List of WWE pay-per-view events

This is a chronological list of pay-per-views promoted by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Each month, WWE holds one or two annual pay-per-view events. One event is usually three hours long and features six to twelve matches. Pay-per-view events are a big part of the revenue stream for WWE. [cite web|url= http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2003/2003_08_25.jsp|accessdate=2007-12-01|title=WWE Corporate 2003 Quarter 1 Issues|publisher= WWE Corporate|date=2003-08-13] [cite web|url= http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2003/2003_11_17.2.jsp|accessdate=2007-12-01|title=WWE Corporate 2003 Quarter 2|publisher=WWE Corporate|date=2003-11-17]

History

It is a commonly held misconception that the first WWE, then known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), pay-per-view was November 1985's The Wrestling Classic, a tournament held at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, but the first WrestleMania event, in March of the same year, was available on pay-per-view in some markets. [cite web|url=http://www.wwe.com/shows/survivorseries/history/1989/venue/|accessdate=2007-12-01|title=Survivor Series 1989 Venue history|publisher=WWE] Failed verification|date=August 2008 The first two WrestleManias were financial successes, and after WrestleMania III became a popular event in wrestling history, the WWF then decided to expand their pay-per-view offerings.

The first Survivor Series event occurred on November 29, 1987, scheduled to conflict with NWA's Starrcade. The WWF informed cable companies that if they chose to carry Starrcade, they would not be allowed to carry future WWF events. The vast majority of companies showed Survivor Series (only three opted to remain loyal to their contract with the NWA), and the resulting financial blow to Starrcade was in many ways the beginning of the end for Jim Crockett Promotions. [cite web|url= http://prowrestling.about.com/od/ringresults/a/survivorseries.htm|accessdate=2007-12-01|title=The History of Survivor Series| last=Cohen|first=Eric|publisher=About.com] The debut of the Royal Rumble in January 1988 was actually shown on the USA Network, where it drew the highest rating to that time in the network's history. The event became a pay-per-view the following year. [cite web|url= http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art53968.asp|accessdate=2007-12-01|title=Royal Rumble History|publisher=Bella]

The first SummerSlam was held in Madison Square Garden in August 1988. [cite web|url= http://www.wwe.com/shows/summerslam07/history/1988/venue/|accessdate=2007-12-01|title=Summerslam Venue 1988 Venue History| publisher=WWE] The Royal Rumble in January, WrestleMania in March or April, SummerSlam in August, and Survivor Series in November - were the only annual pay-per-view offerings other than the King of the Ring from the WWF until 1995. Previously rival World Championship Wrestling had expanded the number of their pay-per-view shows. Initially, the WWF used the In Your House brand, but beginning in 1996 began using other names to complement the In Your House name (such as Bad Blood and No Way Out), to avoid confusion. By the end of February 1999, the In Your House name was nonexistent. This trend escalated to the point that by 1996, both companies showed monthly events on pay-per-view. Until recently, World Wrestling Entertainment had a once-a-month pay-per-view schedule, which they had from the late '90s until 2003 totalling twelve a year. The pay-per-view events in the United States are offered by iN DEMAND,Dish Network or DirecTV.

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

Brand extension

In June 2003, WWE announced to continue with their brand extension and make their pay-per-view events each exclusive to a particular brand (Raw, SmackDown!, and in 2006, ECW). The only exceptions to the pay-per-view split were the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series events which remained exclusive to all WWE brands. The pay-per-view split allowed WWE to eventually add more pay-per-view events to their pay-per-view line-up. From late 2005, pay-per-views would start to frequently have inter-branded matches. In March 2007, it was announced that pay-per-view events would go back to the old format, where the events would all be tri-branded, with the last uni-branded event being No Way Out (2007) and the first tri-branded event being Backlash (2007) (after WrestleMania 23). [cite web|url= http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2007/2007_03_14.jsp|accessdate=2007-12-01|title=WWE Pay-Per-Views to follow WrestleMania formula |publisher=WWE Corporate] The brand-exclusive events were:

Upcoming pay-per-view schedule

Non-pay-per-view supercards

ee also

*List of WCW pay-per-view events
*List of ECW pay-per-view events

References

External links

* [http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]
* [http://www.corporate.wwe.com WWE Corporate.com]