
| The B-Team
| July 15, 2018
|-
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship
| Cedric Alexander
| April 8, 2018
|}

====SmackDown====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Championship
| AJ Styles
| November 7, 2017
|-
| WWE United States Championship
| Jinder Mahal
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
| Carmella
| April 10, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
| The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
| April 8, 2018
|}

====NXT====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| NXT Championship
| Aleister Black
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT North American Championship
| Adam Cole
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Women's Championship
| Shayna Baszler
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Tag Team Championship
| The Undisputed Era
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)
| November 29, 2017
|-
| WWE United Kingdom Championship
| Pete Dunne
| May 20, 2017
|}

==== Accomplishments ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Accomplishment
! Latest Winner
! Date Won
|-
| Royal Rumble (Men)
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Royal Rumble (Women)
| Asuka
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Men)
| Baron Corbin
| June 18, 2017
|-
| Money in the Bank (Women)
| Carmella
| June 27, 2017
|-
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
| Matt Hardy
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
| Naomi
| April 8, 2018
|-
| Cruiserweight Classic
| T.J. Perkins
| September 14, 2016
|-
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
| The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly)
| April 7, 2018
|-
| Mae Young Classic
| Kairi Sane
| September 12, 2017
|-
| Mixed Match Challenge
| The Miz and Asuka
| April 3, 2018
|-
|}

===Defunct championships===
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)

===Defunct accomplishments===
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]

[[Category:Wrestling]]
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]

World Wrestling Entertainment

2018-08-14T19:19:21Z

NF: Updated the current Raw Women's Champion

'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.

[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.

The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].

Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:

*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)

WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref>

==History==
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP).

The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.

Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.

Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.

Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.

In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.

From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.

In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.

On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming and library programming from the Capitol/WWWF/WWF eras and acquired shows from JCP, the AWA, Canadian promotion Stampede Wrestling and other promotions whose program archives were acquired by WWE. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.

On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.

==Going Public==
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, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.

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 American 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 broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref>

In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref>

In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref>

Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.

Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.

In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref>

On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref>

The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.

The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.

On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.

==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
* [[Royal Rumble]]
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
* [[WrestleMania]] 34
* Backlash (''Raw'')
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')
* Money in the Bank
* Battleground (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn
* [[SummerSlam]]
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles
* [[Survivor Series]]
* Clash of Champions

== Current championships and accomplishments ==
==== Raw ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Universal Championship
| Brock Lesnar
| April 2, 2017
|-
| WWE Raw Women's Championship
| Alexa Bliss
| June 17, 2018
|-
| WWE Intercontiental Championship
| Seth Rollins
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
| Vacant
| April 9, 2018
|-
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship
| Cedric Alexander
| April 8, 2018
|}

====SmackDown====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| WWE Championship
| AJ Styles
| November 7, 2017
|-
| WWE United States Championship
| Jinder Mahal
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
| Carmella
| April 10, 2018
|-
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
| The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
| April 8, 2018
|}

====NXT====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Championship
! Current Champion
! Date Won
|-
| NXT Championship
| Aleister Black
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT North American Championship
| Adam Cole
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Women's Championship
| Shayna Baszler
| April 7, 2018
|-
| NXT Tag Team Championship
| The Undisputed Era
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)
| November 29, 2017
|-
| WWE United Kingdom Championship
| Pete Dunne
| May 20, 2017
|}

==== Accomplishments ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Accomplishment
! Latest Winner
! Date Won
|-
| Royal Rumble (Men)
| Shinsuke Nakamura
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Royal Rumble (Women)
| Asuka
| January 28, 2018
|-
| Money in the Bank (Men)
| Baron Corbin
| June 18, 2017
|-
| Money in the Bank (Women)
| Carmella
| June 27, 2017
|-
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
| Matt Hardy
| April 8, 2018
|-
| WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
| Naomi
| April 8, 2018
|-
| Cruiserweight Classic
| T.J. Perkins
| September 14, 2016
|-
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
| The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly)
| April 7, 2018
|-
| Mae Young Classic
| Kairi Sane
| September 12, 2017
|-
| Mixed Match Challenge
| The Miz and Asuka
| April 3, 2018
|-
|}

===Defunct championships===
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985)
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)

===Defunct accomplishments===
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]

[[Category:Wrestling]]
[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]