The Complete History Of WWE

the time-tested sports entertainment spectacle that we absorbed from different mediums every single week is the culmination of decades upon Decades of growth adaptation and evolution the very name McMahon is synonymous with over-the-top staged conflict between virtuous Heroes and grotesque villains inside a three-roped ring before enthusiastic crowds and has been for several Generations though what we know today is WWE has existed under slightly different identities Through The Years with different shading and Nuance depending on era's tastes and goals it's always been the same host body the same DNA traceable in every brush and step to summarize the entirety of WWE's long and colorful history is impossible within a blurb or anecdote where does one begin to tell the full story of professional wrestling's most renowned and famous promotion in all of its Vivid Splendor and gritty substance that's why we here at cultaholic have undertaken the Monumental task of presenting more than 60 years of WWE history in this very special presentation in which we will attempt to do justice the life story so to speak of the McMahon Empire the family business that has entertained Millions for well over half a century [Music] this is the complete history of WWE [Music] initially there was only one W in WWE's trade name as on January 7 1952 the company we know today is WWE was founded as the capital wrestling Corporation one of the founders of this Enterprise was Joseph toots Mont who in the 1920s essentially invented the Contemporary style of professional wrestling by combining elements of Freestyle Wrestling and broadly performed brawling and staging it inside of a modified boxing ring his partner in the capital wrestling Corporation was veteran boxing and wrestling promoter Roderick Jess McMahon Mont had initially found booming success as a member of the Gold Dust Trio with famed wrestler Ed Strangler Lewis and manager Billy Sandow before their partnership ascent resolved needing fresh Partnerships Mont later forged deals with several other promoters including New York's Jack Curley when Curley's Health took a turn for the worse in the mid-1930s Mont took over professional wrestling in New York with the help of several Bookers one of whom was Jess McMahon the capital wrestling Corporation officially formed in 1952 and one year later would be admitted into the national wrestling Alliance McMahon would not be long for the arrangement however dying in November of 1954 of a cerebral hemorrhage after Jess's passing his son Vincent J McMahon stepped in to helm the operation alongside Mont referred to in shorthand as New York the McMahon territory may have been rooted in the Big Apple but actually encompassed 11 total States Maryland Delaware Pennsylvania New Jersey Connecticut Rhode Island Massachusetts New York Vermont New Hampshire and Maine as well as the nation's capital of Washington DC populace hubs like New York Philadelphia Boston Baltimore and DC were vital strongholds for the territory coveted for their vast population density the High Castle of this sprawling kingdom was New York's Madison Square Garden where monthly events would be held under the meticulous and watchful eye of Vincent J McMahon events held at the world's most famous arena would frequently sell out in 1955 Capital wrestling gained television clearance via the Dumont Network however the once popular TV force in the 40s and 50s was struggling mightily by the time McMahon's cavalcade came on board the following year Dumont wheezed its final breaths and capital wrestling migrated over to wabd De monts primary New York station remaining a Saturday evening staple for years to follow the program was filmed weekly in Washington DC inside of a converted Barn redubbed the capital Arena before its demolition in 1965. instead of having a separate world champion Capital fell in line with the rest of the governed NWA territories recognizing the NWA world heavyweight champion who would make defenses for every NWA group including capital's Northeastern citadels in this time frame men such as Lou thes Pat O'Connor and Dick Hutton reigned as champion and Drew considerably well in the midwestern territories while struggling to achieve the same sort of success in the McMahon and Mont control Northeast as the 1960s began to Dawn it was decided to go with a champion that had proven to be a major draw in the glossier New York territory that man was Nature Boy Buddy Rogers McMahon lobbied heavily for Rogers to get the belt reasoning that Rogers box office magnetism in the most financially lucrative territory in the NWA was more than worth putting the belt on him though having such a detestable character reign as the face of the NWA was unorthodox Regional promoters gave their vote of confidence figuring they stood to benefit greatly from the change as well and so on June 30th 1961 at Chicago's kamisky Park before 38 000 fans Rogers defeated O'Connor in a two out of three Falls match to capture the gold the Nature Boy would drop the belt in a pair of unrecognized changes to Killer Kowalski in November of 1961 and Bobo Brazil in August of 1962 both disputes due to reported injuries sustained by the champion this resulted in both Kowalski and Brazil being recognized as champion in several territories prior to Roger's winning subsequent rematches over each man the most important match of Rogers ostensibly uninterrupted Reign came on Thursday January 24 1963 in Toronto against former Champion Lou says the NWA board voted to have Fez win the championship back but Rogers as well as McMahon and Mont were not happy with this decision to ensure that Rogers played ball and did the honors bethes promoter Sam muchnick made the match a one-fall encounter as opposed to the standard three Falls for title matches of the era he also threatened to take Roger's monetary collateral a down payment to ensure that a champion doesn't run off with the belt and give it away to charity if he didn't lose the match additionally Rogers was made aware that Fez a dangerous and renowned shooter was prepared to forcibly beat him in the match if he didn't comply with few other viable options Rogers did the job that night in Toronto out of protest of the decision to switch the belt McMahon and monts seceded from the NWA the next day in order to form the worldwide Wrestling Federation Rogers was still billed by McMahon and Mont as the rightful Champion as a result of the dispute the one full match was the out they publicly needed in times of strict k-fabe over the next several months Rogers defended a world title that was no longer technically his winning title defenses against the likes of Dory Dixon and Johnny Barron at Madison Square Garden Bobo Brazil in Philadelphia and killer and Bruno Sammartino in Pittsburgh on April 11 1963 by virtue of being insistently recognized by the wwwf as world champion for the prior three months Rogers was awarded the inaugural wwwf world championship for a match with San Martino in Washington DC in a moment that would be echoed years later for official purposes as well as wink and Nod parody it was declared that Rogers had won the championship in a fictitious tournament held in Rio de Janeiro though WWE currently recognizes the date of April 25th 1963 as the official start of Roger's Reign the belt ceremony actually occurred two weeks earlier Rogers meanwhile was suffering from a myriad of health issues the rigors of con instant travel and punishing in-ring activity had won the now 42 year old Champion down injuries such as a broken arm and fractured ankle had hampered Rogers and some sources even claimed that the Nature Boy had suffered a heart attack in the spring of 1963. McMahon made the heavy decision to go with a new Champion knowing that an upstanding superhero of a title holder was the ideal antidote for years of the Arrogant underhanded Rogers ruling the roost and so on May 17 1963 Rogers was set to drop the belt inside Madison Square Garden to Bruno Sammartino San Martino charged the weary Rogers immediately breaking down the usually resilient Champion more than 19 000 fans watched with disbelieving Glee as San Martino hoisted Rogers up into a back breaker drawing the submission from the now deposed champion in just 48 seconds the match was kept short to accommodate Roger's failing Health but that detail mattered little to the wwwf's New Direction with Sam Martino positioned as its new star from here on out it was onward and upward with the living legend as the main attraction Rogers never would get a rematch with Sam Martino bowing out of a planned title match in October 1963 in Jersey City instead San Martino would defend the title against a man that would become a strong part of the wwwf's Inner Circle the 400 pound supposed Manchurian that went by the name Gorilla Monsoon born Robert Morella Monsoon was a star athlete and Scholar at Ithaca College and his combination of brains and Brawn would serve him well working for McMahon Not only was Monsoon gaining notoriety in the mold of the prototypical monster heel but he served the company well behind the scenes acting as minority shareholder and helping run TV tapings like clockwork from his favorite gorilla position Monsoon was just one of the many memorable foils that tried and failed to rest the gold away from Bruno know a who's who of ring royalty matched up with the champion including Dr Jerry Graham classy Freddy blassy Bill Watts Waldo Von Erich Professor toru Tanaka Killer Kowalski George Steele and even Giant Baba all along with Monsoon would end up as tally marks on the San Martino wall as the 1960s came to a close the belt remained around the waist of the mighty Bruno while Madison Square Garden continued to host thousands of patrons eager to see it all play out the cycle that McMahon utilized at the monthly Garden shows for Champion San Martino had a distinct pattern after building up a hot new heel over some time said heel would then challenge for San Martino's belt and the two usually would battle to a disputed finish either a disqualification or Draw of some kind the two would then face off in another match generally another singles bout with yet another contestable ending or even a tag team match that would see Bruno take the PIN to pay it all off samartino would Vanquish the heel in some form of gimmick bout like a Texas Deathmatch but even if savior fans caught onto the routine it mattered little samartino was a cultural icon a hero one could proudly get behind it was samartino's integrity and authenticity that made him most appealing to wrestling fans especially the more Discerning New York crowd as Bruno's Reign rolled over into 1970 the formula saw very few signs of fatigue though 1970 was another full calendar year with him on top the wwwf's composition had begun to change Mont had had a number of issues with McMahon over the years and the two frequently quarreled with samartino later claiming that the two promoters were not on the best of terms during his lengthy Title reign reportedly it was Mont who first championed samartino convincing McMahon that he was the future of their operation and though Mont was enough of a Visionary to understand Sam Martino's enormous value as a drawing card he reportedly struggled to adapt his promotional Acumen to the television age coupled with serious gambling problems Mont gradually sold off his shares of WWF to McMahon and by 1971 Vince senior assumed full control Mont would die in 1976 reportedly nearly penniless at the age of 82. and after month's loss of ownership standing McMahon quietly renewed ties with the NWA cooperation was in full bloom once more as monthly Garden cards not only featured stars from the NWA but also Verne gagne's AWA San Martino's seemingly Unsinkable rain met its end on January 18 1971 after an unfathomable [Music] 2803 days as had been the case with Rogers nearly a decade earlier injuries were beginning to take their toll on the title holder and persistent back pain in the late 60s led to Bruno requesting to drop the belt he finally got his wish on that fateful night against Koloff nearly 22 000 fans at Madison Square Garden watched as Koloff ended San Martino's one-man Dynasty with a flying knee drop the jarring silence following the three count saved for a few fans openly sobbing let San Martino to believe his hearing had been damaged the brutish koloff's Unthinkable Victory enhanced his value as a draw at the Garden as not just anybody pinned samartino's shoulders to the canvas while the notoriety of the Russian Bear would persist his Reign would not just three weeks later kolov transitioned the belt onto the wildly popular Pedro Morales whereas koloff's win was met with uncomprehending silence Morales Triumph caused the garden to reverberate from the ecstatic cheers Morales proved to be a fine flag bearer for the WWF during what would come to be a near three-year reign as Champion during those three years between February 1971 and December 1973 Morales sold out Madison Square Garden 21 times in 30 title defenses Morales star power takes a back seat to San Martino in historic accounts but Morales was a mega draw unto himself setting gate records for indoor wrestling shows in his Heyday in July 1971 Morales helped establish the very first six-figure gate for an indoor wrestling show in American history when he and gorilla on soon challenged International Tag Team Champions Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler drawing a shade over one hundred thousand dollars the most most of morales's lengthy incumbency came on September 30th 1972 22 000 fans flocked to Shea Stadium to see morale's battle longtime friend and partner San Martino it was a chilly rainy Saturday night and the weather affected walk-up business but the 140 000 gate was at the time the fourth largest in the history of wrestling in the United States the two friends turned bitter Rivals battled to a curfew draw the clash between Morales and San Martino forever etched into wrestling history while Morales did marvelous business at the Garden his appeal didn't spread so evenly across the rest of the northeastern territory and by late 1972 Vince senior was trying to coax samartino back Bruno initially spurned offers but came back at something of a part-time deal he would only have to work major Arenas and received a sizable percentage of the gate San Martino regained the title in December of 1973 nine days after Morales dropped the belt to transitional Champion Stan the Man stasiak San Martino proved to be just as strong a drawing card the second time around as programs with villains like Spiros Arion George Steele Ernie Ladd and returning Ivan Koloff did Big Business not just at the Garden but throughout the entire Northeastern territory it wouldn't be an eight-year rain this time round however as in April of 1977 San Martino lost the belt to one of pro wrestling's most imitated trendsetters the muscular cocky charismatic Superstar Billy Graham scores of future wrestlers would all borrow liberally from the Graham Playbook and Superstar's Reign was marked with defenses against the likes of Dusty Rhodes Jack Briscoe Mill mascaras and prior Champions Morales and Sammartino he even went to a one-hour draw with NWA world champion Harley Race in Miami's Orange Bowl and his rematches with Bruno throughout the remainder of 1977 and into 1978 Drew sell out crowds including a steel cage match in Philadelphia on February 18 1978. two nights later Graham's timers Champion came to an end losing to The Confident but unassuming Bob Backlund when Graham won the title in 1977 he was told that he would eventually lose to the scrappy young technician whom Vince senior wanted to build up in the mold of a jack Briscoe finale six years Backlund held the championship save for a disputed period in late 1979 when the late Antonio Enoki reigned for one week with the belt a rain that WWE does not recognize though presented as a squeaky clean Grappler backland could get down and dirty with leathernecks like Greg Valentine Stan Hansen and Ken Patera in bloody brawls his time as a No-Frills Champion sold out MSG over 40 times across those six years at the time backland upended Graham for the top belt WWE was without a true men's secondary Champion having let Bobo Brazil's bestowed reign as WWF United States champion in the early 70s laps into Oblivion in February of 1979 the wwwf commissioned the North American Title awarding the belt to an incoming second generation Grappler 25 year old Ted dibiosi dibiosi lost the gold to Pat Patterson that June and soon after the North American Title would be phased out in favor of a more recognizable Accolade it was reported that Patterson had won a tournament that September in Rio de Janeiro winning the South American heavyweight title which he then unified with his North American Title to create the Intercontinental Championship of course the tournament as well as the South American heavyweight title was completely bogus though the legend of the IC titles Inception lives on with knowing winks and smiles Patterson would hold the belt for nearly eight months before losing it to Ken Patera in April of 1980 who then lost it to Pedro Morales that December Morales who briefly held the Tag Team titles the previous August became the WWE's first ever triple crown winner and by the time the inter Intercontinental title came into existence the wwwf had had one of its W's removed in late March of 1979 the company rebranded itself as the World Wrestling Federation the change in name was to increase marketability though not much had changed in the company's composition it was still New York style wrestling packing MSG to the gills while abiding by lines that separated McMahon Land from the terrain owned by other NWA promoters as the 1980s began life in the WWF seemed to be business as usual but major changes were wading slowly underfoot Vince's 34 year old son Vincent Kennedy McMahon at this time a peppy and reliable TV announcer that had worked for his father in various capacities over the prior 11 years founded Titan Sports Incorporated along with his wife Linda while while the Elder vins was content to stick tight with his NWA Brothers his son had different ideas viewing the world of professional wrestling as one with opportunity for flexibility if one so desired to flex their muscle in 1982 vincenia floated the idea of selling all of his interests in capital wrestling and leaving the business altogether though the younger Vince was hardly a tycoon at the time he knew that this was his best chance at acquiring the coveted and valuable territory lest it be sold off to somebody outside the McMahon Family buying out the territory for himself wasn't going to be an easy purchase to make and even then the business in his hands was not a slam dunk guaranteed success going forward this was a Monumental gamble but it was a gamble that McMahon needed to make that June Capital wrestling's four stockholders all agreed to sell to Junior vincenia Guerrilla Monsoon fellow ex-wrestler Arnold scholand and longtime company secretary Phil zako in the end McMahon and Titan agreed to pay 1 million dollars over a year-long period to the prior stockholders if there was any slip up or default McMahon Jr forfeited the shares back to the four summer in other words he needed to come up with the money in a timely fashion or the dream was dead but for McMahon the nature of the wrestling business would be changing soon enough with his hands now at the controls [Music] the WWF would pull out of the NWA a final time in August of 1983 during the annual National wrestling Alliance convention in Las Vegas McMahon had been making money through syndicated television to beam out his Northeastern based Enterprise across the entire United States effectively trespassing into the territories of the men who were ostensibly his allies within the alliance the expansion had begun with its fangs bad Jim Barnett NWA secretary as well as personal Booker for the shared world champion resigned from the NWA at the same meetings one of the most vocal dissenters to McMahon's aggressive development was wrestler and Booker only Anderson one of the owners of Georgia championship wrestling Anderson issued open threads to combat McMahon at that Las Vegas meeting but what he didn't know was that Barnett a Georgia shareholder who's falling out with Anderson facilitated his resignation was lining up to Aid Vince in his expansion shortly thereafter Barnett ended up as the vice president of Titan Sports later that month having sold off all of his Capital shares to his son Vince senior offered his formal resignation from the NWA the sudden territorial holy war would make use of television as ammunition with Barnett's assistance McMahon gained TV clearance in Ohio securing Ollie Anderson's gcw time slots in Cincinnati and Dayton while also locking up Dayton's Hara Arena as an exclusive WWF venue McMahon debuted his product in Cincinnati and Dayton that October putting Perpetual trump card Andre the Giant in main events as the star attraction the WWF also gained additional cable clearance after Joe Blanchard's Southwest championship wrestling lost its Plum Sunday morning time slot due large lead to an inability to make future payments to the three-year-old USA Network McMahon swooped in and took over the time slot with his own All-American wrestling broadcast by Year's End regular stops in San Jose and San Diego would earn space on the WWE UF calendar as did an opportunity for McMahon to muscle into both Detroit and St Louis for the latter City WWF commissioned TV tapings at the Chase Park Hotel home of Sam much Nick's wrestling at the chase tapings for 24 years previously and introduced two important figures at that inaugural filming one was McMahon's new co-host Mean Gene okaland freshly plucked from Vern gonya's AWA the other had wrestled in WWF before but until now had been more known for his own AWA exploits enter Hulk Hogan the Hulk star was lured away from gonya in the fall of 1983 and was Unleashed before the Saint Louis crowd on December 27 1983. one night earlier inside Madison Square Garden backlund's WWF Title reign of nearly six years ended at the hands of of the Iron Sheik who drew a corner stoppage from backland's manager Arnold scholand the Sheik was only intended to be a transitional Champion like Koloff and stasiak before him TV tapings in Allentown at the start of 1984 would see Hogan save the beltless backland from an assault by the wild Samoans backland endorsed Hogan as an ex-villain that had changed his ways and the dots began to connect themselves January 23 1984 was a pivotal day in pro wrestling history Hogan filled in for a supposedly injured Backlund challenging for iron Sheik's gold a total of 26 thousand fans inside Madison Square Garden four thousand of whom filled the internal closed circuit theater watched as Hogan Broke Free from Sheik's camel clutch before beating the champion to the mat and crushing him with his trademark leg drop in under six minutes Hulk Hogan was now the WWF World Heavyweight Champion and as the New York crowd plunged into sheer ecstasy a new era was Dawning before their very eyes Vincent James McMahon heir to Capital wrestling and founder of the worldwide Wrestling Federation would not live to see Hogan's Ascension into stardom passing away in May of 1984 at the age of 69. the passing of his father would not slow Vince's quest to monopolize the wrestling industry in the United States as increased revenue from the syndication deals allowed McMahon to make strong overtures to stars of other regions Rowdy Roddy Piper had been poached from Jim Crockett promotions fresh off a violent Feud with Greg The Hammer Valentine who himself re-entered the WWE fold around the same time Dr D David Schultz Cowboy Bob Orton and Mr Wonderful Paul orndorf helped fortify the heel side of the roster while the Beloved Junkyard Dog left Mid-South wrestling in his wake to head north Bobby The Brain Heenan Departed the AWA in order to continue managing one Hogan Nemesis after another in Main Events across the continent even the free birds of Michael Hayes Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts all came to WWF for a cup of coffee or rather a shot of Jack that summer the buyout of Stampede Wrestling by McMahon ensured jobs for four gifted young wrestlers in Dynamite Kid Davey Boy Smith Jim Neidhart and Bret Hart others such as Kamala Hillbilly Jim Brutus Beefcake Barry Windham and micro tundo padded the WWF depth chart and would all find different degrees of visibility before long pillaging Talent wasn't Vince's only interest he was Keen to continue his mcmanifest Destiny sticking the Block logo flag into the turf of the now enemy territories in June of 1984 the WWF ran for the first time in Ghana ruled Minneapolis drawing 11 000 fans to the Met Center the card featured AWA alumni such as Hogan Oakland Jesse Ventura as well as the iconic Andre the Giant who had passed through Minneapolis numerous times in his career the following week McMahon's Army marched through Memphis Louisville and Nashville leaving boot treads on the domains of Lawler and Jarrett the WWF ran Chicago for the first time that July with Hogan headlining in a title bout against Big John Studd at the UIC Pavilion the Lone Star State let McMahon in the front door shortly after Christmas with cards in Paul Bosh's Houston followed by Von Erich controlled Dallas not every initial foray was a success the Houston card Drew only 2 800 fans to the 16 000 plus seat Summit but McMahon's Ambitions weren't going to die from early setbacks the city that McMahon really wished to conquer Atlanta had already begun to receive visits from the WWF troop in August of 1984. following a bold purchase from one month earlier McMahon looked to further his reach on cable TV and sought a way to acquire the time slot retained by Georgia championship wrestling currently residing on TBS television owned by Ted Turner taking advantage of existing animosity between Ollie Anderson and his fellow co-owners Jack and Jerry Briscoe as well as Jim Barnett McMahon purchased the ownership shares of those three men to give himself trolling stake as well as the plum Saturday night time slot July 14 1984 would come to be known in wrestling parlance as Black Saturday when that evening's broadcast of world championship wrestling saw co-host Freddie Miller pass off the microphone to a genial Vince McMahon despite the promise to Turner to present an original product including matches shot at TBS Studios the replacement program was filled with previously filmed matches and highlights ratings began sinking rapidly as angry fans wanted their brand of wrestling and not the broader Larger than Life New York style that took its place Turner was curious about the viewership Decline and subsequently awarded time slots to Bill Watts's Mid-South wrestling and a new Georgia startup founded by Anderson both shows beat McMahon's WWF in the ratings on TBS and Vince losing money on the whole deal ended up selling the time slot for one million dollars to Jim Crockett Jr meanwhile McMahon's product continued to be a Cornerstone on the USA Network where all American was complemented by Prime Time wrestling and Tuesday night Titans even without the TBS Outpost the enterprising McMahon was doing all right for himself on this newfangled cable medium and it wasn't just the USA Network that was beaming the WWF out the wildly popular MTV had gone in on the wrestling act affording the WWF the sort of Pop Culture credibility it's so desired and it all began when Pop Mega star Cindy Loper at the height of her Fame met Captain Lou Albano on a flight to Puerto Rico in 1983. lopa's colorful new friend Albano proceeded to appear in the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun music video playing her loudmouth father lupa's involvement bled over into televised WWF where she and Albano would strike up a feud on an addition of Piper's Pit this led to each picking a representative for a women's wrestling match Lauper chose Wendy Richter and Albano picked Eternal Women's Champion The Fabulous Moolah MTV broadcast the brawl to end it all live from Madison Square Garden on July 23 1984. the first live wrestling match in cable TV history Richter won the belt before an ungodly large TV audience lending a seminal moment to the birth of The Rock and wrestling connection the connection would assist into 1985 when McMahon made a colossal gamble wanting a counter punch to Crockett's starcade events that aired on closed circuit TV Vince came up with his next big ticket WrestleMania sausage dispute whether or not the WWF actually lost money in 1984 by outspending its eventual gross income however there was no disputing that WrestleMania was Vince taking a chance that could have grave consequences if it were to fail the shared star power of Hogan and lorper would be put to use on Sunday afternoon March 31st 1985 inside the garden as would super villain Piper and pop culture sensation Mr T who's link up with Hogan was a match made in heaven the mainstream media was feasting on all things WWF in the run-up to the maiden Mania Hogan and Mr T's promotional campaign included a disastrous appearance on hot properties where host Richard Belzer's head ended up bleeding from a hogan-led wrestling demonstration gone wrong the pr tour ended on a more positive note however as the duo of Hogan and Mr T hosted Saturday Night Live the night before for the event on the day more than 19 000 fans filled MSG to witness what Guerrilla Monsoon repeatedly assured us all was a happening lopa and Richter stood tall over Muller and Leilani Kai Andre the Giant slammed Big John Stud the Stars rubbed shoulders with Liberace Billy Martin and Muhammad Ali and Hogan and T vanquished Piper and orndorf to send the crowd home Happy McMahon's Monumental gamble had paid off and in more ways than one more than one million customers tuned in to see the spectacle across the United States with WrestleMania grossing between a reported four and six million dollars in the wake of WrestleMania another television foothold would soon offer itself to McMahon the network kind veteran NBC Producer Dick Ebersole the outgoing shot caller at Saturday Night Live had seen the elephantine numbers done by the WWF on MTV for the brawl to end it all and its follow-up the war to settle the score and made a deal with McMahon to broadcast infrequently run wrestling cards in place of Saturday Night Live reruns Saturday night's Main Event made its debut on May 11 1985 and it would prove to be a ratings smash even in the late night time slot the 90-minute broadcasts would almost uniformly see Hogan defending the WWF championship against some fiend du jour alongside appearances by other popular stars of the day the broadcasts set the template for WWE programming of the future as Legend has it eversole showed Vince and wife Linda the finished product of the first episode many hours before it aired and Vince was reportedly flawed by how much the NBC production glitzed up his wrestling show as 1985 wore on WWF programming would take on a more shimmering lustrous quality with ebisol befriending McMahon and helping him develop his desire to make the WWF look a state of the art as possible Hogan's popularity continued to know no bounds as he entered the second year of his reign with no sign of diminishing he would be augmented by the now familiar strains of Rick derringer's real American which debuted in music video form in early 1986. on the subject of debuts McMahon continued to enhance his already brimming roster with renowned stars from other places Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and King Kong Bundy arrived just in time to reinforce that first WrestleMania while the mesmerizing Macho Man Randy Savage arrived several months later with brother leaping Lani potho along for the ride ornery Brawlers like the Ageless Terry Funk and the slithering Jake the Snake Roberts followed soon after each adding copiously to the show in late 1986 the WWF appeared to have a pair of loser gimmicks that would soon improve upon themselves a cheerful Elvis and impersonator in The Honky Tonk Man and some road warrior rip-offs in demolition both acts going forwards would become belt winning Mainstays in the WWF this Vivid group of eccentrics would fill out the bodies of the cards that McMahon brought to another money-making medium pay-per-view November 1985's wrestling classic the first official pay-per-view did a poultry home audience but WrestleMania 2 the show that occupied three time zones would lap it five times over drawing 250 000 buys for Hogan's successful title defense over King Kong Bundy inside the newly minted Blue Bar steel cage WrestleMania 3 needed to be even bigger and McMahon had designs on filling the expansive Pontiac Silverdome to serve as a monument to the wwf's incomprehensible power Hogan would play the protagonist in the final act all he needed was the perfect Nemesis to get people's attention McMahon turned 40 year old Andre the Giant heel by aligning him with an opportunistic Bobby Heenan and having him demand a title match from a stunned Hulk somewhere between 78 093 000 fans depending on who you listen to filled the silver dome for a 12-match card that saw Rowdy Roddy Piper allegedly retire after conquering Adrian Adonis while Ricky Steamboat outlasted Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage in one of the most influential and dramatic matches in company history in the main event Hogan found a way to slay the Beast slamming Andre to the canvas in the quintessential WrestleMania moment before vanquishing him with his iconic leg drop an estimated 400 000 American households tuned in expecting to witness a grand spectacle and that's exactly what they got and it wouldn't take long for the pay-per-view calendar to expand Beyond just WrestleMania as a tent pole Thanksgiving night 1987 saw the birth of Survivor Series a thinly veiled uppercut to Crockett who was attempting to launch starrcade as a pay-per-view the same night the elimination match special bagata cable TV airing of the Royal Rumble a Battle Royal with timed entries that quickly became a perennial favorite joining the pay-per-view calendar in 1988. SummerSlam completed the classic quartet occupying space at the end of August 1988. WrestleMania however remained as the company's Prestige event and another TV special would be used to turn up the heat for the fourth Incarnation simply dubbed the main event the Friday night airing went out live from Indianapolis where a Hogan Andre rematch for the title was promised a staggering 33 million viewers switched on to the tune of a 15.2 Nielsen rating both American wrestling records to see Andre and Hogan's four-year Reign through the use of a supposed imposter referee who rendered a three count despite Hogan's shoulder clearly being up after Andre tried handing the belt over to the Million Dollar Man Ted dibiosi per a business Arrangement the title was vacated WWF president Jack Tunney blocking the transfer and announcing a tournament for the championship at WrestleMania IV the vacancy and ending of Hogan's Reign cleared the way for another Babyface Champion with the potential for a long and prosperous Reign Randy Macho Man Savage after turning Goods late in the summer of 1987 Savage enhanced the fan base he'd had as a spellbinding too cool for school buddy with the fans that always sign with the heroes a handshake with eventual Mega Power teammate Hogan was all the endorsement Savage needed as the Macho Man ascended into the top spot through the Wrestlemania 4 Tournament the year of 1988 would see the WWF roster continue to morph as old guardians from the start of the National Expansion began to be phased out Paul orndorf Don Morocco Ken Patera the Junkyard Dog King Kong Bundy and Ricky Steamboat all exited stage left the touring group started to get younger Slicker and in some cases cheerfully gordia the Rockers and Mr Perfect left the AWA bringing their cultured talents to New York the Big Boss Man traded in his Big Bubba Rogers Garb to head north while the powers of pain departed Crockett's territory for those same greener pastures more than ever as far as rest sling went the WWF was indisputably the place to be elsewhere the castle walls caved in for the fading dominions the wrestling territories that lacked the Forward Thinking necessary to survive in Changing Times diminished anyone who was anyone possessing even a modicum of spark was plucked from those groups through the lure of the Stamford dollar Houston's Paul Bosch linked up with McMahon in 1987 and ended his decades-long involvement with the business after retiring months later Stuart's resurrected stampedes Kansas City Central States wrestling and Knoxville's Continental championship wrestling would pass into Oblivion by the end of the decade golia's AWA was still standing albeit riddled with enough bullet holes to classify Among The Walking Dead Eternal bastions like championship wrestling from Florida and this St Louis wrestling club each dwindled down to shells of their former selves and were absorbed by Jim Crockett promotions ditto for Bill Watts's Mid-South UWF promotion a once Innovative and Slick wrestling entity that was done in by Oklahoma's oil recession in 1986 but Crockett himself was on borrowed time hemorrhaging money and facing Relentless pressure from a hyper-aggressive McMahon staring down the possibility of bankruptcy in the fall of 1988. Crockett sold the farm to a man who had rumored buying interest for some time Ted Turner The Eccentric media Mogul had long held an affinity for pro wrestling as he broadcast Georgia championship wrestling on his networks dating back to 1972 and like McMahon he had three things in abundance entrepreneurial Spirit the ability to change with the times and loads of money The Story Goes that at the time of the sale Turner called up McMahon the same McMahon whose TBS occupancy had irked him a few years earlier and told him he was now in the wrestling business McMahon claims to have coolly responded that's nice Ted I'm in the entertainment business as usual appeared to be the Mantra over at the WWF as the machine continued developing exciting new stars Chief among them the Ultimate Warrior for 15 months nobody could get the Intercontinental title off of the cowardly and instant see A Honky Tonk Man until the face painted Gladiator charged the ring at SummerSlam 1988 and flattened the champion before he could even remove his sequined jumpsuit the WWF continued its painless shape-shifting taking on yet more Crockett cast offs including the disgruntled Duo of Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson with fellow Horseman compatriots Barry Windham and JJ Dillon the latter of whom would serve for eight years in McMahon's front office even Dusty Rhodes the ever beloved American dream and wrestling Maverick turned up in New York in the spring of 1989 as yet another foot soldier but life in McMahon land remained about star attraction Hogan who regained the WWF Championship from now former friend Savage at WrestleMania 5 in Atlantic City The Mega Powers split that February proved to be a well-executed drama when it played it out live on NBC and business reflected High interest in the match the 767 000 buys that WrestleMania 5 did would remain a company record for 10 years Hogan's mainstream appeal and worldwide adoration among fans especially children was enough to justify him starring in a feature film where he played a professional wrestler No Holds Barred was Unleashed upon theaters in June 1989. hitting Hogan as Rip Thomas against a frightening force of nature called Zeus the film's storylines spilled over into WWF television as Sue showed up on several occasions to attack Hulk this led into the main event of SummerSlam 1989 with Hogan and new best friend Brutus Beefcake vanquishing Zeus and Savage to the tune of 625 000 pay-per-view buys the highest for any of wwf's August cornerstones for nine years while the WWF was enjoying positive growth in various key Arenas the Cosmetic growth had attracted the wrong kind of attention on March 27 1990 pennsylvania-based osteopath Dr George zahorian was indicted by a grand jury on 15 counts of Distributing Controlled Substances zahorian appeared at WWF events in Pennsylvania on behalf of the State athletic commission serving as ringside physician dating back to the mid 70s but the doctor was more than just a peripheral figure among the action he was also selling performance enhancers such as anabolic steroids to the wrestlers Focus turned to zahorian when a weightlifter named William Dunn working as a confidential informant for federal investigators made a drug purchase from him in a recorded conversation with Dunn zahorian confided with his customer that he was giving him better prices than the wrestlers a raid on zahorian's office would follow and an FBI witness would claim that during the course of that raid zohorian was destroying receipts bearing the names of several wrestling personalities among them Rowdy Roddy Piper and Lord Alfred Hayes in light of the troubling news the WWF pressed onward with WrestleMania 6 bringing more than a reported 67 000 fans to the relatively new Sky Dome in Toronto where two impeccably muscled superheroes would Clash not only for both men's singles titles but for the mantle of the federation's chief conqueror for the first time in nearly nine years Hulk Hogan's shoulders were pinned to the canvas in clean defeat as the Ultimate Warrior dethroned the Everlasting guardian of the Ring the match was meant to be a torch passer from the 36 year old stalwart to a popular Gladiator six years his Junior to turn into a new chapter from the yellowing pages of holcomania Warriors Reign at the top however would suffer paling mightily to Hogan and Savages runs as Champion a lack of fresh heel opponents was blamed in part as the likes of Rick Rude and Mr Perfect were among those that Warrior had previously trounced Warrior didn't connect with audiences on Hogan's more human-like level and was seen as a placeholder instead of the new torchbearer in fact business fell off with Warrior as champion and when Hogan returned from a k-fabe injury at SummerSlam 1990 it seemed like only a matter of time before Hulk reclaimed his throne while one character with otherworldly elements was struggling in the driver's seat the WWF would unleash another that fall at the annual Survivor Series pay-per-view Ted dibioc introduced a mystery partner for his million dollar team and it wasn't just an any mystery partner it was the six foot ten Man in Black known as the Undertaker the real life Mark Callaway had been plucked from WCW at the end of the summer and was made over as an undead mortician whose stalking stride and unblinking eyes took what could have been a laughably cartoonish role and made it deathly real in that first TV appearance The Undertaker over achieved compelling audiences with a dominant performance while that gimmick proved to be an instant sensation other escapees from the Titan lab were not that very same night a gigantic egg was hatched after weeks of breathless buildup and its occupant was revealed to be Hector Guerrero in a turkey costume the gobbledygooka as he was known proved to be the antithesis of The Undertaker as outlandish and embarrassing as the Undertaker was awesome and inspired such has been The Duality of the largest pro wrestling entity on the planet while the Undertaker's time as a main event draw would come sooner rather than later A different villain would get the nod headed into Wrestlemania VII Sergeant Slaughter the 42 year old had long traded on his supposed tenure as a drill instructor with the United States Marine Corps for his pro wrestling identity but in the summer of 1990 it had taken on a new and unexpected twist in the wake of an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that August Slaughter took on the role of Iraqi sympathizer while expressing disgusts at the United States for having gone soft the WWF was walking a thread thin line with this angle especially his tensions in the region continued to rise as Operation Desert Storm was beginning to kick off Slaughter defeated Warrior at the 1991 Royal Rumble to capture the WWF Championship death threats were reportedly a norm for Slaughter in this period while Ultra patriotic was positioned as his next Challenger that Showdown came at Wrestlemania VII in Los Angeles an indoor show that was originally scheduled as an outdoor event at the Los Angeles Coliseum possibly due in part to the bad press from wwf's exploitation of an ongoing military conflict WrestleMania Advanced ticket sales were poor nonetheless Hogan dropped the leg on the dastardly traitor and Reign number three began amid the Star-Spangled fanfare [Music] Hogan's name continued to make headlines but not for positive reasons in June 1991 in a Pennsylvania Courthouse Dr George sahorian was convicted on 12 total counts counts of Distributing steroids and four counts of illegally Distributing painkillers months later zahorian was sentenced to three years in prison after potentially facing a maximum of 44. Roddy Piper was among several witnesses called by the prosecution though one of the subpoenaed names was Hogan however in a pre-trial ruling it was decreed by judge William Caldwell that Hogan the indisputable face of wwf's Public Image would not have to testify but Hogan would speak on the matter I mean what would amount to a rather harmful self-inflicted wound the reigning WWF Champion appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show weeks after zahorian's conviction to discuss his own alleged usage as the doctor had said in his testimony that he'd sold steroids to Hogan on his talk show appearance Hogan downplayed the role of steroid in his career saying he took them only three times for rehabilitative purposes Not only was Hogan's credibility Shattered by his dubious claims but the WWF entered into a period of Swift decline due to its star player coming off as utterly dishonest Saturday night's main event was officially canceled from the MBC schedule although its decline had been in motion even before the steroid trial SummerSlam 1991 taking place a month after the Hogan debacle saw a 20 drop in buys from just a year earlier the Ultimate Warrior was then fired immediately after SummerSlam after a contract based falling out with McMahon Savage who had intended to stay retired after losing a career-ending match to Warrior at Wrestlemania VII was aggressively coaxed back to make up for warriors absence and Hogan's dimming wattage contrary to all of the calamities was one of the wwf's most captivating Acquisitions ever reigning WCW Champion Rick Flair the Nature Boy was very much the physical embodiment of Crockett Turner wrestling and at the time he had an ongoing dispute with widely despised WCW president Jim Hurd Flair contested herd's attempts to repackage and phase him down the card in the end Flair was fired two weeks before the Great American bash pay-per-view and just so happened to be in possession of the physical belt when Bobby Heenan as flares on-screen representative brought the big gold belt onto WWF programming it looked like a license to print money WCW Champion Flair vs WWF Champion Hogan some way somehow after controversial title switches between Hogan and Undertaker that Autumn the title was once again vacated leading to Flair winning the WWF championship in the 1992 Royal Rumble match a championship bout pitting Flair against Hogan seemed for certain like the main event for WrestleMania 8 in Indianapolis but plans changed due to Hogan's fragmented Public Image it was decided that Hulk would take a sabbatical following WrestleMania while Flair was instead moved into a deeply personal Feud with Randy Savage at the time some of the wwf's more muscular stars were being Let Go including the Warlords Hercules Superfly Jimmy snooker among others among the few Bright Stars at the time was reliable technician and popular hero Brett The Hitman heart Brett would drop the Intercontinental title to brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith before 80 000 fans in London's Wembley Stadium at SummerSlam 1992 in what's considered one of the greatest matches in WWE history that Autumn Hart became the answer to wwf's sudden need for a new face of the company one that was both dependable and Scandal free heart suddenly defeated Flair for the WWF championship at a taping in his native Canada the WWF more than ever looked like a different company and the man leading the way as Titleist was cast from outside the usual mold foreign General developed cracks as the WWF looked to reinvent itself in 1993 and Beyond on January 11th Monday Night Raw debuted on the promotions TV schedule replacing eight-year standby Prime Time wrestling the then one hour broadcast emanated from the Manhattan Center in New York City and promised unpredictable chaos with a decidedly New York bite including a stripped-down aesthetic and a break from some of the usual Sports entertainment tropes McMahon and Savage helmed the commentary table with local radio personality Rob Bartlett whose lack of product knowledge and esoteric sense of humor did not mesh well with McMahon's time-tested routine as equal parts announcer and Pitch man a few tweaks melded with a few memorable moments and matches quickly turned raw into the wwf's incontestable a show while change was in the air the company still clung to its past Hulk Hogan resurfaced that February in what would be his loan raw appearance for nine years though Hogan was ostensibly there to shore up the prestige at a distance from the main event the hulkster won his fifth world title in convoluted fashion at WrestleMania 9 defeating new Champion Yokozuna right after his victory over Bret Hart Hogan was drummed out that summer after losing the title back to the mammoth villain only to be replaced by Lex Luger who was suddenly cast as a milk drinking flag-waving Patriot in the Hogan style in November 1993 more than two years after George zahorian was convicted for among other charges eight counts of Distributing steroids Vince McMahon himself was indicted in a Brooklyn courtroom McMahon was charged with conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids to defraud the United States Food and Drug Administration and a legal possession of anabolic steroids with intent to distribute in total McMahon potentially faced eight years in prison five hundred thousand dollars in personal fines and one million dollars in finds levied at Titan Sports McMahon pled not guilty at the arraignment and was released on a 250 000 Bond he would provide commentary on the following evening's Survivor series with no evidence of distress in his demeanor or tone in a statement released through his lawyers McMahon declared that the prosecution was now trying to make me responsible for what the doctor did I did no such thing the Press also quoted McMahon as saying through a statement to turn my personal use into a crime they claim I shared some of those steroids with a friend and that somehow made me a dealer as the trial date moved closer McMahon maintained a regular presence on WWF broadcasts whose crowds had dwindled with wrestling Challenge and Superstars tapings being held in glaringly smaller venues the Monday Night Raw Sessions by Design took place in venues that provided an intimate feel but the weekend shows felt as though they were shrinking before the eyes of the viewer the ravages of Scandal as well as a diminished roster had the WWF headed in the wrong direction as the 10th WrestleMania approached there appeared to be more uncertainty about the operation in 1994 than there was during McMahon's big gamble nine years earlier critically WrestleMania 10 proved to be a smashing success on the weight of two brilliant matches Bret Hart losing a feverishly competitive match to brother Owen in the latter's breakout performance and Razor Ramon and Sean Michaels raising the bar in an owing ladder match for the Intercontinental title both bouts serve to demonstrate that even in trying times production could still exceed expectations at night's end a wounded Bret Hart regained the WWF Championship from Yokozuna while a full-throated McMahon proudly barked that Hart was at the Forefront of the company's blast off into the next decade at times the WWF chairman undoubtedly had to wonder how much of that suggested decade he would even be around for 17 days Witnesses were called and many questions were asked the likes of Dr zahorian Rick Rude Kevin Nails wackults Pat Patterson The Ultimate Warrior Big John Stud and Hulk Hogan all testified as did various doctors and office Personnel including Emily Feinberg at one time McMahon's executive assistant two of the charges against McMahon relating to possession with intent to distribute would drop days before the jury deliberations began said deliberations felt like an eternity with the jurors returning several times to hear certain parts of testimonies read again at times it seemed as though a guilty verdict could have reared its head based on the agonizing passage of time the jury spent weighing everything carefully on Friday July 22nd 1994 the jury returned with a verdict of not guilty for both McMahon and Titan Sports Witnesses say those present exploded in a cheerful uproar McMahon gave an interview to Fox 5 New York that evening and admitted I had everything riding on this case I'd be less than candid to say I wasn't nervous I was definitely nervous in the Fallout of the trial for the Victorious Federation there were still pieces to pick up I know means was the company stronger than ever as legal costs added up to around a reported 3 million dollars and the biggest star in the business Hulk Hogan had recently turned up in rival WCW winning their world title from Ric Flair Macho Man Randy Savage disgruntled with his less active role on WWF programming brokered a deal to follow Hogan to Atlanta that November and McMahon he was seeking a new hero one comparable to the heavyweight machine that the hulkster portrayed for him he turned to 35 year old Kevin Nash who for the previous year plus had plied his trade in New York as the mostly muted diesel standing a shade under seven feet tall with a solid frame on top of thin legs Diesel's arrival was heralded by the menacing sounds of a tractor-trailer's blaring horn after heart dropped the WWF gold to now middle-aged Bob Backlund at that Year's Survivor Series backland couriered the title onto Diesel's waste three nights later at Madison Square Garden eating a jackknife powerbomb and being pinned in a mere eight seconds unfortunately for Nash he was left to preside over one of the weakest WWF rosters one could remember the erosion of the territories eradicated the seasoning process that made for stronger performers leaving less fertile grounds for WWE to pluck Prime talents from while some gifted wrestlers did enter the fold like Al Snow Chris candido and quebecca Pierre they were given gimmicks that didn't seem to promise much upward Mobility be they glorified Power Rangers arrogant Gym Rats or literal Pirates pay-per-views stumbled under the weight of so many dismal disinteresting characters most notably the critically panned 1995 King of the Ring in Philadelphia the tournament Was Won by the 550 pound Mabel following a night of dull uneventful action at times had it not been for Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels routinely putting on show stealing performances a number of those cards would have been total losses WrestleMania 11 in Hartford headlined by NFL legend Lawrence Taylor taking on Bam Bam Bigelow did the lowest Mania Buy rate since 1986. and by 1995 Millions upon millions of American homes were wired with Turner network television the home of the brand new WCW program Monday Nitro the brainchild of Eric Bischoff Nitro parallel wwf's raw in the 9pm time slot and premiered on Labor Day 1995 while raw was preempted for US Open tennis coverage the maiden brought came equipped with a core rattling bombshell Lex Luger who had debuted as a WWF wrestler in early 1993 made a shocking return to WCW even Vince McMahon was shocked Luger's WWF contract had lapsed and the total package covertly struck a deal to return to WCW after meeting with Bischoff at the home of Sting the ratings battle between the two shows was a virtual deadlock by the end of 1995. though Nitro certainly felt fresher than its raw counterpart live most weeks with an influx of dazzling International stars as well as the willingness to put pay-per-view caliber matches on free television Bischoff did everything he could to make his show stand out as the show's play-by-play announcer Bischoff would even sometimes reveal the results of the taped episodes of raw running off it as a means of degrading what felt subjectively like an inferior product one of the wwf's return volleys was to commission satirical sketches that depicted Ted Turner or billionaire Ted as a desperate and tyrannical megalomaniac eager to trample McMahon's poor little mom-and-pop entertainment show however the Conqueror of the territories garnered little sympathy the skits also portrayed Hogan and Savage as old and decrepit but at least WWF was countering their demonstrated age with a youthful weapon Sean Michaels The Heartbreak Kid became too popular to be a heel and turned good shortly after WrestleMania 11 when his flamboyance Charisma and captivating Showmanship made him into the hottest wrestling star in North America the decision to put the world title on Michael's was made in the summer of 1995 with Bret Hart after eventually winning the belt from diesel at the 1995 Survivor Series tabbed to pass the torch to his fellow Workhorse at WrestleMania 12. the contest would be a 60-minute Iron Man match that was to Showcase perhaps the two finest overall wrestlers of the era following a scoreless hour the match spilled into overtime where Michael's delivered two ardents Super Kicks to the chin of the Hitman and with that Shawn Michaels stood tall with a belt that most fans and critics believed he'd long deserved Michael's crowning moment came with a sliver of Bittersweet flavor good friends Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were both on their way out of the company lured to WCW with the promise of bigger books and lighter schedules the bullish Bischoff sought to enhance this product by making WCW look like the place to be and once Hall and Nash arrived on the scene the pendulum in the Monday night ratings battle went with them the presentation of the two WWF defectors was masqueraded as a hostile takeover from the north as these so-called Outsiders disrupted Nitro as they so pleased when Hulk Hogan memorably joined their malevolent cell at the 1996 bash at the beach the New World Order became the talk of the industry perhaps Hall and Nash's most radical act in 1996 didn't even occur in a WCW ring the biggest breach of Unwritten wrestling ethics came on their final night in the WWF when the two men along with Michaels and fellow Clickster Hunter Hearst Helmsley executed what became known as The Curtain Call the mixture of good guys and bad guys shed the ring at the end of a Madison Square Garden card The Click throwing fictitious allegiances aside to share a moment as real-life best friends but a number of WWF officials and wrestlers took exception to the Defiance of Cafe and Helmsley the only one McMahon could feasibly punish was left holding the bag the 1996 King of the Ring had been earmarked for Helmsley to win but that Accolade would instead go to 31 year old Stone Cold Steve Austin the former WCW Mainstay was now presenting himself as a friendless alpha male who would stomp anybody's guts out to get to where he needed to be Austin's aggressive nihilism began to resonate with the WWF fanbase especially upon winning the tournament over battered veteran Jake Roberts as the snake was helped Away by officials Austin spewed venomous rhetoric at the coronation stage subverting scripture when he bellowed talk about your Psalms talk about John 3 16 Austin 3 316 Says I Just Whipped Your Ass that little nugget of improv would go a long way especially as more fans flock to the freshness of Austin at his most Unapologetic an alarming segment in which Austin tried to break into former friend Brian pillman's house while pillman studied a handgun toward the door almost got raw thrown off the air but undeniably got people talking Stone Cold was the wwf's hottest commodity and a bitter Feud with Bret Hart fresh off a long sabbatical would only put Austin through the roof it was at WrestleMania 13 that the two arch Rivals battled in a brutal submission match that has long been hailed as one of the greatest matches in the company's annals Austin lost the match but came out ahead as a genuine star when with blood caking his scrunched up face in an iconic visual he refused to submit to Heart sharpshooter the wwf's most combustible weapon in the wrestling war was one that could stand Victorious even in defeat [Music] the spilling of Austin's blood was not authorized by Vince McMahon nor anyone else in the wwf's power structure in fact according to Heart McMahon queried him shortly after about whether or not a blade was used to cause the now famous Crimson mask that Austin donned while the act of blading was frowned upon by image conscious McMahon in the spring of 1997 the Technicolor innocence of the new generation had already begun fading into Shades of Gray throughout 1997 the WWF continued gravitating more and more toward adult programming factions were formed based upon racial tensions and nationalist World Views the women of the WWF including Sunny Marlena and Sable pushed the limits of sex appeal with Sable in particular going to comic book heroin lengths as her star began to rise curse words and obscene gestures the very acrylics that Austin painted his canvas with saw wider usage from the overall locker room though Austin's Unapologetic immorality still stood out above the angry din as the summer of 1997 came to a close however he would no longer be cornering the market in that area at that Year's SummerSlam Sean Michaels began a heel turn after striking the Undertaker with an errant chair shot in the Fallout the man who had risen to WWE's Apex a year earlier as a playfully confident go-getter took on a more aggressively in your face attitude consolidating his place at the top by flanking himself with real-life best friend Hunter Hearst Helmsley the two along with China and bodyguard Rick Rude became Degeneration X a punk-influenced group of rabble rousers that stuck their thumbs squarely in the eye of authority the DX faction was ideal for Fanning the Flames of tension of which there was plenty between Michaels and Heart during Michael's lackluster run at the top of the WWF McMahon re-signed heart to a massive 20-year contract that would see the cherished star earn 1.5 million dollars a year over the first three years as a headline performer Michaels was unhappy that Hart was earning twice as much as his six-figure salary and serendipitous to the then Champion Michaels developed in a current career ending knee injury in February of 1997 causing him to lose the belt via forfeiture the animosity between Michaels and hearts did not end there in the spring of 1997 Michaels made an on-air illusion to Heart having an affair with sunny which led to a locker room brawl weeks later with the Hitman the reported Victor in the Skirmish Michaels walked out of the company claiming an unsafe working environment both men were positioned as villains come the 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal as WWF Champion heart leader of the anti-American Heart Foundation battle DX General Michaels for the title while that story was delectable enough the real life drama would be even juicier as dating back to September of that year McMahon attempted to renege on Hart's 20-year deal claiming financial hardship McMahon initially offered the lucrative contract in order to retain the star's Services when Bischoff came calling but when Vince's loyalty wavered he urged Brett to contact WCW though Hart wanted to stay in his WWF home he reluctantly hammered out a deal with Bischoff which became official the week before Survivor series The Hitman the current WWF Champion was Atlanta bound sending the wrestling news cycle into overdrive upon word leaking out the only remaining tie-up was heart refusing to lose the belt in his home country to a man he felt was selfish and petulant in Michael's believing he needed to get the belt off of Heart by Survivor Series end lest Bischoff go on Nitro the following night and declare that he'd signed away the reigning champion of his competitor the chairman conspired with others to forcibly defeat Hart at the event the Montreal screw job as it would become known was born inadvertently from heart's willingness to trust Michaels in the pre-match Hart suggested a spot in which Michaels wraps him in his own Sharpshooter finisher only for heart to counter it instead Michael cinched The Hold Up and Under the orders of a presiding McManus ringside referee Earl hebner quickly called for the Bell to Signal an apparent submission in the ugly post-match scene Hart spattered McMahon on camera but saved his best blow for behind dressing room doors when in front of assembled wrestlers and staffers the outgoing title holder struck McMahon with an angry uppercut clouds of uncertainty hung over the WWF as one of the most respected and tenured locker room leaders had been faithlessly drummed out by the boss one month earlier 35 year old Brian pillman was found dead in a hotel room on the day of in your house 18. a show on which he was supposed to wrestle Steve Austin was still mending from a near catastrophic spinal injury sustained at that Year's SummerSlam though was able to at least work short matches after months spent recuperating new WWF Champion Michaels was already an unpopular and divisive figure in the locker room except now his peers had yet another reason to distrust him WCW Monday Nitro was continuing to lap raw in the ratings having gone unbeaten for nearly a year and a half needing to generate excitement McMahon began 1998 with an attention-grabbing acquisition Iron Mike Tyson months earlier Tyson made International headlines when he bit through the ear of opponent Evander Holyfield during a title fight in Las Vegas the revocation of Tyson's boxing license by the Nevada State athletic commission gave the former heavyweight champion some unasked for free time and eventually the WWF Came Calling Tyson was signed to work WrestleMania 14 as the guest enforcer for the main event but it would not be as an impartial Observer the night after winning the 1998 Royal Rumble Match Austin disrupted an in-ring ceremony hosted by McMahon in which guest Mike Tyson was to have his WrestleMania involvement announced Austin took exception to McMahon trumpeting Tyson's tough guy credentials and instigated a melee that saw the boxers Entourage and a horde of WWF officials pushing shoving and pulling apart mainstream entities from NBC's The Today Show to ESPN sports center breathlessly covered the Mayhem mostly treating it as an engrossing work of fiction but other news outlets added a dash of line blurring ambiguity could this have been real a performance gone off script anything was possible when the baddest man on the planet was involved Austin rolled into WrestleMania 14 in Boston the Challenger to Michael's WWF championship and captured the first world title of his career despite his established allegiance to DX it was Tyson who carried out a double cross counting Michael's shoulders to the mat before raising Austin's hand in front of infinite flickering flash bulbs Austin and the wwf's collective Sunrise would also be Michael's apparent Sunset as an accumulation of serious back injuries as well as other lingering ailments led to what would be a lengthy sabbatical from the ring for the Heartbreak Kid with Michael's out of the picture one might think Austin would be hurting for villainous opposition instead Stone Cold ended up locking horns with the Rival with which he would become the most synonymous Vince McMahon himself McMahon gave in to the increased disdain that the WWF crowds had Shone towards him since Montreal and proceeded to roll with it becoming the pompadord Lex Luthor to Austin's blue collared Superman April 13 1998 was the date that Austin tired of McMahon's plane spoken dislike towards him challenged his boss to a title match that night on Raw though wrestler vs executive tropes have become the norm in the two decades since this was breaking ground in 1998 and when McMahon accepted Austin's challenge word quickly spread roar's ratings had been rising ever since Tyson angrily shoved Austin that January but this was where the dam burst after 22 months of losing the weekly ratings battle to Nitro without exception raw won the Night by a Nielsen score of 4.6 to 4 0.3 the advertised Austin McMahon match was seen by 4.4 million American Homes the highest quarter hour done by either show in a head-to-head situation all tuning in for a match that ended up not even taking place the edgier suddenly hippered WWF were nine of the next 13 ratings battles captivating the audience not only with the Austin McMahon Saga but a Cadre of characters that were fresher than the Aging WCW Main Event scene while Hulk Hogan Randy Savage Roddy Piper and others showed their age on the other Channel Austin stood at the Forefront of a legitimate New Generation that wrapped itself in the label of attitude in Michael's absence Helmsley now known as Triple H led the second build of DX consisting of China a returning Sean Waltman rebranded as X-Pac and former mid-card lifers Road dog gun Billy Gunn the New Age Outlaws the new additions found themselves inconsiderably cooler roles than they portrayed just three years earlier Intercontinental Champion The Rock had thrust himself into the spotlight through casual wit radiant Charisma and a leading man's Aura Glenn Jacobs cast aside the dental scraper and novocaine in order to play The Undertaker's char-broiled brother Kane a role that he would own for more than 20 years Mick Foley earned permanent Main Event residents portraying whichever distinct personality suited him that week be it the Fearsome Cactus Jack the masochistic mankind or the dorky and proud Dude Love disable complemented her sensual charms with a sudden Mean Streak standing up to men and women with a fiery Spirit select independent Stars would receive additional training through WWF camps and the first wave of promising graduates included always eager adult film star Val Venus and the muted Avenger known as Edge these characters filled out the top of WWF cards throughout 1998 and into 1999. the ratings continued to grow in what was being heralded as a new golden age for professional wrestling even if the designs were of questionable taste attempted castrations embalmings ritual sacrifices kidnappings and miscarriages all took residence among the uptick in blood loss broken furniture and near nudity in the build to WrestleMania 15 in 1999 raw found itself lapping Nitro in the ratings by upwards of two full ratings points or more per week when said WrestleMania set a new company record with 800 000 pay-per-view buys to see Austin regain the WWF Championship from the rock it seemed as though the good times were fit to roll tragedy would strike two months later at the over-the-edge pay-per-view in Kansas City Missouri early on in the event 34 year old Owen Hart doing a comedic turn as Alter Ego the blue blazer fell 78 feet to his death while making his entrance due to an apparent issue with the suspension Cable's release mechanism the company made the decision to continue the show even after learning that heart had been pronounced dead at the local hospital in the years since the company has been criticized for choosing to go onward with the event While others have conceded that under the horrifying circumstances perhaps it may have been hard to think rationally the following night's episode of Raw was a two-hour tribute to Owen's memory with comments from his peers as well as matches run without any adherence to ongoing stories Owen's wife Martha and children Athena and OJ continue to uphold his legacy outside of WWE establishing the Owen Hart foundation in his memory the month prior the United Paramount Network afforded WWF a two-hour block on Thursday night April 29 1999. WWF Smackdown debuted as a pilot episode of sorts with 3.8 million viewers tuning in to see the super team of Austin and rock take on Undertaker and Triple H in the main event four months later Smackdown debuted as a full-time Thursday night show giving the company another two hours of Vital Air time per week to let the frenzies play out on network television no less raw meanwhile had extended its ratings dominance over an ailing modeled Nitro by three or more points per week turning the Monday night Wars into an exercise in one-sided tedium to add to wcw's woes stars of considerable value and Renown were flocking to the competition the seven-foot Paul the giant white turned up in February of 1999 redubbed The Big Show ambitious Cruiserweight Chris Jericho tired of hitting an impenetrable ceiling in Atlanta was given a god-like entrance on the August 9 1999 episode of Raw upon entering the New Millennium disgruntled WCW Star Wars Chris Benoit Dean malenko Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn received their releases and debuted on mass on Raw as the radicals added to ECW Imports Taz and The Dudley boys Dynamite Duos like Edge and Christian The Hardy Boys and Too Cool the wildly popular Rikishi and Olympic gold medal wrestler turned blue chip sensation Kurt Angle the WWF roster appeared deeper than it had been in years the year 2000 itself would boast some of the greatest pay-per-views the company has ever produced from the Royal Rumble to backlash to SummerSlam Wrestlemania 2000 topped its predecessors with a new record of 824 000 buys Vince McMahon was doing so well that he announced the commission of a new football league the XFL to begin play in 2001 in June 2000 media conglomerate Viacom won a court decision that allowed it the rights to WWF programming via bidding higher than the USA Network beginning that September after 17 years of making USA its cable home WWE would bring raw to the national network where it could continue its routine thrashing of nitro from a different perch following a series of creative missteps and the merger of AOL and Time Warner time was finally up for world championship wrestling on March 26 2001 what would be the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro began with the new owner of the company assets Vince McMahon McMahon had acquired video libraries and trademarks as well as select contracts of WCW as nitro and thunder were effectively canceled by Turner Broadcasting head Jamie kelmer in all McMahon spent 4.2 million dollars to acquire the important properties 2.5 million for the name and logo and 1.7 million for the year's worth of footage the final Nitro ended with a surreal simulcasting with WWF Raw where on two different cable channels Vince could only watch as Sunshine arrived at wcw's production and announced that he in storyline had bought WCW before his father could nights later the WWF held what's regarded as the most acclaimworthy event that they have ever produced WrestleMania X7 more than 67 000 fans packed Houston's Astrodome to witness what many have cited to be the end of the last wrestling golden age and lights out on the Attitude Era the show had everything a tag team ladder match car wreck some comedic reprieve a lot of chaos and a main event for the ages pitting WWF Champion The Rock Against Steve Austin returning from major surgery in the final stage Austin shockingly accepted help from three-year rival McMahon in order to defeat the Rock and now fiendish Texas rattlesnake walked the company and the drastically altered business into Uncharted Territory while Austin's unexpected crossover to the dark side would prove to be a landmark moment over the Long Haul more Buzz centered around the impending implementation of the WCW Acquisitions beginning in late April 2001 more than two dozen Grapplers from the sunken ship would find refuge in mcmahonland where they'd be positioned as an opposing Force us initially plans were to feature WCW as a separate entity even going as far as McMahon considering giving them the raw time slot for their own program while WWF would keep Smackdown negative reception to the WCW Centric matches on WWF programming scuppered those plans and what became the invasion was the backup anticipation was high for the wwfwcw turf war but before long the excitement was quelled outside of Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page WCW lacked any major established Stars thanks to the Goldbergs and stings of the world still subsisting on their massive contracts with Time Warner various WWF Stars including Steve Austin Shane McMahon and others crossed over to the WCW side to boost their star power watering the whole thing down WWF Stars rarely looked weak while aside from Booker T and ECW import Rob Van Damme the legitimate Intruders were treated as afterthoughts a Survivor series 2001 the entire war came to an abrupt end when WWF stood tall the failure of the invasion has been regarded as one of pro wrestling's ultimate missed opportunities The Invasion did however provide a number of surreal moments during the course of its run simply because there were WCW related matters happening on WWF broadcasts the very idea that the likes of The Rock and Kurt Angle could compete for the WCW Championship on Roy's war was as novel as it could get in 2001 and at the end of the year one more bit of surrealism was going to play itself out the unification of the WWF and WCW World Heavyweight titles Austin and rock with the respective holders of both belts going into the Vengeance pay-per-view in December and would compete in a miniature four-man tournament to determine the ultimate champion Vengeance would be the wwf's least bought pay-per-view in 2001. drawing a mere 315 000 buys despite the promise of two belts essentially becoming one and it would be neither Rock nor Austin who brought the straps together it was Chris Jericho whose he'll turn the previous month was to kick off in Grand fashion with one belt over each shoulder as time would reveal Jericho standing as the champion of champions would flop as would the upcoming importation of three xwcw stars whose presence could have boosted The Invasion while it was happening contrary to wwf's oft-cited campaign of giving younger Stars the spotlight while WCW trotted decrepit geezers out before their crowds Vince McMahon rehired Kevin Nash Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan in virtually one Fell Swoop the treacherous triumvirate that comprised the core of the new world order six years prior was being counted on to wreak havoc in an exciting way despite each man being no younger than 42 years of age the wwf's version of a hostile NWO takeover lacked the same anarchic unpredictability that existed when the Renegades ranrov shot over WCW but one positive did come out of the group's re-emergence when an aged Hogan locked eyes with the rock the night after No Way Out 2002 there was a clear electricity in the air four weeks later in front of a jam-packed Toronto Sky Dome at WrestleMania 18 Rock and Hogan had their Battle of the ages in which the supposedly evil Hogan was cheered wildly like a Conquering Hero returning from a long Exile the Hulkamania hope Sports Drew an ungodly response and although Rock one Hogan 2 was a winner for giving his greatest performance in at least a decade if not ever the company that once embraced the offbeat and irreverent tastes of Hardcore late generation exes was doing the time walk back to 1985 cupping its hand to its ear with a proud smile the Unholy NWO Trinity only consisted of three men but the WWF locker room had been overcrowded long before their Collective return to the fold you don't add a few dozen WCW cast offs to a roster of 40 or more WWF Star Wars without anticipating less breathing room for a deep and talented group of performers and so one week after WrestleMania 18 the roster was halved in what would become known as the brand extension with respected Legend Ric Flair running raw while malcontented Vince McMahon oversaw Smackdown the idea was to ensure more air time for a higher number of Their Stars the March 25th 2002 episode of Raw was treated like the NFL draft with top acts being hand-picked by McMahon and Flair to fill out their respective teams the likes of rock angle Hogan and Edge took up residence on Smackdown while rawhaldin Undertaker Kane Van Damme and Booker Austin would join raw the week following the draft as he'd had a special free agent status that really made no sense in storyline terms but in action actuality an unhappy Austin walked out of the company after WrestleMania 18 due to creative dissatisfaction and wasn't coaxed back until after the draft a month following the necessary divide 48 year old Hulk Hogan won his sixth and final WWF Championship from Triple H at the backlash pay-per-view in Kansas City and Hogan would be the final WWF Champion less than two weeks later the World Wrestling Federation was forced to change its name after 23 years of building its identity upon those three letters the World Wildlife Fund took issue with the shared initials and an agreement was made in 1994 in which the wrestling organization could call themselves WWF but had to differentiate themselves in international markets calling themselves by their full name when McMahon's company began to violate that agreement in the late 90s the fund initiated legal action in the year 2000. an English Court ruled in the wildlife group's favor in August 2001 after which McMahon's side appealed finally on May 5th 2002 the wrestling side abandoned its fight and changed its name to WWE World Wrestling Entertainment the changeover was accompanied by an ad campaign that would see the recognizable scratch logo get its appendages taken off in some fashion after which the voiceover would declare WWE get the F out for fans the name change was a hard adjustment to get used to as was the distracting sight of a million on one blurred logos on archival footage though some debuted in WWF the letter F May well have been an ancient artifact for the fresh crop of wrestlers out of Developmental group Ohio Valley wrestling the first of these Factory formulated green horns was the impossibly framed freak of nature known as Brock Lesnar drawing immediate comparisons to fellow irresistible Force Bill Goldberg Lesnar steamrolled opponents while showing very few apparent weaknesses to the surprise of nobody Lesnar was fast-tracked to the WWE Championship five months after his debut as he splattered the Rock at SummerSlam 2002 and following in Lesnar's deepened footsteps were the likes of Randy Orton a 21 year old Talent with the look of a high school jock and the agility of a basketball standout also coming off the assembly line was a beast similar to Lesnar albeit without the cultured range of Athletics Dave Batista made his WWE debut as a muted enforcer for Devon Dudley but would eventually break off as a Sinister monster of his own accord bringing up the rear was an infectiously energetic combination of sculpted muscle and on parallel Charisma named John Cena as of 2022 these four men have racked up a combined total of 46 World titles along with the promising New Wave came the tried and true Hogan continued to hone his Nostalgia act to an exceptional response while Sean Michaels broke a four-year retirement to prove he was still every bit the performer he was in his prime the revitalized Heartbreak Kid took Triple H to the limit at SummerSlam 2002 the freshness from opposite ends of the age Spectrum was needed as WWE was having to deal with life without its two biggest stars of the recent past the most electrifying man in sports entertainment was never going to work full time for WWE again after the bright lights of Hollywood Came Calling The Stone Cold story however was a much darker Affair Austin walked out of the company a second time time in June 2002 once more unhappy with what creative had planned for him days after Austin flew himself home from raw without appearing then wife Deborah Marshall reported a domestic altercation to the police and stormed out of the house before the police arrived it took two months for Austin to formally be arrested and charged that November amid a divorce from Marshall Austin pleaded no contest and was given probation community service and a one thousand dollar fine four months later at Wrestlemania 19 in Seattle Austin by this time wrecked from various accumulated spinal and other injuries lost to the Rock in what would seemingly be the bionic redneck's final match ratings began to Sag even further without the WWE cornerstones present and the Halo that hung over an attitude adorned WWE began to fade desperate attempts were made to shock the audience with storylines like an apparently taboo commitment ceremony between tag partners and supposed lovers Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo as well as a segment on Raw where tag team three minute warning interrupted an intimate moment between two women with a brutal assault Dawn Maurice seduced Tory Wilson's middle-aged father Al into marriage before he was killed off from a sex-induced heart attack but that Escapade was timid compared to Triple H's implications that Kane had committed a heinous act 10 years earlier raw ratings had fallen from a 4.64 average in 2001 to a 4.01 in 2002 they'd slide further in 2003 down to a 3.76 the year 2003 would see the continued Pains of a transitional time even as the likes of Lesnar Cena and Orton found their voices fortunately WWE would get its act together in time for Wrestlemania 20. a five-hour Spectacular from Madison Square Garden that saw a little bit of everything from The Undertaker's return to graveyard prominence to a tepid Goldberg vs Lesnar match that was marred by both men leaving WWE after the show the lasting image however haunting it would become saw Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero standing tall as the champions of their respective Brands the long underappreciated wrestlers embracing as confetti reigned over their teary eyes the 20th WrestleMania coincided with the return of a forgotten rite of passage one that would get the respect it truly deserved the WWE Hall of Fame now that McMahon owned all the history there was to own it made sense to reopen the doors and continue the wave of nostalgia that hulkamania's rebirth exhumed two years earlier seventies and 80s icons the likes of Sergeant Slaughter Bobby The Brain Heenan Superstar Billy Graham and Jesse The Body Ventura helped comprise an impressive class the following Hall of Fame class would center around Hulk Hogan as the hulkster would be inducted alongside a troop of heels he'd Ward with in the 80s including Roddy Piper and the Iron Sheik around this time in 2005 WWE signed a deal to move raw back to its birthplace of the USA Network and given the ongoing love-in for retro WWF it was apropos but while the classics were earning appreciation the new school was taking over villains Triple H and John Bradshaw Layfield were given sustained runs as world champions just so they could be toppled at WrestleMania 21 in Los Angeles by the stars of Tomorrow Batista and John Cena respectively McMahon's WWE had found a way to hit on all three fronts catering to fans of the past satisfying those keen on the present and building a healthy future in all three ways WWE could Captivate masterfully the company rolicked along through 2005. rifling off well-received events that included smackdown's Judgment Day Roars Vengeance and the ECW Reunion Show one night stand in what would become the second most bought SummerSlam in history 52 year old Hulk Hogan battled 40 year old Sean Michaels in a match that became more known for Michael's exaggerated pratfalls than as a clash of cherished elders but not all was pristine in WWE's World a storyline that saw the Undertaker attacked by masked henchmen on the orders of Muhammad Hassan caused a major outcry due to a parallel to real world events thus marking the end of the Hassan character at the behest of Television Network Executives and vocal portions of the audience began to sour on Cena as WWE Champion booing him out of arenas all of that would pale too much sadder news that November Eddie Guerrero former WWE Champion and world-class performer who had famously beat an addiction after hitting rock bottom several years earlier was found dead in a Minneapolis hotel room aged 38. the cause of death would later be revealed as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease Guerrero was still a visible figure in smackdown's Main Event scene at the time of his passing and was due to wrestle at a television taping on the day of his death Eddie's name would persist in WWE Canon namely through real-life best friend Rey Mysterio who dedicated his soon-to-come main event run to Guerrero's memory WWE pressed on with the direction for Wrestlemania 22 emanating from Chicago fences had been mended with Brett's heart who after collaborating with the company on a DVD retrospective the previous year accepted an invitation to headline that Year's Hall of Fame class seeing the Hitman on WWE programming once more had the feel of a pro wrestling fever dream but he wasn't the only valued element of pro wrestling you're given another go in 2006. Degeneration X saddled up once more for another run of a reverence while NBC recommissioned Saturday night's Main Event after a 13-year layoff also Unearthed for weekly consumption was ECW after a second one-night stand in June 2006 that was presented as ECW vs WWE the events spawn off its own roster and weekly TV show with Rob Van Dam as the presiding Champion while the presence of Sabu Tommy Dreamer Joey Stiles and others had the feeling of Hardcore comfort food the brand was ultimately two WWE fied to make a real impact Big Show test and some ineffective talents presented as the New Breed offset the ECW flavor in fact the only new addition that fans accepted heartily was former Ring of Honor world champion CM Punk but a disastrous and widely scorned December to dismember pay-per-view exposed all of the Brand's warts Paul Heyman reportedly resisted McMahon's plans for the show and was ousted from his role in Creative Days Later emerging from that event was Bobby Lashley a muscle-bound former freestyle wrestler that Drew favorable comparisons to Brock Lesnar Lashley had McMahon's real-life backing when he won the ECW Championship but would portray his on-screen Nemesis in 2007. the WWE boss entered into a rivalry with Real Estate Mogul TV personality and actual future president of the United States States Donald Trump and a match would be signed for Wrestlemania 23. Trump would be represented by Lashley with McMahon fronted by 350 pound Intercontinental Champion Umaga the retired Stone Cold Steve Austin acting as guest referee the match was dubbed the battle of the billionaires and each impresario would wager their iconic hairdo on the outcome a reported 80 000 plus fans filled Detroit's Ford Field to witness McMahon have his head shaved by Trump Lashley and Austin The Lure of the high-profile match along with a stellar card that included John Cena vs Sean Michaels for the WWE championship and Batista vs the Undertaker for the world heavyweight title set an all-time record for most purchased WWE pay-per-view of all time netting 1.19 million buys and a new record of more than 5.3 million dollars in ticket sales though professional wrestling as a fad faded away in the early 2000s by 2007 opportunity and Intrigue in the business remained highly fertile and with that Intrigue came the possibility of being greeted with a misfire in June 2007 WWE kicked off a controversial and confounding story arc which began at the conclusion of a three-hour episode of Raw that was to have seen Vince McMahon honored throughout the night much of the tributes to McMahon were actually insults and Frank opinions of the villainous boss to which an emotionally drained spaced out McMahon left the building and entered into the rear of his limousine which then immediately exploded in an apparent assassination attempt minutes later wwe.com ran with the story as though it were legitimate the following nights episode of ECW began with a 10 Bell salute to the Fallen Mr McMahon a demonstration that the crowd in Philadelphia vociferously booed as a farce the storyline continued into an investigative search for the perpetrator which arced over all three weekly programs while whodunit angles have had their place in professional wrestling this one drew the ire of WWE's fan base for going too far though McMahon was to have been reintroduced later as having faked his death for selfish reasons the idea that WWE would give a fictitious death the same half-mast treatment as a real one felt tasteless to many Mick Foley claims to have asked McMahon one week later how the fans would be able to trust them in the event that one of the boys actually did die neither he nor anybody else for that matter would have anticipated WWE being forced to answer that question so quickly and under such horrifying circumstances Chris Benoit scheduled to win the ECW Championship but the Vengeance Pay-per-view on June 24th missed the event after informing several colleagues and the office that his wife Nancy and Son Daniel were suffering from food poisoning Chavo Guerrero spoke to Benoit the Saturday before and noticed an unsettling fatigue to benoit's voice and demeanor on the Monday following the pay-per-view hours before raw was scheduled to be a mock Memorial show for McMahon WWE officials learned from the Fayette County Sheriff's Department in Fayetteville Georgia that Benoit his wife and son were all found dead in their home the format for raw was hastily scrubbed in light of this news and turned instead into an empty Arena memorial for Benoit and his family it wasn't until the broadcast went off the air that wwe.com released the chilling news that Benoit was considered the prime suspect in the deaths of Nancy and Daniel by morning news outlets had jumped all over the story that over the course of the weekend Benoit had killed first his wife and then his child after sending vague texts to friends about his physical address essentially telling them how to find the crime scene Benoit took his own life very quickly after these Revelations WWE worked to erase all mentions and depictions of Benoit from their websites promotional materials and merchandise line the episode of ECW that aired the following night began with McMahon making a statement to that effect speculation ran rampant to benoit's motive for his actions with one of the early prevailing theories being Roid Rage steroids were found in benoit's home leading to an investigation into packages shipped to Benoit from signature Pharmacy and medexlife.com higher levels of a synthetic steroid called testosteronecypionates were found in benoit's urine per the toxicology report fueling beliefs that they were the Catalyst for the weekend-long series of deaths the United States House committee on oversight and government reform investigated WWE's wellness policy and shortly after SummerSlam that August more than 10 wrestlers were suspended for being clients of signature Pharmacy including top stars like Edge Booker T Umaga and John Morrison days after the suspensions were announced neurosurgeon Julian Bales conducted a news conference in New York City to announce the results of the examination of benoit's brain evidence of multiple concussions as well as symptoms associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE were discovered Dr Bennett omalu who studied CTE extensively in the brains of deceased NFL players claimed that benoit's brain resembled that of an 85 year old Alzheimer's patient but the show would go on Vince McMahon returned to the airwaves late that summer sweeping the whole grisly murder plot line under the rug in favor of a new whodunit one with much sillier implications it turned out that McMahon had unknowingly fathered another child out of wedlock and said child just so happened to be a current WWE Superstar after weeks of bizarre speculation and needless guessing games the sun was revealed to be Hornswoggle the pint-sized leprechaun who'd live beneath the ring this led to weeks and months of hijinks from Hornswoggle that were right out of Warner Brothers and while opinions of the angle tend to skew toward negative it was perhaps some necessary levity much more serious than that ham-fisted story payoff was the forthcoming retirement of one of the all-time greats the Nature Boy Boy Ric Flair wrestled what was to have been his final match at WrestleMania 24 in Orlando taking on longtime fan and protege Shawn Michaels in one of the most gut-wrenching stories ever told on the big stage the 59 year old Flair needed a win to keep his career going but didn't want Michaels to let him win feeling his time at hand the winterbound flare could barely stand as he called for a hesitant Michaels to punctuate his sentence while the match would not be flares true finale it did Mark his final WWE match and his tier laid an exit is indelibly part of WrestleMania law that July two days after Michael's lost a heap of blood that the Great American bash pay-per-view WWE issued a press release that announced a tonal shift to their broadcasts that would earn the company a PG rating gone away with the Bloods the gratuitous violence the sexual overtones and much of the coarse language that defined the attention-grabbing Attitude Era from a decade prior the shift to more family-friendly programming while unpopular with a portion of the audience did make WWE more viable to sponsors the action figure deal with Mattel which began at the start of 2010 is cited as one of the plums of this change some facets of the program seemed to suffer with these restrictions While others emerged unscathed Hell in a Cell matches were suddenly less gory while Sean Michaels and Chris Jericho's highly intense Feud managed to belly up to the standards without fall falling over it Randy Orton's deeply personal Feud with Triple H and the McMahon Family in early 2009 seemed to be crying out for a scorched Earth blow-off at WrestleMania 25 in Houston instead the WWE title match was handcuffed by restrictive stipulations also working against the title bout was that it came two matches after the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels gave the viewing World a performance for the ages each now in their mid-40s the two multi-time world champions engaged in a rivalry based mostly on pride and Michael's yearning to be the one to end Undertaker's WrestleMania win streak which sat at 16-0 going into Houston for over 30 minutes Undertaker and Michael's defied age as well as the most towering expectations in delivering what has been hailed as not only one of wrestlemania's greatest matches of all time but one of WWE's as well Undertaker extended his run to 17-0 following a tombstone pile driver that June Donald Trump was reinserted into WWE cannon in a convoluted angle where he became the owner of Monday Night Raw complete with a mock press release that actually caused WWE's stock price to drop seven percent a week later McMahon reacquired the show but instituted one of Trump's suggestions having a guest host run the show on a weekly basis which was McMahon's real-life drive to try and increase the mainstream credibility of WWE at this point Monday Night Raw essentially turned into a poor man's Saturday Night Live but with wrestling matches hosts from outside the wrestling bubble were very Hit or Miss whereas the likes of game show Legend Bob Barker and basketball great Shaquille O'Neal resonated highly with the audience others such as actor Jeremy Piven civil rights leader Al Sharpton baseball All-Star Johnny Damon and the cast of the movie The Three Stooges all bombed out miserably the concept began to fizzle out by the end of 2011 and over the past several years very sparingly on non-wrestling personalities employed as drawing cards for WWE's Flagship broadcast during the schmoozing with the c-listers Don WWE announced the end after four years of the ECW brand its Talent would be divvied up among Raw and SmackDown while it's Tuesday night replacement would be the birth of an interesting concept NXT was initially the marriage of talent development and reality tv as eight blue chippers including former Ring of Honor Champion Brian Danielson were coached by active stars and put through a series of matches and wacky challenges that would flesh out their personalities before the worldwide audience the winner of the maiden season was towering Marauder Wade Barrett out of Preston England while Barrett's son Rose Shawn Michael's son had set one year after earning a claim for his WrestleMania 25 match with the Undertaker the Heartbreak kids called it a day at WrestleMania 26 in Glendale Arizona after wagering his career Against The Undertaker's unblemished 17-0 record on a night where Bret Hart technically made a return to the ring to Pummel Vince McMahon into submission and put the Montreal screwjob to rest Michael's storied career was laid to rest after another Artful struggle at age 44 Michaels had nothing left to prove leaving the Wrestlemania stage available for others to try and steal in February of 2011 fans in Anaheim for the Valentine's Day edition of raw were visited by a long lost love The Rock in a show closing surprise Rock was announced as the special guest host of WrestleMania 27 and amid Charming the crowd with his one-of-a-kind shtick he hinted at the fighting words thrown his way by modern day Top Dog John Cena the appearance marked the first time rocket appeared live in a WWE arena since the summer of 2004. the 2008 Hall of Fame ceremony excluded as the show ran nearly 20 minutes past the top of the hour Home viewers on the East Coast remained engrossed by this unexpected development WrestleMania 27 emanated from Atlanta and marked a rare occasion where the two men in the main event were overshadowed by an inactive participant WWE championed The Miz retained his title over Cena with a little assist from the great one who would be the one Standing Tall when the show came to a close capitalizing on rock and Cena's heated animosity the two used the following night's Roar to set up a dream match for one year in the future at Wrestlemania 28. until then Cena would continue in his role as the face of WWE while Rock resumed life as an a-lister Cena would regain the WWE Championship from Ms four weeks following WrestleMania and few would have guessed the manner in which he would end up losing it five years and three world heavyweight title Reigns into his WWE run CM Punk leveled up into the genuine Main Event star that many wanted him to be thanks to a tour de force that would become retroactively known as the pipe bomb in one of the more captivating worked shoots in WWE history hunk assaulted Cena and then calmly spoke of the injustices levied by the hackneyed Yes Man filled officers of WWE that the company was nothing more than a cesspool of corruption and increasing blindness Punk's title shot came in his native cargo at the 2011 Money in the Bank pay-per-view before a raucous heavily invested Gathering of his friends and neighbors Punk fought tooth and nail with Cena in an instant classic the event concluded with pump capturing the title with his go to sleep and then exiting through the crowd as his contract expired at midnight and the rabble Rouser wanted to thumb Vince in the eye by leaving with the gold the speech and the title win are seen as the highlights of an angle that critics contend fizzled out far too soon Punk would drop the belt but later regain it at the 2011 Survivor Series semi-main Eventing to Cena and Rock teaming together as Champion Punk would often have to play second fiddle on pay-per-view night to Cena and or rock and Wrestlemania 28 was not going to be an exception at 1.22 million eyes it is the most purchased pay-per-view in WWE history and WWE did close to 9 million dollars at the gate another record Cena vs Rock was billed as once in a lifetime and although they would renege on that tagline when opportunity presented itself few argue against the magnitude of the original the undercards proved to be a mixed bag combining the woozying lows of respect to Daniel Bryan losing a world title in 18 seconds to Sheamus to emotional highs like Undertaker Triple H and Sean Michaels sharing a curtain call after a dramatic Hell in a Cell match Cena and rocks squared off in the finale where Rock would score the victory in his native Miami after catching his younger adversary in one more Rock Bottom Cena sold dejection in defeat having matched up against a ghost of WWE's past and coming up short just 24 hours later he would once again be confronted by a Monumental figure from a bygone WWE era eight years after quitting WWE Brock Lesnar re-emerged on the WWE scene turning up at the end of the post-wrestlemania 28 Roar to lay Cena out with an emphatic F5 in the interim eight years Lesnar established himself as the king of the box office for UFC winning the organization's heavyweight title in November 2008. after a harrowing battle with diverticulitis Lesnar bowed out of fighting after a loss to Alistair Overeem in December of 2011 and was soon on his way back to wrestling in stark contrast to the hectic schedule that caused him to leave the company in 2004. Lesnar was bestowed a part-timers deal that would see him build as a feature star The Limited appearances from Lesnar made him seem more like a blockbuster attraction But as time wore on especially as he would reign with championship belts from afar fans began to perceive him as an outsider too good to be part of the show on a regular basis however Lesnar's value as a bankable commodity in legitimate combat sport has led WWE to continue resigning him after more than two years as a glorified game show on cable TV and internet streams the NXT name was moved from the weekly program to WWE's developmental territory replacing Florida Championship rest sling which had been WWE's body Factory since 2007 modern day roster regulars such as Baron Corbin Biggie and Bray Wyatt found their voices in the blossoming NXT the honor of being the first NXT champion went to Seth Rollins the former Tyler black of Ring of Honor upon his signing back in 2010 Rollins had been touted as one of WWE's stars of Tomorrow the emerging star would soon be making his way to the main roster in an era where developmental call-ups were hindered by having Bare Bones introductions to the WWE audience Rollins flanked Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns as they stormed the ring at Survivor Series 2012. presented as ruthless mercenaries with an unbreakable Bond and an eye for business opportunities The Shield instantly became the hottest property on the roster deconstructing any obstacles in their path few wrestler introductions have matched the way the group stood above the din on day one The Shield would kick off WrestleMania 29 in northern New Jersey the Battleground for The Rock and John Cena's heavily advertised rematch this time for the WWE championship Rock won his 10th career World title at the 2013 Royal Rumble ending the 14-month reign of CM Punk who had since abandoned his mind-speaking rabble-rousing in favor of playing little more than your bog standard antagonist Punk battled The Undertaker in a fresh undercard bout at WrestleMania 29 while Cena and Rock took Center Stage though the fire rate dropped 14 from the pre record breaker in what would seemingly be The Rock's final match six second Wonder against Eric Rowan excluded the defending Champion tore muscles around his pelvis and abdominals in the early going but managed to push through 24 minutes to the Finish despite the Rock's hearty performance Cena gained his win back after an attitude adjustment WrestleMania 29 drew some criticism for being far too safe and predictable for a WrestleMania with the general opinion being that new faces were needed in the main event scene the playful indifference to a Randy Orton Sheamus match the next night on Raw Echo that sentiment Daniel Bryan previously reigned for over three months as World Heavyweight Champion but his refreshing humility and tireless work ethic had fans wanting more for him a southern spark of forward momentum in the summer of 2013 brought him into the main event of that Year's SummerSlam against Cena where he would cleanly defeat Mr WWE for the richest prize in the game Brian ended up becoming opposition to the corporation's Offspring The Authority and after a handful of screw jobs was bounced from the main event scene before the end of Autumn this development did not sit well with fans especially as 45 year old Batista was being groomed for a WrestleMania Main Event comeback the 2014 Royal Rumble will go down as one of the most infamous knights in WWE history partially for Batista's Victory but also for Brian's class bearing a mission from the Rumble Match which the crowd in Pittsburgh marked with sustained disdain toward the presentation the following day CM Punk ravaged by General frustrations as well as an undiagnosed staph infection walked out of the company and away from the wrestling business he would be officially fired later that year before bearing his soul with a damning tell-all on then friend Colt cabana's art of wrestling podcast where he levied heavy indictments of both WWE's medical staff and creative environment better news for the company followed one month later in the United States with the launch of a brand new service after first advertising WWE Network as far back as late 2011. the company finally inaugurated professional wrestling's answer to Netflix in February 2014. with every archived WWE WWE CW and ECW pay-per-view available on day one the WWE Network sold itself to generations of wrestling fans who Wanted classic content in bulk as well as a cost-effective way to access the modern product and years later it remains WWE's primary content Hub three days after launch the first live WWE event aired on the network NXT Arrival served as the spiritual predecessor for the series that became known as NXT takeover taking place in front of 400 fans at WWE's Full Sail facility in Winter Park Florida an additional 200 more ticket holders were disallowed entry due to a gross oversale viewers exposed to NXT for the first time were met with a thrilling clash between Sami Zayn and Cesaro as well as Adrian Neville's NXT Championship victory over Beau Dallas in a show ending ladder match to the surprise of many Wrestlemania 30 in New Orleans was factored in with the static monthly fee of the network saving customers more than 50 dollars with a simple subscription and Faith would be rewarded as Daniel Bryan found his way into the WWE championship match at the will of the people in a dramatic two-part parlay Brian down Triple H in the opening bout before outlasting Randy Orton and Batista in a triple threat finale to win the gold Brian's jubilant celebration beneath the falling confetti fell between two shocking moments two matches earlier The Undertaker's 21-0 WrestleMania streak met its end when Brock Lesnar pinned him following a third F5 the stunned horror that permeated throughout the Superdome has proven to be just as memorable if not more so than Brian's inspirational Victory to cap path for dizzying and astonishing weekend the Ultimate Warrior less than 72 hours after entertaining onlookers with a spirited Hall of Fame speech collapsed in a hotel parking lot in Scottsdale Arizona succumbing to a heart attack at the age of 54. warrior had appeared on Raw the previous night delivering a soliloquy in which he spoke bravely and eerily presciently about mortality bad news continued to rear itself in the weeks ahead as Brian's feel-good Championship Reign was sadly not equipped to last little more than five weeks after capturing the belt the popular star was forced to undergo invasive surgery to decompress a nerve root in his neck while there was optimism that Brian could return in a matter of weeks he would instead be shelved until the following January necessitating the vacancy of the title John Cena was tabbed to play the role of emergency Champion throughout the summer a role that entailed getting manhandled by Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam mold to the tune of 16 suplexes in the title swap but still the Beast incarnate's infrequent work schedule didn't sit well with a number of fans while Lesnar remained an absentee Champion another Mythic figure Grace WWE one who many thought would never set foot inside a McMahon ring during a dramatic closing sequence at the 2014 Survivor series The Authority's attempt at rigging the game was disrupted by Sting the longtime face of WCW synonymous with being the most prolific holdout in a world in which WWE stood alone on the battlefield sting would play Hero in doses but never reach his full potential in WWE it would fall on Roman Reigns to act as full-time savior though The Shield's designated Powerhouse received favorable reception in that role the fan response soured quickly when it seemed he was destined to assume the mantle of top star the 2015 Royal Rumble was the epicenter for rarely seen hostility as Reigns's Victorious performance complete with the rock making a convenient Cameo began what would become a long war of wills and tastes between the Shock Callers and the fans WWE would keep their faith in Reigns in spite of the backlash the negative response did not cease in the interim two months but that did not halt WWE's plans to feed the unbreakable Lesnar to the designated superhero late in the show however an audible was called allowing for Seth Rollins to use his money in the bank entitlement to enter into the bout's closing scene and pill for the gold in a cunning move the scheming Rollins would be toting the belt while WWE went back to the drawing board in their effort to cement Reigns as face of the company the month prior to WrestleMania a truncated match on Monday Night Raw that pitted The Bella Twins against Paige and Emma would be the source of outrage among many fans on social media who got the hashtag give Divas a chance trending on Twitter for over 24 hours media Outlets picked up on the story and in the same time frame former WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee publicly called out Stephanie McMahon over equal pay and screen time this came after Stephanie made a point to openly Lord actress Patricia Arquette's pro-equality speech at that Year's Academy Awards and Lee responded to McMahon's remarks by noting the ongoing gender disparity within WWE months later Stephanie herself stood Center Stage when she introduced three call-ups from NXT that would set standards for women's wrestling in WWE moving forward Charlotte Flair Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch the idea of calling women divas and employing them primarily as aesthetic fodder was more dated than ever and WWE would now put stronger emphasis on its women as capable competitors between the Rogues the likes of Bailey Oscar Alexa Bliss and others followed in the coming years making their Mark either as high quality wrestlers compelling characters or in the case of some a combination of both at the time Banks was called up to the main roster she still held the NXT Women's Championship and there just so happened to be a convenient place for her to drop it NXT held one of its sporadic takeover events the night before SummerSlam 2015. instead of vonen otherwise non-descript Wednesday or Thursday night for the first time ever takeover took place outside of the normal Full Sail confines and was now part of a twin bill with a major WWE pay-per-view usually from the same venue that night in Brooklyn Banks dropped the title to bayley in what was instantly hailed as one of if not the greatest women's wrestling match to have ever come from under the WWE Banner takeover had already been a Haven for wrestling Brilliance and has continued to be in the incarnations that followed from Sami Zayn's hard-fought run to the Pinnacle to Johnny Gargano and tommaso champa's hate-filled battles to the near death if Maine Rost Affair at its worst is considered by fans to be the burning of Rome then NXT is a discriminating customer's Hedonism when WWE booked the cavernous a t stadium in Dallas for Wrestlemania 32 the intention was to shatter their own Highmark for attendance and breach the 100 000 Milestone unfortunately the attempt at the biggest WrestleMania ever would have to do without many top Stars WWE were plagued with injuries in their main event Scene Randy Orton and Seth Rollins were ruled out entirely while John Cena was limited to a cameo appearance prompting WWE to desperately reach out to former Stars Daniel Bryan's situation was considerably worse after 10 months of inactivity due to concussion related issues the former world champion was forced into retirement at the age of 34. after being unable to gain medical clearance as it was WrestleMania 32's attendance was announced as 101 763 which McMahon would admit in a conference call the following year factored in non-paying individuals including Stadium employees estimates from other sources have put the uninflated attendance as high as 94 000 and as low as a shade under 80 000. whatever the actual number those on hand witnessed a rather confounding night of action that culminated with Roman Reigns getting his WrestleMania Ascension upon winning the WWE Championship from Triple H who cast himself in the off-youth role of corporate final boss in an attempt to have fans believe in Reigns as a heroic figure little had changed in a year and Reigns was still soundly rejected by the more vocal portions of the audience in the years since its introduction the brand extension had dissolved to fit the size of the roster at the time but as the roster once again significantly expanded WWE reinstituted The Brand extension in the summer of 2016. in an attempt to shake up the weekly television programs this entailed moving Smackdown to a live time slot on Tuesday nights and adding more championships to create further parity between the shows the cruiserweight title was also reintroduced in that time to be fought over on a special Network exclusive program called 205 live veteran high flyer TJ Perkins won the tournament final of the acclaimed cruiserweight classic in the summer of 2016. becoming the first cruiserweight champion in nine years tournaments became more on Vogue in WWE which soon spawned the May young classic for an international Cadre of women's Grapplers and a United Kingdom title tournament which predated the birth of the NXT UK brand for all of the new in WWE plenty of time tested entities persisted as seen at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando the universal title match pitted a WrestleMania rematch 13 years in the making as Brock Lesnar upended Goldberg in a Brisk five-minute car crash the Undertaker meanwhile bade an apparent farewell in the main event hobbling his way through a battle with Roman Reigns that ended in defeat for the Phenom this would not be Undertaker's final match but at the time the implications were rather explicit with the women's Revolution Rolling Along thanks to incredible roster depth WWE landed a mainstream star of considerable Renown whose success outside of professional wrestling had been cited as inspiration for WWE's sudden women's movement former UF see women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey debuted as a contracted Talent at the end of the 2018 Royal Rumble generating immediate headlines Rousey's status as one of the UFC's top drawers as well as a physical Marvel that could pick up the nuances of the sport easier than most made her a slam dunk acquisition for WWE even if some questioned her immediate employment as an impact player Rousey ended up making an impressive debut at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans teaming with Kurt Angle to face Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a match that was far better than most fans expected on the same night a medically reinstated Daniel Bryan returned to the ring teaming with Shane McMahon to defeat Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn such high points were tethered by perceived lows from a 10 year old boy getting to be a tag champion for the night said yet another the main event win for the mostly invisible Lesnar Universal title dragging in tow criticisms aside the cash flow rolling into WWE continued unimpeded and is only going to become more positively torrential in May 2018 WWE Inked new TV contracts for Raw and SmackDown that stand to earn the companies substantially more money on a weekly basis beginning in October 2019 and continuing for a span of five years WWE stands to make between 2.2 to 2.4 billion dollars solely for the television rights of their two major weekly broadcasts in the United States Monday Night Raw stays at home on the USA Network whereas Smackdown has broken from its long-standing cable domain returning to network TV via fox in the same Department of lucrative business deal WWE came under Fire for entering into a 10-year multi-million dollar contract to put on bi-annual events in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a benefit to the country's Saudi Vision 2030 plan the first event to take place as part of the deal was entitled greatest Royal Rumble and was held nearly three weeks after WrestleMania 34 in the city of Jeddah Braun strowman won the titular match but most criticism focused on just how much the event felt like cheerful propaganda for a nation with a questionable history of Human Rights issues as well as one that would not allow women's wrestlers to compete Natalia and Lacey Evans would eventually compete in a match on one of the Saudi shows opening the door for the women of WWE to Showcase their talent in Saudi Arabia for years to come later that year WWE was set to bring Crown Jewel to Rio card with Sean Michaels making a one night return to the ring to compete in the main event one month before the show however journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul Turkey WWE intended to press on with crown jewel despite an outcry from fans media members and even U.S senators the likes of John Cena and Daniel Bryan refused to take part in the event which ended up being panned for its lackluster action another star missed Crown Jewel Universal Champion Roman Reigns was forced to vacate his title after being diagnosed with a recurrence of leukemia several months after this heartbreaking announcement Reigns went into remission and returned to WWE television to deliver the good news five nights before Crown Jewel WWE broadcast its first ever all-women's pay-per-view entitled Evolution emanating from the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island women stars of differing eras took part in the event highlighted by Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair pushing each other to the limit in a chaotic last woman standing match for Lynch's Smackdown women's title unlike Crown Jewel Evolution was hailed by critics and fans alike for the matches and for presenting something wholly different and evolutionary Lynch and Flair would continue to make history at WrestleMania 35 joining Ronda Rousey in the main event the first time the women of WWE had been given the honor of closing the Showcase of the Immortals on that same night Seth Rollins regained the universal Championship from Brock Lesnar Batista returned to lose a Triple H in the animal's swan song Kurt Angle also bowed out in underwhelming circumstances in a short loss to Baron Corbin and the hard-working and eminently likable Kofi Kingston won the WWE title in a show stealer with Daniel Bryan while WrestleMania 35 was a mostly feel-good production there were still gaping cracks and a sense of lingering staleness in the foundation of WWE creative so much so that when a new competitor entered the National scene more than a few curious eyes turned to see what the new guys had to say upstart promotion all Elites wrestling entered the arena with its first event double or nothing on May 25th 2019 the new organization set itself apart from WWE with the debut of the recently freed Dean Ambrose returning to his John Moxley Persona and solidifying himself as one of aew's top stars in the process so to came at Triple H now WWE's Chief Operating Officer with former WWE Talent turned aew executive Cody Rhodes destroying an ornamental throne with a sledgehammer aew gained TV clearance for that Autumn broadcasting Wednesday nights on TNT which WWE managed to counter program by moving NXT into the same time slot on USA Network for the year and a half that followed total viewership and key demos favored aew over WWE spottering third brand while aw continued to develop positively WWE's trajectory would become increasingly sporadic smackdown's Premier broadcast on Fox complete with a rock appearance Kane Velasquez debuting and an Express WWE title win for Lesnar over Kingston did a whopping number on the other end of the spectrum there was the confounding outcome to the Seth Rollins vs fiend match at the Helena cell pay-per-view and then the suspicious 24-hour flight delay getting out of Riyadh from that Year's Crown Jewel negative talking points notwithstanding the company entered a new decade in a healthy spot WWE looked to names from the past and the present to steer the ship in the 2020s while Drew McIntyre won the men's Royal Rumble match and booked his place in the main event of WrestleMania much of the talk coming out of the event was the return of Edge the rated R superstar having come back to the ring for the first time since being forced to retire due to an injury almost a decade prior his first proper match against Randy Orton The Undertaker's intergenerational dream match with AJ Styles and McIntyre's challenge of Lesnar with some of the big drawing cards going into the granddaddy of them all all and then the world stopped the covid-19 pandemic brought everything to a standstill and entering uncharted waters there was every chance that WrestleMania could end up being canceled for the first time ever such was the escalating nature of the global situation relocating to an empty performance center and working around the clock to pull it all off WWE presented WrestleMania 36 from Suburban Orlando over two nights it was a WrestleMania like no other and considering the circumstances WWE did the best they could McIntyre got his moment dethroning Lesnar to cap off both nights a surely Bittersweet experience for the Scotsman who would have liked it to happen in front of tens of thousands of fans Edge and Orton brawled all over the Orlando training facility in their last man standing scrap while Bray Wyatt's the fiend met John Cena in a unique encounter bearing more resemblance to a lynchian experience than a professional wrestling match their Firefly fun house match garnered plenty of different takes and reactions but the Boneyard match between Styles and The Undertaker was universally heralded as the perfect Last Ride for the dead man taker officially hung up the iconic trench coat later in the year at Survivor Series which marked 30 years since his WWE debut while Undertaker went out on his own terms not everyone in the WWE faculty got to call their shot ten days after WrestleMania several dozen individuals were released or laid off from WWE with budget cuts as the sighted reason despite WWE being due to turn a profit regardless of any and all releases the likes of Rusev Zack Ryder the good brothers and more were let go while the Revival secured an earlier release prepping to make tracks for Jacksonville over the next two years more waves of surprising Cuts followed with many championship caliber talents sent packing WWE was still wrestling in front of a virtual audience at that point but their production had improved significa is the pandemic war on the transfer from the PC to the Thunderdome made the experience more immersive for those watching at home as well as the wrestlers themselves to break up the monotony of samey feeling matches taking place in a mostly sterile environment WWE also experimented with unusual gimmick matches like the corporate ladder Money in the Bank match at WWE headquarters as well as the disjointed swamp fight between Braun strowman and Bray Wyatt one truly worthwhile moment occurred during the pandemic run Roman Reigns five months after stepping out of WWE due to health reasons suddenly returned as a cold-blooded heel aligning himself with Paul Heyman who was listeningless for the time being Reigns quickly picked up the universal title and went on to reign in perpetuity as WWE's resident tribal chief the year performing behind closed doors had its Peaks and valleys but they got through it and saw the light at the end of the tunnel in the form of WrestleMania 37 in Tampa once again spread over two nights WrestleMania 37 welcomed the WWE Universe back as fans attended in person at a reduced capacity Raymond James Stadium the venue That was supposed to house the event one year prior it was a cathartic moment that demonstrated just how important audience interaction and participation is to WWE's brand of sports entertainment and the fans who did make it inside the stadium were given plenty to cheer from Bianca Bel-Air and Ria Ripley's women's title victories to rap sensation bad bunnies setting the standard for celebrity involvement to Reigns finally cementing himself as the real Top Dog in the weekend's curtain closer and with that WWE retreated back to the Thunderdome though now with a taste of what they'd been missing and preparing for a world of relative normalcy where the show could go on in front of fans in arenas and stadiums around the world WWE would return to Live Events full time that July come hell or high water to Mark the return of capacity crowds WWE had seen a resurface at the end of money in the bank to confront Reigns like the rock before him Cena had stepped down from full-time duties to pursue Hollywood he would return on occasion for big events SummerSlam would be one such event pitting the former face of the company against the current flag bearer the head of the table went on to defeat Cena in front of 51 000 at Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas Reigns was then confronted by a returning Lesnar as the status quo continued its Awakening one big change was made headed into the Autumn however NXT which conceded the Wednesday night Wars and moved to Tuesdays in the spring was rebranded as NXT 2.0 foregoing the black and gold in favor of a nickelodeon-esque color scheme gone was the Super Indie flavor replaced by developmental projects with broad gimmicks that don't require too much thought to understand but while WWE did see that aspect of the competition to aew they did reacquire one of the competitors biggest names Cody Rhodes had made a name for him himself outside WWE's umbrella winning the NWA championship before going on to become the inaugural TNT Champion for his new home in February 2022 the American Nightmare resigned from aew after he and owner Tony Khan were unable to come to terms on a new contract it looked for all the world like Rhodes was headed back to WWE in time for Wrestlemania 38 in Dallas a reported 77 000 Plus on each night watched as celebrities like Logan Paul Johnny Knoxville and Pat McAfee all took to the ring to varying degrees of success Steve Austin and Vince McMahon each wrestled in impromptu bouts and Rhodes did return as a mystery opponent earning a hero's welcome amid his victory over Seth Rollins in the main event range defeat heated Lesnar to unify the WWE and Universal championships his Landmark Victory came more than 20 years after Chris Jericho unified the two recognized World titles and eight years after Randy Orton did it again just as WWE was rolling into the summer months however a somewhat disquieting Revelation hit the news Vince was under internal investigation over a substantial payout given to a former female employee in exchange for her silence regarding an affair they'd had Talent relations head John laurinitis was also under investigation ensuing updates proved to be more disturbing additional million dollar payouts from McMahon to unnamed women were discovered some alleging coercion between those two bombshell stories McMahon stepped down from his CEO position while still overseeing creative he also made random and bizarre cameos on WWE television seemingly just to get a pop from the mostly unfazed live audience then suddenly on July 22nd shortly before it was made public that the SEC and Federal prosecutors were looking into his dealings McMahon tweeted a very terse retirement message to the world it was later revealed that laurinitis had quietly exited WWE as well Vincent Kennedy McMahon conqueror of the territories and face of WWE had officially relinquished his grip on the wrestling world his sudden exit came 28 years to the day that he beat the steroid rap in federal court as of December 2022 we are yet to see how McMahon's fate will play out with Vince out of the picture save for the stock he owns daughter Stephanie would assume the mantle of co-ceo alongside former co-head of creative artists agency Nick Khan the duo would promote Paul Levesque who officially retired from the ring at WrestleMania 38 to both creative and talent relations Levesque would immediately reverse a number of decisions made in the latter months of Vince's Reign NXT would return to its former black and gold aesthetic although with a continued mission to promote homegrown Talent as opposed to harvesting Indie Stars former WWE Universal Champions Braun strowman and Bray Wyatt would be brought back into the fold while NXT alumni Johnny Gargano and carrion cross would also add to the depth thinning roster and the United States and InterContinental championships regained prominence on match cards accompanied with promo packages illustrating their triumphant histories just what does the future of WWE hold it's nothing if not hard to predict if the pandemic has taught us anything it's that nothing is guaranteed and that we should take absolutely nothing for granted WWE will continue to forge ahead regardless the machine doesn't stop for anything or anyone despite not being as popular as it has been at other times in its long and illustrious history the company is more profitable than ever World Wrestling Entertainment is firmly established at the top of the food chain though emerging competitors May one day attempt to challenge their position how WWE got to this point is as we've seen a fascinating tale stretching back decades and featuring more twists and turns than any storyline that could come from the pen of a writer are it's a story that is nearly impossible to tell in complete form as captivating as it is complex sometimes as cryptic as it is easily comprehensible and it will continue to leave us wondering at the same time that it completely enraptures our minds then now forever together thank you

Channel: Cultaholic Wrestling

Views: 4,575,046

Keywords: wwe, wwe documentary, wwf, wwf documentary, wrestling, wrestling documentary, history of wwe, history of wwf, vince mcmahon, attitude era, mr mcmahon, vince mcmahon wwe, ruthless aggression era, hulk hogan, stone cold steve austin, bret hart, shawn michaels, john cena, wrestlemania, royal rumble, survivor series, summerslam, bruno sammartino, undertaker, the rock, brock lesnar, roman reigns, triple h, chris jericho, kurt angle, rey mysterio, randy savage, dx, wwwf, wcw

Id: xZU8DI7WzrU

Length: 172min 22sec (10342 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 18 2022