WWE Pay Per Views

History

It is a commonly held misconception that the first WWE, then known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), pay-per-view was November 1985's The Wrestling Classic, a tournament held at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, but the first WrestleMania event, in March of the same year, was available on pay-per-view in some markets.^[3]^{[not in citation given]} The first two WrestleManias were financial successes, and after WrestleMania III became a popular event in wrestling history, the WWF then decided to expand their pay-per-view offerings.

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

The first SummerSlam was held in Madison Square Garden in August 1988.^[6] The Royal Rumble in January, WrestleMania in March or April, SummerSlam in August, and Survivor Series in November - were the only annual pay-per-view offerings until 1993, when the WWF started the King of the Ring in June. In May, 1995, the WWF began offering pay-per-views in the months that did not already have one. 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. The In Your House name was used until the May 1999 pay-per-view event, "In Your House: Over The Edge 1999" which was notable for being the pay-per-view where Owen Hart died. 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. In 2004 they offered a 13th pay-per-view, and in 2005 they offered 14 PPV's, 2006 had 15, and 2007 had 14. In 2008, they ended New Year's Revolution, bringing the number of pay-per-views back to 13. 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.

[edit] Chronological list of active events

The following is a list of the current titles for active, annual pay-per-view events regularly scheduled by WWE.

Month:	Name:	First held:	Notes:
January	Royal Rumble	1988
February	No Way Out	2000	There was an In Your House PPV called No Way Out of Texas in 1998.
March/April	WrestleMania	1985
April	Backlash	1999	There was an In Your House PPV called Backlash in 1999.
May	Judgment Day	2000	There was an In Your House PPV called Judgment Day in 1998.
June	Extreme Rules	2009	This PPV takes the place of One Night Stand which ran from 2005-2008.
June	The Great American Bash	2004
July	Night of Champions	2001	Went under the name Vengeance from 2001 to 2006 and Vengeance: Night of Champions in 2007.
August	SummerSlam	1988
September	Unforgiven	1999	There was an In Your House PPV called Unforgiven in 1998.
October	No Mercy	1999
October	Cyber Sunday	2004	This PPV was called Taboo Tuesday in 2004 and 2005.
November	Survivor Series	1987
December	Armageddon	1999

[edit] 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 inclusive of all WWE brands. The pay-per-view split allowed WWE to eventually add more 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)Backlash (2007) (after WrestleMania 23).^[7] The brand-exclusive events were: and the first tri-branded event being

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

[edit] Former pay-per-view events

Pay-per-view	Year(s) Active	Note
The Wrestling Classic	1985 only
This Tuesday in Texas	1991 only
King of the Ring	1993–2002	No longer a pay-per-view event.
In Your House	1995–1999
Bad Blood	1997, 2003–2004
Fully Loaded	1998-2000
Invasion	2001
December to Dismember	2006	This was the only ECW exclusive pay-per-view.
New Year's Revolution	2005–2007	This pay-per-view was removed because WWE decided to reduce the number of pay-per-views per year
Over The Edge	1998-1999	Discontinued after the death of Owen Hart at the 1999 event.

[edit] International pay-per-view events

Pay-per-view	Year(s) Active	Note
One Night Only	1997 only	September
Capital Carnage	1998 only	December
No Mercy (UK)	1999 only	May. Despite being held in the UK, another PPV called "No Mercy" was held the same year in the U.S.
Rebellion	1999–2002	October (1999/2002), November (2001) & December (2000)
Global Warning	2002 only	Saturday, August 10Colonial Stadium in Melbourne, Victoria^[14] from
Insurrextion	2000–2003	May (2000/2001/2002) & June (2003)

[edit] Upcoming pay-per-view schedule

Date^[15]	Event	Venue and City^[15]
April 5, 2009	WrestleMania XXV	Reliant Stadium	Houston, Texas
April 26, 2009	Backlash	Dunkin' Donuts Center	Providence, Rhode Island^[16]
May 17, 2009	Judgment Day	Allstate Arena	Rosemont, Illinois
June 7, 2009	Extreme Rules^[17]	TBA	New Orleans, Louisiana
June 28, 2009	The Great American Bash^[18]	Arco Arena	Sacramento, California
July 26, 2009	Night of Champions^[19]	Wachovia Center	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
August 23, 2009	SummerSlam	Staples Center	Los Angeles, California
September 13, 2009	Unforgiven	Bell Center	Montreal, Quebec
October 4, 2009	No Mercy	Mellon Arena	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
October 25, 2009	Cyber Sunday	Izod Center	East Rutherford, New Jersey
November 22, 2009	Survivor Series	Verizon Center	Washington, D.C.
March 28, 2010	WrestleMania XXVI	University of Phoenix Stadium^[20]	Glendale, Arizona

[edit] Non-pay-per-view supercards

Supercard	Year(s) Active	Note
Saturday Night's Main Event	1985–1992, 2006–present	The show was revived in 2006.^[21]
WWE Tribute to the Troops	2003–present	This is a non-PPV event from Iraq started in 2003.
The Main Event	1988–1991	This was a spin-off of Saturday Night's Main Event.