http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Wrestling/WWE

Then. Now. Forever.

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WWE, short for World Wrestling Entertainment,note Currently marketed solely as WWE, but World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. remains the legal name of the company is a "global entertainment" juggernaut specializing in professional wrestling. It was formerly known as the Capital Wrestling Corporation, World Wide Wrestling Federation and World Wrestling Federation. In 2002, a trademark dispute with the nonprofit World Wide Fund for Nature required the company to settle on the current initialism.

The company was founded in 1952 by Roderick "Jess" McMahon (1882-1954) and Raymond "Toots" Mondt (1894-1976) to promote wrestling matches in the New York City area. Vincent J. McMahon (1914-1984) took over in 1954, following the death of his father. Vincent expanded the company to cover the entire northeastern United States from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh to Maine. Run by Vincent K. McMahon (1945-), the then-WWF revolutionized — and monopolized — the pro wrestling world in the 1980s, using a series of closed-circuit broadcast events, colorful characters, and clever cross-promotion with MTV to transform wrestling from a regionalized industry with a series of small players in a loose confederation into its own private Idaho, and transforming themselves into a multi-billion-dollar global entertainment conglomerate.

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WWE currently has five different television shows that they produce weekly: Raw and SmackDown are the A shows, which air live on weekly television, and are currently treated as two separate brands, with the characters and storylines not interacting except at special pay-per-view events.note This is not always the case; they were initially split in 2002, merged in 2012, and re-split in 2016. NXT started out as a developmental show, but thanks to heavily featuring technically-gifted former indy darlings, has gained a fanbase and become a brand unto itself, albeit one often treated by WWE booking as subordinate to Raw or SmackDown. Main Event and 205 Live are C level shows.

They currently hold twelve PPVs a year:

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Three magazines about WWE (WWE Magazine, WWE Kids, and WWE Presents) were also published.

WWE also operates its own film studio, which produces star vehicles for its talents, mostly comedy and straight-to-DVD fare. For every Scorpion King (Rock) and Marine (Cena), for instance, you get Leprechaun: Origins (Hornswoggle) and The Chaperone (Triple H). The Marine series is showing healthy life on Blu-ray, though, with Cena being succeeded by Ted Dibiase Jr and The Miz.

WWE launched its own subscription 24/7 web-stream and on-demand service, the WWE Network, on February 24, 2014, which carries WWE's pay-per-views and B-shows, as well as NXT, a number of original documentary/reality programs, and selections from the WWE/WCW/ECW/World Class tape vaults.

WWE currently recognizes eighteen championships across five brands;

Raw

SmackDown

Inter-Brand

205 Live

Cruiserweight Champion note As of October 2019, the title is renamed as the NXT Cruiserweight Championship and is defended in both brands respectively. : Jordan Devlin since January 25, 2020 & Santos Escobar note Due to Devlin being stationed in the UK because of COVID-19 related travel restrictions, Escobar is recognized as the interim Cruiserweight Champion. since June 3, 2020

NXT

NXT UK

United Kingdom Champion : WALTER since April 5, 2019

since April 5, 2019 UK Tag Team Champions : Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) since October 4, 2019 note Aired on tape delay in October 17, 2019

since October 4, 2019 UK Women's Champion : Kay Lee Ray since August 31, 2019

Tropes associated with WWE: