Truth of wwe
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (d/b/aWWE) is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company that deals primarily in professional wrestling, with revenue also coming from film, music, video games, product licensing, and direct product sales.
WWE also refers to the professional wrestling promotion itself, founded by Jess McMahonand Toots Mondt in 1952 as Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. As of 2016, it is the largest wrestling promotion in the world, holding over 500 events a year (with the roster divided up into various globally traveling brands),[9] and broadcasting to about 36 million viewers in more than 150 countries. The company's global headquarters is located in Stamford,Connecticut, with offices in major cities across the world.[10][11]
As in other professional wrestling promotions, WWE shows are not legitimate contests, but purely entertainment-based, featuringstoryline-driven, scripted, and choreographed matches, though they often include moves that can put performers at risk of injury if not performed correctly. This was first publicly acknowledged by WWE's owner Vince McMahon in 1989 to avoid taxes from athletic commissions. Since the 1980s, WWE publicly has branded their product as sports entertainment, acknowledging the product's roots in competitive sport and dramatic theater.
The company's majority owner is its chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon. Along with his wifeLinda, children Shane and Stephanie, and son-in-law Paul "Triple H" Levesque, the McMahon family holds approximately 70% of WWE's equity and 96% of the voting power.
The current entity, incorporated on February 21, 1980, was previously known as Titan Sports, Inc., which was founded in 1979 inSouth Yarmouth, Massachusetts. It acquired Capitol Wrestling Corporation, the holding company for the World Wrestling Federation, in 1982. Titan was renamed World Wrestling Federation, Inc. in 1998, then World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. in 1999, and finally the current World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. in 2002. Since 2011, the company has officially branded itself solely asWWE though the company's legal name was not changed.[12][13]
Company history
Prior to Titan Sports
WWE's origins can be traced back as far as 1952 when Roderick James "Jess" McMahonand Toots Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. (CWC), which joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1953. McMahon, who was a successful boxing promoter, began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing and wrestling at the third Madison Square Garden. It was not the first time McMahon had promoted wrestlingcards, as he had already done so during the 1910s.
In November 1954, McMahon died and Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's associates, brought inMcMahon's son Vincent James.[14] The younger McMahon and Mondt were very successful and soon controlled approximately 70% of the NWA's booking, largely due to their dominance in the heavily populated Northeast region. In 1963, McMahon and Mondt had a dispute with the NWA over "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers being booked to hold the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.[15] Both men left the company in protest and formed the WWWF in the process, awarding Rogers the newly created WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in April of that year. He lost the championship to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17, 1963, after suffering a heart attack a week before the match.
Capitol operated the WWWF in a conservative manner compared to other pro wrestling territories:[16] it ran its major arenas monthly rather than weekly or bi-weekly, usually featuring a babyface (heroic character) champion wrestling various heels (villainous character) in programs that consisted of one to three matches.[17] After gaining a television program deal and hiring Lou Albano as a manager for Sammartino's heel opponents, the WWWF was doing sellout business by 1970.
Mondt left Capitol in the late sixties and although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon, Sr. quietly re-joined in 1971. Capitol renamed the World Wide Wrestling Federation to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979.[18]
Titan Sports, Inc.
Golden Age
Vincent J. McMahon's son, Vincent K. McMahon, and his wife Linda, established Titan Sports, Inc., in 1979 in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts.[19][20] The company was incorporated on February 21, 1980, in theCape Cod Coliseum offices. The younger McMahon bought Capitol from his father in 1982, effectively seizing control of the company. Seeking to make the WWF the premier wrestling promotion in the country, and eventually, the world, he began an expansion process that fundamentally changed the wrestling business.[21]
At the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and former Capitol employee Jim Barnett all withdrew from the organization.[15]McMahon also worked to get WWF programming on syndicated television all across the United States. This angered other promoters and disrupted the well-established boundaries of the different wrestling promotions, eventually ending the territory system, which was in use since the founding of the NWA in the 1940s. In addition, the company used income generated by advertising, television deals, and tape sales to secure talent from rival promoters.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, McMahon noted:
McMahon gained significant traction when he hired American Wrestling Association (AWA) talent Hulk Hogan, who had achieved popularity outside of wrestling, notably for his appearance in the film Rocky III.[22] McMahon signed Roddy Piper as Hogan's rival, and then shortly afterward Jesse Ventura as an announcer. Other wrestlers joined the roster, such as Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco, The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Junkyard Dog, Paul Orndorff, Greg Valentine, and Ricky Steamboat. Many of the wrestlers who would join later the WWF were former AWA or NWA talent.
The WWF would tour nationally in a venture that would require a huge capital investment, one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse. The future of McMahon's experiment came down to the success or failure of McMahon's groundbreaking concept, WrestleMania. WrestleMania was a major success, and was (and still is) marketed as the Super Bowl of professional wrestling. The concept of a wrestlingsupercard was nothing new in North America; the NWA had begun running Starrcade a few years prior. In McMahon's eyes, however, what separated WrestleMania from other supercards was that it was intended to be accessible to those who did not watch wrestling. He invited celebrities such as Mr. T,Muhammad Ali, and Cyndi Lauper to participate in the event, as well as securing a deal with MTV to provide coverage. The event and hype surrounding it led to the term Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection, due to the cross-promotion of pop-culture and professional wrestling.
The WWF business expanded significantly on the shoulders of McMahon and his babyfacehero Hulk Hogan for the next several years. The introduction of Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC in 1985 marked the first time that professional wrestling had been broadcast on network television since the 1950s, when the now-defunct DuMont Television Network broadcast matches of Vince McMahon Sr.'s Capitol Wrestling Corporation. The 1980s "Wrestling Boom" peaked with the WrestleMania III pay-per-view at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1987, which set an attendance record of 93,173, a record that stood for 29 years until WrestleMania 32.[23] A rematch of the WrestleMania III main event between WWF champion Hulk Hogan and André the Giant took place on The Main Eventin 1988 and was seen by 33 million people, the most-watched wrestling match in North American television history.[24]
In 1985, Titan moved its offices to Stamford, Connecticut, before the present building was built nearby in 1991. Subsequently, a new Titan Sports, Inc. (originally WWF, Inc.) was established in Delaware in 1987 and was consolidated with the Massachusetts entity in February 1988.[25]
New Generation (1993–1997)
The WWF was hit with allegations of steroidabuse and distribution in 1992 and was followed by allegations of sexual harassmentby WWF employees the following year.[26]McMahon was eventually exonerated, but it brought bad public relations for the WWF, and overall bad reputation. The steroid trial cost the company an estimated $5 million at a time of record low revenues. This helped drive many WWF wrestlers over to rival promotionWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW), including 1980s babyface hero Hulk Hogan. During this period, the WWF promoted wrestlers of a younger age comprising "The New Generation", featuring Shawn Michaels,Diesel, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker, in an effort to promote new talent into the spotlight.
In January 1993, the WWF debuted its flagship cable program Monday Night Raw. WCW countered in September 1995 with its own Monday night program, Monday Nitro, which aired in the same time slot as Raw.[27]The two programs would trade wins in the ensuing ratings competition (known as the "Monday Night Wars") until mid-1996. At that point, Nitro began a nearly two-year ratings domination that was largely fueled by the introduction of the New World Order (nWo), a stable led by former WWF performers Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall (the former Razor Ramon), and Kevin Nash (the former Diesel).[28]
The Attitude Era (1997–2002)
As the Monday Night Wars continued between Raw Is War and WCW's Nitro, the WWF would transform itself from a family-friendly product into a more adult oriented product, known as the Attitude Era. The era was spearheaded by WWF VP Shane McMahon (son of owner Vince McMahon) and head writer Vince Russo.
1997 ended with McMahon facing real-life controversy following Bret Hart's controversial departure from the company, dubbed as theMontreal Screwjob.[29] This proved to be one of several founding factors in the launch of the Attitude Era as well as the creation of McMahon's on-screen character, "Mr. McMahon".
Prior to the Montreal Screwjob, which took place at the 1997 Survivor Series, former WCW talent were being hired by the WWF, including Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind, and Vader. Austin was slowly brought in as the new face of the company despite being promoted as an antihero, starting with his "Austin 3:16" speech shortly after defeatingJake Roberts in the tournament finals at theKing of the Ring pay-per-view in 1996.[30]
World Wrestling Federation, Inc./World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.
On May 6, 1998, Titan Sports, Inc. was renamed World Wrestling Federation, Inc. It was renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. a year later.
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return toterrestrial television, airing a special program known as SmackDown! on the fledgling UPNnetwork. The Thursday night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999—competing directly with WCW's Thursday night programThunder on TBS. In 2000, the WWF, in collaboration with television network NBC, announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional football league that debuted in 2001.[31] The league had 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 prime-time show in the history of American television). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after being unable to reach a deal with UPN, McMahon shut down the XFL.[32]
On October 19, 1999, World Wrestling Federation, Inc. launched an initial public offering as a publicly traded company, trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the issuance of stock then valued at $172.5 million.[33] The company has traded on the NYSE since its launch under ticker symbol WWE.[34]
Acquisition of WCW and ECW
By the fall of 1999, the Attitude Era had turned the tide of the Monday Night Wars into WWF's favor. After Time Warner merged with AOL,Ted Turner's control over WCW was considerably reduced, and the newly merged company announced a complete lack of interest in professional wrestling as a whole, and decided to sell WCW in its entirety. Although Eric Bischoff, whom Time Warner fired as WCW president in October 1999, was nearing a deal to purchase the company, in March 2001 McMahon acquired the rights to WCW's trademarks, tape library, contracts, and other properties from AOL Time Warner for a number reported to be around $7 million.[35] Shortly after WrestleMania X-Seven, the WWF launched the Invasion storyline integrating the incoming talent roster from WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). With this purchase, WWF now became by far the largest wrestling promotion in the world. The assets of ECW, which had folded after filing for bankruptcyprotection in April 2001, were purchased by WWE in mid-2003.[36]
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc./WWE
Current WWE minority owners/front office executives/wrestlers Triple Hand his wife Stephanie McMahon
On May 5, 2002, the World Wrestling Federation announced it was changing both its company name and the name of its wrestling promotion to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Although mainly caused by an unfavorable ruling in its disputewith the World Wildlife Fund regarding the "WWF" initialism, the company noted it provided an opportunity to emphasize its focus on entertainment.[37]
On April 7, 2011, WWE, via the WWE Corporate website, announced that the company was ceasing use of the full name World Wrestling Entertainment and would henceforth refer to itself solely as WWE, making the latter anorphan initialism. This was said to reflect WWE's global entertainment expansion away from the ring with the ultimate goal of acquiring entertainment companies and putting a focus on television, live events, and film production. WWE noted that their new company model was put into effect with the relaunch of Tough Enough, being a non–scripted program (contrary to the scripted nature of professional wrestling) and with the launch of the WWE Network (at the time scheduled to launch in 2012; later pushed back to 2014). However, the legal name of the company remains as World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.[13]
Brand extension
Original
In March 2002, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, with each group of wrestlers appearing on one of their main programs, Rawand SmackDown!, due to the overabundance of talent left over from the Invasion storyline. This was dubbed as the "brand extension".
Beginning in 2002 a draft lottery was held nearly every year to set the rosters, with the first draft to determine the inaugural split rosters, and subsequent drafts designed to refresh the rosters of each show. On May 26, 2006, WWE announced the relaunch of ECW as a third WWE brand. The new ECW program aired until February 16, 2010.[38] All ECW wrestlers at that point became free agents that could sign either Raw or SmackDown.
Reunification
Beginning with the August 29, 2011 episode of Raw, it was announced that Raw would feature talent from both Raw and SmackDown, and would be known as Raw Supershow (the "Supershow" suffix would be dropped on July 23, 2012).[39] Championships previously exclusive to one show or the other were available for wrestlers from any show to compete for; the "Supershow" format would mark the end of the brand extension, as all programming and live events from when the original announcement was made until July 2016 featured the full WWE roster.[40]
In 2013, the company built the sports medicine and training facility WWE Performance Center in east Orange County, Florida in partnership with Full Sail Universityfrom Winter Park, Florida. The training facility is targeted at career and athletic development for the company's wrestlers.[41] Full Sail is also home base to WWE's developmental brand NXT,[42] which over the years has grown and expanded into a global brand in its own right.[43]
Second brand split
On May 25, 2016, WWE announced a relaunch of the brand extension, billed as the "New Era". Following that announcement, Raw andSmackDown now each feature their own unique rosters, announcers, ring sets/ropes, and championships. A draft took place to determine which wrestlers would appear on what show. SmackDown also moved from Thursdays to Tuesday nights, which began on July 19 (the night of the aforementioned draft), and airs live instead of the previous pre-recorded format.[44]
On November 29, 2016, WWE introduced a new program specifically for theircruiserweight division (wrestlers 205 lbs. and under) called WWE 205 Live.[45] The program focuses exclusively on those wrestlers who qualify for the division.[46][47] The cruiserweights – who first became a fixture in WWE with the Cruiserweight Classictournament – were originally exclusive to the Raw brand at the onset of the 2016 brand extension, before landing their own show (though they still also appear on Raw, as well as working on the NXT brand).[48]
On December 15, 2016, it was announced that WWE was establishing a new WWE United Kingdom Championship, with the winner being decided by a 16-man tournament to air on WWE Network featuring wrestlers from the UK and Ireland during January 2017. WWE executive Paul "Triple H" Levesque said the eventual plan with the new title and tournament is to establish a UK-based brand with its own weekly TV show.[49][50] The UK wrestlers and the UK Championship is being featured on the NXT brand in the interim.[51]
WWE currently has over 140 wrestlers (both male and female) under various forms of contract, and stages over 500 events a year around the world.[9]
Terminology
WWE Network and distribution deals
WWE stock and corporate governance
On October 19, 1999, WWF, which had been owned previously by parent company Titan Sports, launched an initial public offering as a publicly traded company, trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the issuance of stock then valued at $172.5 million.[33] The company has traded on the NYSE since its launch under ticker symbol WWE.[34]
The company has actively marketed itself as a publicly traded company through presentations at investor conferences and other investor relations initiatives.[68] In June 2003, the company began paying a dividend on its shares of $0.04 per share.[69] In June 2011, the company cut its dividend from $0.36 to $0.12.[70] In 2014, concerns about the company's viability caused wide fluctuations in its share price.[71]
As of 2015, the company's Board of Directors has eight members: Vince McMahon, the company's Chairman of the Board and CEO; Stuart U. Goldfarb, President of Fullbridge, Inc.; Patricia A. Gottesman, former President and CEO of Crimson Hexagon; David Kenen, the former Executive Vice President of theHallmark Channel; Joseph H. Perkins, former President of Communications Consultants; Frank A. Riddick, III, CEO of Shale-Inland Group, Inc.; Jeffrey R. Speed, former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer ofSix Flags; Laureen Ong, former President ofTravel Channel; Stephanie McMahon, Chief Brand Officer of WWE; and Paul "Triple H" Levesque, WWE's Executive Vice President of talent, live events, and creative.[72]
Contracts
WWE signs most of their talent to exclusive contracts, meaning talent can appear or perform only on WWE programming and events. They are not permitted to appear or perform for another promotion, unless special arrangements are made beforehand. WWE keeps all wrestlers' salary, employment length, benefits, and all other contract details strictly private.[73]
WWE classifies its professional wrestlers asindependent contractors and not as employees. A study by the University of Louisville Law Review found that after applying the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 20-factor test, 16 factors "clearly indicate that wrestlers are employees". However, as a result of WWE terming them as independent contractors, "the wrestlers are denied countless benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled".[74]
Wellness Program
The World Wrestling Federation had a drug-testing policy in place as early as 1987, initially run by an in-house administrator. In 1991, wrestlers were subjected to independent testing for anabolic steroids for the first time.[75] The independent testing was ceased in 1996.[76]
The Talent Wellness Program is a comprehensive drug, alcohol, and cardiac screening program initiated in February 2006, shortly after the sudden death of one of their highest profile talents, 38-year-old Eddie Guerrero.[77] The policy tests for recreational drug use and abuse of prescription medication, including anabolic steroids.[77]Under the guidelines of the policy, talent is also tested annually for pre-existing or developing cardiac issues. The drug testing is handled by Aegis Sciences Corporation; the cardiac evaluations are handled by New York Cardiology Associates P.C.[77] The Wellness Policy requires that all talent "under contract to WWE who regularly perform in-ring services as a professional sports entertainer" undergo testing; however, part-time competitors are exempt from testing.[78]
After the double-murder and suicidecommitted by one of its performers, Chris Benoit, with a possible link to steroid abuse encouraged by WWE, the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform requested that WWE turn over any material regarding its talent wellness policy.[79]
In August 2007, WWE and its employees defended the program in the wake of several busts of illegal pharmacy that linked WWE performers to steroid purchases even after the policy was put into place. Ten professional wrestlers were suspended for violating the Wellness Policy after reports emerged they were all customers of Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Florida. According to a statement attributed to WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt, an eleventh wrestler was later added to the suspension list.[80][81][82]
Because of the Wellness Policy, physicians were able to diagnose one of its performers with a heart ailment that would otherwise likely have gone unnoticed until it was too late. In August 2007, then-reigning United States Champion Montel Vontavious Porter(real name: Hassan Assad) was diagnosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome,[83]which can be potentially fatal if gone undiagnosed. The ailment was discovered while Assad was going through a routine Wellness Policy checkup.
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