https://www.conservapedia.com/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=BoukenCrimsonConservapedia - User contributions [en]2026-11-10T05:46:11ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.35.14https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=WWE_Raw&diff=1408423WWE Raw2018-03-12T13:28:19Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
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<div>'''''WWE Raw''''' is a television show produced by [[World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is considered WWE's flagship show, and currently airs on Monday nights on the USA Network. The show began on January 11, 1993 as ''WWF Monday Night Raw'', replacing previous program ''WWF Prime Time Wrestling''.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
===The Monday Night Wars===<br />
When Raw premiered in 1993, it retained the family-friendly image that the then-WWF was known for at the time. However, in September 1995, WCW launched ''Nitro'', which would compete with ''Raw'' for ratings supremacy. As WCW's product changed with the introduction of the heel stable the New World Order (nWo), and Hulk Hogan subsequently turning heel, ''Nitro'' would go on an 84-week winning streak against ''Raw''. In response, the WWF would begin to change their product from being family-friendly, to being more adult-oriented, similar to the ''Jerry Springer Show'', which had become very popular at the time. A controversial segment aired on the November 4, 1996 edition of ''Raw'' would be a foreshadowing of sorts of things to come. In the segment, Stone Cold Steve Austin broke into Brian Pillman's house, and Pillman responded to Austin's invasion by threatening him with a gun. Pillman was also heard using the f-word during the segment. In response, the USA Network forced the WWF and Pillman to apologize for the incident.<br />
<br />
The rebranding of the WWF would become more apparent during 1997, during which time rival hardcore wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) invaded Raw. On February 3, 1997, ''Raw'' switched to a two-hour format. On March 10, 1997, ''Raw'' was renamed ''Raw is War'', and used shock rock musician [[Marilyn Manson]]'s "The Beautiful People" for it's theme song. A week later, Bret Hart went on a profanity-laden tirade when company owner and announcer Vince McMahon attempted to interview him after Hart lost his WWF Championship to Sid Vicious thanks to interference by Austin, with Hart's rant being the result of his contention that the then-heel Austin's outrageous actions against him always went unpunished. Much of the segment went uncensored.<br />
<br />
On March 29, 1998, the Attitude Era officially began at [[WrestleMania]] XIV when Stone Cold Steve Austin won the WWF Championship from Shawn Michaels. More segments pushing the envelope aired on ''Raw is War.'' On April 13, 1998, ''Raw'' finally beat ''Nitro'' in the ratings for the first time in 84 weeks. For the remainder of 1998, the ratings would go back and forth, with ''Nitro'' winning their last night on October 28, 1998. From that point on, ''Raw'' would go on to dominate for the remainder of the Monday Night Wars.<br />
<br />
January 4, 1999 would be a pivotal night in the Wars. On ''Nitro'', the main event was set to be Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg for the WCW Championship. At some point in the broadcast, Eric Bischoff had announcer Tony Schiavone make the following announcement:<br />
<br />
''Fans, if you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, do not. We understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here at one time as Cactus Jack, is gonna win their World title. Ha! That's gonna put some butts in the seats, heh.''<br />
<br />
The episode of ''Raw'' had been taped a week prior, and the WWF had even acknowledged the title change on their website. However, immediately after the comment was made, 600,000 viewers switched from ''Nitro'' to ''Raw''. On the same ''Nitro'', Bill Goldberg had been arrested for stalking Miss Elizabeth, and a returning Hulk Hogan challenged Nash, which he accepted. As the match began, Hogan looked as if he was getting ready to hit Nash, only to just touch him with his finger. Hogan got the pinfall, and won the match. This eventually became known as the "Fingerpoke of Doom", and in the eyes of many, was the beginning of the downfall of WCW.<br />
<br />
===The Invasion===<br />
On the March 26, 2001 edition of ''Raw is War'', it was announced that the WWF had purchased WCW (in reality, only selected WCW assets, including WCW's trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, had been purchased by the WWF). After the last episode of ''Nitro'' aired, a simulcast began on USA and TNT. In storyline, Vince McMahon came out to gloat about his purchase of WCW, when Shane McMahon came out on ''Nitro'' to announce that he had purchased WCW from under his father's nose. This was done to further a storyline between Vince and Shane McMahon, as the two were to have a match at ''WrestleMania X-Seven'', the largest show of the year, which was just six days away. Although the purchase was made, and WCW was now off the air, the Invasion did not begin immediately following ''WrestleMania X-Seven''. On the May 28, 2001 edition of ''Raw is War'', WCW wrestler Lance Storm came out through the crowd, and interfered in a match. Over the next few weeks, various WCW wrestlers would come out, and interfere in matches. Eventually, Diamond Dallas Page, one of WCW's most well-known names, would debut on Raw to start building up a match with the Undertaker at ''[[King of the Ring]]''. At the event, Booker T would come out and interfere in the title match. After King of the Ring, the Invasion storyline began to kickoff.<br />
<br />
On the July 2, 2001 edition of ''Raw is War'', the last 20 minutes were given to WCW. A WCW Championship match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell took place. However, the match received poor reviews, and it is said that Vince McMahon hated the segment. This caused the storyline to go in a different direction that originally planned. The initial plan was for WCW to be branched into its own entity, with its own touring schedule, house shows, and pay-per-views. ''Raw'' would be given to WCW, and ''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown]]'' to the WWF. On the July 9, 2001 edition of ''Raw is War'', the WCW contingent turned heel when they joined forces with ECW, which had been purchased in storyline by Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. This would lead to the pay-per-view, ''InVasion''. At the pay-per-view, Stone Cold Steve Austin would join WCW and ECW, which later became known as The Coalition, and later, The Alliance. In response, Vince McMahon, would reinstate The Rock, who had not appeared on WWF programming since the night after WrestleMania X-Seven due to taking time off to film ''The Scorpion King''. The Rock would go on to face Booker T at ''[[SummerSlam]]'' for the WCW Championship, which he won.<br />
<br />
As the storyline continued, the WWF changed the name of ''Raw is War'', to ''Raw''. The reason being that the Monday Night Wars were over, and due to the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11, 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks]]. The Invasion storyline ended at ''[[Survivor Series]]'' with Team WWF defeating Team Alliance in a Winner Take All match. The next night on ''Raw'', Ric Flair made his first appearance in eight years, and announced that he and Vince McMahon were partners, as Shane and Stephanie had sold their stocks to him in order to buy WCW and ECW, respectively. Steve Austin also turned babyface for the first time since before ''WrestleMania X-Seven''.<br />
<br />
Over the next few years (during which time the WWF was renamed WWE on May 5, 2002 due to a ruling against it in its legal dispute with environmental group the World Wildlife Fund over the WWF initials), many WCW names would appear on WWE programming. The New World Order, consisting of Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash would appear in February 2002, Eric Bischoff and Rey Mysterio in July 2002, Scott Steiner would appear in November 2002, and Goldberg would appear in March 2003. Sting was the only WCW main eventer to not go to WWE until 2014, when he appeared at that year's ''Survivor Series''.<br />
<br />
===Brand Extension===<br />
On the March 25, 2002 edition of ''Raw'', the first Draft was held. During the telecast, 20 superstars were drafted to either ''Raw'' or ''SmackDown!'' A supplemental draft was held later, where mid-carders were drafted to either show. This edition of ''Raw'' would be the last to use the graphics, set, and theme song that had been used since the Attitude Era. The next week, a new set, graphics, and theme song were used.<br />
<br />
===Noteworthy Episodes===<br />
<br />
*January 11, 1993 - Series Premiere<br />
*September 11, 1995 - First ''Raw'' of the Monday Night Wars.<br />
*January 8, 1996 - WWF debut of Steve Austin.<br />
*April 1, 1996 - WWF debut of Mick Foley who, at the time, was using his character, Mankind, which used the gimmick of a half-masked, deranged psychopath.<br />
*September 23, 1996 - The debut of the "Fake" Diesel and Razor Ramon characters. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, who played the characters respectively during their time in WWE, had left for WCW earlier in the year. However, the WWF still owned the rights to the names. Razor Ramon was played by Rick Bognar and Diesel was played by Glen Jacobs. Jacobs would go on to become Kane about a year later, in October 1997. The segment has been panned as well as being known for one of the more stranger ''Raw'' segments.<br />
*November 4, 1996 - The "Pillman's Got A Gun" segment. In storyline, Steve Austin breaks into Brian Pillman's house, with the latter pulling a gun on Austin. Many cite this segment as the beginnings of the Attitude Era.<br />
*March 10, 1997 - ''Raw'' is renamed ''Raw is War''.<br />
*March 17, 1997 - After losing a steel cage match and the WWF Championship to Sid Vicious due to the interference of then-heel Steve Austin, Bret Hart snaps on ''Raw'', launching into a vicious in-storyline verbal tirade and a subsequent heel turn.<br />
*August 18, 1997 - After being out with an injury, Rocky Maivia would turn heel, and join the Nation of Domination. He would begin referring to himself as The Rock.<br />
*November 10, 1997 - ''Raw'' after the 1997 ''[[Survivor Series]]'', where the infamous Montreal Screwjob took place.<br />
*November 17, 1997 - In response to the fallout from the Montreal Screwjob, Jim Ross conducts an interview with Vince McMahon. The interview, which would dub the phrases "Time Honored Tradition" and "Bret Screwed Bret", would remain controversial for years to come. The same night, Rick Rude would appear on both ''Raw'' and ''Nitro'', with ''Nitro'' being aired live. The Montreal Screwjob and its aftermath (which saw several WWF stars quit the company to defect to WCW) was the beginning of McMahon's on-camera heel turn and the development of his Mr. McMahon gimmick, considered by many as simply an extension of his real-life business persona.<br />
*December 15, 1997 - In a pre-taped message before the start of ''Raw is War'', Vince McMahon a "new era" of programming, declaring "''Raw'' and ''War Zone'' are the cures for the common show".<br />
*January 19, 1998 - ''Raw'' after the 1998 Royal Rumble. However, this ''Raw'' is best known for the WWF debut of Mike Tyson. In a famous segment, Tyson is introduced to the ring by Vince McMahon, where it is announced he would be the Special Guest Enforcer as WrestleMania XIV. Stone Cold Steve Austin comes down, and a fight ensues between Tyson and Austin. The inclusion of Tyson in WWF Programming leading up to WrestleMania XIV would garner major media attention, and would eventually help WWF gain the upper hand in the Monday Night Wars. Austin also begins his gradual face turn around this time as he begins feuding with McMahon.<br />
*March 2, 1998 - Debut of the "scratch logo" on ''Raw is War''. The logo made its official debut a few months prior on November 9, 1997 in the "Try Lacing My Boots" promo.<br />
*March 30, 1998 - ''Raw'' after WrestleMania XIV. Triple H takes over as leader of DeGeneration X, Sean Waltman returns as X-Pac. Triple H begins to refer to DX as the DX Army. First official ''Raw'' of the Attitude Era.<br />
*April 13, 1998 - ''Raw'' wins the Monday Night Wars for the first time in 84 weeks.<br />
*April 27, 1998 - ''Raw'' is held at the Hampton Coliseum, while ''Nitro'' is held at the Norfolk Scope. The two venues were only about 30 miles apart. DX went to the Norfolk Scope to "invade" WCW in an angle. In interviews, Eric Bischoff, who ran WCW at the time has since commended the segment.<br />
*October 5, 1998 - Mankind introduces Mr. Socko during a segment featuring an injured Vince McMahon. The Socko gimmick would become so popular, it would become part of Mankind's character. The same night, Stone Cold Steve Austin attacked McMahon in a hospital room setting.<br />
*October 26, 1998 - ''Raw is War'' loses to ''Nitro'' in the ratings for the final time. Starting from the next week until March 26, 2001, ''Raw'' would become dominant in the Monday Night Wars.<br />
*December 7, 1998 - The Undertaker has his druids chain Stone Cold Steve Austin to the Undertaker's symbol, and hoisted above the Titantron. The segment is controversial, as it tends to mock crucifixion. It received negative attention from religious groups.<br />
*January 4, 1999 - Mick Foley wins the WWF Championship. Since the show was taped, the results were read on ''WCW Nitro''. Immediately after the results were read, around 700,000 viewers switched from ''Nitro'' to ''Raw'' to see Foley win. This was also the same night the "Fingerpoke of Doom" happened on ''Nitro''. Many cite this as the beginning of the fall for WCW.<br />
*March 22, 1999 - Stone Cold Steve Austin drives a beer truck to the ring, and sprays The Corporation (Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, and The Rock) in beer.<br />
*April 26, 1999 - After losing the WWF Championship at Backlash the night prior, The Corporation turns on The Rock. As a result, The Rock turns babyface. With this babyface turn, as well as Austin leaving to have neck surgery seven months later, The Rock would begin to become one of the most popular WWF/WWE Superstars of all time.<br />
*''Raw Is Owen'' (May 24, 1999) - Owen Hart Tribute Show<br />
*August 9, 1999 - WWF debut of Chris Jericho.<br />
*August 23, 1999 - Triple H wins his first WWF Championship. <br />
*September 27, 1999 - The "This Is Your Life" segment featuring Mick Foley and the Rock, airs. It generates the highest ''Raw'' rating ever, with an 8.4.<br />
*November 29, 1999 - The in-storyline wedding of Stephanie McMahon and Test is interrupted by Triple H, who shows a video of himself and a drugged Stephanie getting married in a Las Vegas chapel. This was the beginning of the McMahon-Helmsley Faction storyline. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would get married in real life in the fall of 2003.<br />
*January 31, 2000 - WWF debut of The Radicalz (Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero). They would be the last WCW wrestlers to go to the WWF after appearing on ''Nitro'' the week prior, or the same night.<br />
*June 26, 2000 - ''Raw'' after the 2000 King of the Ring pay-per-view. Vince McMahon delivers his "Genetic Jackhammer" promo that would write him out of WWF storylines until December, so he could focus on getting the XFL ready. The "Genetic Jackhammer" promo would end up being a gimmick of sorts for the Mr. McMahon character. That same night, Shawn Michaels announced the new commissioner would be Mick Foley. Foley would remain commissioner until December.<br />
*September 25, 2000 - ''Raw'' begins airing on TNN (now Spike TV).<br />
*March 5, 2001 - Paul Heyman replaces Jerry "The King" Lawler as Color Commentator after Lawler walked out of the company with his wife, Stacy "The Kat" Carter.<br />
*March 26, 2001 - Final night of the Monday Night Wars as well as the ''Raw'' before ''WrestleMania X-Seven''. After a match between Ric Flair and Sting on ''Nitro'', it was simulcast with ''Raw''. Shane McMahon was revealed, in storyline, to be the owner of WCW, birthing the start of what eventually became the Invasion storyline.<br />
*April 2, 2001 - ''Raw'' after ''WrestleMania X-Seven''. The Rock would fight Stone Cold Steve Austin in a cage match as a re-match from the night prior. Austin had just turned heel, and at the end of the match, aligned himself with Triple H to create The Two-Man Power Trip. The team would last for several weeks, before Triple H's quadriceps injury a month later. The Rock would be in-storyline suspended, as he would leave for a few months to film ''The Scorpion King''.<br />
*May 21, 2001 - During a tag match, Triple H tears his quadriceps muscle. He would be out of action for the remainder of 2001, completely missing the Invasion storyline.<br />
*May 28, 2001 - The Invasion storyline unofficially starts when WCW's Lance Storm comes through the crowd to interfere in a match. Over the next few weeks, various other WCW wrestlers would appear on ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown'' and interfere in matches.<br />
*June 18, 2001 - Following segments on both ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown'' featuring someone stalking the Undertaker's wife, the stalker came forward, being Diamond Dallas Page. The segment set up a match at King of the Ring 2001, which was that Sunday.<br />
*July 2, 2001 - The final 20 minutes of ''Raw'' are given to WCW. The match was Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship. The segment was poorly received.<br />
*July 9, 2001 - Following the poor reception of the Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell match the week prior, the WCW contingent turns heel, aligning with ECW, which had been formed that night. Stephanie McMahon is revealed, in storyline, to be the owner of ECW. The WCW/ECW would be referred to as The Coalition, and later, The Alliance.<br />
*August 20, 2001 - Kurt Angle drives a milk truck to the ring, spraying down the Alliance with milk. The segment was a homage to two years prior when Steve Austin brought a beer truck to the ring, and sprayed the Corporation.<br />
*October 1, 2001 - Following the end of the Monday Night Wars, as well as the September 11, 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks, ''Raw is War'' changes its name back to ''Raw''.<br />
*November 19, 2001 - Following the end of the Invasion storyline at Survivor Series, Ric Flair is revealed to be part owner, in storyline, of the WWF. Also that night, Jerry "The King" Lawler returned to color commentary for the first time since he walked out of the company with his then-wife Stacy "The Kat" Carter.<br />
*January 7, 2002 - Following his May 2001 quad tear, Triple H returns to ''Raw'' at Madison Square Garden.<br />
*March 18, 2002 - WWF television debut of Brock Lesnar.<br />
*March 25, 2002 - The First WWE Draft.<br />
*April 1, 2002 - The first episode of ''Raw'' after the WWE Draft. Both belts for the Undisputed WWE Championship are replaced with a new belt, presented to Triple H by Ric Flair. A new set and theme song also debuted this episode. The theme song "Across the Nation" by The Union Underground, would be the theme song to Raw until 2006.<br />
*May 6, 2002 - First episode of ''Raw'' under the WWE name.<br />
*May 27, 2002 - Final episode of ''Raw'' to feature Stone Cold Steve Austin for the remainder of 2002. After declining a feud with Brock Lesnar, Austin abruptly left the company, and would not return until February 23, 2003 at ''No Way Out''.<br />
*July 15, 2002 - Eric Bischoff debuts on ''Raw'' as the General Manager.<br />
*September 2, 2002 - After Brock Lesnar signed exclusively with SmackDown, making the Undisputed WWE Championship once again the WWE Championship. Eric Bischoff came out with the World Championship Belt from earlier in the year, renaming it the World Heavyweight Championship, and awarding it to Triple H.<br />
*October 21, 2002 - The infamous "Katie Vick Funeral" segment. The segment featured Triple H, posing as Kane, at a funeral home where he precedes to have mock intercourse with a dummy in a casket. The segment was panned and poorly received, with many citing that it was in bad taste.<br />
*''Raw X Anniversary'' (January 13, 2003)<br />
*March 24, 2003 - The Rock performs his first "Rock Concert." The segment was used to build up a match between himself and Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIX that Sunday.<br />
*March 31, 2003 - WWE debut of Goldberg, who speared The Rock, setting up a match at Backlash 2003.<br />
*June 23, 2003 - Since his debut in 1997, Kane finally unmasks. He turns heel as a result, after returning as a babyface in October 2002. Kane's behavior following this segment would include setting Jim Ross on fire during an interview, electrocuting Shane McMahon's genitals with a car battery, and helping Mr. McMahon defeat the Undertaker at the 2003 Survivor Series, ending his biker persona. This would eventually lead to the return of the Undertaker's deadman persona and a match against Kane against WrestleMania XX.<br />
*October 3, 2005 - ''Raw'' returns to the USA Network.<br />
*Eddie Guerrero Tribute Show (November 14, 2005)<br />
*''Tribute to the Troops'' (December 19, 2005)<br />
*September 25, 2006 - A power failure causes the lights to go out for the first 20 minutes or so of the broadcast. However, the show continued on.<br />
*Chris Benoit Memorial (June 25, 2007) - It was during this broadcast that the details of what happened were revealed on news networks. The next night, during ECW on the SciFi Network, Vince McMahon announced that there would be no further mentions of Benoit on WWE Programming. In international markets, this episode was replaced by a special featuring the greatest championship matches.<br />
*March 31, 2008 - Ric Flair's retirement ceremony. At the end of the show, WWE honored Flair by having Triple H act as an emcee, having wrestlers from Flair's career come and pay their respects. After ''Raw'' went off the air, the Undertaker came down to the ring to pay respects to Flair.<br />
*July 28, 2008 - First PG Era episode of ''Raw''.<br />
*Trump Raw (June 22, 2009) - The first commercial-free ''Raw'', featuring an appearance by [[Donald Trump]].<br />
*January 4, 2010 - Bret Hart appears on ''Raw'' for the first time since the Montreal Screwjob in 1997.<br />
*''Monday Night SmackDown'' (April 19, 2010) - Due to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland, most of the RAW roster remained in Belfast after a European tour. As a result, the SmackDown roster was featured. Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, and Ryan Phillipe from the film ''MacGruber,'' made guest appearances.<br />
*''Viewer's Choice Raw'' (June 7, 2010) Best known for the debut of The Nexus, which would begin a storyline that would last for the rest of 2010.<br />
*''Old School Raw'' (November 15, 2010) The set, graphics, and pyro were designed to look like the 1993 format.<br />
*February 14, 2011 - The Rock appears on WWE programming for the first time since 2004. He is announced as the guest host for WrestleMania XXVII.<br />
*April 11, 2011 - After a neck injury, Edge announces his retirement.<br />
*''The Rock's Birthday Bash'' (May 2, 2011) - This was also the day [[Osama bin Laden]] was killed in retaliation for 9/11. On Raw, The Rock led the crowd in the [[Pledge of Allegiance]]. Ring announcer Lillian Garcia sang [[The Star Spangled Banner]] at the start of the show. At the WWE ''Extreme Rules'' pay-per-view the night before, the news of Bin Laden's death began to come out near the end of the show. John Cena broke the news to those in attendance at the pay-per-view.<br />
*June 27, 2011 - CM Punk delivers his now-infamous pipebomb promo. As a result, he turns babyface after being a heel with stables such as the Straight Edge Society and The New Nexus.<br />
*''Raw 1000'' (July 23, 2012) 1,000th episode of ''Raw''.<br />
*September 10, 2012 - At around 10:00 pm, Jerry "The King" Lawler suffers a heart attack live on air. During a tag team match between Kane and Daniel Bryan vs. The Prime Time Players, Lawler collapsed, and immediately, EMT's rushed him backstage where they performed CPR on him. Lawler had been in a tag team match earlier that night were he teamed up with Randy Orton to face CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler. After the heart attack and in respect of the situation, there was no commentary for the rest of the show, with Michael Cole only providing updates on Lawler's condition. This was also when Cole's heel character was dropped, as during that time, he had an on and off feud with Lawler.<br />
*November 12, 2012 - Jerry "The King" Lawler returns to ''Raw'' following his heart attack two months prior.<br />
*''Raw 20th Anniversary'' (January 14, 2013)<br />
*''The Ultimate Warrior Tribute Show'' (April 14, 2014) Tribute show for the Ultimate Warrior, who had been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame a week prior, and died just two days later.<br />
*August 18, 2014 - WWE debuts a new logo. This logo was first used to promote the WWE Network.<br />
*''Raw Reunion'' (January 19, 2015) First appearance of Sting on ''Raw''.<br />
*''Raw Special in Studio Show'' (January 26, 2015) Due to a Winter Storm in the northeast, travel bans were issued in Connecticut, where ''Raw'' was set to be held at the XL Center in Hartford. As a result, the show was moved to WWE Headquarters in Stamford, where various wrestlers appeared and conducted interviews. Also, the 2015 Royal Rumble match was shown in its entirety, occurring the night before.<br />
*February 8, 2016 - Daniel Bryan officially announces his retirement from professional wrestling after numerous injures and doctors being hesitant to clear him. In an interview done with ABC's ''Good Morning America'', he would also reveal that he suffered from seizures as a result of the concussions he had received.<br />
*February 22, 2016 - ''Raw'' after the 2016 Fastlane pay-per-view. Shane McMahon appears on WWE programming for the first time since 2009 where it was announced that he would face the Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania 32.<br />
*July 18, 2016 - Stephanie McMahon and Shane McMahon announce the General Managers for ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'': Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan, respectively.<br />
*July 25, 2016 - First ''Raw'' after the 2016 Draft. Since WWE Champion Dean Ambrose, who was drafted to ''SmackDown'', retained the title at ''Battleground'' the night before, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announce the WWE Universal Championship. A match at ''SummerSlam'' is announced between Seth Rollins and Finn Balor for the Championship. Also on this night, Sasha Banks wins the WWE Women's Championship from Charlotte.<br />
*August 22, 2016 - After winning the Universal Championship at SummerSlam the night prior, Finn Bálor relinquishes the title due to a shoulder injury.<br />
*January 30, 2017 - Samoa Joe debuts on the main roster.<br />
*February 20, 2017 - Prior to going on air, scenes from the film ''Fighting with My Family'', which details the life of WWE wrestler Paige and her family, were filmed. A match between the actors who play Paige and AJ Lee were filmed. After ''Raw'' went off the air, The Rock came out, and called CM Punk on the phone, and left him a voice message.<br />
*January 22, 2018 - Raw 25th Anniversary. Held at the Manhattan Center and the Barclays Center.<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1408422World Wrestling Entertainment2018-03-12T13:26:01Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Cesaro and Sheamus<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| March 11, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Undisputed Era<br />
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)<br />
| November 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Men)<br />
| Shinsuke Nakamura<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Women)<br />
| Asuka<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Mixed Match Challenge<br />
| TBD<br />
| TBD<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=WrestleMania&diff=1407676WrestleMania2018-03-07T02:44:03Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''WrestleMania''' is a pay-per-view program produced by [[World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is the company's biggest show of the year, and is said to be the equivalent of a [[Super Bowl]]/[[World Series]] for professional wrestling. It was often compared to ''Starrcade'', which was considered the premier event for NWA, later WCW. ''Starrcade'' began in 1983, two years before ''WrestleMania''. The event is held around March or April. The record attendance for a WrestleMania was in 1987 at WrestleMania III, which boasted a 93,173 number. However, numerous sources, such as Dave Meltzer, have claimed that WrestleMania III's attendance number was actually 78,000.<ref>http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/747901-dave-meltzer-on-wrestlemania-3-attendance-debate-former-wwe-tag-champ-talks-dino-bravos-murder-problems-with-the-steiner-brothers</ref> Regardless, WrestleMania III's official record would stand for 29 years, before being broken at WrestleMania 32, which boasted a record of 101,763.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Dates and Venues==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! Date<br />
! Venue<br />
! City<br />
! Main Event<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania<br />
| March 31, 1985<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| New York City<br />
| Hulk Hogan and Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff with special guest enforcer [[Muhammad Ali]] and special guest referee Pat Patterson<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 2<br />
| April 7, 1986<br />
| Nassau Coliseum<br />
Rosemont Horizon<br />
<br />
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena<br />
| Uniondale, NY<br />
Chicago, IL<br />
<br />
Los Angeles, CA<br />
| Hulk Hogan (c) vs. King Kong Bundy in a Steel Cage Match for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania III<br />
| March 29, 1987<br />
| Pontiac Silverdome<br />
| Pontiac, MI<br />
| Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Andre the Giant for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania IV<br />
| March 27, 1988<br />
| Trump Plaza<br />
| Atlantic City, NJ<br />
| Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase for the vacant WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania V<br />
| April 2, 1989<br />
| Trump Plaza<br />
| Atlantic City, NJ<br />
| Macho Man Randy Savage (c) vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania VI<br />
| April 1, 1990<br />
| SkyDome<br />
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Ultimate Warrior (c) for the WWF Intercontinental Championship and WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania VII<br />
| March 24, 1991<br />
| Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena<br />
| Los Angeles, CA<br />
| Sgt. Slaughter (c) vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania VIII<br />
| April 5, 1992<br />
| Hoosier Dome<br />
| Indianapolis, IN<br />
| Ric Flair (c) vs. Macho Man Randy Savage for the WWF Championship<br />
Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania IX<br />
| April 4, 1993<br />
| Caesars Palace<br />
| Las Vegas, NV<br />
| Bret Hart (c) vs. Yokozuna for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania X<br />
| March 20, 1994<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| New York City<br />
| Yokozuna (c) vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Championship with special guest referee Rowdy Roddy Piper<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XI<br />
| April 2, 1995<br />
| Hartford Civic Center<br />
| Hartford, CT<br />
| Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow with special guest referee Pat Patterson<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XII<br />
| March 31, 1996<br />
| Arrowhead Pond<br />
| Anaheim, CA<br />
| Bret Hart (c) vs. Shawn Michaels in a 60-minute Iron Man Match for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 13<br />
| March 23, 1997<br />
| Rosemont Horizon<br />
| Chicago, IL<br />
| Sycho Sid (c) vs. The Undertaker in a No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XIV<br />
| March 29, 1998<br />
| FleetCenter<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] for the WWF Championship with special guest enforcer [[Mike Tyson]]<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XV<br />
| March 28, 1999<br />
| First Union Center<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| The Rock (c) vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship with special guest referee Mankind<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 2000<br />
| April 2, 2000<br />
| Arrowhead Pond<br />
| Anaheim, CA<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. The Rock vs. Big Show vs. Mick Foley in a Fatal Four-Way Elimination match for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania X-Seven<br />
| April 1, 2001<br />
| Reliant Astrodome<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| The Rock (c) vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania X8<br />
| March 17, 2002<br />
| SkyDome<br />
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Chris Jericho (c) vs. Triple H for the Undisputed WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XIX<br />
| March 30, 2003<br />
| Safeco Field<br />
| Seattle, WA<br />
| Kurt Angle (c) vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XX<br />
| March 14, 2004<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| New York City<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels in a Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 21<br />
| April 3, 2005<br />
| Staples Center<br />
| Los Angeles, CA<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 22<br />
| April 2, 2006<br />
| Allstate Arena<br />
| Chicago, IL<br />
| John Cena (c) vs. Triple H for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 23<br />
| April 1, 2007<br />
| Ford Field<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| John Cena (c) vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXIV<br />
| March 30, 2008<br />
| Citrus Bowl<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Edge (c) vs. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXV<br />
| April 5, 2009<br />
| Reliant Stadium<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXVI<br />
| March 28, 2010<br />
| University of Phoenix Stadium<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels in a No Disqualification-No Count Out match<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXVII<br />
| April 3, 2011<br />
| Georgia Dome<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| The Miz (c) vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXVIII<br />
| April 1, 2012<br />
| Sun Life Stadium<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| The Rock vs. John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 29<br />
| April 7, 2013<br />
| MetLife Stadium<br />
| East Rutherford, NJ<br />
| The Rock (c) vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXX<br />
| April 6, 2014<br />
| Mercedes-Benz Superdome<br />
| New Orleans, LA<br />
| Randy Orton (c) vs. Batista vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 31<br />
| March 29, 2015<br />
| Levi's Stadium<br />
| Santa Clara, CA<br />
| Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 32<br />
| April 3, 2016<br />
| AT&T Stadium<br />
| Arlington, TX<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 33<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
| Camping World Stadium<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns in a No Holds Barred Match<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 34<br />
| April 8, 2018<br />
| Mercedes-Benz Superdome<br />
| New Orleans, LA<br />
| Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==The Undefeated Streak of The Undertaker==<br />
WrestleMania is also known for The Undertaker's undefeated streak. It started at WrestleMania VII when he beat Jimmy Snuka. For the next 23 years, the Undertaker would win 21 times at WrestleMania. The Undertaker did not compete at WrestleMania X in 1994, or at WrestleMania 2000 due to injury. The Streak ended at WrestleMania XXX, when the Undertaker lost to Brock Lesnar. Despite his loss at WrestleMania XXX, The Undertaker would continue to have match for the next three WrestleManias, winning matches at WrestleMania 31 and 32 against Bray Wyatt and Shane McMahon, respectively. At WrestleMania 33, The Undertaker experienced his second loss at the event when he lost to Roman Reigns. Due to the end of the match, many have speculated that he has retired. However, as of April 2017, this has not been confirmed.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! Opponent<br />
! Record<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania VII<br />
| Jimmy Snuka<br />
| 1-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania VIII<br />
| Jake Roberts<br />
| 2-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania IX<br />
| Giant González<br />
| 3-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XI<br />
| King Kong Bundy<br />
| 4-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XII<br />
| Diesel<br />
| 5-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 13<br />
| Sycho Sid<br />
| 6-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XIV<br />
| Kane<br />
| 7-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XV<br />
| Big Boss Man<br />
| 8-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania X-Seven<br />
| Triple H<br />
| 9-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania X8<br />
| Ric Flair<br />
| 10-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XIX<br />
| Big Show & A-Train<br />
| 11-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XX<br />
| Kane<br />
| 12-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 21<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| 13-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 22<br />
| Mark Henry<br />
| 14-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 23<br />
| Batista<br />
| 15-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXIV<br />
| Edge<br />
| 16-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXV<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
| 17-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXVI<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
| 18-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleManis XXVII<br />
| Triple H<br />
| 19-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXVIII<br />
| Triple H<br />
| 20-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 29<br />
| CM Punk<br />
| 21-0<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania XXX<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| 21-1<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 31<br />
| Bray Wyatt<br />
| 22-1<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 32<br />
| Shane McMahon<br />
| 23-1<br />
|-<br />
| WrestleMania 33<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| 23-2<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
[[Category:Television Shows]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Power_Rangers&diff=1404944Power Rangers2018-02-17T22:51:04Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Power Rangers''' is a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live action children's television series featuring teams of costumed heroes. Produced first by Saban Entertainment, later by BVS Entertainment, and currently by SCG Power Rangers LLC, the television series takes much of its footage from the Japanese tokusatsu [[Super Sentai]], produced by Toei Company. Its first entry, ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'', debuted on August 28, 1993, and helped launch the Fox Kids programming block of the 1990s, during which it catapulted into popular culture along with a line of action figures and other toys by Bandai. The first nine seasons would air entirely on Fox Kids. However, in 2001, The Walt Disney Company bought the franchise while production was beginning on the tenth season, ''Power Rangers Wild Force''. The first 26 episodes would air on Fox Kids, while the remaining 14 episodes would air on ABC Kids and ABC Family.<br />
<br />
After ''Wild Force'', Disney had planned to cancel the show, and air reruns. However, it was suggested that if production moved to New Zealand, the show could keep going and be cheaper to produce. Season 11, ''Power Rangers Ninja Storm'', was the first filmed in New Zealand, where it has been filmed ever since. For Season 12, Jason David Frank, who played Tommy Oliver for the first five seasons of the show, returned as the team's mentor and Black Ranger. This was done as a favor to Executive Producer Doug Sloan and as a way to show that the New Zealand-produced seasons were in canon with the previous ten.<br />
<br />
Despite initial criticism for its action violence targeted to child audiences, the franchise has continued, and as of 2015 the show consists of 22 television seasons and two theatrical films. Creator Haim Saban regained ownership of the franchise in 2010 after seven years under The Walt Disney Company. The current season, ''Power Rangers Dino Charge'', began airing on February 7, 2015 on Nickeldeon. The second half, called ''Power Rangers Dino Super Charge'', will begin airing on January 30, 2016.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/02/08/power-rangers-dino-charge-tv-series/5305153/</ref> In May 2014, Saban and Lionsgate announced plans to do a film reboot of ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.'' <ref>http://variety.com/2014/film/news/lionsgate-sets-power-rangers-movie-1201174102/</ref> A release date has been set for March 24, 2017. On February 2, 2016, it was announced that actress Elizabeth Banks (''The Hunger Games'') would play Rita Repulsa.<ref>http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/elizabeth-banks-play-power-rangers-861189</ref> On June 21, 2016, Bryan Cranston was announced to be playing Zordon.<ref>http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/power-rangers-movie-taps-bryan-cranston-to-play-zordon</ref> On September 22, 2016, ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' alum Bill Hader was announced to be playing Alpha 5. <ref>http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/769283-bill-hader-alpha-5#/slide/1</ref><br />
<br />
==Zordon Era==<br />
The first six seasons of Power Rangers are collectively referred to as the Zordon Era. This is because all six seasons were connected with each other in that they were continuations of previous ones. After the first three seasons of ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'', producers decided it was time for a major overhaul of the show. As a result, the show was renamed ''Power Rangers Zeo'' for it's fourth season. The following season, ''Power Rangers Turbo'', is widely regarded as one of the worst seasons of all time, mainly due to the motif being automobiles and the inclusion of a child ranger, Justin Stewart. After the dismal performance of Turbo, Saban was given one last season to wrap up the storyline, resulting in ''Power Rangers in Space''. The sixth season of Power Rangers would prove to be very popular, enough to renew the show. However, the storyline first started in Season One ended with the 2-parter, ''Countdown to Destruction.''<br />
<br />
==Post-Zordon Era==<br />
After the successful performance of ''Power Rangers in Space'', the show continued with ''Power Rangers Lost Galaxy''. Lost Galaxy would become one of the most expensive seasons ever produced. It also had some ties to the Zordon Era, acting as an epilogue of sorts. It wouldn't be until ''Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue'' that the show would have no ties to previous seasons, save for the annual team-up with the previous one. ''Power Rangers Time Force'' is regarded as one of the best seasons, due to better acting and writing. However, episodes were edited after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. ''Power Rangers Wild Force'' would be the tenth anniversary of the series, as well as the last one produced in the United States. In 2001, just as Wild Force was beginning production, Disney would purchase Power Rangers from Saban.<br />
<br />
==Disney Era==<br />
After the purchase by Disney, the initial plan was to air Power Rangers as reruns following the completion of ''Power Rangers Wild Force''. However, it was suggested that if production moved to New Zealand, the show could continue with a smaller budget. ''Power Rangers Ninja Storm'' would be the first New Zealand-produced season, airing in 2003. Producers Doug Sloan and Ann Austen returned to the series, being absent for several years. However, Ninja Storm would be the first season since Lost Galaxy to not have a team-up episode. This was mainly due to the Wild Force cast being union actors, while Ninja Storm was a non-union project. This, coupled with several lines said throughout the series made fans think Ninja Storm was in a different continuity than the previous ten seasons. For the next season, ''Power Rangers Dino Thunder'', Jason David Frank, who played Tommy Oliver in the first five seasons of the show, returned as the team's mentor and later, Black Ranger. This season also featured a team-up with the Ninja Storm rangers, proving it was in the same continuity. After Doug Sloan left the show, Bruce Kalish was brought on as Executive Producer for ''Power Rangers S.P.D.''. S.P.D. would prove to be a popular season among fans, with its successor, ''Power Rangers Mystic Force'', receiving a slightly less reaction. ''Power Rangers Operation Overdrive'' was the fifteenth anniversary of the series. Unfortunately, many fans see it as the absolute worst season of Power Rangers. ''Power Rangers Jungle Fury'' would garner a better reaction the next year, although Jungle Fury went into production during the Writer's Strike. After Jungle Fury, Kalish left, and Eddie Guzelian was brought on as EP for ''Power Rangers RPM''. RPM would be set in an alternate, dystopian future, similar to Mad Max. It was also the last season produced by Disney. In 2010, Disney aired a poorly-received "re-versioning" of ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers''. In response, Saban, re-acquired the franchise in May of that year.<br />
<br />
==Neo-Saban Era==<br />
With Power Rangers back in the hands of Saban, a new season based on the 33rd Super Sentai series, ''Samurai Sentai Shinkenger'', was set to premiere on Nickelodeon in February 2011, as ''Power Rangers Samurai''. Promotion for the show was very similar to how it had been during the MMPR days. However, only 20 episodes would air in 2011. The remaining ones would air in 2012, under the name ''Power Rangers Super Samurai''. For the 20th anniversary of the series, a bit of a problem arose. Usually, the anniversary seasons coincided with their Super Sentai counterparts. However, there was still one more Sentai season to go before getting to what was the 35th anniversary of Super Sentai, and adapting it into the 20th anniversary of Power Rangers. ''Power Rangers Megaforce'' would be adapted from ''Tensou Sentai Goseiger'', the 34th series, while ''Power Rangers Super Megaforce'' was adapted from ''Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger'', the 35th anniversary of Super Sentai. Both seasons received a lukewarm reaction from fans, with many saying it was rushed. In 2015, fans were expecting an adaptation of ''Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters'', the 36th Super Sentai. However, Go-Busters would be the first series since the start of Power Rangers to be skipped over in favor of ''Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger'', which was adapted into ''Power Rangers Dino Charge''. Similar to Samurai, the latter half of Dino Charge would air in 2016 as ''Power Rangers Dino Supercharge''. Rumors abound during 2015 suggested that Saban did not like ''Ressha Sentai ToQger'', which was the Sentai series that followed ''Kyoryuger''. It was speculated that the 2015 Super Sentai series, ''Shuriken Sentai Ninninger'', may be adapted instead. This was confirmed on January 9, 2016, it as was reported that SCG Power Rangers LLC had filed a trademark for "Ninja Steel." <ref>http://www.trademarkia.com/ninja-steel-86864840.html</ref> This effectively made ''ToQger'' the second Sentai to be skipped since the advent of Power Rangers.<br />
<br />
==Seasons==<br />
<br />
*''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger'' (1992) - ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season One'' (1993)<br />
*''Gosei Sentai Dairanger'' (1993) - ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season Two'' (1994)<br />
*''Ninja Sentai Kakuranger'' (1994) - ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season Three'' (1995)/''Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers'' (1996)<br />
*''Choriki Sentai Ohranger'' (1995) - ''Power Rangers Zeo'' (1996)<br />
*''Gekisou Sentai Carranger'' (1996) - ''Power Rangers Turbo'' (1997)<br />
*''Denji Sentai Megaranger'' (1997) - ''Power Rangers In Space'' (1998)<br />
*''Seijuu Sentai Gingaman'' (1998) - ''Power Rangers Lost Galaxy'' (1999)<br />
*''Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoV'' (1999) - ''Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue'' (2000)<br />
*''Mirai Sentai Timeranger'' (2000) - ''Power Rangers Time Force'' (2001)<br />
*''Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger'' (2001) - ''Power Rangers Wild Force'' (2002)<br />
*''Nipuu Sentai Hurricanger'' (2002) - ''Power Rangers Ninja Storm'' (2003)<br />
*''Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger'' (2003) - ''Power Rangers Dino Thunder'' (2004)<br />
*''Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger'' (2004) - ''Power Rangers S.P.D.'' (2005)<br />
*''Mahou Sentai Magiranger'' (2005) - ''Power Rangers Mystic Force'' (2006)<br />
*''GoGo Sentai Boukenger'' (2006) - ''Power Rangers Operation Overdrive'' (2007)<br />
*''Juken Sentai Gekiranger'' (2007) - ''Power Rangers Jungle Fury'' (2008)<br />
*''Engine Sentai Go-Onger'' (2008) - ''Power Rangers RPM'' (2009)<br />
*''Samurai Sentai Shinkenger'' (2009) - ''Power Rangers Samurai'' (2011)/''Power Rangers Super Samurai'' (2012)<br />
*''Tensou Sentai Goseiger'' (2010) - ''Power Rangers Megaforce'' (2013)<br />
*''Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger'' (2011) - ''Power Rangers Super Megaforce'' (2014)<br />
*''Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger'' (2013) - ''Power Rangers Dino Charge'' (2015)/''Power Rangers Dino Super Charge'' (2016)<br />
*''Shuriken Sentai Ninninger'' (2015) - ''Power Rangers Ninja Steel'' (2017)/''Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel'' (2018)<br />
*''Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters'' (2012) - ''Power Rangers Beast Morphers'' (2019)<br />
<br />
==Movies==<br />
<br />
*''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie'' (1995)<br />
*''Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie'' (1997)<br />
*''Power Rangers'' (2017)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<references>http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/02/08/power-rangers-dino-charge-tv-series/5305153/</references><br />
<br />
[[Category:Television Shows]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Power_Rangers&diff=1404943Power Rangers2018-02-17T22:50:36Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Power Rangers''' is a long-running American entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live action children's television series featuring teams of costumed heroes. Produced first by Saban Entertainment, later by BVS Entertainment, and currently by SCG Power Rangers LLC, the television series takes much of its footage from the Japanese tokusatsu [[Super Sentai]], produced by Toei Company. Its first entry, ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'', debuted on August 28, 1993, and helped launch the Fox Kids programming block of the 1990s, during which it catapulted into popular culture along with a line of action figures and other toys by Bandai. The first nine seasons would air entirely on Fox Kids. However, in 2001, The Walt Disney Company bought the franchise while production was beginning on the tenth season, ''Power Rangers Wild Force''. The first 26 episodes would air on Fox Kids, while the remaining 14 episodes would air on ABC Kids and ABC Family.<br />
<br />
After ''Wild Force'', Disney had planned to cancel the show, and air reruns. However, it was suggested that if production moved to New Zealand, the show could keep going and be cheaper to produce. Season 11, ''Power Rangers Ninja Storm'', was the first filmed in New Zealand, where it has been filmed ever since. For Season 12, Jason David Frank, who played Tommy Oliver for the first five seasons of the show, returned as the team's mentor and Black Ranger. This was done as a favor to Executive Producer Doug Sloan and as a way to show that the New Zealand-produced seasons were in canon with the previous ten.<br />
<br />
Despite initial criticism for its action violence targeted to child audiences, the franchise has continued, and as of 2015 the show consists of 22 television seasons and two theatrical films. Creator Haim Saban regained ownership of the franchise in 2010 after seven years under The Walt Disney Company. The current season, ''Power Rangers Dino Charge'', began airing on February 7, 2015 on Nickeldeon. The second half, called ''Power Rangers Dino Super Charge'', will begin airing on January 30, 2016.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/02/08/power-rangers-dino-charge-tv-series/5305153/</ref> In May 2014, Saban and Lionsgate announced plans to do a film reboot of ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.'' <ref>http://variety.com/2014/film/news/lionsgate-sets-power-rangers-movie-1201174102/</ref> A release date has been set for March 24, 2017. On February 2, 2016, it was announced that actress Elizabeth Banks (''The Hunger Games'') would play Rita Repulsa.<ref>http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/elizabeth-banks-play-power-rangers-861189</ref> On June 21, 2016, Bryan Cranston was announced to be playing Zordon.<ref>http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/power-rangers-movie-taps-bryan-cranston-to-play-zordon</ref> On September 22, 2016, ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' alum Bill Hader was announced to be playing Alpha 5. <ref>http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/769283-bill-hader-alpha-5#/slide/1</ref><br />
<br />
==Zordon Era==<br />
The first six seasons of Power Rangers are collectively referred to as the Zordon Era. This is because all six seasons were connected with each other in that they were continuations of previous ones. After the first three seasons of ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'', producers decided it was time for a major overhaul of the show. As a result, the show was renamed ''Power Rangers Zeo'' for it's fourth season. The following season, ''Power Rangers Turbo'', is widely regarded as one of the worst seasons of all time, mainly due to the motif being automobiles and the inclusion of a child ranger, Justin Stewart. After the dismal performance of Turbo, Saban was given one last season to wrap up the storyline, resulting in ''Power Rangers in Space''. The sixth season of Power Rangers would prove to be very popular, enough to renew the show. However, the storyline first started in Season One ended with the 2-parter, ''Countdown to Destruction.''<br />
<br />
==Post-Zordon Era==<br />
After the successful performance of ''Power Rangers in Space'', the show continued with ''Power Rangers Lost Galaxy''. Lost Galaxy would become one of the most expensive seasons ever produced. It also had some ties to the Zordon Era, acting as an epilogue of sorts. It wouldn't be until ''Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue'' that the show would have no ties to previous seasons, save for the annual team-up with the previous one. ''Power Rangers Time Force'' is regarded as one of the best seasons, due to better acting and writing. However, episodes were edited after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. ''Power Rangers Wild Force'' would be the tenth anniversary of the series, as well as the last one produced in the United States. In 2001, just as Wild Force was beginning production, Disney would purchase Power Rangers from Saban.<br />
<br />
==Disney Era==<br />
After the purchase by Disney, the initial plan was to air Power Rangers as reruns following the completion of ''Power Rangers Wild Force''. However, it was suggested that if production moved to New Zealand, the show could continue with a smaller budget. ''Power Rangers Ninja Storm'' would be the first New Zealand-produced season, airing in 2003. Producers Doug Sloan and Ann Austen returned to the series, being absent for several years. However, Ninja Storm would be the first season since Lost Galaxy to not have a team-up episode. This was mainly due to the Wild Force cast being union actors, while Ninja Storm was a non-union project. This, coupled with several lines said throughout the series made fans think Ninja Storm was in a different continuity than the previous ten seasons. For the next season, ''Power Rangers Dino Thunder'', Jason David Frank, who played Tommy Oliver in the first five seasons of the show, returned as the team's mentor and later, Black Ranger. This season also featured a team-up with the Ninja Storm rangers, proving it was in the same continuity. After Doug Sloan left the show, Bruce Kalish was brought on as Executive Producer for ''Power Rangers S.P.D.''. S.P.D. would prove to be a popular season among fans, with its successor, ''Power Rangers Mystic Force'', receiving a slightly less reaction. ''Power Rangers Operation Overdrive'' was the fifteenth anniversary of the series. Unfortunately, many fans see it as the absolute worst season of Power Rangers. ''Power Rangers Jungle Fury'' would garner a better reaction the next year, although Jungle Fury went into production during the Writer's Strike. After Jungle Fury, Kalish left, and Eddie Guzelian was brought on as EP for ''Power Rangers RPM''. RPM would be set in an alternate, dystopian future, similar to Mad Max. It was also the last season produced by Disney. In 2010, Disney aired a poorly-received "re-versioning" of ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers''. In response, Saban, re-acquired the franchise in May of that year.<br />
<br />
==Neo-Saban Era==<br />
With Power Rangers back in the hands of Saban, a new season based on the 33rd Super Sentai series, ''Samurai Sentai Shinkenger'', was set to premiere on Nickelodeon in February 2011, as ''Power Rangers Samurai''. Promotion for the show was very similar to how it had been during the MMPR days. However, only 20 episodes would air in 2011. The remaining ones would air in 2012, under the name ''Power Rangers Super Samurai''. For the 20th anniversary of the series, a bit of a problem arose. Usually, the anniversary seasons coincided with their Super Sentai counterparts. However, there was still one more Sentai season to go before getting to what was the 35th anniversary of Super Sentai, and adapting it into the 20th anniversary of Power Rangers. ''Power Rangers Megaforce'' would be adapted from ''Tensou Sentai Goseiger'', the 34th series, while ''Power Rangers Super Megaforce'' was adapted from ''Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger'', the 35th anniversary of Super Sentai. Both seasons received a lukewarm reaction from fans, with many saying it was rushed. In 2015, fans were expecting an adaptation of ''Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters'', the 36th Super Sentai. However, Go-Busters would be the first series since the start of Power Rangers to be skipped over in favor of ''Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger'', which was adapted into ''Power Rangers Dino Charge''. Similar to Samurai, the latter half of Dino Charge would air in 2016 as ''Power Rangers Dino Supercharge''. Rumors abound during 2015 suggested that Saban did not like ''Ressha Sentai ToQger'', which was the Sentai series that followed ''Kyoryuger''. It was speculated that the 2015 Super Sentai series, ''Shuriken Sentai Ninninger'', may be adapted instead. This was confirmed on January 9, 2016, it as was reported that SCG Power Rangers LLC had filed a trademark for "Ninja Steel." <ref>http://www.trademarkia.com/ninja-steel-86864840.html</ref> This effectively made ''ToQger'' the second Sentai to be skipped since the advent of Power Rangers.<br />
<br />
==Seasons==<br />
<br />
*''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger'' (1992) - ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season One'' (1993)<br />
*''Gosei Sentai Dairanger'' (1993) - ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season Two'' (1994)<br />
*''Ninja Sentai Kakuranger'' (1994) - ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season Three'' (1995)/''Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers'' (1996)<br />
*''Choriki Sentai Ohranger'' (1995) - ''Power Rangers Zeo'' (1996)<br />
*''Gekisou Sentai Carranger'' (1996) - ''Power Rangers Turbo'' (1997)<br />
*''Denji Sentai Megaranger'' (1997) - ''Power Rangers In Space'' (1998)<br />
*''Seijuu Sentai Gingaman'' (1998) - ''Power Rangers Lost Galaxy'' (1999)<br />
*''Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoV'' (1999) - ''Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue'' (2000)<br />
*''Mirai Sentai Timeranger'' (2000) - ''Power Rangers Time Force'' (2001)<br />
*''Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger'' (2001) - ''Power Rangers Wild Force'' (2002)<br />
*''Nipuu Sentai Hurricanger'' (2002) - ''Power Rangers Ninja Storm'' (2003)<br />
*''Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger'' (2003) - ''Power Rangers Dino Thunder'' (2004)<br />
*''Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger'' (2004) - ''Power Rangers S.P.D.'' (2005)<br />
*''Mahou Sentai Magiranger'' (2005) - ''Power Rangers Mystic Force'' (2006)<br />
*''GoGo Sentai Boukenger'' (2006) - ''Power Rangers Operation Overdrive'' (2007)<br />
*''Juken Sentai Gekiranger'' (2007) - ''Power Rangers Jungle Fury'' (2008)<br />
*''Engine Sentai Go-Onger'' (2008) - ''Power Rangers RPM'' (2009)<br />
*''Samurai Sentai Shinkenger'' (2009) - ''Power Rangers Samurai'' (2011)/''Power Rangers Super Samurai'' (2012)<br />
*''Tensou Sentai Goseiger'' (2010) - ''Power Rangers Megaforce'' (2013)<br />
*''Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger'' (2011) - ''Power Rangers Super Megaforce'' (2014)<br />
*''Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger'' (2013) - ''Power Rangers Dino Charge'' (2015)/''Power Rangers Dino Super Charge'' (2016)<br />
*''Shuriken Sentai Ninninger'' (2015) - ''Power Rangers Ninja Steel'' (2017)/''Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel'' (2018)<br />
*''Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters'' (2012) - ''Power Rangers Beast Morphers'' (2019)<br />
<br />
==Movies==<br />
<br />
*''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie'' (1995)<br />
*''Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie'' (1997)<br />
*''Saban's Power Rangers'' (2017)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<references>http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/02/08/power-rangers-dino-charge-tv-series/5305153/</references><br />
<br />
[[Category:Television Shows]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Super_Sentai&diff=1401457Super Sentai2018-01-30T02:30:50Z<p>BoukenCrimson: /* Sentai Series */</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Super Sentai''' is a genre of Japanese superhero tokusatsu television programs. As opposed to shows such as Kamen Rider, which have only around 1-2 riders per series, Super Sentai usually has 3-5 members on a team. Starting with ''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger'', Sentai teams have a Sixth Ranger. Usually, the Sixth Ranger will appear a third of the way through the series. The first two shows, Himitsu Sentai Goranger and J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai were not considered part of the Super Sentai canon until 1995. The term "Super" Sentai refers to the team having a giant robot. This trend began in 1979 with ''Battle Fever J'', and has been a staple in the franchise ever since. From 1979 until 1982, Marvel was involved in producing Super Sentai. It was during this time that Stan Lee expressed interest in bringing Sentai over to the west. A dubbed episode of the 1981 series, ''Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan'' was shown to networks, but was passed over. In 1986, Haim Saban made a pilot using footage from the 1984 series ''Choudenshi Bioman'', and again it was turned down. In 1987, ''Kagaku Sentai Dynaman'' was dubbed in English, and aired on the USA Network, simply titled ''Dynaman''. The show was a parody. In 1993, a proper adaptation was made when ''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger'' became to first Sentai series to be adapted into [[Power Rangers]]. The current series, ''Uchu Sentai Kyuranger,'' began on February 12, 2017. <br />
<br />
===Sentai Series===<br />
*'''''Himitsu Sentai Goranger''''' (1975)<br />
*'''''J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai''''' (1977)<br />
*'''''Battle Fever J''''' (1979)<br />
*'''''Denshi Sentai Denjiman''''' (1980)<br />
*'''''Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan''''' (1981)<br />
*'''''Dai Sentai Goggle-V''''' (1982)<br />
*'''''Kagaku Sentai Dynaman''''' (1983)<br />
*'''''Choudenshi Bioman''''' (1984)<br />
*'''''Dengeki Sentai Changeman''''' (1985)<br />
*'''''Choushinsei Flashman''''' (1986)<br />
*'''''Hikari Sentai Maskman''''' (1987)<br />
*'''''Choujuu Sentai Liveman''''' (1988)<br />
*'''''Kousoku Sentai Turboranger''''' (1989)<br />
*'''''Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman''''' (1990)<br />
*'''''Choujin Sentai Jetman''''' (1991)<br />
*'''''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger''''' (1992)<br />
*'''''Gosei Sentai Dairanger''''' (1993)<br />
*'''''Ninja Sentai Kakuranger''''' (1994)<br />
*'''''Choriki Sentai Ohranger''''' (1995)<br />
*'''''Gekisou Sentai Carranger''''' (1996)<br />
*'''''Denji Sentai Megaranger''''' (1997)<br />
*'''''Seijuu Sentai Gingaman''''' (1998)<br />
*'''''Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoV''''' (1999)<br />
*'''''Mirai Sentai Timeranger''''' (2000)<br />
*'''''Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger''''' (2001)<br />
*'''''Nipuu Sentai Hurricanger''''' (2002)<br />
*'''''Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger''''' (2003)<br />
*'''''Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger''''' (2004)<br />
*'''''Mahou Sentai Magiranger''''' (2005)<br />
*'''''GoGo Sentai Boukenger''''' (2006)<br />
*'''''Juken Sentai Gekiranger''''' (2007)<br />
*'''''Engine Sentai Go-Onger''''' (2008)<br />
*'''''Samurai Sentai Shinkenger''''' (2009)<br />
*'''''Tensou Sentai Goseiger''''' (2010)<br />
*'''''Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger''''' (2011)<br />
*'''''Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters''''' (2012)<br />
*'''''Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger''''' (2013)<br />
*'''''Ressha Sentai ToQger''''' (2014)<br />
*'''''Shuriken Sentai Ninninger''''' (2015)<br />
*'''''Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger''''' (2016)<br />
*'''''Uchu Sentai Kyuranger''''' (2017)<br />
*'''''Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger''''' (2018)<br />
<br />
==Non-Canon Series==<br />
*'''''Ninja Captor''''' (1976)<br />
*'''''Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger''''' (2012)<br />
*'''''Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger Season 2''''' (2013)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
[[Category:Japan]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Royal_Rumble&diff=1401214Royal Rumble2018-01-29T04:10:45Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Royal Rumble''' is an event produced by [[World Wrestling Federation|World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views that WWE produces, with [[WrestleMania]], [[SummerSlam]], and [[Survivor Series]] being the other three. The Royal Rumble is the first pay-per-view to take place in the year, usually happening in late January. The main event is usually the Royal Rumble match itself. It consists of usually 30 men, although the 1988 event had 20 men and the 2011 event had 40 men. As of 2015, three women have entered the Royal Rumble match. Chyna in 1999 and 2000, Beth Phoenix in 2010, and Kharma in 2012. Every 90 seconds, a new wrestler enters the ring. The winner is determined after all men have entered, with all but the winner being eliminated. In 1992, the winner, being Ric Flair, won the vacant WWE Championship. Starting with the 1993 event, the winner usually goes on to a title match at that year's respective WrestleMania. The 2016 Royal Rumble match saw champion Roman Reigns defending the title during the match. 2018 saw the first women's Royal Rumble match, which was won by Asuka.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Royal Rumble Winner<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1988)<br />
| Hamilton, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Copps Coliseum<br />
| Hacksaw Jim Duggan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1989)<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| The Summit<br />
| Big John Studd<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1990)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Orlando Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1991)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| Miami Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1992)<br />
| Albany, NY<br />
| Knickerbocker Arena<br />
| Ric Flair<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1993)<br />
| Sacramento, CA<br />
| ARCO Arena<br />
| Yokozuna<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1994)<br />
| Providence, RI<br />
| Providence Civic Center<br />
| Bret Hart & Lex Luger<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1995)<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| USF Sun Dome<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1996)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Selland Arena<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1997)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1998)<br />
| San Jose, CA<br />
| San Jose Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1999)<br />
| Anaheim, CA<br />
| Arrowhead Pond<br />
| Vince McMahon<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2000)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2001)<br />
| New Orleans, LA<br />
| New Orleans Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2002)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2003)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| FleetCenter<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2004)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| Chris Benoit<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2005)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Save Mart Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2006)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Rey Mysterio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2007)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| AT&T Center<br />
| The Undertaker<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2008)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2009)<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2010)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Edge<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2011)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Alberto Del Rio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2012)<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Sheamus<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2013)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| US Airways Center<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2014)<br />
| Pittsburgh, PA<br />
| Consol Energy Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2015)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2016)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Amway Center<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2017)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2018)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Shinsuke Nakamura (Men)<br />
<br />
Asuka (Women)<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2019)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| Chase Field<br />
| TBD<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Royal_Rumble&diff=1401213Royal Rumble2018-01-29T04:09:53Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Royal Rumble''' is an event produced by [[World Wrestling Federation|World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views that WWE produces, with [[WrestleMania]], [[SummerSlam]], and [[Survivor Series]] being the other three. The Royal Rumble is the first pay-per-view to take place in the year, usually happening in late January. The main event is usually the Royal Rumble match itself. It consists of usually 30 men, although the 1988 event had 20 men and the 2011 event had 40 men. As of 2015, three women have entered the Royal Rumble match. Chyna in 1999 and 2000, Beth Phoenix in 2010, and Kharma in 2012. Every 90 seconds, a new wrestler enters the ring. The winner is determined after all men have entered, with all but the winner being eliminated. In 1992, the winner, being Ric Flair, won the vacant WWE Championship. Starting with the 1993 event, the winner usually goes on to a title match at that year's respective WrestleMania. The 2016 Royal Rumble match saw champion Roman Reigns defending the title during the match. 2018 saw the first women's Royal Rumble match.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Royal Rumble Winner<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1988)<br />
| Hamilton, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Copps Coliseum<br />
| Hacksaw Jim Duggan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1989)<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| The Summit<br />
| Big John Studd<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1990)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Orlando Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1991)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| Miami Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1992)<br />
| Albany, NY<br />
| Knickerbocker Arena<br />
| Ric Flair<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1993)<br />
| Sacramento, CA<br />
| ARCO Arena<br />
| Yokozuna<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1994)<br />
| Providence, RI<br />
| Providence Civic Center<br />
| Bret Hart & Lex Luger<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1995)<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| USF Sun Dome<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1996)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Selland Arena<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1997)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1998)<br />
| San Jose, CA<br />
| San Jose Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1999)<br />
| Anaheim, CA<br />
| Arrowhead Pond<br />
| Vince McMahon<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2000)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2001)<br />
| New Orleans, LA<br />
| New Orleans Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2002)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2003)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| FleetCenter<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2004)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| Chris Benoit<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2005)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Save Mart Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2006)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Rey Mysterio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2007)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| AT&T Center<br />
| The Undertaker<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2008)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2009)<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2010)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Edge<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2011)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Alberto Del Rio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2012)<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Sheamus<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2013)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| US Airways Center<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2014)<br />
| Pittsburgh, PA<br />
| Consol Energy Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2015)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2016)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Amway Center<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2017)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2018)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Shinsuke Nakamura (Men)<br />
<br />
Asuka (Women)<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2019)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| Chase Field<br />
| TBD<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1401212World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-29T04:08:51Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Cesaro and Sheamus<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Undisputed Era<br />
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)<br />
| November 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Men)<br />
| Shinsuke Nakamura<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Women)<br />
| Asuka<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Mixed Match Challenge<br />
| TBD<br />
| TBD<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1401190World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-29T02:35:45Z<p>BoukenCrimson: /* Raw */</p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Cesaro and Sheamus<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Undisputed Era<br />
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)<br />
| November 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Men)<br />
| Shinsuke Nakamura<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Women)<br />
| TBD<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Mixed Match Challenge<br />
| TBD<br />
| TBD<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Royal_Rumble&diff=1401182Royal Rumble2018-01-29T02:17:08Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Royal Rumble''' is an event produced by [[World Wrestling Federation|World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views that WWE produces, with [[WrestleMania]], [[SummerSlam]], and [[Survivor Series]] being the other three. The Royal Rumble is the first pay-per-view to take place in the year, usually happening in late January. The main event is usually the Royal Rumble match itself. It consists of usually 30 men, although the 1988 event had 20 men and the 2011 event had 40 men. As of 2015, three women have entered the Royal Rumble match. Chyna in 1999 and 2000, Beth Phoenix in 2010, and Kharma in 2012. Every 90 seconds, a new wrestler enters the ring. The winner is determined after all men have entered, with all but the winner being eliminated. In 1992, the winner, being Ric Flair, won the vacant WWE Championship. Starting with the 1993 event, the winner usually goes on to a title match at that year's respective WrestleMania. The 2016 Royal Rumble match saw champion Roman Reigns defending the title during the match. 2018 saw the first women's Royal Rumble match.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Royal Rumble Winner<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1988)<br />
| Hamilton, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Copps Coliseum<br />
| Hacksaw Jim Duggan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1989)<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| The Summit<br />
| Big John Studd<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1990)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Orlando Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1991)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| Miami Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1992)<br />
| Albany, NY<br />
| Knickerbocker Arena<br />
| Ric Flair<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1993)<br />
| Sacramento, CA<br />
| ARCO Arena<br />
| Yokozuna<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1994)<br />
| Providence, RI<br />
| Providence Civic Center<br />
| Bret Hart & Lex Luger<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1995)<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| USF Sun Dome<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1996)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Selland Arena<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1997)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1998)<br />
| San Jose, CA<br />
| San Jose Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1999)<br />
| Anaheim, CA<br />
| Arrowhead Pond<br />
| Vince McMahon<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2000)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2001)<br />
| New Orleans, LA<br />
| New Orleans Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2002)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2003)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| FleetCenter<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2004)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| Chris Benoit<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2005)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Save Mart Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2006)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Rey Mysterio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2007)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| AT&T Center<br />
| The Undertaker<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2008)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2009)<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2010)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Edge<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2011)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Alberto Del Rio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2012)<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Sheamus<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2013)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| US Airways Center<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2014)<br />
| Pittsburgh, PA<br />
| Consol Energy Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2015)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2016)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Amway Center<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2017)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2018)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Shinsuke Nakamura (Men)<br />
<br />
TBD (Women)<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2019)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| Chase Field<br />
| TBD<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Royal_Rumble&diff=1401180Royal Rumble2018-01-29T02:12:24Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Royal Rumble''' is an event produced by [[World Wrestling Federation|World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views that WWE produces, with [[WrestleMania]], [[SummerSlam]], and [[Survivor Series]] being the other three. The Royal Rumble is the first pay-per-view to take place in the year, usually happening in late January. The main event is usually the Royal Rumble match itself. It consists of usually 30 men, although the 1988 event had 20 men and the 2011 event had 40 men. As of 2015, three women have entered the Royal Rumble match. Chyna in 1999 and 2000, Beth Phoenix in 2010, and Kharma in 2012. Every 90 seconds, a new wrestler enters the ring. The winner is determined after all men have entered, with all but the winner being eliminated. In 1992, the winner, being Ric Flair, won the vacant WWE Championship. Starting with the 1993 event, the winner usually goes on to a title match at that year's respective WrestleMania. The 2016 Royal Rumble match saw champion Roman Reigns defending the title during the match. 2018 saw the first women's Royal Rumble match.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Royal Rumble Winner<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1988)<br />
| Hamilton, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Copps Coliseum<br />
| Hacksaw Jim Duggan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1989)<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| The Summit<br />
| Big John Studd<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1990)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Orlando Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1991)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| Miami Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1992)<br />
| Albany, NY<br />
| Knickerbocker Arena<br />
| Ric Flair<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1993)<br />
| Sacramento, CA<br />
| ARCO Arena<br />
| Yokozuna<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1994)<br />
| Providence, RI<br />
| Providence Civic Center<br />
| Bret Hart & Lex Luger<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1995)<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| USF Sun Dome<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1996)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Selland Arena<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1997)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1998)<br />
| San Jose, CA<br />
| San Jose Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1999)<br />
| Anaheim, CA<br />
| Arrowhead Pond<br />
| Vince McMahon<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2000)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2001)<br />
| New Orleans, LA<br />
| New Orleans Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2002)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2003)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| FleetCenter<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2004)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| Chris Benoit<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2005)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Save Mart Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2006)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Rey Mysterio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2007)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| AT&T Center<br />
| The Undertaker<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2008)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2009)<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2010)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Edge<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2011)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Alberto Del Rio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2012)<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Sheamus<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2013)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| US Airways Center<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2014)<br />
| Pittsburgh, PA<br />
| Consol Energy Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2015)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2016)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Amway Center<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2017)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2018)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Shinsuke Nakamura (Men)<br />
<br />
TBD (Women)<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1401178World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-29T02:07:03Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Undisputed Era<br />
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)<br />
| November 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Men)<br />
| Shinsuke Nakamura<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Women)<br />
| TBD<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Mixed Match Challenge<br />
| TBD<br />
| TBD<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1401133World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-28T19:27:29Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Undisputed Era<br />
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)<br />
| November 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Men)<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Women)<br />
| TBD<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Mixed Match Challenge<br />
| TBD<br />
| TBD<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1401132World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-28T19:26:02Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Undisputed Era<br />
(Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)<br />
| November 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Men)<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Women)<br />
| TBD<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Mixed Match Challenge<br />
| TBD<br />
| TBD<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1401131World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-28T19:22:26Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Men)<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Women)<br />
| TBD<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Mixed Match Challenge<br />
| TBD<br />
| TBD<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Royal_Rumble&diff=1401130Royal Rumble2018-01-28T19:20:37Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Royal Rumble''' is an event produced by [[World Wrestling Federation|World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views that WWE produces, with [[WrestleMania]], [[SummerSlam]], and [[Survivor Series]] being the other three. The Royal Rumble is the first pay-per-view to take place in the year, usually happening in late January. The main event is usually the Royal Rumble match itself. It consists of usually 30 men, although the 1988 event had 20 men and the 2011 event had 40 men. As of 2015, three women have entered the Royal Rumble match. Chyna in 1999 and 2000, Beth Phoenix in 2010, and Kharma in 2012. Every 90 seconds, a new wrestler enters the ring. The winner is determined after all men have entered, with all but the winner being eliminated. In 1992, the winner, being Ric Flair, won the vacant WWE Championship. Starting with the 1993 event, the winner usually goes on to a title match at that year's respective WrestleMania. The 2016 Royal Rumble match saw champion Roman Reigns defending the title during the match. 2018 saw the first women's Royal Rumble match.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Royal Rumble Winner<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1988)<br />
| Hamilton, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Copps Coliseum<br />
| Hacksaw Jim Duggan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1989)<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| The Summit<br />
| Big John Studd<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1990)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Orlando Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1991)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| Miami Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1992)<br />
| Albany, NY<br />
| Knickerbocker Arena<br />
| Ric Flair<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1993)<br />
| Sacramento, CA<br />
| ARCO Arena<br />
| Yokozuna<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1994)<br />
| Providence, RI<br />
| Providence Civic Center<br />
| Bret Hart & Lex Luger<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1995)<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| USF Sun Dome<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1996)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Selland Arena<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1997)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1998)<br />
| San Jose, CA<br />
| San Jose Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1999)<br />
| Anaheim, CA<br />
| Arrowhead Pond<br />
| Vince McMahon<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2000)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2001)<br />
| New Orleans, LA<br />
| New Orleans Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2002)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2003)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| FleetCenter<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2004)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| Chris Benoit<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2005)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Save Mart Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2006)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Rey Mysterio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2007)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| AT&T Center<br />
| The Undertaker<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2008)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2009)<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2010)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Edge<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2011)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Alberto Del Rio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2012)<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Sheamus<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2013)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| US Airways Center<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2014)<br />
| Pittsburgh, PA<br />
| Consol Energy Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2015)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2016)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Amway Center<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2017)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2018)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
|TBD (Men)<br />
<br />
TBD (Women)<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Royal_Rumble&diff=1401129Royal Rumble2018-01-28T19:17:15Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Royal Rumble''' is an event produced by [[World Wrestling Federation|World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views that WWE produces, with [[WrestleMania]], [[SummerSlam]], and [[Survivor Series]] being the other three. The Royal Rumble is the first pay-per-view to take place in the year, usually happening in late January. The main event is usually the Royal Rumble match itself. It consists of usually 30 men, although the 1988 event had 20 men and the 2011 event had 40 men. As of 2015, three women have entered the Royal Rumble match. Chyna in 1999 and 2000, Beth Phoenix in 2010, and Kharma in 2012. Every 90 seconds, a new wrestler enters the ring. The winner is determined after all men have entered, with all but the winner being eliminated. In 1992, the winner, being Ric Flair, won the vacant WWE Championship. Starting with the 1993 event, the winner usually goes on to a title match at that year's respective WrestleMania. The 2016 Royal Rumble match saw champion Roman Reigns defending the title during the match.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Royal Rumble Winner<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1988)<br />
| Hamilton, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Copps Coliseum<br />
| Hacksaw Jim Duggan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1989)<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| The Summit<br />
| Big John Studd<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1990)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Orlando Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1991)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| Miami Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1992)<br />
| Albany, NY<br />
| Knickerbocker Arena<br />
| Ric Flair<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1993)<br />
| Sacramento, CA<br />
| ARCO Arena<br />
| Yokozuna<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1994)<br />
| Providence, RI<br />
| Providence Civic Center<br />
| Bret Hart & Lex Luger<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1995)<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| USF Sun Dome<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1996)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Selland Arena<br />
| Shawn Michaels<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1997)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1998)<br />
| San Jose, CA<br />
| San Jose Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (1999)<br />
| Anaheim, CA<br />
| Arrowhead Pond<br />
| Vince McMahon<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2000)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2001)<br />
| New Orleans, LA<br />
| New Orleans Arena<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2002)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2003)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| FleetCenter<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2004)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| Chris Benoit<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2005)<br />
| Fresno, CA<br />
| Save Mart Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2006)<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Rey Mysterio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2007)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| AT&T Center<br />
| The Undertaker<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2008)<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2009)<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2010)<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Edge<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2011)<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Alberto Del Rio<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2012)<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Sheamus<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2013)<br />
| Phoenix, AZ<br />
| US Airways Center<br />
| John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2014)<br />
| Pittsburgh, PA<br />
| Consol Energy Center<br />
| Batista<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2015)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2016)<br />
| Orlando, FL<br />
| Amway Center<br />
| Triple H<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2017)<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Alamodome<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (2018)<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wells Fargo Center<br />
|TBD (Men)<br />
<br />
TBD (Women)<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1401128World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-28T19:14:31Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Men)<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble (Women)<br />
| TBA<br />
| January 28, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1401127World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-28T19:13:25Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| N/A<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1400142World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-23T02:24:10Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| January 22, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=WWE_Raw&diff=1400093WWE Raw2018-01-22T23:31:53Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''''WWE Raw''''' is a television show produced by [[World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is considered WWE's flagship show, and currently airs on Monday nights on the USA Network. The show began on January 11, 1993 as ''WWF Monday Night Raw'', replacing previous program ''WWF Prime Time Wrestling''.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
===The Monday Night Wars===<br />
When Raw premiered in 1993, it retained the family-friendly image that the then-WWF was known for at the time. However, in September 1995, WCW launched ''Nitro'', which would compete with ''Raw'' for ratings supremacy. As WCW's product changed with the introduction of the heel stable the New World Order (nWo), and Hulk Hogan subsequently turning heel, ''Nitro'' would go on an 84-week winning streak against ''Raw''. In response, the WWF would begin to change their product from being family-friendly, to being more adult-oriented, similar to the ''Jerry Springer Show'', which had become very popular at the time. A controversial segment aired on the November 4, 1996 edition of ''Raw'' would be a foreshadowing of sorts of things to come. In the segment, Stone Cold Steve Austin broke into Brian Pillman's house, and Pillman responded to Austin's invasion by threatening him with a gun. Pillman was also heard using the f-word during the segment. In response, the USA Network forced the WWF and Pillman to apologize for the incident.<br />
<br />
The rebranding of the WWF would become more apparent during 1997, during which time rival hardcore wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) invaded Raw. On February 3, 1997, ''Raw'' switched to a two-hour format. On March 10, 1997, ''Raw'' was renamed ''Raw is War'', and used shock rock musician [[Marilyn Manson]]'s "The Beautiful People" for it's theme song. A week later, Bret Hart went on a profanity-laden tirade when company owner and announcer Vince McMahon attempted to interview him after Hart lost his WWF Championship to Sid Vicious thanks to interference by Austin, with Hart's rant being the result of his contention that the then-heel Austin's outrageous actions against him always went unpunished. Much of the segment went uncensored.<br />
<br />
On March 29, 1998, the Attitude Era officially began at [[WrestleMania]] XIV when Stone Cold Steve Austin won the WWF Championship from Shawn Michaels. More segments pushing the envelope aired on ''Raw is War.'' On April 13, 1998, ''Raw'' finally beat ''Nitro'' in the ratings for the first time in 84 weeks. For the remainder of 1998, the ratings would go back and forth, with ''Nitro'' winning their last night on October 28, 1998. From that point on, ''Raw'' would go on to dominate for the remainder of the Monday Night Wars.<br />
<br />
January 4, 1999 would be a pivotal night in the Wars. On ''Nitro'', the main event was set to be Kevin Nash vs. Goldberg for the WCW Championship. At some point in the broadcast, Eric Bischoff had announcer Tony Schiavone make the following announcement:<br />
<br />
''Fans, if you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, do not. We understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here at one time as Cactus Jack, is gonna win their World title. Ha! That's gonna put some butts in the seats, heh.''<br />
<br />
The episode of ''Raw'' had been taped a week prior, and the WWF had even acknowledged the title change on their website. However, immediately after the comment was made, 600,000 viewers switched from ''Nitro'' to ''Raw''. On the same ''Nitro'', Bill Goldberg had been arrested for stalking Miss Elizabeth, and a returning Hulk Hogan challenged Nash, which he accepted. As the match began, Hogan looked as if he was getting ready to hit Nash, only to just touch him with his finger. Hogan got the pinfall, and won the match. This eventually became known as the "Fingerpoke of Doom", and in the eyes of many, was the beginning of the downfall of WCW.<br />
<br />
===The Invasion===<br />
On the March 26, 2001 edition of ''Raw is War'', it was announced that the WWF had purchased WCW (in reality, only selected WCW assets, including WCW's trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, had been purchased by the WWF). After the last episode of ''Nitro'' aired, a simulcast began on USA and TNT. In storyline, Vince McMahon came out to gloat about his purchase of WCW, when Shane McMahon came out on ''Nitro'' to announce that he had purchased WCW from under his father's nose. This was done to further a storyline between Vince and Shane McMahon, as the two were to have a match at ''WrestleMania X-Seven'', the largest show of the year, which was just six days away. Although the purchase was made, and WCW was now off the air, the Invasion did not begin immediately following ''WrestleMania X-Seven''. On the May 28, 2001 edition of ''Raw is War'', WCW wrestler Lance Storm came out through the crowd, and interfered in a match. Over the next few weeks, various WCW wrestlers would come out, and interfere in matches. Eventually, Diamond Dallas Page, one of WCW's most well-known names, would debut on Raw to start building up a match with the Undertaker at ''[[King of the Ring]]''. At the event, Booker T would come out and interfere in the title match. After King of the Ring, the Invasion storyline began to kickoff.<br />
<br />
On the July 2, 2001 edition of ''Raw is War'', the last 20 minutes were given to WCW. A WCW Championship match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell took place. However, the match received poor reviews, and it is said that Vince McMahon hated the segment. This caused the storyline to go in a different direction that originally planned. The initial plan was for WCW to be branched into its own entity, with its own touring schedule, house shows, and pay-per-views. ''Raw'' would be given to WCW, and ''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown]]'' to the WWF. On the July 9, 2001 edition of ''Raw is War'', the WCW contingent turned heel when they joined forces with ECW, which had been purchased in storyline by Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. This would lead to the pay-per-view, ''InVasion''. At the pay-per-view, Stone Cold Steve Austin would join WCW and ECW, which later became known as The Coalition, and later, The Alliance. In response, Vince McMahon, would reinstate The Rock, who had not appeared on WWF programming since the night after WrestleMania X-Seven due to taking time off to film ''The Scorpion King''. The Rock would go on to face Booker T at ''[[SummerSlam]]'' for the WCW Championship, which he won.<br />
<br />
As the storyline continued, the WWF changed the name of ''Raw is War'', to ''Raw''. The reason being that the Monday Night Wars were over, and due to the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11, 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks]]. The Invasion storyline ended at ''[[Survivor Series]]'' with Team WWF defeating Team Alliance in a Winner Take All match. The next night on ''Raw'', Ric Flair made his first appearance in eight years, and announced that he and Vince McMahon were partners, as Shane and Stephanie had sold their stocks to him in order to buy WCW and ECW, respectively. Steve Austin also turned babyface for the first time since before ''WrestleMania X-Seven''.<br />
<br />
Over the next few years (during which time the WWF was renamed WWE on May 5, 2002 due to a ruling against it in its legal dispute with environmental group the World Wildlife Fund over the WWF initials), many WCW names would appear on WWE programming. The New World Order, consisting of Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash would appear in February 2002, Eric Bischoff and Rey Mysterio in July 2002, Scott Steiner would appear in November 2002, and Goldberg would appear in March 2003. Sting was the only WCW main eventer to not go to WWE until 2014, when he appeared at that year's ''Survivor Series''.<br />
<br />
===Brand Extension===<br />
On the March 25, 2002 edition of ''Raw'', the first Draft was held. During the telecast, 20 superstars were drafted to either ''Raw'' or ''SmackDown!'' A supplemental draft was held later, where mid-carders were drafted to either show. This edition of ''Raw'' would be the last to use the graphics, set, and theme song that had been used since the Attitude Era. The next week, a new set, graphics, and theme song were used.<br />
<br />
===Noteworthy Episodes===<br />
<br />
*January 11, 1993 - Series Premiere<br />
*September 11, 1995 - First ''Raw'' of the Monday Night Wars.<br />
*January 8, 1996 - WWF debut of Steve Austin.<br />
*April 1, 1996 - WWF debut of Mick Foley who, at the time, was using his character, Mankind, which used the gimmick of a half-masked, deranged psychopath.<br />
*September 23, 1996 - The debut of the "Fake" Diesel and Razor Ramon characters. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, who played the characters respectively during their time in WWE, had left for WCW earlier in the year. However, the WWF still owned the rights to the names. Razor Ramon was played by Rick Bognar and Diesel was played by Glen Jacobs. Jacobs would go on to become Kane about a year later, in October 1997. The segment has been panned as well as being known for one of the more stranger ''Raw'' segments.<br />
*November 4, 1996 - The "Pillman's Got A Gun" segment. In storyline, Steve Austin breaks into Brian Pillman's house, with the latter pulling a gun on Austin. Many cite this segment as the beginnings of the Attitude Era.<br />
*March 10, 1997 - ''Raw'' is renamed ''Raw is War''.<br />
*March 17, 1997 - After losing a steel cage match and the WWF Championship to Sid Vicious due to the interference of then-heel Steve Austin, Bret Hart snaps on ''Raw'', launching into a vicious in-storyline verbal tirade and a subsequent heel turn.<br />
*August 18, 1997 - After being out with an injury, Rocky Maivia would turn heel, and join the Nation of Domination. He would begin referring to himself as The Rock.<br />
*November 10, 1997 - ''Raw'' after the 1997 ''[[Survivor Series]]'', where the infamous Montreal Screwjob took place.<br />
*November 17, 1997 - In response to the fallout from the Montreal Screwjob, Jim Ross conducts an interview with Vince McMahon. The interview, which would dub the phrases "Time Honored Tradition" and "Bret Screwed Bret", would remain controversial for years to come. The same night, Rick Rude would appear on both ''Raw'' and ''Nitro'', with ''Nitro'' being aired live. The Montreal Screwjob and its aftermath (which saw several WWF stars quit the company to defect to WCW) was the beginning of McMahon's on-camera heel turn and the development of his Mr. McMahon gimmick, considered by many as simply an extension of his real-life business persona.<br />
*December 15, 1997 - In a pre-taped message before the start of ''Raw is War'', Vince McMahon a "new era" of programming, declaring "''Raw'' and ''War Zone'' are the cures for the common show".<br />
*January 19, 1998 - ''Raw'' after the 1998 Royal Rumble. However, this ''Raw'' is best known for the WWF debut of Mike Tyson. In a famous segment, Tyson is introduced to the ring by Vince McMahon, where it is announced he would be the Special Guest Enforcer as WrestleMania XIV. Stone Cold Steve Austin comes down, and a fight ensues between Tyson and Austin. The inclusion of Tyson in WWF Programming leading up to WrestleMania XIV would garner major media attention, and would eventually help WWF gain the upper hand in the Monday Night Wars. Austin also begins his gradual face turn around this time as he begins feuding with McMahon.<br />
*March 2, 1998 - Debut of the "scratch logo" on ''Raw is War''. The logo made its official debut a few months prior on November 9, 1997 in the "Try Lacing My Boots" promo.<br />
*March 30, 1998 - ''Raw'' after WrestleMania XIV. Triple H takes over as leader of DeGeneration X, Sean Waltman returns as X-Pac. Triple H begins to refer to DX as the DX Army. First official ''Raw'' of the Attitude Era.<br />
*April 13, 1998 - ''Raw'' wins the Monday Night Wars for the first time in 84 weeks.<br />
*April 27, 1998 - ''Raw'' is held at the Hampton Coliseum, while ''Nitro'' is held at the Norfolk Scope. The two venues were only about 30 miles apart. DX went to the Norfolk Scope to "invade" WCW in an angle. In interviews, Eric Bischoff, who ran WCW at the time has since commended the segment.<br />
*October 5, 1998 - Mankind introduces Mr. Socko during a segment featuring an injured Vince McMahon. The Socko gimmick would become so popular, it would become part of Mankind's character. The same night, Stone Cold Steve Austin attacked McMahon in a hospital room setting.<br />
*October 26, 1998 - ''Raw is War'' loses to ''Nitro'' in the ratings for the final time. Starting from the next week until March 26, 2001, ''Raw'' would become dominant in the Monday Night Wars.<br />
*December 7, 1998 - The Undertaker has his druids chain Stone Cold Steve Austin to the Undertaker's symbol, and hoisted above the Titantron. The segment is controversial, as it tends to mock crucifixion. It received negative attention from religious groups.<br />
*January 4, 1999 - Mick Foley wins the WWF Championship. Since the show was taped, the results were read on ''WCW Nitro''. Immediately after the results were read, around 700,000 viewers switched from ''Nitro'' to ''Raw'' to see Foley win. This was also the same night the "Fingerpoke of Doom" happened on ''Nitro''. Many cite this as the beginning of the fall for WCW.<br />
*March 22, 1999 - Stone Cold Steve Austin drives a beer truck to the ring, and sprays The Corporation (Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, and The Rock) in beer.<br />
*April 26, 1999 - After losing the WWF Championship at Backlash the night prior, The Corporation turns on The Rock. As a result, The Rock turns babyface. With this babyface turn, as well as Austin leaving to have neck surgery seven months later, The Rock would begin to become one of the most popular WWF/WWE Superstars of all time.<br />
*''Raw Is Owen'' (May 24, 1999) - Owen Hart Tribute Show<br />
*August 9, 1999 - WWF debut of Chris Jericho.<br />
*August 23, 1999 - Triple H wins his first WWF Championship. <br />
*September 27, 1999 - The "This Is Your Life" segment featuring Mick Foley and the Rock, airs. It generates the highest ''Raw'' rating ever, with an 8.4.<br />
*November 29, 1999 - The in-storyline wedding of Stephanie McMahon and Test is interrupted by Triple H, who shows a video of himself and a drugged Stephanie getting married in a Las Vegas chapel. This was the beginning of the McMahon-Helmsley Faction storyline. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would get married in real life in the fall of 2003.<br />
*January 31, 2000 - WWF debut of The Radicalz (Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, Chris Benoit, and Eddie Guerrero). They would be the last WCW wrestlers to go to the WWF after appearing on ''Nitro'' the week prior, or the same night.<br />
*June 26, 2000 - ''Raw'' after the 2000 King of the Ring pay-per-view. Vince McMahon delivers his "Genetic Jackhammer" promo that would write him out of WWF storylines until December, so he could focus on getting the XFL ready. The "Genetic Jackhammer" promo would end up being a gimmick of sorts for the Mr. McMahon character. That same night, Shawn Michaels announced the new commissioner would be Mick Foley. Foley would remain commissioner until December.<br />
*September 25, 2000 - ''Raw'' begins airing on TNN (now Spike TV).<br />
*March 5, 2001 - Paul Heyman replaces Jerry "The King" Lawler as Color Commentator after Lawler walked out of the company with his wife, Stacy "The Kat" Carter.<br />
*March 26, 2001 - Final night of the Monday Night Wars as well as the ''Raw'' before ''WrestleMania X-Seven''. After a match between Ric Flair and Sting on ''Nitro'', it was simulcast with ''Raw''. Shane McMahon was revealed, in storyline, to be the owner of WCW, birthing the start of what eventually became the Invasion storyline.<br />
*April 2, 2001 - ''Raw'' after ''WrestleMania X-Seven''. The Rock would fight Stone Cold Steve Austin in a cage match as a re-match from the night prior. Austin had just turned heel, and at the end of the match, aligned himself with Triple H to create The Two-Man Power Trip. The team would last for several weeks, before Triple H's quadriceps injury a month later. The Rock would be in-storyline suspended, as he would leave for a few months to film ''The Scorpion King''.<br />
*May 21, 2001 - During a tag match, Triple H tears his quadriceps muscle. He would be out of action for the remainder of 2001, completely missing the Invasion storyline.<br />
*May 28, 2001 - The Invasion storyline unofficially starts when WCW's Lance Storm comes through the crowd to interfere in a match. Over the next few weeks, various other WCW wrestlers would appear on ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown'' and interfere in matches.<br />
*June 18, 2001 - Following segments on both ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown'' featuring someone stalking the Undertaker's wife, the stalker came forward, being Diamond Dallas Page. The segment set up a match at King of the Ring 2001, which was that Sunday.<br />
*July 2, 2001 - The final 20 minutes of ''Raw'' are given to WCW. The match was Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship. The segment was poorly received.<br />
*July 9, 2001 - Following the poor reception of the Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell match the week prior, the WCW contingent turns heel, aligning with ECW, which had been formed that night. Stephanie McMahon is revealed, in storyline, to be the owner of ECW. The WCW/ECW would be referred to as The Coalition, and later, The Alliance.<br />
*August 20, 2001 - Kurt Angle drives a milk truck to the ring, spraying down the Alliance with milk. The segment was a homage to two years prior when Steve Austin brought a beer truck to the ring, and sprayed the Corporation.<br />
*October 1, 2001 - Following the end of the Monday Night Wars, as well as the September 11, 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks, ''Raw is War'' changes its name back to ''Raw''.<br />
*November 19, 2001 - Following the end of the Invasion storyline at Survivor Series, Ric Flair is revealed to be part owner, in storyline, of the WWF. Also that night, Jerry "The King" Lawler returned to color commentary for the first time since he walked out of the company with his then-wife Stacy "The Kat" Carter.<br />
*January 7, 2002 - Following his May 2001 quad tear, Triple H returns to ''Raw'' at Madison Square Garden.<br />
*March 18, 2002 - WWF television debut of Brock Lesnar.<br />
*March 25, 2002 - The First WWE Draft.<br />
*April 1, 2002 - The first episode of ''Raw'' after the WWE Draft. Both belts for the Undisputed WWE Championship are replaced with a new belt, presented to Triple H by Ric Flair. A new set and theme song also debuted this episode. The theme song "Across the Nation" by The Union Underground, would be the theme song to Raw until 2006.<br />
*May 6, 2002 - First episode of ''Raw'' under the WWE name.<br />
*May 27, 2002 - Final episode of ''Raw'' to feature Stone Cold Steve Austin for the remainder of 2002. After declining a feud with Brock Lesnar, Austin abruptly left the company, and would not return until February 23, 2003 at ''No Way Out''.<br />
*July 15, 2002 - Eric Bischoff debuts on ''Raw'' as the General Manager.<br />
*September 2, 2002 - After Brock Lesnar signed exclusively with SmackDown, making the Undisputed WWE Championship once again the WWE Championship. Eric Bischoff came out with the World Championship Belt from earlier in the year, renaming it the World Heavyweight Championship, and awarding it to Triple H.<br />
*October 21, 2002 - The infamous "Katie Vick Funeral" segment. The segment featured Triple H, posing as Kane, at a funeral home where he precedes to have mock intercourse with a dummy in a casket. The segment was panned and poorly received, with many citing that it was in bad taste.<br />
*''Raw X Anniversary'' (January 13, 2003)<br />
*March 24, 2003 - The Rock performs his first "Rock Concert." The segment was used to build up a match between himself and Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIX that Sunday.<br />
*March 31, 2003 - WWE debut of Goldberg, who speared The Rock, setting up a match at Backlash 2003.<br />
*June 23, 2003 - Since his debut in 1997, Kane finally unmasks. He turns heel as a result, after returning as a babyface in October 2002. Kane's behavior following this segment would include setting Jim Ross on fire during an interview, electrocuting Shane McMahon's genitals with a car battery, and helping Mr. McMahon defeat the Undertaker at the 2003 Survivor Series, ending his biker persona. This would eventually lead to the return of the Undertaker's deadman persona and a match against Kane against WrestleMania XX.<br />
*October 3, 2005 - ''Raw'' returns to the USA Network.<br />
*Eddie Guerrero Tribute Show (November 14, 2005)<br />
*''Tribute to the Troops'' (December 19, 2005)<br />
*September 25, 2006 - A power failure causes the lights to go out for the first 20 minutes or so of the broadcast. However, the show continued on.<br />
*Chris Benoit Memorial (June 25, 2007) - It was during this broadcast that the details of what happened were revealed on news networks. The next night, during ECW on the SciFi Network, Vince McMahon announced that there would be no further mentions of Benoit on WWE Programming.<br />
*March 31, 2008 - Ric Flair's retirement ceremony. At the end of the show, WWE honored Flair by having Triple H act as an emcee, having wrestlers from Flair's career come and pay their respects. After ''Raw'' went off the air, the Undertaker came down to the ring to pay respects to Flair.<br />
*July 28, 2008 - First PG Era episode of ''Raw''.<br />
*Trump Raw (June 22, 2009) - The first commercial-free ''Raw'', featuring an appearance by [[Donald Trump]].<br />
*January 4, 2010 - Bret Hart appears on ''Raw'' for the first time since the Montreal Screwjob in 1997.<br />
*''Monday Night SmackDown'' (April 19, 2010) - Due to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland, most of the RAW roster remained in Belfast after a European tour. As a result, the SmackDown roster was featured. Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, and Ryan Phillipe from the film ''MacGruber,'' made guest appearances.<br />
*''Viewer's Choice Raw'' (June 7, 2010) Best known for the debut of The Nexus, which would begin a storyline that would last for the rest of 2010.<br />
*''Old School Raw'' (November 15, 2010) The set, graphics, and pyro were designed to look like the 1993 format.<br />
*February 14, 2011 - The Rock appears on WWE programming for the first time since 2004. He is announced as the guest host for WrestleMania XXVII.<br />
*April 11, 2011 - After a neck injury, Edge announces his retirement.<br />
*''The Rock's Birthday Bash'' (May 2, 2011) - This was also the day [[Osama bin Laden]] was killed in retaliation for 9/11. On Raw, The Rock led the crowd in the [[Pledge of Allegiance]]. Ring announcer Lillian Garcia sang [[The Star Spangled Banner]] at the start of the show. At the WWE ''Extreme Rules'' pay-per-view the night before, the news of Bin Laden's death began to come out near the end of the show. John Cena broke the news to those in attendance at the pay-per-view.<br />
*June 27, 2011 - CM Punk delivers his now-infamous pipebomb promo. As a result, he turns babyface after being a heel with stables such as the Straight Edge Society and The New Nexus.<br />
*''Raw 1000'' (July 23, 2012) 1,000th episode of ''Raw''.<br />
*September 10, 2012 - At around 10:00 pm, Jerry "The King" Lawler suffers a heart attack live on air. During a tag team match between Kane and Daniel Bryan vs. The Prime Time Players, Lawler collapsed, and immediately, EMT's rushed him backstage where they performed CPR on him. Lawler had been in a tag team match earlier that night were he teamed up with Randy Orton to face CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler. After the heart attack and in respect of the situation, there was no commentary for the rest of the show, with Michael Cole only providing updates on Lawler's condition. This was also when Cole's heel character was dropped, as during that time, he had an on and off feud with Lawler.<br />
*November 12, 2012 - Jerry "The King" Lawler returns to ''Raw'' following his heart attack two months prior.<br />
*''Raw 20th Anniversary'' (January 14, 2013)<br />
*''The Ultimate Warrior Tribute Show'' (April 14, 2014) Tribute show for the Ultimate Warrior, who had been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame a week prior, and died just two days later.<br />
*August 18, 2014 - WWE debuts a new logo. This logo was first used to promote the WWE Network.<br />
*''Raw Reunion'' (January 19, 2015) First appearance of Sting on ''Raw''.<br />
*''Raw Special in Studio Show'' (January 26, 2015) Due to a Winter Storm in the northeast, travel bans were issued in Connecticut, where ''Raw'' was set to be held at the XL Center in Hartford. As a result, the show was moved to WWE Headquarters in Stamford, where various wrestlers appeared and conducted interviews. Also, the 2015 Royal Rumble match was shown in its entirety, occurring the night before.<br />
*February 8, 2016 - Daniel Bryan officially announces his retirement from professional wrestling after numerous injures and doctors being hesitant to clear him. In an interview done with ABC's ''Good Morning America'', he would also reveal that he suffered from seizures as a result of the concussions he had received.<br />
*February 22, 2016 - ''Raw'' after the 2016 Fastlane pay-per-view. Shane McMahon appears on WWE programming for the first time since 2009 where it was announced that he would face the Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania 32.<br />
*July 18, 2016 - Stephanie McMahon and Shane McMahon announce the General Managers for ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'': Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan, respectively.<br />
*July 25, 2016 - First ''Raw'' after the 2016 Draft. Since WWE Champion Dean Ambrose, who was drafted to ''SmackDown'', retained the title at ''Battleground'' the night before, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announce the WWE Universal Championship. A match at ''SummerSlam'' is announced between Seth Rollins and Finn Balor for the Championship. Also on this night, Sasha Banks wins the WWE Women's Championship from Charlotte.<br />
*August 22, 2016 - After winning the Universal Championship at SummerSlam the night prior, Finn Bálor relinquishes the title due to a shoulder injury.<br />
*January 30, 2017 - Samoa Joe debuts on the main roster.<br />
*February 20, 2017 - Prior to going on air, scenes from the film ''Fighting with My Family'', which details the life of WWE wrestler Paige and her family, were filmed. A match between the actors who play Paige and AJ Lee were filmed. After ''Raw'' went off the air, The Rock came out, and called CM Punk on the phone, and left him a voice message.<br />
*January 22, 2018 - Raw 25th Anniversary. Held at the Manhattan Center and the Barclays Center.<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1398870World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-18T00:42:05Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
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From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| November 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Bobby Roode<br />
| January 16, 2018<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1395161World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-01T00:29:29Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==2018 Pay-Per-View/WWE Network Event Schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| November 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| December 26, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1395159World Wrestling Entertainment2018-01-01T00:28:01Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia <br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
* Elimination Chamber (''Raw'')<br />
* Fastlane (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: New Orleans<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 34<br />
* Backlash (''Raw'')<br />
* Payback (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Money in the Bank<br />
* Battleground (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Los Angeles<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| November 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| December 26, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1394265World Wrestling Entertainment2017-12-27T04:53:55Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| November 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Vacant<br />
| December 26, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1394075World Wrestling Entertainment2017-12-26T04:10:24Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| November 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan<br />
| December 25, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Dolph Ziggler<br />
| December 17, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Doctor_Who&diff=1394074Doctor Who2017-12-26T03:35:46Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''''Doctor Who''''' is a [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] science fiction television programme originally created in 1963. It centres around a character named The Doctor, who travels around the universe in a [[time machine]] called the TARDIS ("Time and Relative Dimension in Space"), which resembles a 1950s British Police phone box, but is considerably larger on the inside than it is on the outside.<br />
<br />
The programme ran for twenty-six seasons between 1963 and 1989, at which point it was canceled indefinitely. Various forms of the series continued after the cancellation, with popular series of novels published by Target and then BBC Books, along with audio serials and re-releases of past episodes on VHS and DVD. Since 2005, a new series has been produced by BBC Wales.<br />
<br />
The Doctor has the ability to regenerate his body when mortally weakened, a useful plot device that has allowed the role to be played on TV by thirteen different actors so far. The current showrunner is Steven Moffat. However, on January 22, 2016, it was announced that he will be replaced with Chris Chibnall in 2018.<ref>http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-01-22/doctor-who-showrunner-steven-moffat-quits-to-be-replaced-by-broadchurch-creator-chris-chibnall</ref><br />
<br />
==The Doctors==<br />
<br />
===First Doctor (1963-66)===<br />
The First Doctor was portrayed as a cantankerous old man. Initially a somewhat dark character, he became more grandfatherly in later episodes. [[William Hartnell]]'s era introduced the most well-known of the Doctor's foes, the [[Dalek]]s. This was the first incarnation of the Doctor to be played by two different actors, the second being [[Richard Hurndall]], who played the First Doctor in ''The Five Doctors,'' in 1983, as William Hartnell had died in 1975. In the Series 8 episode ''Listen'', the First Doctor appeared as a boy played by an unknown actor. The First Doctor regenerated due to his old age in ''The Tenth Planet.'' David Bradley, who previously played Hartnell in ''An Adventure in Space and Time'', played the First Doctor in the 2017 Christmas Special, ''Twice In A Lifetime.''<br />
<br />
===Second Doctor (1966-1969)===<br />
[[Patrick Troughton]]'s Doctor was an impish figure, whose gimmicks included playing the recorder. In this period, much of which is lost, the program felt the influence of [[Star Trek]] somewhat. This incarnation of the Doctor was forced to regenerate in ''The War Game,'' in addition to being exiled to Earth.<br />
<br />
===Third Doctor (1970-1974)===<br />
Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor was Earth-bound for much of his tenure, a move that was partly motivated by budgeting constraints in production. Due to this, the Third Doctor was very James Bond-esque. In the stories themselves, this was explained by the Doctor's race - the Time Lords - imposing an exile upon him due to alleged crimes prosecuted in ''The War Games''. During this time, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce ("UNIT") was a key element of plots - the Doctor was officially UNIT's scientific advisor, but he frequently attempts to break free of the Time Lords' imposition of exile. The Third Doctor regenerated in ''Planet of the Spiders,'' after being exposed to large amounts of radiation.<br />
<br />
===Fourth Doctor (1974-1981)===<br />
Arguably the most well-known Doctor, [[Tom Baker]], with his seven-foot long scarf and fondness for jelly babies played the role for eight series, longer than any actor before or since. Considered to be an eccentric character, he was capable both of representing human attributes and being aloof and of being detached from others around him.<br />
<br />
===Fifth Doctor (1981-1984)===<br />
The fifth Doctor became something of a vulnerable character, which was a conscious decision by the production team (led by John Nathan-Turner) to remove the aura of invincibility that they had felt was becoming part of the Doctor's characterization with Tom Baker. Shown to be a keen cricket fan, the Doctor was arguably more human than any of his predecessors and often relied more on his companions to assist throughout his missions. [[Peter Davison]] was the youngest actor to be cast as the Doctor, at the age of 29, until the casting of [[Matt Smith]], who was 26, when he was cast as the Eleventh Doctor in 2009.<br />
<br />
===Sixth Doctor (1984-1987)===<br />
The Sixth Doctor was premised around being the antithesis of his predecessor, with his garish and color-mismatched costume reflecting the vast contrast with the mild-mannered fifth Doctor. In terms of characterization, the Doctor became something of an unstable character, often violently responding to people and events around him. The Sixth Doctor is the first Doctor to be played by two different actors. [[Colin Baker]] was also the first actor to play the Doctor to play a guest role in the show prior to playing the Doctor. He appeared in the 1983 story, ''Arc of Infinity,'' as Commander Maxil. In ''The Time and the Rani,'' he was briefly played by Sylvester McCoy, just long enough for the regeneration in to his next incarnation. Colin Baker had been fired from the show due to conflict at the BBC. As of 2015, he is only actor to not film a regeneration scene into his successor.<br />
<br />
===Seventh Doctor (1987-1996)===<br />
After the departure of Colin Baker, [[Sylvester McCoy]]'s depiction of the Doctor saw the series shift mood considerably. Early stories within the era depicted a somewhat comic and light-hearted Doctor, but over time the Doctor's character became steadily darker - a development that has been commonly described as making the Doctor a manipulating, scheming character who influenced events like a chess game.<br />
<br />
===Eighth Doctor (1996)===<br />
[[Paul McGann]] played the role for a television movie, which acted as a back door pilot in the hopes it would lead to a new series, which never came to fruition. The Doctor himself was perhaps more human than any other, with the revelation that he was "half-human" on his mother's side and displaying far greater emotional response than in the past. While the movie did not receive a great critical reception, many praised McGann's incarnation of the Doctor. After appearing in the movie, McGann would go on to play the Eighth Doctor in audio stories by Big Finish Productions. He would not be seen on television as the Eighth Doctor for another 17 years, until ''The Night of the Doctor,'' the minisode prequel to the 50th anniversary special, where he regenerated into his next incarnation.<br />
<br />
===War Doctor (2013)===<br />
Prior to the 50th anniversary, it was believed that at some point between the 1996 movie and the 2005 series restart, the Eighth Doctor regenerated into the Ninth Doctor during the Time War. However, in the minisode prequel ''The Night of the Doctor,'' it is revealed that the Eighth Doctor regenerated into another incarnation called the War Doctor. Originally, Steven Moffat intended for the Ninth Doctor to be the incarnation of the Doctor who fought in the Time War. However, Christopher Eccleston declined to be in the 50th anniversary special, as Moffat as said he knew he would, which led to the creation of the War Doctor, as well as the subsequent casting of [[John Hurt]]. Hurt is the oldest actor to play the Doctor, being 73 at the time. The War Doctor is also the second incarnation of the Doctor to be played by two actors, as Paul McGann played the War Doctor shortly after his regeneration in ''The Night of the Doctor.''<br />
<br />
===Ninth Doctor (2005)===<br />
The Ninth Doctor was the first incarnation to be seen in the series restart in 2005. His first appearance takes place shortly after the regeneration of the War Doctor as seen in ''The Day of the Doctor'', which aired eight years later. This incarnation of the Doctor is still haunted by the events of the Time War, and believes Galifrey destroyed, as he has forgotten the events of ''The Day of the Doctor.'' [[Christopher Ecceleston]], who played the Ninth Doctor, is also the first actor to play the Doctor to be born after the show had started in 1963.<br />
<br />
===Tenth Doctor (2005-2010)===<br />
The Tenth Doctor was more humorous and vivacious than that of his predecessor. Yet, much anger and survivor's guilt was still present in his character. He was also the first, and so far only Doctor to have two regenerations, and the first Doctor to regenerate, and not have his appearance change. This occurred in the Series 4 episode, ''The Stolen Earth.'' [[David Tennant]] was the first actor to be credited as "The Doctor" as opposed to "Doctor Who". Of the five incarnations of the Doctor who have appeared since the series restart, David Tennant is considered to be the most popular. He is often compared with Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor as the most popular incarnation of the Doctor.<br />
<br />
===Eleventh Doctor (2010-2013)===<br />
[[Matt Smith]] is the youngest actor to play the role, being 26 at the time of his casting in 2009. Like his predecessors, his portrayal of the Doctor was again very different. Despite being such a young actor, his character often has the feel of an old, wise man. He is much more eccentric and "alien" than his previous two incarnations, and while he seems to have mostly resolved his anger and survivor's guilt towards the time war, he can display a scary amount of anger towards perceived injustices (as with all Doctors), or towards those who have hurt his friends. This particular Doctor is being hunted by a mysterious religious order known as "The Silence", who believe that "Silence will/must fall" if the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight, should ever be answered - "Doctor Who?". The Eleventh Doctor was also the last incarnation of the Doctor's first regeneration cycle, taking into account the War Doctor and the Tenth Doctor's first regeneration.<br />
<br />
===Twelfth Doctor (2013-2017)===<br />
First appearing in the closing moments of ''The Time of the Doctor,'' Peter Capaldi (best known for his role as Malcolm Tucker in the BBC drama, ''The Thick of It'') is the first of a new regeneration cycle for the Doctor. Although his first appearance was ''The Time of the Doctor'', his first official appearance was in ''The Day of the Doctor''. Capaldi is also one of the oldest actors to play the role at age 55, the age William Hartnell was when he played the First Doctor. Making his first full appearance in ''Deep Breath'', show runner Steven Moffat has promised a more raw turn for the Twelfth Doctor. Capaldi also made a guest appearance as Caecilius in the Series 4 episode, ''The Fires of Pompeii,'' which also saw Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) as a Soothsayer. This makes Capaldi the second actor to play the Doctor who has made a past appearance on the show, after Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor. This incarnation of the Doctor is also the first to have a Scottish accent. During Capaldi's run as the Doctor, the Master returned, after being absent since ''The End of Time.'' This is also the first time a female actor, Michelle Gomez, has played the Master, who goes by Missy.<br />
<br />
===Thirteenth Doctor (2017-)===<br />
The first female Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker, made her first appearance in the 2017 Christmas Special, ''Twice In A Lifetime.'' Her first full appearance will be in Series 11, due to air in 2018.<br />
<br />
==Regeneration==<br />
The reason as to why there are numerous Doctors is due to regeneration. When a Time Lord becomes fatally injured or gets old enough their body goes through a process called regeneration. This essentially changes their appearance, as well as alters their brains, so in essence, they become a brand new person with new looks, habits, etc. As of 2015, the Doctor has done this 13 times. However, a regeneration cycle only allows a Time Lord to regenerate 12 times. In the 2013 Christmas special, ''The Time of the Doctor'', the Doctor was granted a new regeneration cycle.<br />
<br />
===Behind the Scenes===<br />
Toward the end of William Hartnell's tenure as the First Doctor, his health began to decline. The BBC, not wanting to cancel the show, decided to introduce the concept of regeneration. By doing this, the show could also reinvent itself and become more accessible to new viewers.<br />
<br />
==Max Headroom Incident==<br />
In the U.S., an episode of Doctor Who was being broadcast during what has become known as the "Max Headroom Incident". On November 22, 1987, during a broadcast of the Fourth Doctor episode ''Horror of Fang Rock'', being broadcast on the Chicago PBS affiliate WTTW, an unknown individual suddenly appeared wearing a Max Headroom mask. Another intrusion had happened a few hours prior on WGN. The party responsible for the signal intrusion has never been identified.<br />
<br />
==Political and Social Themes==<br />
Several stories in the series have been subtly or overtly political in their themes. For instance, ''The Green Death'' (1973) emphasized the dangers of [[pollution]] and big business; while the following year's ''Invasion of the Dinosaurs'' featured a contrasting menace—pro-environment extremists. Other stories have taken their themes from current news stories of the time, such as the [[United Kingdom]]'s entry into the [[European Union|Common Market]]. Many of these pro-liberal stories came during the period where the show was produced by Barry Letts, whose heavily liberal and [[environmentalist]] views shaped a lot of stories in the early 1970s. Apart from this period, the original series generally did not have a particularly heavily political leaning, and in fact ''The Sun Makers'' (1977) was a conservative story that told of the dangers of heavy [[taxation|taxes]] and overly complex governments.<br />
<br />
In a recent episode, the Daleks - Doctor Who's most dangerous enemy, a race of creatures who are physically shriveled and weak, but who are contained within an armored tank-like body - take over Manhattan. They ruthlessly exploit workers engaged in construction and repair on the Empire State Building. This was reported in the liberal British newspaper [[The Independent]] as a metaphor for the rampant abuse of capitalism. The lead writer of Dr. Who, [[Russell T Davies]] is known for aggressively promoting the [[homosexual agenda]] in his prior show [[Queer as Folk]] and continuing to promote it in Doctor Who (despite the fact that the show is supposed to be geared towards a young audience), with many openly homosexual or bisexual (or as the show jokes "omnisexual" due to relations with aliens) characters, including the lead of the spin-off [[Torchwood]], [[Captain Jack Harkness]]. Davies' attitude has been contrasted with that of [[John Nathan-Turner]], the final producer of the original series who, while being publicly known as a homosexual, never allowed this to overtly influence the stories written while he produced the show.<br />
<br />
At the same time Matt Smith took over the lead role in the show, Russell T Davies was replaced as lead writer by Stephen Moffat. While homosexual and bisexual characters still appear in the show since Stephen Moffat took over, they do so in a more realistically low proportion, and less attention is drawn to their sexual orientation than it was under Russel T Davies - as in, a smattering of characters who happen to be gay, as opposed to a high proportion of characters for whom their sexual orientation is their primary feature. In Stephen Moffat's 51st century, the church has changed a lot, becoming more of a spiritual military force. Most church soldiers hold the rank "Cleric", and fall under the command of Bishops, all dressed in rather standard military uniforms. Most members of the church are given a "sacred name", such as a Biblical name or the same of a saint, although the (also militarised) [[Anglican]] denomination allows members to have descriptions rather than names, such as "The thin, fat, gay, married Anglican marines", who jokingly ask why they would need names with such a descriptive title (the individual men being known as "The thin one" and "The fat one"). This would appear to indicate that in the fictional future of Doctor Who, the Anglican denomination (and possibly others) have accepted same sex "marriage".<br />
<br />
In recent years, the show has taken a somewhat progressive feminist turn. In season 8, a character named Missy, played by Michelle Gomez, was introduced. It's revealed that Missy is actually the Master, marking the first time in the show's history that a Time Lord has regenerated into a Time Lady. Prior to the casting of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, it was rumored the Twelfth Doctor may be a woman. The issue has become somewhat controversial, with show runner Steven Moffat supporting the concept, while former Doctor Who actors, such as Peter Davison and Alex Kingston, think the Doctor should remain a man.<br />
<br />
==Popular Culture==<br />
Doctor Who is one of the best known cultural phenomena in the United Kingdom, and the iconic TARDIS is particularly well known.<ref>http://www.theguardian.uk.co/doctor_who</ref> It has been parodied many times by [[Family Guy]], [[The Simpsons]], [[South Park]], and other mainstream comedies. The character of Tommy Pickles from the Nickelodeon series, ''Rugrats'', is said to be based on the Doctor. Doctor Who paraphernalia can be found in most conventions and at sites like Amazon.<ref>http://www.webfreak.com/doctor_who</ref><br />
<br />
==Transmission==<br />
Around the world, Doctor Who can be seen on:<br />
*[[BBC]] One or BBC Three in the UK<br />
*[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC Television]] and Space Channel in Canada<br />
*[[BBC America]] in the US, or via Netflix<br />
*[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] in Australia<br />
<br />
Other countries to receive Doctor Who include the [[Netherlands]], [[France]], [[Denmark]] and [[Russia]].<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
* [[List of british science fiction shows]]<br />
* [[Science Fiction]]<br />
* [[Time Travel]]<br />
* [[Survivalist fiction]]: [[Dystopia]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
<br />
[[Category:Television Shows]]<br />
[[Category:Science Fiction]]<br />
[[Category:Science Fiction Movies]]<br />
[[Category:Movies]]<br />
[[Category:Fiction]]<br />
[[Category:Dystopian Fiction]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Doctor_Who&diff=1394073Doctor Who2017-12-26T03:34:49Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''''Doctor Who''''' is a [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]] science fiction television programme originally created in 1963. It centres around a character named The Doctor, who travels around the universe in a [[time machine]] called the TARDIS ("Time and Relative Dimension in Space"), which resembles a 1950s British Police phone box, but is considerably larger on the inside than it is on the outside.<br />
<br />
The programme ran for twenty-six seasons between 1963 and 1989, at which point it was canceled indefinitely. Various forms of the series continued after the cancellation, with popular series of novels published by Target and then BBC Books, along with audio serials and re-releases of past episodes on VHS and DVD. Since 2005, a new series has been produced by BBC Wales.<br />
<br />
The Doctor has the ability to regenerate his body when mortally weakened, a useful plot device that has allowed the role to be played on TV by thirteen different actors so far. The current showrunner is Steven Moffat. However, on January 22, 2016, it was announced that he will be replaced with Chris Chibnall in 2018.<ref>http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-01-22/doctor-who-showrunner-steven-moffat-quits-to-be-replaced-by-broadchurch-creator-chris-chibnall</ref><br />
<br />
==The Doctors==<br />
<br />
===First Doctor (1963-66)===<br />
The First Doctor was portrayed as a cantankerous old man. Initially a somewhat dark character, he became more grandfatherly in later episodes. [[William Hartnell]]'s era introduced the most well-known of the Doctor's foes, the [[Dalek]]s. This was the first incarnation of the Doctor to be played by two different actors, the second being [[Richard Hurndall]], who played the First Doctor in ''The Five Doctors,'' in 1983, as William Hartnell had died in 1975. In the Series 8 episode ''Listen'', the First Doctor appeared as a boy played by an unknown actor. The First Doctor regenerated due to his old age in ''The Tenth Planet.'' David Bradley, who previously played Hartnell in ''An Adventure in Space and Time'', will again play the First Doctor in the 2017 Christmas Special.<br />
<br />
===Second Doctor (1966-1969)===<br />
[[Patrick Troughton]]'s Doctor was an impish figure, whose gimmicks included playing the recorder. In this period, much of which is lost, the program felt the influence of [[Star Trek]] somewhat. This incarnation of the Doctor was forced to regenerate in ''The War Game,'' in addition to being exiled to Earth.<br />
<br />
===Third Doctor (1970-1974)===<br />
Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor was Earth-bound for much of his tenure, a move that was partly motivated by budgeting constraints in production. Due to this, the Third Doctor was very James Bond-esque. In the stories themselves, this was explained by the Doctor's race - the Time Lords - imposing an exile upon him due to alleged crimes prosecuted in ''The War Games''. During this time, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce ("UNIT") was a key element of plots - the Doctor was officially UNIT's scientific advisor, but he frequently attempts to break free of the Time Lords' imposition of exile. The Third Doctor regenerated in ''Planet of the Spiders,'' after being exposed to large amounts of radiation.<br />
<br />
===Fourth Doctor (1974-1981)===<br />
Arguably the most well-known Doctor, [[Tom Baker]], with his seven-foot long scarf and fondness for jelly babies played the role for eight series, longer than any actor before or since. Considered to be an eccentric character, he was capable both of representing human attributes and being aloof and of being detached from others around him.<br />
<br />
===Fifth Doctor (1981-1984)===<br />
The fifth Doctor became something of a vulnerable character, which was a conscious decision by the production team (led by John Nathan-Turner) to remove the aura of invincibility that they had felt was becoming part of the Doctor's characterization with Tom Baker. Shown to be a keen cricket fan, the Doctor was arguably more human than any of his predecessors and often relied more on his companions to assist throughout his missions. [[Peter Davison]] was the youngest actor to be cast as the Doctor, at the age of 29, until the casting of [[Matt Smith]], who was 26, when he was cast as the Eleventh Doctor in 2009.<br />
<br />
===Sixth Doctor (1984-1987)===<br />
The Sixth Doctor was premised around being the antithesis of his predecessor, with his garish and color-mismatched costume reflecting the vast contrast with the mild-mannered fifth Doctor. In terms of characterization, the Doctor became something of an unstable character, often violently responding to people and events around him. The Sixth Doctor is the first Doctor to be played by two different actors. [[Colin Baker]] was also the first actor to play the Doctor to play a guest role in the show prior to playing the Doctor. He appeared in the 1983 story, ''Arc of Infinity,'' as Commander Maxil. In ''The Time and the Rani,'' he was briefly played by Sylvester McCoy, just long enough for the regeneration in to his next incarnation. Colin Baker had been fired from the show due to conflict at the BBC. As of 2015, he is only actor to not film a regeneration scene into his successor.<br />
<br />
===Seventh Doctor (1987-1996)===<br />
After the departure of Colin Baker, [[Sylvester McCoy]]'s depiction of the Doctor saw the series shift mood considerably. Early stories within the era depicted a somewhat comic and light-hearted Doctor, but over time the Doctor's character became steadily darker - a development that has been commonly described as making the Doctor a manipulating, scheming character who influenced events like a chess game.<br />
<br />
===Eighth Doctor (1996)===<br />
[[Paul McGann]] played the role for a television movie, which acted as a back door pilot in the hopes it would lead to a new series, which never came to fruition. The Doctor himself was perhaps more human than any other, with the revelation that he was "half-human" on his mother's side and displaying far greater emotional response than in the past. While the movie did not receive a great critical reception, many praised McGann's incarnation of the Doctor. After appearing in the movie, McGann would go on to play the Eighth Doctor in audio stories by Big Finish Productions. He would not be seen on television as the Eighth Doctor for another 17 years, until ''The Night of the Doctor,'' the minisode prequel to the 50th anniversary special, where he regenerated into his next incarnation.<br />
<br />
===War Doctor (2013)===<br />
Prior to the 50th anniversary, it was believed that at some point between the 1996 movie and the 2005 series restart, the Eighth Doctor regenerated into the Ninth Doctor during the Time War. However, in the minisode prequel ''The Night of the Doctor,'' it is revealed that the Eighth Doctor regenerated into another incarnation called the War Doctor. Originally, Steven Moffat intended for the Ninth Doctor to be the incarnation of the Doctor who fought in the Time War. However, Christopher Eccleston declined to be in the 50th anniversary special, as Moffat as said he knew he would, which led to the creation of the War Doctor, as well as the subsequent casting of [[John Hurt]]. Hurt is the oldest actor to play the Doctor, being 73 at the time. The War Doctor is also the second incarnation of the Doctor to be played by two actors, as Paul McGann played the War Doctor shortly after his regeneration in ''The Night of the Doctor.''<br />
<br />
===Ninth Doctor (2005)===<br />
The Ninth Doctor was the first incarnation to be seen in the series restart in 2005. His first appearance takes place shortly after the regeneration of the War Doctor as seen in ''The Day of the Doctor'', which aired eight years later. This incarnation of the Doctor is still haunted by the events of the Time War, and believes Galifrey destroyed, as he has forgotten the events of ''The Day of the Doctor.'' [[Christopher Ecceleston]], who played the Ninth Doctor, is also the first actor to play the Doctor to be born after the show had started in 1963.<br />
<br />
===Tenth Doctor (2005-2010)===<br />
The Tenth Doctor was more humorous and vivacious than that of his predecessor. Yet, much anger and survivor's guilt was still present in his character. He was also the first, and so far only Doctor to have two regenerations, and the first Doctor to regenerate, and not have his appearance change. This occurred in the Series 4 episode, ''The Stolen Earth.'' [[David Tennant]] was the first actor to be credited as "The Doctor" as opposed to "Doctor Who". Of the five incarnations of the Doctor who have appeared since the series restart, David Tennant is considered to be the most popular. He is often compared with Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor as the most popular incarnation of the Doctor.<br />
<br />
===Eleventh Doctor (2010-2013)===<br />
[[Matt Smith]] is the youngest actor to play the role, being 26 at the time of his casting in 2009. Like his predecessors, his portrayal of the Doctor was again very different. Despite being such a young actor, his character often has the feel of an old, wise man. He is much more eccentric and "alien" than his previous two incarnations, and while he seems to have mostly resolved his anger and survivor's guilt towards the time war, he can display a scary amount of anger towards perceived injustices (as with all Doctors), or towards those who have hurt his friends. This particular Doctor is being hunted by a mysterious religious order known as "The Silence", who believe that "Silence will/must fall" if the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight, should ever be answered - "Doctor Who?". The Eleventh Doctor was also the last incarnation of the Doctor's first regeneration cycle, taking into account the War Doctor and the Tenth Doctor's first regeneration.<br />
<br />
===Twelfth Doctor (2013-2017)===<br />
First appearing in the closing moments of ''The Time of the Doctor,'' Peter Capaldi (best known for his role as Malcolm Tucker in the BBC drama, ''The Thick of It'') is the first of a new regeneration cycle for the Doctor. Although his first appearance was ''The Time of the Doctor'', his first official appearance was in ''The Day of the Doctor''. Capaldi is also one of the oldest actors to play the role at age 55, the age William Hartnell was when he played the First Doctor. Making his first full appearance in ''Deep Breath'', show runner Steven Moffat has promised a more raw turn for the Twelfth Doctor. Capaldi also made a guest appearance as Caecilius in the Series 4 episode, ''The Fires of Pompeii,'' which also saw Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) as a Soothsayer. This makes Capaldi the second actor to play the Doctor who has made a past appearance on the show, after Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor. This incarnation of the Doctor is also the first to have a Scottish accent. During Capaldi's run as the Doctor, the Master returned, after being absent since ''The End of Time.'' This is also the first time a female actor, Michelle Gomez, has played the Master, who goes by Missy.<br />
<br />
===Thirteenth Doctor (2017-)===<br />
The first female Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker, made her first appearance in the 2017 Christmas Special, ''Twice In A Lifetime.'' Her first full appearance will be in Series 11, due to air in 2018.<br />
<br />
==Regeneration==<br />
The reason as to why there are numerous Doctors is due to regeneration. When a Time Lord becomes fatally injured or gets old enough their body goes through a process called regeneration. This essentially changes their appearance, as well as alters their brains, so in essence, they become a brand new person with new looks, habits, etc. As of 2015, the Doctor has done this 13 times. However, a regeneration cycle only allows a Time Lord to regenerate 12 times. In the 2013 Christmas special, ''The Time of the Doctor'', the Doctor was granted a new regeneration cycle.<br />
<br />
===Behind the Scenes===<br />
Toward the end of William Hartnell's tenure as the First Doctor, his health began to decline. The BBC, not wanting to cancel the show, decided to introduce the concept of regeneration. By doing this, the show could also reinvent itself and become more accessible to new viewers.<br />
<br />
==Max Headroom Incident==<br />
In the U.S., an episode of Doctor Who was being broadcast during what has become known as the "Max Headroom Incident". On November 22, 1987, during a broadcast of the Fourth Doctor episode ''Horror of Fang Rock'', being broadcast on the Chicago PBS affiliate WTTW, an unknown individual suddenly appeared wearing a Max Headroom mask. Another intrusion had happened a few hours prior on WGN. The party responsible for the signal intrusion has never been identified.<br />
<br />
==Political and Social Themes==<br />
Several stories in the series have been subtly or overtly political in their themes. For instance, ''The Green Death'' (1973) emphasized the dangers of [[pollution]] and big business; while the following year's ''Invasion of the Dinosaurs'' featured a contrasting menace—pro-environment extremists. Other stories have taken their themes from current news stories of the time, such as the [[United Kingdom]]'s entry into the [[European Union|Common Market]]. Many of these pro-liberal stories came during the period where the show was produced by Barry Letts, whose heavily liberal and [[environmentalist]] views shaped a lot of stories in the early 1970s. Apart from this period, the original series generally did not have a particularly heavily political leaning, and in fact ''The Sun Makers'' (1977) was a conservative story that told of the dangers of heavy [[taxation|taxes]] and overly complex governments.<br />
<br />
In a recent episode, the Daleks - Doctor Who's most dangerous enemy, a race of creatures who are physically shriveled and weak, but who are contained within an armored tank-like body - take over Manhattan. They ruthlessly exploit workers engaged in construction and repair on the Empire State Building. This was reported in the liberal British newspaper [[The Independent]] as a metaphor for the rampant abuse of capitalism. The lead writer of Dr. Who, [[Russell T Davies]] is known for aggressively promoting the [[homosexual agenda]] in his prior show [[Queer as Folk]] and continuing to promote it in Doctor Who (despite the fact that the show is supposed to be geared towards a young audience), with many openly homosexual or bisexual (or as the show jokes "omnisexual" due to relations with aliens) characters, including the lead of the spin-off [[Torchwood]], [[Captain Jack Harkness]]. Davies' attitude has been contrasted with that of [[John Nathan-Turner]], the final producer of the original series who, while being publicly known as a homosexual, never allowed this to overtly influence the stories written while he produced the show.<br />
<br />
At the same time Matt Smith took over the lead role in the show, Russell T Davies was replaced as lead writer by Stephen Moffat. While homosexual and bisexual characters still appear in the show since Stephen Moffat took over, they do so in a more realistically low proportion, and less attention is drawn to their sexual orientation than it was under Russel T Davies - as in, a smattering of characters who happen to be gay, as opposed to a high proportion of characters for whom their sexual orientation is their primary feature. In Stephen Moffat's 51st century, the church has changed a lot, becoming more of a spiritual military force. Most church soldiers hold the rank "Cleric", and fall under the command of Bishops, all dressed in rather standard military uniforms. Most members of the church are given a "sacred name", such as a Biblical name or the same of a saint, although the (also militarised) [[Anglican]] denomination allows members to have descriptions rather than names, such as "The thin, fat, gay, married Anglican marines", who jokingly ask why they would need names with such a descriptive title (the individual men being known as "The thin one" and "The fat one"). This would appear to indicate that in the fictional future of Doctor Who, the Anglican denomination (and possibly others) have accepted same sex "marriage".<br />
<br />
In recent years, the show has taken a somewhat progressive feminist turn. In season 8, a character named Missy, played by Michelle Gomez, was introduced. It's revealed that Missy is actually the Master, marking the first time in the show's history that a Time Lord has regenerated into a Time Lady. Prior to the casting of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, it was rumored the Twelfth Doctor may be a woman. The issue has become somewhat controversial, with show runner Steven Moffat supporting the concept, while former Doctor Who actors, such as Peter Davison and Alex Kingston, think the Doctor should remain a man.<br />
<br />
==Popular Culture==<br />
Doctor Who is one of the best known cultural phenomena in the United Kingdom, and the iconic TARDIS is particularly well known.<ref>http://www.theguardian.uk.co/doctor_who</ref> It has been parodied many times by [[Family Guy]], [[The Simpsons]], [[South Park]], and other mainstream comedies. The character of Tommy Pickles from the Nickelodeon series, ''Rugrats'', is said to be based on the Doctor. Doctor Who paraphernalia can be found in most conventions and at sites like Amazon.<ref>http://www.webfreak.com/doctor_who</ref><br />
<br />
==Transmission==<br />
Around the world, Doctor Who can be seen on:<br />
*[[BBC]] One or BBC Three in the UK<br />
*[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC Television]] and Space Channel in Canada<br />
*[[BBC America]] in the US, or via Netflix<br />
*[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] in Australia<br />
<br />
Other countries to receive Doctor Who include the [[Netherlands]], [[France]], [[Denmark]] and [[Russia]].<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
* [[List of british science fiction shows]]<br />
* [[Science Fiction]]<br />
* [[Time Travel]]<br />
* [[Survivalist fiction]]: [[Dystopia]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
<br />
[[Category:Television Shows]]<br />
[[Category:Science Fiction]]<br />
[[Category:Science Fiction Movies]]<br />
[[Category:Movies]]<br />
[[Category:Fiction]]<br />
[[Category:Dystopian Fiction]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=XFL&diff=1392676XFL2017-12-18T03:39:28Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Xtreme Football League''' (also known as simply the XFL) was a short-lived [[American football]] league run by [[WWE]]. The league called itself "the way football was supposed to be played".<ref>http://www.officialxfl.com/index.asp</ref> However, the league fizzled out in 2001 after only one season. However, several players went on to other leagues and some were quite successful (such as [[Tommy Maddox]]).<br />
<br />
In December 2017, it was announced the XFL may be returning, under a new company being run by Vince McMahon.<br />
<br />
==Teams==<br />
*Birmingham Bolts<br />
*Chicago Enforcers<br />
*NY/NJ Hitmen<br />
*Memphis Maniax<br />
*Las Vegas Outlaws<br />
*Los Angeles Xtreme<br />
*Orlando Rage<br />
*San Francisco Demons<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:Defunct Sports Leagues]]<br />
[[Category:Football]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1392675World Wrestling Entertainment2017-12-18T03:36:57Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| November 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Cesaro and Sheamus<br />
| November 6, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Dolph Ziggler<br />
| December 17, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Star_Wars_Episode_VIII:_The_Last_Jedi&diff=1392674Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi2017-12-18T03:34:44Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox Film<br />
| name=Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi<br />
| image=<br />
| caption=<br />
| director=Rian Johnson<br />
| producer=Kathleen Kennedy<br />Ram Burgman<br />
| writer=Rian Johnson<br />
| narrator=<br />
| starring=Mark Hamill<br />Carrie Fisher<br />Adam Driver<br />Daisy Ridley<br />John Boyega<br />Oscar Isaac<br />Lupita Nyong'o<br />Gwendoline Christie<br />Domhnall Gleeson<br />Andy Serkis<br />Laura Dern<br />Benicio del Toro<br />
| music=John Williams<br />
| cinematography=Steve Yedlin<br />
| editing=Bob Ducsay<br />
| distributor=Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures<br />
| released=December 15, 2017<br />
| runtime=<br />
| country=[[United States]]<br />
| language=[[English]]<br />
| budget=<br />
| gross=<br />
| preceded_by=''[[Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens]]''<br />
| followed_by=''Star Wars Episode IX''<br />
| website=<br />
| amg_id2=<br />
| imdb_id=<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''''Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi''''' or '''''Star Wars: The Last Jedi''''', is the eighth film in the main [[Star Wars]] saga, and the second of the Sequel Trilogy. It is currently set for release on December 15, 2017. The film will be Carrie Fisher's final film role, as she died on December 27, 2016. Her work on the film was completed before her death.<br />
<br />
==Cast==<br />
*Mark Hamill as [[Luke Skywalker]]<br />
*Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa<br />
*Adam Driver as [[Kylo Ren|Kylo Ren/Ben Solo]]<br />
*Daisy Ridley as Rey<br />
*John Boyega as Finn<br />
*Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron<br />
*Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma<br />
*Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke<br />
*Domhall Gleeson as General Hux<br />
*Anthony Daniels as C-3PO<br />
*Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo<br />
*Benicio del Toro as DJ<br />
*Frank Oz as Yoda</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Game_of_Thrones&diff=1391082Game of Thrones2017-12-07T17:16:33Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Game of Thrones''' is a [[fantasy]] [[drama]] television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, airing on [[HBO]]. It is based on the epic fantasy novel series ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', written by [[George R.R. Martin]], with each season roughly adapting one of the novels. <br />
<br />
The show is set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, and follows multiple story lines that encompass a large cast of morally ambiguous characters. It uses mostly [[British]] [[actor]]s and capitalizes on the difference between the southern and northern accents spoken in the U.K.<br />
<br />
''Game of Thrones'' has received widespread acclaim by critics, and gained a large active fan base. However, it has attracted criticism for its frequent use of nudity, violence, torture and sexual violence. Prior to its premiere in 2011, the show was marketed as being a version of ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' for adults. This could also being attributed to Sean Bean, who played Boromir in ''Lord of the Rings'' and Ned Stark in ''Game of Thrones'' appearing in marketing for Season One.<br />
<br />
The eighth and final season will air in 2019, and consist of six episodes.<br />
<br />
== Novels ==<br />
The TV series is based on the series, ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', by George R.R. Martin. As of 2015, five books have been published, with two more yet to be released. As of the start of Season 7, the show has surpassed the released books' storyline. Content in the show is either taken from the final two unreleased books, or original material.<br />
<br />
* ''A Game of Thrones'' (1996)<br />
* ''A Clash of Kings'' (1998)<br />
* ''A Storm of Swords'' (2000)<br />
* ''A Feast for Crows'' (2005)<br />
* ''A Dance with Dragons'' (2011)<br />
* ''The Winds of Winter'' (Not Yet Released)<br />
* ''A Dream of Spring'' (Not Yet Released)<br />
<br />
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[[Category:Television Shows]][[Category:Fantasy]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Super_Sentai&diff=1390982Super Sentai2017-12-07T04:07:59Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Super Sentai''' is a genre of Japanese superhero tokusatsu television programs. As opposed to shows such as Kamen Rider, which have only around 1-2 riders per series, Super Sentai usually has 3-5 members on a team. Starting with ''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger'', Sentai teams have a Sixth Ranger. Usually, the Sixth Ranger will appear a third of the way through the series. The first two shows, Himitsu Sentai Goranger and J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai were not considered part of the Super Sentai canon until 1995. The term "Super" Sentai refers to the team having a giant robot. This trend began in 1979 with ''Battle Fever J'', and has been a staple in the franchise ever since. From 1979 until 1982, Marvel was involved in producing Super Sentai. It was during this time that Stan Lee expressed interest in bringing Sentai over to the west. A dubbed episode of the 1981 series, ''Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan'' was shown to networks, but was passed over. In 1986, Haim Saban made a pilot using footage from the 1984 series ''Choudenshi Bioman'', and again it was turned down. In 1987, ''Kagaku Sentai Dynaman'' was dubbed in English, and aired on the USA Network, simply titled ''Dynaman''. The show was a parody. In 1993, a proper adaptation was made when ''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger'' became to first Sentai series to be adapted into [[Power Rangers]]. The current series, ''Uchu Sentai Kyuranger,'' began on February 12, 2017. <br />
<br />
===Sentai Series===<br />
*'''''Himitsu Sentai Goranger''''' (1975)<br />
*'''''J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai''''' (1977)<br />
*'''''Battle Fever J''''' (1979)<br />
*'''''Denshi Sentai Denjiman''''' (1980)<br />
*'''''Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan''''' (1981)<br />
*'''''Dai Sentai Goggle-V''''' (1982)<br />
*'''''Kagaku Sentai Dynaman''''' (1983)<br />
*'''''Choudenshi Bioman''''' (1984)<br />
*'''''Dengeki Sentai Changeman''''' (1985)<br />
*'''''Choushinsei Flashman''''' (1986)<br />
*'''''Hikari Sentai Maskman''''' (1987)<br />
*'''''Choujuu Sentai Liveman''''' (1988)<br />
*'''''Kousoku Sentai Turboranger''''' (1989)<br />
*'''''Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman''''' (1990)<br />
*'''''Choujin Sentai Jetman''''' (1991)<br />
*'''''Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger''''' (1992)<br />
*'''''Gosei Sentai Dairanger''''' (1993)<br />
*'''''Ninja Sentai Kakuranger''''' (1994)<br />
*'''''Choriki Sentai Ohranger''''' (1995)<br />
*'''''Gekisou Sentai Carranger''''' (1996)<br />
*'''''Denji Sentai Megaranger''''' (1997)<br />
*'''''Seijuu Sentai Gingaman''''' (1998)<br />
*'''''Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoV''''' (1999)<br />
*'''''Mirai Sentai Timeranger''''' (2000)<br />
*'''''Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger''''' (2001)<br />
*'''''Nipuu Sentai Hurricanger''''' (2002)<br />
*'''''Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger''''' (2003)<br />
*'''''Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger''''' (2004)<br />
*'''''Mahou Sentai Magiranger''''' (2005)<br />
*'''''GoGo Sentai Boukenger''''' (2006)<br />
*'''''Juken Sentai Gekiranger''''' (2007)<br />
*'''''Engine Sentai Go-Onger''''' (2008)<br />
*'''''Samurai Sentai Shinkenger''''' (2009)<br />
*'''''Tensou Sentai Goseiger''''' (2010)<br />
*'''''Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger''''' (2011)<br />
*'''''Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters''''' (2012)<br />
*'''''Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger''''' (2013)<br />
*'''''Ressha Sentai ToQger''''' (2014)<br />
*'''''Shuriken Sentai Ninninger''''' (2015)<br />
*'''''Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger''''' (2016)<br />
*'''''Uchu Sentai Kyuranger''''' (2017)<br />
*'''''Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patoranger''''' (2018)<br />
<br />
<br />
==Non-Canon Series==<br />
*'''''Ninja Captor''''' (1976)<br />
*'''''Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger''''' (2012)<br />
*'''''Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger Season 2''''' (2013)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
[[Category:Japan]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Israel&diff=1390830Israel2017-12-06T18:43:55Z<p>BoukenCrimson: /* Relations with the United States */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Country<br />
|name =מדינת ישראל<br>''Medīnat Yisrā'el''<br />
|map =Israel shaded.jpg<br />
|flag =Flag of Israel.png<br />
|arms =Arms of Israel.png<br />
|capital =Jerusalem<br />
|capital-raw =<br />
|government =Parliamentary Democracy<br />
|government-raw =<br />
|language =Hebrew<br />
|language2 =<br />
|king =<br />
|queen =<br />
|monarch-raw =<br />
|governor general=<br />
|governor general-raw=<br />
|president =Reuven Rivlin<br />
|president-raw =<br />
|chancellor =<br />
|chancellor-raw =<br />
|pm =Benjamin Netanyahu <br />
|pm-raw =<br />
|chairman =<br />
|general secretary=<br />
|governor =<br />
|governor-raw =<br />
|premier =<br />
|premier-raw =<br />
|area =8,019 / 8,522 sq mi<br />
|pop =7,184,000<br />
|pop-basis =2007<br />
|gdp =$170.3 billion<br />
|gdp-year =2006<br />
|gdp-pc =$31,767<br />
|currency =Shekel<br />
|idd =<br />
|tld =<br />
}}<br />
The '''State of Israel''' ([[Hebrew]]: '''מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל''', ''Medinat Yisra'el'' from ''' יִשְׂרָאֵל''' ''Yisra'el'', "Struggled with God") is a nation located in the [[Middle East]]. It is the world's only Jewish state, having emerged from [[Zionism]] in Europe and the U.S. in the 1880s-1940s. It grants citizenship to anybody considered to be [[Jewish]], although this does not apply to anyone suspected or convicted of serious crimes or who the state otherwise considers a serious threat to its welfare. It also contains Arab Muslim and Arab Christian minorities who are remnants of the pre-1948 Arab majority, along with a small [[Druze]] community. It is the location of most Biblical events.<br />
<br />
==Geography==<br />
[[File:Haifa Israel.JPG|thumb|420px|center|Haifa.]]<br />
Israel occupies an area along the eastern Mediterranean Sea, with [[Jordan]] and [[Syria]] to the east; [[Lebanon]] on the north; and [[Egypt]] to the south. The territories of the [[West Bank]] and [[Gaza Strip]] are currently controlled by Israel, but disputed.<br />
<br />
The terrain varies from a temperate, coastal climate to desert conditions. Israel shares with Jordan the shoreline of the [[Dead Sea]], at 1,378 feet below sea level.<br />
<br />
==People==<br />
Of the approximately 6.43 million Israelis in 2007 about 76% were counted as Jewish, though some of those are not considered Jewish under [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jewish]] law. Since 1989, nearly a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union have arrived in Israel, making this the largest wave of immigration since independence. In addition, an estimated 105,000 members of the [[Ethiopian]] Jewish community have immigrated to Israel, 14,000 of them during the dramatic May 1991 Operation Solomon airlift. 32.9% of Israelis were born outside of Israel. <br />
<br />
The three broad Jewish groupings are the Ashkenazim, or Jews who trace their ancestry to [[Central Europe]]; the Sephardim, who trace their origin to [[Spain]], [[Portugal]], southern Europe, and North Africa; and Eastern or Oriental Jews, who descend from ancient communities in Islamic lands. Of the non-Jewish population, about 68% are Muslims, about 9% are Christian, and about 7% are Druze. <br />
[[File:People at a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.jpg|thumb|280px|left|At a Bar Mitzvah in the Western Wall tunnel.]]<br />
Education is compulsory from age 6 to 16 and is free up to age 18. The school system is organized into kindergartens, 6-year primary schools, 3-year junior secondary schools, and 3-year senior secondary schools, after which a comprehensive examination is offered for university admissions. There are seven university-level institutions in Israel, a number of regional colleges, and an Open University program. <br />
<br />
The majority of families in Israel - Jewish and Arab - send their children to segregated schools. This [[segregation]] poses a distinct problem, tending to promote rival viewpoints and attitudes that become ripe for exploitation by proponents of violence. Within Israel, the schools of the minority Arab population become incubators for resentment and hostility, while the schools of the majority Jewish population tend to reinforce a sense of insulation from the concerns of others.<ref>http://handinhandk12.org/</ref><br />
<br />
With a population drawn from more than 100 countries on 5 continents, Israeli society is rich in cultural diversity and artistic creativity. The arts are actively encouraged and supported by the government. The first Jewish artist on record was named Bezalel, an architect, sculptor and designer of holy garments best known for purportedly making the Tabernacle that contained the Ark of the Covenant.<ref>[http://www.jewish-art.org/ancient-jewish-art.html Ancient Jewish art]</ref> The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra performs throughout the country and frequently tours abroad. The Jerusalem Symphony and the New Israel Opera also tour frequently, as do other musical ensembles. Almost every municipality has a chamber orchestra or ensemble, many boasting the talents of gifted performers from the countries of the former Soviet Union. <br />
<br />
Israel has several professional ballet and modern dance companies, and folk dancing, which draws upon the cultural heritage of many immigrant groups, continues to be very popular. There is great public interest in the theater; the repertoire covers the entire range of classical and contemporary drama in translation as well as plays by Israeli authors. Of the three major repertory companies, the most famous, Habimah, was founded in 1917. <br />
<br />
Active artist colonies thrive in Safed, Jaffa, and Ein Hod, and Israeli painters and sculptors exhibit works worldwide. Israel boasts more than 120 museums, including the Israel [[Museum]] in Jerusalem, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls along with an extensive collection of regional archaeological artifacts, art, and Jewish religious and folk exhibits. Israelis are avid newspaper readers, with more than 90% of Israeli adults reading a newspaper at least once a week. Major daily papers are in Hebrew; others are in Arabic, English, French, Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Hungarian, and German.<br />
<br />
==Government==<br />
[[Image:Tst4436.jpg|right|thumb|250px|[[David Ben Gurion]], the First Prime Minister of Israel, publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948, [[Tel Aviv]], Israel, beneath a large [[portraits|portrait]] of Theodore Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism, in the old Tel Aviv Museum of Art building on Rotshild St.]]<br />
Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a governmental system based on several basic laws enacted by its unicameral parliament, the Knesset. The president (chief of state) is elected by the Knesset for a 5-year term. <br />
<br />
The prime minister (head of government) exercises executive power and has in the past been selected by the president as the party leader most able to form a government. Between May 1996 and March 2001, Israelis voted for the prime minister directly. (The legislation, which required the direct election of the prime minister, was rescinded by the Knesset in March 2001.) The members of the cabinet must be collectively approved by the Knesset. <br />
<br />
The Knesset's 120 members are elected by secret ballot to 4-year terms, although the prime minister may decide to call for new elections before the end of the 4-year term. Voting is for party lists rather than for individual candidates, and the total number of seats assigned each party reflects that party's percentage of the vote. Successful Knesset candidates are drawn from the lists in order of party-assigned rank. Under the present electoral system, all members of the Knesset are elected at large. <br />
<br />
The independent judicial system includes secular and religious courts. The courts' right of judicial review of the Knesset's legislation is limited. Judicial interpretation is restricted to problems of execution of laws and validity of subsidiary legislation. The highest court in Israel is the Supreme Court, whose judges are approved by the President. <br />
<br />
Israel is divided into six districts, administration of which is coordinated by the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry of Defense is responsible for the administration of the occupied territories. <br />
<br />
===Principal Government Officials===<br />
*President—Reuven Rivlin<br />
*Prime Minister—Benjamin Netanyahu <br />
*Foreign Minister—Avigdor Lieberman (Our Home Israel)<br />
*Ambassador to the United States—Sallai Meridor<br />
*Ambassador to the United Nations—Dan Gillerman<br />
<br />
===Political Conditions===<br />
[[File:Knesset Israel.jpg|right|300px|The Knesset, The House of Representatives.]]<br />
From the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948 until the election of May 1977 Israel was ruled by successive coalition governments led by the Labor alignment or its constituent parties. From 1967-70 the coalition government included all of Israel's parties except the communist party. After the 1977 election the Likud bloc, then composed of Herut, the Liberals, and the smaller La'am Party, came to power forming a coalition with the National Religious Party, Agudat Israel, and others. As head of Likud, Menachem Begin became Prime Minister. The Likud retained power in the succeeding election in June 1981, and Begin remained Prime Minister. In the summer of 1983, Begin resigned and was succeeded by his Foreign Minister, Yitzhak Shamir. <br />
<br />
After Prime Minister Shamir lost a Knesset vote of confidence early in 1984, new elections in July provided no clear winner, with both Labor and Likud considerably short of a Knesset majority and unable to form even narrow coalitions. After several weeks of difficult negotiations, they agreed on a government of national unity, including the rotation of the office of Prime Minister and the combined office of Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister midway through the government's 50-month term. <br />
<br />
During the first 25 months of unity government rule, Labor's Shimon Peres served as Prime Minister, while Likud's Shamir held the posts of Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, until they switched positions in October 1986. In November 1988 elections, Likud edged Labor out by one seat but was unable to form a coalition, producing another national unity government in January 1989. Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister, and [[Shimon Peres]] became Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister. This government fell in March 1990, however, in a vote of no confidence precipitated by disagreement over the government's response to U.S. Secretary of State Baker's initiative in the peace process. Labor Party leader Peres was unable to attract sufficient support among the religious parties to form a government. Yitzhak Shamir then formed a Likud-led coalition government, including members from religious and right-wing parties. <br />
<br />
Shamir's government took office in June 1990, and held power for 2 years. In the June 1992 national elections, the Labor Party reversed its electoral fortunes, taking 44 seats. Labor Party leader [[Yitzhak Rabin]] formed a coalition with [[Meretz]] (a leftist party) and Shas (an ultra-Orthodox religious party). The coalition included the support of two Arab-majority parties. Rabin became Prime Minister in July 1992, presiding over the signing of the Oslo accords with the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]]. However, Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish radical on November 4, 1995. Peres, then Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, once again became Prime Minister and immediately proceeded to carry forward the peace policies of the Rabin government and to implement Israel's Oslo commitments, including military redeployment in the West Bank and the holding of historic Palestinian elections on January 20, 1996. <br />
<br />
Enjoying broad public support and anxious to secure his own mandate, Peres called for early elections after just 3 months in office. (They would have otherwise been held by the end of October 1996.) In late February and early March, a series of suicide bombing attacks by Palestinian terrorists took some 60 Israeli lives, seriously eroding public support for Peres and raising concerns about the peace process. Increased fighting in southern Lebanon, which also brought Katyusha rocket attacks against northern Israel, also raised tensions and weakened the government politically a month before the May 29 elections. <br />
[[File:Ariel-sharon.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Ariel Sharon (1928-2014).]]<br />
In those elections—the first direct election of a Prime Minister in Israeli history—Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu won by a narrow margin, having sharply criticized the government's peace policies for failing to protect Israeli security. Netanyahu subsequently formed a right-wing coalition government publicly committed to pursuing the peace process, but with an emphasis on security and reciprocity. In 1999, with a shrunken coalition and facing increasing difficulty passing legislation and defeating no-confidence motions, Netanyahu dissolved parliament and called for new elections. This time, the Labor candidate—Ehud Barak—was victorious. Barak formed a mixed coalition government of secular and religious parties, with Likud in the opposition. In May 2000, Barak fulfilled one of his major campaign promises by withdrawing Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon. However, by mid-autumn, with the breakdown of the Camp David talks and the worsening security situation caused by the new intifada, Barak's coalition was in jeopardy. In December, he resigned as Prime Minister, precipitating a new prime ministerial election. <br />
<br />
In a special election on February 6, 2001, after a campaign stressing security and the maintenance of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, Likud leader [[Ariel Sharon]] defeated Barak by over 20 percentage points. As he had promised in his campaign, Sharon formed a broad unity government that included the Labor and Likud parties, the far-right parties, some smaller secular parties, and several religious parties. The unity government collapsed in late 2002, and new elections were held in January 2003. Sharon again won, and formed a new government consisting of his own Likud party, the right-wing National Religious Party and National Union party, and centrist Shinui. <br />
<br />
The summer of 2004 saw renewed instability in the government, as disagreement over the Gaza disengagement plan resulted in Sharon's firing two ministers of the National Union Party and accepting the resignation of a third from the National Religious Party in order to secure cabinet approval of the plan (it was endorsed on June 6, 2004). Continuing divisions within the Likud on next steps then prompted Ariel Sharon to leave the party in November 2005 to form the Kadima ("Forward") party and call new elections for March 2006. However, Sharon was unexpectedly incapacitated in January 2006 due to a severe stroke and leadership of Kadima shifted to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who on March 28 led the party to 29 seats in the Knesset. Labor came in second with 19 seats, and Shas and Likud tied with 12. After intensive coalition negotiations, a new, Kadima-led government, with Labor as "senior partner", was sworn in on May 4, 2006.<br />
<br />
===Foreign Relations===<br />
In addition to seeking an end to hostilities with Arab forces, against which it has fought five wars since 1948, Israel has given high priority to gaining wide acceptance as a sovereign state with an important international role. <br />
[[File:Leaders Orient Arab Israel.jpg|left|300px|November, 2010.]]<br />
Before 1967, Israel had established diplomatic relations with a majority of the world's nations, except for the Arab states and most other Muslim countries. UN Security Council resolutions provided the basis for cease-fire and disengagement agreements concerning the Sinai and the Golan Heights between Israel, Egypt, and Syria and for promoting the Camp David accords and the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. The Soviet Union and the communist states of Central Europe (except Romania) broke diplomatic relations with Israel during the 1967 war, but those relations were restored by 1991. <br />
<br />
The landmark October 1991 Madrid conference recognized the importance of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 in resolving regional disputes, and brought together for the first time Israel, the Palestinians, and the neighboring Arab countries, launching a series of direct bilateral and multilateral negotiations. These talks were designed to finally resolve outstanding security, border, and other issues between the parties while providing a basis for mutual cooperation on issues of general concern, including the status of refugees, arms control and regional security, water and environmental concerns, and economic development. <br />
<br />
Today, Israel has diplomatic relations with 161 states. Following the signing of the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993, Israel established or renewed diplomatic relations with 36 countries. Israel has full diplomatic relations with Egypt, Jordan, and Mauritania. In addition, on October 1, 1994, the Gulf States publicly announced their support for a review of the Arab boycott, in effect abolishing the secondary and tertiary boycotts against Israel. <br />
<br />
Israel has diplomatic relations with nine non-Arab Muslim states and with 32 of the 43 Sub-Saharan states that are not members of the Arab League. Israel established relations with China and India in 1992 and with the Holy See in 1993.<br />
<br />
===Relations with the United States===<br />
[[File:Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu 2008.jpg|thumb|left|Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama in 2008.]]<br />
[[Image:Mosque.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem]]<br />
Commitment to Israel's security and well being has been a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East since Israel's founding in 1948, in which the United States played a key supporting role. Israel and the United States are bound closely by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests. Continuing U.S. economic and security assistance to Israel acknowledges these ties and signals U.S. commitment. The broad issues of Arab-Israeli peace have been a major focus in the U.S.-Israeli relationship. U.S. efforts to reach a Middle East peace settlement are based on many critical security interests. The United State's strong national security interests in promoting regional security in the Middle East and curtailing acts of terrorism both in Israel and abroad are supported in part by UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. As one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, the United States also has a strong interest in promoting Israel's economic success. <br />
<br />
On a bilateral level, relations between the United States and Israel are continually strengthening in every field. In addition to the Joint Political-Military Group described above, there are: bilateral science and technology efforts (including the Binational Science Foundation and the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation); the U.S.-Israeli Education Foundation, which sponsors educational and cultural programs; the Joint Economic Development Group, which maintains a high-level dialogue on economic issues; the Joint Counterterrorism Group, designed to enhance cooperation in fighting terrorism; and a high-level Strategic Dialogue that meets biannually.<br />
<br />
On December 6, 2017, President Donald Trump announced the United States would finally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the U.S. Embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.<br />
<br />
==Defense==<br />
Israel's ground, air, and naval forces, known as the Israel Defense Force (IDF), fall under the command of a single general staff. Conscription is universal for Israeli men and women over the age of 18, although exemptions may be made on religious grounds. Druze, members of a small Islamic offshoot living in Israel's mountains, also serve in the IDF. [[Israeli Arabs]], with the exception of some [[Bedouins]], do not serve. During 1950-66, Israel spent an average of 9% of GDP on defense. Real defense expenditures increased dramatically after both the 1967 and 1973 wars. Military spending in 2005 totaled $9.45 billion, which is equivalent to 7.7% of GDP, and represents 16.3% of government expenditures. The United States provides approximately $2.4 billion per year in security assistance. <br />
<br />
In 1983, the United States and Israel established the Joint Political Military Group, which meets twice a year. Both the U.S. and Israel participate in joint military planning and combined exercises, and have collaborated on military research and weapons development.<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
[[File:Israeli Tel Aviv.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Tel Aviv.]]<br />
Israel has a diversified, technologically advanced economy with substantial but decreasing government ownership and a strong high-tech sector. The major industrial sectors include high-technology electronic and biomedical equipment, metal products, processed foods, chemicals, and transport equipment. Israel possesses a substantial service sector and is one of the world's centers for diamond cutting and polishing. It also is a world leader in software development and, prior to the violence that began in September 2000, was a major tourist destination. <br />
<br />
Israel's strong commitment to economic development and its talented work force led to economic growth rates during the nation's first two decades that frequently exceeded 10% annually. The years after the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]] were a lost decade economically, as growth stalled and [[inflation]] reached triple-digit levels. The successful economic stabilization plan implemented in 1985 and the subsequent introduction of market-oriented structural reforms reinvigorated the economy and paved the way for rapid growth in the 1990s. <br />
<br />
A wave of Jewish immigration beginning in 1989, predominantly from the countries of the former U.S.S.R., brought nearly a million new citizens to Israel. These new immigrants, many of them highly educated, now constitute some 13% of Israel's 6.7 million inhabitants. Their successful absorption into Israeli society and its labor force forms a remarkable chapter in Israeli history. The skills brought by the new immigrants and their added demand as consumers gave the Israeli economy a strong upward push and in the 1990s, they played a key role in the ongoing development of Israel's high-tech sector. <br />
*GDP (2006 est.): $170.3 billion.<br />
*Annual growth rate (2006): 4.8%.<br />
*Per capita GDP (2006): $26,800.<br />
*Currency: Shekel (4.13 shekels = 1 U.S. dollar; 2007 est.).<br />
*Natural resources: [[Copper]], [[phosphate]], [[bromide]], [[potash]], [[clay]], [[sand]], [[sulfur]], [[bitumen]], [[manganese]].<br />
*Agriculture: Products—citrus and other fruits, vegetables, beef, dairy, and poultry products.<br />
*Industry: Types—high-technology projects (including aviation, communications, computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, plastics, chemical products, diamond cutting and polishing, metal products, textiles, and footwear.<br />
*Trade: Exports (2006 est.)--$42.86 billion. Exports include polished diamonds, electronic communication, medical and scientific equipment, chemicals and chemical products, electronic components and computers, machinery and equipment, transport equipment, rubber, plastics, and textiles. Imports (excluding defense imports, 2006 est.)--$47.8 billion: raw materials, diamonds, energy ships and airplanes, machinery, equipment, land transportation equipment for investment, and consumer goods. Major partners—U.S., U.K., Germany; exports—U.S., Belgium, Hong Kong; imports—U.S., Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, U.K. <br />
<br />
During the 1990s, progress in the Middle East peace process, beginning with the Madrid Conference of 1991, helped to reduce Israel's economic isolation from its neighbors and opened up new markets to Israeli exporters farther afield. The peace process stimulated an unprecedented inflow of foreign investment in Israel, and provided a substantial boost to economic growth in the region over the last decade. The onset of the intifada beginning at the end of September 2000, the downturn in the high-tech sector and Nasdaq crisis, and the slowdown of the global economy have all significantly affected the Israeli economy. However, despite the recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, the Israeli economy grew during 2006. <br />
[[File:Shopping Tel Aviv Israel.jpg|right]]<br />
Israeli companies, particularly in the high-tech area, have in the past enjoyed considerable success raising money on Wall Street and other world financial markets; Israel ranks second to Canada among foreign countries in the number of its companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Israel's tech market is very developed, and in spite of the pause in the industry's growth, the high-tech sector is likely to be the major driver of the Israeli economy. Almost half of Israel's exports are high tech. Most leading players, including Intel, IBM, and Cisco have a presence in Israel. <br />
<br />
Growth was an exceptional 6.2% in 2000, due in part to a number of one-time high tech acquisitions and investments. This exceptional year was followed by two years of negative growth of -0.9% and -1%, respectively, in 2001 and 2002. As a result of the security situation and the associated downturn in the economy, there was a significant rise in unemployment and wage erosion. This led to a decline in private consumption in 2002, the first time that there had been negative private consumption since the early 1980s. However, following growth rates of 1.7% in 2003 and 4.4% in 2004, the Israeli economy entered into a period of stabilization and recovery after the deep recession of 2001 and 2002. Since then, the Israeli economy seems to have returned to a trend of consistent growth. The Israeli economy grew by 5.2% in 2005 and GDP per capita (U.S. $17,800) increased by 3.3%. The Israeli economy grew by an estimated 4.8% in 2006. <br />
<br />
Exports of goods and services in Israel grew by 7% in 2005. Service and agricultural exports each increased by more than 10% in 2005, whereas exports increased by 5.6% and imports rose to 4.4%. [[Israel Tourism]] revenues increased by 22.7% as a result of the dramatic increase following the intifada's subsidence. <br />
<br />
Israel's private consumption increased by 4% in 2005. The largest growth in private consumption was in the purchase of clothing, footwear, and personal effects, which increased by 10.2%, following an increase of 5.4% in 2004. Consumption of consumer durables grew much more slowly than in 2004, with an increase of only 3.4%, compared with 14.3% the previous year. <br />
<br />
In the Israeli business sector, business GDP grew by 6.6% in 2005. According to CBS statistics, the transportation, storage, and communications industries grew by 9.2%, following growth of 6.6% in 2004. The GDP of the wholesale, retail, restaurant, and hotel sector increased by 8.1%, up from 6.1% in 2004. The GDP of the finance and business services sector in 2005 increased by 6.4%, up from the previous year's 6.1% growth rate. <br />
<br />
The general consensus among economists is that Israel's economy is very strong and that its growth potential is in the 4% to 5% range. <br />
[[File:Bar Rafaeli Israel.jpg|thumb|left|Bar Refaeli, model and actress.]]<br />
The United States is Israel's largest trading partner. In 2005, two-way trade totaled some $26.6 billion, up 12% from 2004. The U.S. trade deficit with Israel was $7.1 billion in 2005, up 33% from 2004, due largely to rising Israeli exports to the U.S. U.S. exports to Israel rose 6.1% in 2005 to $9.7 billion, making Israel our 19th largest export market for goods. The principal goods exported from the U.S. include civilian aircraft parts, telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, civilian aircraft, electrical apparatus, and computer accessories. Israel's chief exports to the U.S. include diamonds, pharmaceutical preparations, telecommunications equipment, medicinal equipment, electrical apparatus, and cotton apparel. The two countries signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in 1985 that progressively eliminated tariffs on most goods traded between the two countries over the following 10 years. An agricultural trade accord signed in November 1996 addressed the remaining goods not covered in the FTA but has not entirely erased barriers to trade in the agricultural sector. Israel also has trade and cooperation agreements in place with the European Union, Canada, Mexico, and other countries. <br />
<br />
Best prospect industry sectors in Israel for U.S. exporters are electricity and gas equipment, defense equipment, medical instruments and disposable products, industrial chemicals, telecommunication equipment, electronic components, building materials/construction industries (DIY and infrastructure), safety and security equipment and services, non-prescription drugs, travel and tourism services, and computer software.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
[[File:Twelve Tribes of Israel.JPG|thumb|left|Twelve Tribes of Israel.]]<br />
[[File:Baal thunderbolt Louvre AO15775.jpg|thumb|Stele of the Canaanite god Baal with a thunderbolt, 15th-13th century BC.]]<br />
[[File:Map of the Holy Land.jpg|thumb|Map of the Holy Land Divided into the XII Tribes of Israel, by Emanuel Bowen, PUBLISHED 1752.]]<br />
The name Israel refers to [[Jacob]] from the [[Bible]], the father of the [[Jews]] who would eventually create the kingdom of Israel. (See the [[Genesis|Book of Genesis]] in the Bible.) Jacob's descendants were numerous, but were put under bondage in [[Egypt]]. The first attempt at forming a nation dates back to the migration or [[Exodus of Israel]] out of Egypt after being freed from their [[slavery]]. (See the [[Exodus|Book of Exodus]] in the Bible). While the exact date is not known, the most likely scenario is in the 1400s B.C. After 40 years of wandering, the Hebrews attempted to settle in the land of Canaan, after first having to fight battles with the inhabitants. (See the [[Joshua (Biblical book)|Book of Joshua]] in the Bible). The Jewish people lived for hundreds of years under Judges (See the [[Judges|Book of Judges]] in the Bible) before forming a monarchy under their first King, [[Saul]] in 1050 B.C. Israel expanded under [[King David|David]] from 1010 to 970 B.C. and then reached its height under [[Solomon]] from 970 to 930 B.C. With the death of Solomon the united kingdom of Israel split in two with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin forming their own nation, [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]]. (See [[I Samuel]], [[II Samuel]], [[I Kings]], [[I Chronicles]] in the Bible)<br />
<br />
The first King of Israel was [[Jeroboam I]], who made his capital at [[Shechem]] until it was replaced by [[Samaria]] under [[Omri]]. Almost immediately the Israeli kings "did evil in the sight of the Lord" and turned away from the Lord God. Although they were larger and more powerful than Judah, they fell more quickly due to their apostacy. Israel continued being ruled by kings until its conquest by [[Assyria]] in 722 B.C. Judah had a number of kings who did what was right in God's sight, but eventually they too were turning away. They continued as an independent nation until 586 B.C. when they fell to the [[Babylonians]]. Both of these conquests led to many Jews being deported from the land of Israel. While under [[Persian empire|Persian]] rule after the Babylonians had fallen to the Persians, the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild their temple (520 - 516 B.C.)<ref>An Encyclopedia of World History, Kingsport Press, 1948</ref> In the 400's B.C. they began to return to God as well, showing a reverence for Him that was often lacking during the time they had their own kingdom. Still under Persian rule and with their blessing, [[Nehemiah]] came to rebuild the walls of [[Jerusalem]], a position that was bitterly opposed by the other peoples living on the land. The Jews had to stand guard as they built.<br />
[[File:Jews in Cochin PD.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Cochin Jews are the oldest group of Jews in [[India]].]]<br />
When [[Alexander the Great]] swept through Israel in 332 B.C., Persian rule had ended to be replaced by [[Macedone|Greek]]. Upon Alexander's death in 323 B.C. there was a fight for power among his generals and subordinates, which led to Israel coming under control of the Ptolemies, the Greek leaders of Egypt. The Jews were treated leniently until the [[Seleucids]], the Greek leaders of Syria, pushed back the Ptolemies and took over Israel in 198 B.C. The Seleucids were not as lenient and under [[Antiochus IV]] (175 to 164 B.C.) conditions worsened considerably. In 168 B.C. Judaism was declared to be illegal and a pig was sacrified on the altar of the Jewish temple; the Jews revolted under the [[Maccabees]] and fought a prolonged [[guerrilla war]] until their eventual religious independence in 164 B.C. Complete acknowledgement of independence from the Seleucids didn't come until 142 B.C. when Roman pressure helped them to make the decision to let Israel go. This independence would last until 63 B.C., when infighting caused the Jews to ask for [[Roman]] intervention. Rome stopped the fighting, but Israel came under Roman rule as the province of [[Palestine]]. The Jewish people would not have their independence again for over 2000 years. It was under this state of Roman control that [[Jesus]] was born around 4 B.C. Three revolts against Roman rule by the Jews, the first in 66 A.D., the next in 115 A.D., and the last in 132 A.D. took place, and failed. After the failure of the third, the Romans forced the Jews to leave Israel thus beginning the [[diaspora]], the dispersal of the Jews from the land of Palestine. <br />
<br />
By the fifth century the inhabitants of the region were Christianized, under the [[Byzantine Empire]], a situation which continued until the [[Arab]] invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs brought with them the [[Islam]]ic faith which, due to its many similarities with [[Christianity]] and [[Judaism]] and the social advantages it brought, was gradually adopted by the population. However, Jewish and Christian citizens continued to live in the region, in relative peace, until the Crusades.<br />
<br />
The [[Crusades]] saw part of the Holy Lands reconquered from Islam in the name of Christianity. The Crusader states were temporary before being conquered by Islam again with the fall of the last Crusader state in 1290. First the [[Mamelukes]] controlled the area, then starting in the early 1500s, the [[Ottoman Turks]] conquered the region. [[World War I]] saw a British victory over the Ottoman's and the region came under British mandate of Palestine in 1920. <br />
<br />
The British and late Ottoman authorities permitted the resettlement of Jews from Europe, many of them looking to establish a Jewish state in the region, part of a movement called [[Zionism]]. In the last years of British mandate the number and strength of the Jews in [[Palestine]] increased, with many adopting extremely radical tactics to achieve their goal of an independent Jewish state. Terrorist organizations such as Irgun and Lehi attacked British and Arab targets, killing civilians in the process. Britain's occupation became too expensive and they handed control to the [[United Nations]] to sort out a solution.<br />
<br />
==Modern Nation==<br />
[[Image:Zion.jpg|right|300px|Jaffa (Yafo) gate, Jerusalem.]]<br />
The recreation of the State of Israel in 1948 was preceded by more than 50 years of efforts to re-establish a sovereign state as a homeland for the Jewish nation. These efforts were initiated by Theodore Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement, and were given added impetus by the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which asserted the British Government's support for the recreation of a Jewish homeland in roughly its [[Promised Land|original position]], which was then known as Palestine. <br />
<br />
In the years following [[World War I]], Palestine became a British Mandate and the number of Jews returning to their homeland steadily increased, as did violence between Palestine's Jewish and Arab communities. Mounting British efforts to restrict this immigration were countered by international support for Jewish national aspirations following the near-extermination of European Jewry by the [[Nazis]] during [[World War II]]. This support led to the 1947 UN partition plan, which would have divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under UN administration. <br />
<br />
[[Image:Israel48.jpg|thumb|400px|left]] On May 14, 1948, immediately after the British quit Palestine, the State of Israel was proclaimed and was immediately invaded by armies from neighboring Arab states, which rejected the UN partition plan. This conflict, Israel's War of Independence, was concluded by armistice agreements between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria in 1949 and resulted in a 50% increase in Israeli territory. The U.S. immediately recognized Israel and gave large amounts of financial aid through private sources, but did not at this time send military aid.<br />
<br />
In 1956, French, British, and Israeli forces engaged Egypt in response to its nationalization of the Suez Canal and blockade of the Straits of Tiran. Israeli forces withdrew in March 1957, after the United Nations established the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Gaza Strip and Sinai. This war resulted in no territorial shifts and was followed by several years of terrorist incidents and retaliatory acts across Israel's borders. <br />
===Six Day War (1967)===<br />
In June 1967, Israeli forces in the [[Six-Day War]] struck targets in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in response to Egyptian President Nasser's ordered withdrawal of UN peace keepers from the Sinai Peninsula and the buildup of Arab armies along Israel's borders. After 6 days, all parties agreed to a cease-fire, under which Israel retained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River, and East Jerusalem. On November 22, 1967, the Security Council adopted Resolution 242, the "land for peace" formula, which called for the establishment of a just and lasting peace based on Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in return for the end of all states of belligerency, respect for the sovereignty of all states in the area, and the right to live in peace within secure, recognized boundaries. The Six Day War had a momentous effect on [[American Jews]], mobilizing new support for Israel.<br />
<br />
The following years were marked by continuing violence across the Suez Canal, punctuated by the 1969-70 [[War of Attrition]] between Israel and Egypt. On October 6, 1973—Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement), the armies of Syria and Egypt [[Yom Kippur War|launched an attack against Israel]]. Although the Egyptians and Syrians initially made significant advances, Israel was able to push the invading armies back beyond the 1967 cease-fire lines by the time the United States and the Soviet Union helped bring an end to the fighting. In the UN Security Council, the United States supported Resolution 338, which reaffirmed Resolution 242 as the framework for peace and called for peace negotiations between the parties. <br />
<br />
In the years that followed, sporadic clashes continued along the cease-fire lines but guided by the U.S., Egypt, and Israel continued negotiations. In November 1977, Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]] made a historic visit to Jerusalem, which opened the door for the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace summit convened at Camp David by [[Jimmy Carter|President Carter]]. These negotiations led to a 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, pursuant to which Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982, signed by President Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menahem Begin of Israel. <br />
<br />
In the years following the 1948 war, Israel's border with Lebanon was quiet relative to its borders with other neighbors. After the expulsion of Palestinian fighters from Jordan in 1970 and their influx into southern Lebanon, however, hostilities along Israel's northern border increased and Israeli forces crossed into Lebanon. After passage of Security Council Resolution 425, calling for Israeli withdrawal and the creation of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeeping force (UNIFIL), Israel withdrew its troops. <br />
[[File:Karakal Israel.jpg|left]]<br />
In June 1982, following a series of cross-border terrorist attacks and the attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador to the U.K., Israel invaded Lebanon to fight the forces of Yasser Arafat's [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO). The PLO withdrew its forces from Lebanon in August 1982. Israel, having failed to finalize an agreement with Lebanon, withdrew most of its troops in June 1985 save for a residual force which remained in southern Lebanon to act as a buffer against attacks on northern Israel. These remaining forces were completely withdrawn in May 2000 behind a UN-brokered delineation of the Israel-Lebanon border (the Blue Line). Hezbollah forces in Southern Lebanon continued to attack Israeli positions south of the Blue Line in the Sheba Farms/Har Dov area of the Golan Heights. <br />
<br />
The victory of the U.S.-led coalition in the [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]] of 1991 opened new possibilities for regional peace. In October 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union convened the Madrid Conference, in which Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and Palestinian leaders laid the foundations for ongoing negotiations designed to bring peace and economic development to the region. Within this framework, Israel and the PLO signed a Declaration of Principles on September 13, 1993, which established an ambitious set of objectives relating to a transfer of authority from Israel to an interim Palestinian authority. Israel and the PLO subsequently signed the Gaza-Jericho Agreement on May 4, 1994, and the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities on August 29, 1994, which began the process of transferring authority from Israel to the Palestinians. <br />
<br />
On October 26, 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a historic peace treaty, witnessed by President Clinton. This was followed by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and PLO Chairman Arafat's signing of the historic Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on September 28, 1995. This accord, which incorporated and superseded previous agreements, broadened Palestinian self-government and provided for cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians in several areas. <br />
<br />
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by a right-wing Jewish radical, bringing the increasingly bitter national debate over the peace process to a climax. Subsequent Israeli governments continued to negotiate with the PLO resulting in additional agreements, including the Wye River and the Sharm el-Sheikh memoranda. However, a summit hosted by President Clinton at Camp David in July 2000 to address permanent status issues—including the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, final security arrangements, borders, and relations and cooperation with neighboring states—failed to produce an agreement. <br />
<br />
Following the failed talks, widespread violence broke out in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in September 2000. In April 2001 the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact Finding Committee, commissioned by the October 2000 Middle East Peace Summit and chaired by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, submitted its report, which recommended an immediate end to the violence followed by confidence-building measures and a resumption of security cooperation and peace negotiations. Building on the Mitchell report, In April 2003, the Quartet (the U.S., UN, European Union (EU), and the Russian Federation) announced the "roadmap," a performance-based plan to bring about two states, Israel and a democratic, viable Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. <br />
<br />
Despite the promising developments of spring 2003, violence continued and in September 2003 the first Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), resigned after failing to win true authority to restore law and order, fight terror, and reform Palestinian institutions. In response to the deadlock, in the winter of 2003-2004 Prime Minister Sharon put forward his Gaza disengagement initiative, proposing the withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Gaza as well as parts of the northern West Bank. President Bush endorsed this initiative in an exchange of letters with Prime Minister Sharon on April 14, 2004, viewing Gaza disengagement as an opportunity to move towards implementation of the two-state vision and begin the development of Palestinian institutions. In a meeting in May 2004 the Quartet endorsed the initiative, which was approved by the Knesset in October 2004. <br />
<br />
The run-up to disengagement saw a flurry of diplomatic activity, including the February 2005 announcement of Lieutenant General William Ward as U.S. Security Coordinator; the March 2005 Sharon-Abbas summit in Sharm el-Sheikh; the return of Egyptian and Jordanian ambassadors to Israel; and the May 2005 appointment of former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn as Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement to work for a revitalization of the Palestinian economy after disengagement. Wolfensohn's direct involvement spurred Israeli-Palestinian agreement on the Gaza ‘crossings" at Karni and Erez, on the demolition of settler homes, water, electricity, and communications infrastructure issues, as well as other issues related to the Palestinian economy. <br />
<br />
[[File:Israeli Defense Forces.jpg|center]]<br />
<br />
On August 15, 2005, Israel began implementing its disengagement from the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli Defense Forces completed their withdrawal, including the dismantling of 17 settlements, on September 12. After broad recognition for Prime Minister Sharon's accomplishment at that fall's UN General Assembly, international attention quickly turned to efforts to strengthen Palestinian governance and the economy in Gaza. The United States brokered a landmark Agreement on Movement and Access between the parties in November 2005 to facilitate further progress on Palestinian economic issues. However, the terrorist organization Hamas—building on popular support for its "resistance" to Israeli occupation and a commitment to clean up the notorious corruption of the Palestinian Authority (PA)--took a majority in the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections, with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya as Prime Minister. The Israeli leadership pledged not to work with a Palestinian government in which Hamas had a role. <br />
<br />
Shortly following Hamas' PLC victory, the Quartet—comprised of the United States, European Union, United Nations. and Russia—outlined three basic principles the Hamas-led PA must meet in order for the U.S. and the international community to reengage with the PA: renounce violence and terror, recognize Israel, and respect previous agreements, including the roadmap. The Hamas-led PA government rejected these principles, resulting in a Quartet statement of "grave concern" on March 30, 2006 and the suspension of U.S. assistance to the PA, complete prohibition on U.S. Government contacts with the PA, and prohibition of unlicensed transactions with the PA government. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the leadership of PLO Chairman and PA President Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), by contrast, remained consistently committed to the Quartet principles. <br />
[[File:Israeli tanks Gaza strip borders 2007.jpg|left|thumb|340px|Israeli tanks, Gaza strip borders, 2007.]]<br />
Despite several negotiated cease-fires between Hamas and Fatah, violent clashes in the Gaza Strip—and to a lesser extent in the West Bank—were commonplace between December 2006 and February 2007 and resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries. In an attempt to end the intra-Palestinian violence, the King of Saudi Arabia invited Palestinian rivals to Mecca, and on February 9, 2007, Abbas and Hamas leader Haniya agreed to the formation of a Palestinian national unity government and a cessation of violence. Hamas' rejectionist policies and violent behavior continued despite the formation of the national unity government. <br />
<br />
In June 2007, Hamas effectively orchestrated a violent coup in Gaza. Hamas also launched scores of Qassam rockets into southern Israel in an attempt to involve Israel in the Hamas-Fatah conflict. On June 14, Palestinian Authority President Mahoud Abbas exercised his lawful authority by declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the national unity government, and replacing it with a new government with Salam Fayyad as Prime Minister. <br />
<br />
The new Palestinian Authority government under President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad has no elements controlled by Hamas. The new government claims they are dedicated to peace and the Quartet principles and has been embraced politically and financially by the international community, including Israel, mainly because of the far worse alternative that Hamas represent.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
* Laqueur, Walter, and Rubin, Barry, eds. ''The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict'' (7th ed. 2008) 626p. <br />
* Rabinovich, Itamar, and Reinharz, Jehuda, eds. ''Israel in the Middle East: Documents and Readings on Society, Politics, and Foreign Relations, pre-1948 to the Present.'' (2008) 626pp<br />
<References/><br />
<br />
==Further reading==<br />
*Durant, Will. ''Our Oriental Heritage'' (1935); A general history of the ebb and flow of civilizations in the area.<br />
[[File:Zionism1.jpg|thumb|270px|in front: David Ben Gurian, Golda Meir, Theodor Herzl]]<br />
* Gilbert, Martin. ''Israel: A History'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Israel-History-Martin-Gilbert/dp/0688123635/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261917385&sr=1-8 excerpt and text search]<br />
* Oren, Michael B. ''Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East'' (2003), 480pp; standard history of the war [http://www.amazon.com/Six-Days-War-Making-Modern/dp/0345461924/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255773712&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]<br />
* Sachar, Howard M. ''A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Israel-Rise-Zionism-Time/dp/0375711325/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261732421&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]<br />
* Shindler, Colin. ''A History of Modern Israel'' (2008), very good on politics; thin otherwise. [http://www.amazon.com/History-Modern-Israel-Colin-Shindler/dp/0521615380/ref=pd_sim_b_2 excerpt and text search]<br />
* Stein, Leslie. ''The Hope Fulfilled: The Rise of Modern Israel'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Fulfilled-Praeger-Israeli-Studies/dp/027597815X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261915375&sr=1-1#noop excerpt and text search]<br />
* Tucker, Spencer C., ed. ''The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict A Political, Social, and Military History'' (4 vol. 2008); vol 4 includes 150 primary sources<br />
* Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. ''New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel'' (2nd ed. 2 vol. 1994); 1521pp<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
*[[Israel Tourism]]<br />
*[[Jewish philosophy]]<br />
*[[Israelophobia]]<br />
*[[The Samson Option]]<br />
*[[Gaza Strip]]<br />
*[[Gallery of Jewish Painting]]<br />
*[[Suicide bomber]]<br />
*[[Suicide bomber: a personal account]]<br />
*[[Jews in history]]<br />
*[[In the midst of a Maelstrom: the Holy Spirit and silence: an essay]] an encounter between Israeli Jew and Egyptian Muslim in Alexandria<br />
*[[Christmas in the Holy Land: an essay]]<br />
*[[Adiabene]]<br />
*[[What is Torah, what is Talmud]]<br />
*[[Presidents of Israel]]<br />
*[[Prime Ministers of Israel]]<br />
<br />
== External links ==<br />
*[https://cidisrael.org Christians in Defense of Israel]<br />
*[http://www.jewart.com/2007/11/07/jewish-art-in-history/ Jewish art in history]<br />
*[http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/collections/photoarchive.asp Photographic Archive] The Jewish Museum.<br />
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOVhTFOPKxc&feature=related Failed suicide bombing attempt by anguishing 21 year old woman]<br />
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zegXBwGBPZs Touring in Jerusalem, Tagalog and English]<br />
*[http://www.conservativenewsandviews.com/2011/05/07/clergy/journey-to-israel-day-1/ Journey to Israel, Day One]<br />
*[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/potoc.html American Attitudes Toward Israel.]<br />
*[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewstoc.html Jews in America.]<br />
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.de/2013/04/dear-people-this-may-seem-to-you-to-be.html Under a "Pillar of a Cloud"]<br />
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.de/2013/03/then-from-egypt-to-israel-now-from.html Then, from Egypt to Israel: Now, from Russia and the U.S.]<br />
<br />
{{Copyright Details (US Government)}} <br />
Source: [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3581.htm]<br />
<br />
{{Asian Countries}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Biblical Places]]<br />
[[Category:Israel]]<br />
[[Category:Zionism]]<br />
[[Category:Israeli Wars]]<br />
[[Category:Religion and Politics]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1388221World Wrestling Entertainment2017-11-23T03:56:54Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| November 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Cesaro and Sheamus<br />
| November 6, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Charlotte Flair<br />
| November 14, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1387934World Wrestling Entertainment2017-11-21T17:06:15Z<p>BoukenCrimson: /* Raw */</p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| Roman Reigns<br />
| November 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Cesaro and Sheamus<br />
| November 6, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Natalya<br />
| August 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Survivor_Series&diff=1387803Survivor Series2017-11-20T17:28:14Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Survivor Series''' is a pay-per-view event produced by [[World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the big four pay-per-view events produced by WWE. It is the second oldest pay-per-view event, with [[WrestleMania]] being the oldest. It features elimination matches, where two teams, usually of around five, eliminate members from the opposing team. The event is also notable for the debuts of certain wrestlers. The Undertaker made his WWE debut at the 1990 Survivor Series, Ric Flair in 1991, The Rock (then known as Rocky Maivia) in 1996, Kurt Angle in 1999, the Shield in 2012, and Sting in 2014. When Survivor Series first began, it occurred on [[Thanksgiving]] Night. However, it now occurs the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving. <br />
<br />
The Survivor Series was originally created by WWF (now WWE) owner Vince McMahon as a last-minute counter to Starrcade, the main supercard event of [[National Wrestling Alliance]] flagship promotion [[Jim Crockett Promotions]], which was slated to make its pay-per-view debut with that event. McMahon deliberately scheduled the Survivor Series against Starrcade (which traditionally took place on Thanksgiving night prior to its PPV debut) and coerced PPV operators into carrying his event only by not allowing them to carry his other events (including WrestleMania) if they carried Starrcade; as a result, most PPV operators chose to carry the Survivor Series instead.<ref>[https://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/The_Specialists_34/article_23994.shtml#.WgTAyohryUk SPECIALIST - 20 Years Ago: Detailed look back at Starrcade '87 with Flair vs. Garvin]</ref><br />
<br />
==Montreal Screwjob==<br />
The 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal is infamous for the Montreal Screwjob. At the time, the then-current WWF Champion, Bret Hart, was getting ready to leave the WWF and go to WCW. However, Hart did not want to drop the title to Shawn Michaels in Hart's native Canada. Various outcomes were thrown around, including the match at Survivor Series ending in a no-contest, with Hart appearing on ''Raw'' the following night, forfeiting the title. One of the main concerns was the fear that Hart would take the title with him to WCW, as a few years prior, Madusa, who wrestled under the name Alundra Blayze, took the Women's Championship with her to WCW, and threw the belt in the trash on an episode of ''WCW Monday Nitro''.<br />
<br />
The match happened as planned at the event. As seen in the 1998 documentary ''Wrestling With Shadows'', Hart was led to believe that when Michaels put him in the Sharpshooter, which happened to be Hart's signature move, he would reverse it on Michaels. DX and The Hart Foundation would come to the ring and the match would end in a no-contest. However, when Michaels put Hart in the Sharpshooter, Vince McMahon, at ringside, called for the bell to be rung, and Shawn Michaels was declared the new champion. When Hart realized what had happened, he spat in McMahon's face, tore up the ringside announce tables, and proceeded to spell out the letters WCW. The pay-per-view went off-air abruptly.<br />
<br />
As a result of the Montreal Screwjob, Bret Hart did not appear on WWF/WWE programming for several years. In 2006, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. On January 4, 2010, Hart would return to ''Raw'' for the first time in 12 years. The Screwjob also saw the beginnings of the Mr. McMahon character, the heel persona Vince McMahon would start using during the Attitude Era.<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! Date<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Main Event<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1987)<br />
| November 26, 1987<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| Andre the Giant, One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, Butch Reed, and Rick Rude vs. Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, and Bam Bam Bigelow in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1988)<br />
| November 24, 1988<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage), Hercules, Koko B. Ware, and Hillbilly Jim vs. The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Boss Man), Ted DiBiase, Haku, and the Red Rooster in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1989)<br />
| November 23, 1989<br />
| Rosemont, IL<br />
| Rosemont Horizon<br />
| The Ultimate Warriors (The Ultimate Warrior, The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) and Jim Neidhart) vs. The Heenan Family (Bobby Heenan, Andre the Giant, Haku, and Arn Anderson) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match.<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1990)<br />
| November 22, 1990<br />
| Hartford, CT<br />
| Hartford Civic Center<br />
| Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and Tito Santana vs. Ted DiBiase, Rick Martel, The Warlord, and Power and Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma) in a 3-on-5 Grand Finale Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1991)<br />
| November 27, 1991<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Undertaker for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1992)<br />
| November 25, 1992<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| Randy Savage and Mr. Perfect vs. Ric Flair and Razor Ramon<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1993)<br />
| November 24, 1993<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| Boston Garden<br />
| The All-Americans (Lex Luger, The Undertaker, Rick Steiner, and Scott Steiner) vs. The Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Crush, Ludvig Borga, and Quebecer Jacques) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1994)<br />
| November 23, 1994<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Freeman Coliseum<br />
| The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna in a Casket Match with special guest enforcer [[Chuck Norris]]<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1995)<br />
| November 19, 1995<br />
| Landover, MD<br />
| USAir Arena<br />
| Diesel (c) vs. Bret Hart in a No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1996)<br />
| November 17, 1996<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Sycho Sid for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1997)<br />
| November 9, 1997<br />
| Montreal, Quebec, Canada<br />
| Molson Centre<br />
| Bret Hart (c) vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1998)<br />
| November 15, 1998<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Kiel Center<br />
| The Rock vs. Mankind in the finals of the ''Deadly Games'' Tournament for the vacant WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1999)<br />
| November 14, 1999<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. The Big Show vs. The Rock for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2000)<br />
| November 19, 2000<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| Ice Palace<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Triple H in a No Disqualification match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2001)<br />
| November 18, 2001<br />
| Greensboro, NC<br />
| Greensboro Coliseum<br />
| Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and The Big Show) vs. Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle, and Shane McMahon) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series Winner Take All match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2002)<br />
| November 17, 2002<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho vs. Booker T vs. Kane vs. Shawn Michaels in an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2003)<br />
| November 16, 2003<br />
| Dallas, TX<br />
| American Airlines Center<br />
| Goldberg (c) vs. Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2004)<br />
| November 14, 2004<br />
| Cleveland, OH<br />
| Gund Arena<br />
| Team Orton (Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Maven) vs. Team Triple H (Triple H, Edge, Batista, Snitsky) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2005)<br />
| November 27, 2005<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Team Raw (Shawn Michaels, Kane, The Big Show, Carlito, and Chris Masters) vs. Team SmackDown! (Batista, Rey Mysterio, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Bobby Lashley, and Randy Orton) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2006)<br />
| November 26, 2006<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| King Booker (c) vs. Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2007)<br />
| November 18, 2007<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Batista (c) vs. The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2008)<br />
| November 23, 2008<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Banknorth Garden<br />
| Chris Jericho (c) vs. John Cena for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2009)<br />
| November 22, 2009<br />
| Washington, D.C.<br />
| Verizon Center<br />
| John Cena (c) vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2010)<br />
| November 21, 2010<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Randy Orton (c) vs. Wade Barrett in a Pinfall-and-submissions only match for the WWE Championship with special guest referee John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2011)<br />
| November 20, 2011<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock and John Cena vs. Awesome Truth (The Miz & R-Truth)<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2012)<br />
| November 18, 2012<br />
| Indianapolis, IN<br />
| Bankers Life Fieldhouse<br />
| CM Punk (c) vs. John Cena vs. Ryback for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2013)<br />
| November 24, 2013<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Randy Orton (c) vs. Big Show for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2014)<br />
| November 23, 2014<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Erick Rowan, and Big Show) vs. Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev, and Luke Harper) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2015)<br />
| November 22, 2015<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2016)<br />
| November 20, 2016<br />
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Air Canada Centre<br />
| Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2017)<br />
| November 19, 2017<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| Toyota Center<br />
| Team Raw (Kurt Angle, Triple H, Braun Strowman, Finn Bálor, and Samoa Joe) vs. Team SmackDown (Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, and John Cena) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2018)<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
| Los Angeles, CA<br />
| Staples Center<br />
| TBA<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references/><br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Charles_Manson&diff=1387801Charles Manson2017-11-20T17:23:55Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Charles Manson''' (November 12, 1934 - November 19, 2017) was a 1960s ringleader of a murderous [[California]] [[cult]] whose most famous crime was ordering the murder of [[Sharon Tate]] and 6 other people. <br />
<br />
He [[brainwashing|brain-washed]] a devoted group of followers into various murders, with the hope of starting a race war and being the leader of the post-apocalyptic world he said the war would create.<ref>Borsella, C. ''On Persecution, Identity and Activism: Aspects of the Italian-American Experience from the Late 19th Century to Today''; Dante University Press; Boston. p. 110, (2005) [http://books.google.com/books?id=hWkQNm6MOxQC&lpg=PA110&dq=%22Charles%20Manson%22&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q=%22Charles%20Manson%22&f=false]</ref> Because Manson directed the members of the cult to commit multiple murders, he was convicted of the murders under a joint-responsibility rule which makes it a crime to be involved in a conspiracy to commit murder. <br />
<br />
Manson held notions commonly regarded as ludicrous; for example, he believed that the [[Beatles]] were his disciples, and their song "Helter Skelter" inspired his idea. Manson was a [[racist]] who hated black people and burned a [[swastika]] scar on his forehead.<ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1205141/The-Devils-disciples-40-years-killing-sprees-Charles-Manson-grotesque-celebrity-Twitter-page.html</ref> He is a [[Satanism|Satanist]] and said that he is [[Jesus Christ]] and [[Satan]] in one person and the Reincarnation of [[Aleister Crowley]].<br />
<br />
In April 2011, Manson broke a 20-year silence to make nonsensical remarks about the [[global warming]] scam and supposed human damage to the environment.<ref>http://nation.foxnews.com/charles-manson/2011/04/18/charles-manson-breaks-20-year-silenceto-speak-out-about-global-warming#ixzz1JvxUz9EH</ref><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
== See also ==<br />
<br />
*[[Scientology]]<br />
<br />
==External links ==<br />
*[http://www.charliemanson.com/tom-snyder-1981.htm 1981 Tom Snyder interview with Charles Manson], Transcribed by Aaron Bredlau. CharlieManson.com. Retrieved 26 April 2007.<br />
*[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/manson/manson.htm The Trial of Charles Manson] at Famous Trials<br />
<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manson, Charles}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Serial Killers]]<br />
[[Category:Anti-war Movements]]<br />
[[Category:Liberals]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1387626World Wrestling Entertainment2017-11-19T03:23:21Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| June 4, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Cesaro and Sheamus<br />
| November 6, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Natalya<br />
| August 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Andrade "Cien" Almas<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| Ember Moon<br />
| November 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Survivor_Series&diff=1386098Survivor Series2017-11-09T17:34:35Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Survivor Series''' is a pay-per-view event produced by [[World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the big four pay-per-view events produced by WWE. It is the second oldest pay-per-view event, with [[WrestleMania]] being the oldest. It features elimination matches, where two teams, usually of around five, eliminate members from the opposing team. The event is also notable for the debuts of certain wrestlers. The Undertaker made his WWE debut at the 1990 Survivor Series, Ric Flair in 1991, The Rock (then known as Rocky Maivia) in 1996, Kurt Angle in 1999, the Shield in 2012, and Sting in 2014. When Survivor Series first began, it occurred on [[Thanksgiving]] Night. However, it now occurs the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving.<br />
<br />
==Montreal Screwjob==<br />
The 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal is infamous for the Montreal Screwjob. At the time, the current WWE Champion, Bret Hart, was getting ready to leave WWE and go to WCW. However, Hart did not want to drop the title to Shawn Michaels in Hart's native Canada. Various outcomes were thrown around, including the match at Survivor Series ending in a no-contest, with Hart appearing on Raw the following night, forfeiting the title. One of the main concerns was the fear that Hart would take the title with him to WCW, as a few years prior, Madusa, who wrestled under the name Alundra Blayze, took the Women's Championship with her to WCW, and threw the belt in the trash on an episode of Nitro.<br />
<br />
The match happened as planned at the event. As seen in the 1998 documentary ''Wrestling With Shadows'', Hart was led to believe that when Michaels put him in the Sharpshooter, which happened to be Hart's signature move, he would reverse it on Michaels. DX and The Hart Foundation would come to the ring and the match would end in a no-contest. However, when Michaels put Hart in the Sharpshooter, Vince McMahon, at ringside, called for the bell to be rang, and Shawn Michaels was declared the new champion. When Hart realized what had happened, he spat in McMahon's face, tore up the ringside announce tables, and proceeded to spell out the letters WCW. The pay-per-view went off-air abruptly.<br />
<br />
As a result of the Montreal Screwjob, Bret Hart did not appear on WWE programming for several years. In 2006, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. On January 4, 2010, Hart would return to Raw for the first time in 12 years. The Screwjob also saw the beginnings of the Mr. McMahon character, the persona Vince McMahon would start using during the Attitude Era.<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! Date<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Main Event<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1987)<br />
| November 26, 1987<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| Andre the Giant, One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, Butch Reed, and Rick Rude vs. Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, and Bam Bam Bigelow in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1988)<br />
| November 24, 1988<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage), Hercules, Koko B. Ware, and Hillbilly Jim vs. The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Boss Man), Ted DiBiase, Haku, and the Red Rooster in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1989)<br />
| November 23, 1989<br />
| Rosemont, IL<br />
| Rosemont Horizon<br />
| The Ultimate Warriors (The Ultimate Warrior, The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) and Jim Neidhart) vs. The Heenan Family (Bobby Heenan, Andre the Giant, Haku, and Arn Anderson) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match.<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1990)<br />
| November 22, 1990<br />
| Hartford, CT<br />
| Hartford Civic Center<br />
| Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and Tito Santana vs. Ted DiBiase, Rick Martel, The Warlord, and Power and Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma) in a 3-on-5 Grand Finale Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1991)<br />
| November 27, 1991<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Undertaker for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1992)<br />
| November 25, 1992<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| Randy Savage and Mr. Perfect vs. Ric Flair and Razor Ramon<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1993)<br />
| November 24, 1993<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| Boston Garden<br />
| The All-Americans (Lex Luger, The Undertaker, Rick Steiner, and Scott Steiner) vs. The Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Crush, Ludvig Borga, and Quebecer Jacques) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1994)<br />
| November 23, 1994<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Freeman Coliseum<br />
| The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna in a Casket Match with special guest enforcer [[Chuck Norris]]<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1995)<br />
| November 19, 1995<br />
| Landover, MD<br />
| USAir Arena<br />
| Diesel (c) vs. Bret Hart in a No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1996)<br />
| November 17, 1996<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Sycho Sid for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1997)<br />
| November 9, 1997<br />
| Montreal, Quebec, Canada<br />
| Molson Centre<br />
| Bret Hart (c) vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1998)<br />
| November 15, 1998<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Kiel Center<br />
| The Rock vs. Mankind in the finals of the ''Deadly Games'' Tournament for the vacant WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1999)<br />
| November 14, 1999<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. The Big Show vs. The Rock for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2000)<br />
| November 19, 2000<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| Ice Palace<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Triple H in a No Disqualification match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2001)<br />
| November 18, 2001<br />
| Greensboro, NC<br />
| Greensboro Coliseum<br />
| Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and The Big Show) vs. Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle, and Shane McMahon) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series Winner Take All match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2002)<br />
| November 17, 2002<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho vs. Booker T vs. Kane vs. Shawn Michaels in an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2003)<br />
| November 16, 2003<br />
| Dallas, TX<br />
| American Airlines Center<br />
| Goldberg (c) vs. Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2004)<br />
| November 14, 2004<br />
| Cleveland, OH<br />
| Gund Arena<br />
| Team Orton (Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Maven) vs. Team Triple H (Triple H, Edge, Batista, Snitsky) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2005)<br />
| November 27, 2005<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Team Raw (Shawn Michaels, Kane, The Big Show, Carlito, and Chris Masters) vs. Team SmackDown! (Batista, Rey Mysterio, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Bobby Lashley, and Randy Orton) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2006)<br />
| November 26, 2006<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| King Booker (c) vs. Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2007)<br />
| November 18, 2007<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Batista (c) vs. The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2008)<br />
| November 23, 2008<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Banknorth Garden<br />
| Chris Jericho (c) vs. John Cena for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2009)<br />
| November 22, 2009<br />
| Washington, D.C.<br />
| Verizon Center<br />
| John Cena (c) vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2010)<br />
| November 21, 2010<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Randy Orton (c) vs. Wade Barrett in a Pinfall-and-submissions only match for the WWE Championship with special guest referee John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2011)<br />
| November 20, 2011<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock and John Cena vs. Awesome Truth (The Miz & R-Truth)<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2012)<br />
| November 18, 2012<br />
| Indianapolis, IN<br />
| Bankers Life Fieldhouse<br />
| CM Punk (c) vs. John Cena vs. Ryback for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2013)<br />
| November 24, 2013<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Randy Orton (c) vs. Big Show for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2014)<br />
| November 23, 2014<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Erick Rowan, and Big Show) vs. Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev, and Luke Harper) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2015)<br />
| November 22, 2015<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2016)<br />
| November 20, 2016<br />
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Air Canada Centre<br />
| Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2017)<br />
| November 19, 2017<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| Toyota Center<br />
| Brock Lesnar (Universal Champion) vs. AJ Styles (WWE Champion) in a non-title Champion vs. Champion interbrand singles match<br />
|}<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Survivor_Series&diff=1386097Survivor Series2017-11-09T17:33:17Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Survivor Series''' is a pay-per-view event produced by [[World Wrestling Entertainment]]. It is one of the big four pay-per-view events produced by WWE. It is the second oldest pay-per-view event, with [[WrestleMania]] being the oldest. It features elimination matches, where two teams, usually of around five, eliminate members from the opposing team. The event is also notable for the debuts of certain wrestlers. The Undertaker made his WWE debut at the 1990 Survivor Series, Ric Flair in 1991, The Rock (then known as Rocky Maivia) in 1996, Kurt Angle in 1999, and Sting in 2014. When Survivor Series first began, it occurred on [[Thanksgiving]] Night. However, it now occurs the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving.<br />
<br />
==Montreal Screwjob==<br />
The 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal is infamous for the Montreal Screwjob. At the time, the current WWE Champion, Bret Hart, was getting ready to leave WWE and go to WCW. However, Hart did not want to drop the title to Shawn Michaels in Hart's native Canada. Various outcomes were thrown around, including the match at Survivor Series ending in a no-contest, with Hart appearing on Raw the following night, forfeiting the title. One of the main concerns was the fear that Hart would take the title with him to WCW, as a few years prior, Madusa, who wrestled under the name Alundra Blayze, took the Women's Championship with her to WCW, and threw the belt in the trash on an episode of Nitro.<br />
<br />
The match happened as planned at the event. As seen in the 1998 documentary ''Wrestling With Shadows'', Hart was led to believe that when Michaels put him in the Sharpshooter, which happened to be Hart's signature move, he would reverse it on Michaels. DX and The Hart Foundation would come to the ring and the match would end in a no-contest. However, when Michaels put Hart in the Sharpshooter, Vince McMahon, at ringside, called for the bell to be rang, and Shawn Michaels was declared the new champion. When Hart realized what had happened, he spat in McMahon's face, tore up the ringside announce tables, and proceeded to spell out the letters WCW. The pay-per-view went off-air abruptly.<br />
<br />
As a result of the Montreal Screwjob, Bret Hart did not appear on WWE programming for several years. In 2006, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. On January 4, 2010, Hart would return to Raw for the first time in 12 years. The Screwjob also saw the beginnings of the Mr. McMahon character, the persona Vince McMahon would start using during the Attitude Era.<br />
<br />
==Events==<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Event<br />
! Date<br />
! City<br />
! Venue<br />
! Main Event<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1987)<br />
| November 26, 1987<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| Andre the Giant, One Man Gang, King Kong Bundy, Butch Reed, and Rick Rude vs. Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff, Don Muraco, Ken Patera, and Bam Bam Bigelow in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1988)<br />
| November 24, 1988<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage), Hercules, Koko B. Ware, and Hillbilly Jim vs. The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Boss Man), Ted DiBiase, Haku, and the Red Rooster in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1989)<br />
| November 23, 1989<br />
| Rosemont, IL<br />
| Rosemont Horizon<br />
| The Ultimate Warriors (The Ultimate Warrior, The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) and Jim Neidhart) vs. The Heenan Family (Bobby Heenan, Andre the Giant, Haku, and Arn Anderson) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match.<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1990)<br />
| November 22, 1990<br />
| Hartford, CT<br />
| Hartford Civic Center<br />
| Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and Tito Santana vs. Ted DiBiase, Rick Martel, The Warlord, and Power and Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma) in a 3-on-5 Grand Finale Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1991)<br />
| November 27, 1991<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Undertaker for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1992)<br />
| November 25, 1992<br />
| Richfield, OH<br />
| Richfield Coliseum<br />
| Randy Savage and Mr. Perfect vs. Ric Flair and Razor Ramon<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1993)<br />
| November 24, 1993<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| Boston Garden<br />
| The All-Americans (Lex Luger, The Undertaker, Rick Steiner, and Scott Steiner) vs. The Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Crush, Ludvig Borga, and Quebecer Jacques) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1994)<br />
| November 23, 1994<br />
| San Antonio, TX<br />
| Freeman Coliseum<br />
| The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna in a Casket Match with special guest enforcer [[Chuck Norris]]<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1995)<br />
| November 19, 1995<br />
| Landover, MD<br />
| USAir Arena<br />
| Diesel (c) vs. Bret Hart in a No Disqualification match for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1996)<br />
| November 17, 1996<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Sycho Sid for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1997)<br />
| November 9, 1997<br />
| Montreal, Quebec, Canada<br />
| Molson Centre<br />
| Bret Hart (c) vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1998)<br />
| November 15, 1998<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Kiel Center<br />
| The Rock vs. Mankind in the finals of the ''Deadly Games'' Tournament for the vacant WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (1999)<br />
| November 14, 1999<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. The Big Show vs. The Rock for the WWF Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2000)<br />
| November 19, 2000<br />
| Tampa, FL<br />
| Ice Palace<br />
| Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Triple H in a No Disqualification match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2001)<br />
| November 18, 2001<br />
| Greensboro, NC<br />
| Greensboro Coliseum<br />
| Team WWF (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and The Big Show) vs. Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle, and Shane McMahon) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series Winner Take All match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2002)<br />
| November 17, 2002<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| Triple H (c) vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho vs. Booker T vs. Kane vs. Shawn Michaels in an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2003)<br />
| November 16, 2003<br />
| Dallas, TX<br />
| American Airlines Center<br />
| Goldberg (c) vs. Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2004)<br />
| November 14, 2004<br />
| Cleveland, OH<br />
| Gund Arena<br />
| Team Orton (Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Maven) vs. Team Triple H (Triple H, Edge, Batista, Snitsky) in a 4-on-4 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2005)<br />
| November 27, 2005<br />
| Detroit, MI<br />
| Joe Louis Arena<br />
| Team Raw (Shawn Michaels, Kane, The Big Show, Carlito, and Chris Masters) vs. Team SmackDown! (Batista, Rey Mysterio, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Bobby Lashley, and Randy Orton) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2006)<br />
| November 26, 2006<br />
| Philadelphia, PA<br />
| Wachovia Center<br />
| King Booker (c) vs. Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2007)<br />
| November 18, 2007<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Batista (c) vs. The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2008)<br />
| November 23, 2008<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Banknorth Garden<br />
| Chris Jericho (c) vs. John Cena for the World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2009)<br />
| November 22, 2009<br />
| Washington, D.C.<br />
| Verizon Center<br />
| John Cena (c) vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2010)<br />
| November 21, 2010<br />
| Miami, FL<br />
| American Airlines Arena<br />
| Randy Orton (c) vs. Wade Barrett in a Pinfall-and-submissions only match for the WWE Championship with special guest referee John Cena<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2011)<br />
| November 20, 2011<br />
| New York City<br />
| Madison Square Garden<br />
| The Rock and John Cena vs. Awesome Truth (The Miz & R-Truth)<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2012)<br />
| November 18, 2012<br />
| Indianapolis, IN<br />
| Bankers Life Fieldhouse<br />
| CM Punk (c) vs. John Cena vs. Ryback for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2013)<br />
| November 24, 2013<br />
| Boston, MA<br />
| TD Garden<br />
| Randy Orton (c) vs. Big Show for the WWE Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2014)<br />
| November 23, 2014<br />
| St. Louis, MO<br />
| Scottrade Center<br />
| Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Erick Rowan, and Big Show) vs. Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev, and Luke Harper) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2015)<br />
| November 22, 2015<br />
| Atlanta, GA<br />
| Philips Arena<br />
| Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2016)<br />
| November 20, 2016<br />
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada<br />
| Air Canada Centre<br />
| Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg<br />
|-<br />
| Survivor Series (2017)<br />
| November 19, 2017<br />
| Houston, TX<br />
| Toyota Center<br />
| Brock Lesnar (Universal Champion) vs. AJ Styles (WWE Champion) in a non-title Champion vs. Champion interbrand singles match<br />
|}<br />
<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1386096World Wrestling Entertainment2017-11-09T17:30:43Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| June 4, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Cesaro and Sheamus<br />
| November 6, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Natalya<br />
| August 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Drew McIntyre<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| ''Vacant''<br />
| August 24, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1386095World Wrestling Entertainment2017-11-09T17:30:12Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| June 4, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sheamus and Cesaro<br />
| November 6, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Natalya<br />
| August 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Drew McIntyre<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| ''Vacant''<br />
| August 24, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=World_Wrestling_Entertainment&diff=1386094World Wrestling Entertainment2017-11-09T17:29:35Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.''' ('''WWE''') is a publicly-traded company dealing with professional wrestling entertainment. It also had failed venues in football (the [[XFL]]) and body building (the World Bodybuilding Federation). WWE puts on live and telecast wrestling shows, produces [[video games]] and licenses various products. The company was previously known was the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), and before 1979 the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), before changing its name in 2002. It is the largest entertainment wrestling organization in the world. Although WWE professes to conduct a sports competition, its events are scripted performances.<br />
<br />
[[Vince McMahon]] is the majority owner and Chairman of the company and his wife [[Linda McMahon]] held the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Together with their children, Executive Vice President of Global Media [[Shane McMahon]] and Senior Vice President of Creative Writing [[Stephanie McMahon]], the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of all voting power in the company.<br />
<br />
The company's main headquarters is located at 1241 East Main Street in Stamford, [[Connecticut]]. There are also international offices in [[Los Angeles]], [[New York City]], [[London]], and [[Toronto]].<br />
<br />
Some promotional names that WWE maintains for its television shows:<br />
<br />
*''[[WWE Raw|RAW]]''<br />
*''[[WWE SmackDown!|SmackDown!]]''<br />
*''[[WWE NXT|NXT]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
*''[[WWE 205 Live|205 Live]]'' (WWE Network)<br />
<br />
WWE's revenue in fiscal 2006 (from May 2005 to April 2006) was approximately $400 million (US), with a net profit of approximately $47 million. As of August 2006, the company's market capitalization is over $1 billion (US). Its stock is traded on the NYSE.<ref>http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/wwe.html WWE</ref><br />
<br />
==History==<br />
The World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was born in 1963 when Vincent J. McMahon, the principal owner of [[National Wrestling Alliance]]-affiliated Northeastern promotion Capitol Wrestling, split off his company from the larger NWA, an umbrella organization of "mom and pop" wrestling territories with each promotion staying in its own territory. The company was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1979. Under Vince McMahon, Vincent J. McMahon's son, the WWF would start to go national in the 1980s, breaking the unwritten rule of not encroaching on the turf of other regional wrestling territories. As his revenue increased, he also started to sign the best known names from other promotions, including the [[American Wrestling Association]] (AWA) and the NWA's flagship promotion, [[Jim Crockett Promotions]] (JCP). <br />
<br />
The breakthrough signing that became the first nationally recognized superstar was former AWA wrestler [[Hulk Hogan]] who, due to his appearance in the movie ''Rocky III'', had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could manage. Other big named wrestlers were brought in including [[Andre the Giant]]. Superstardom hit paydirt with the production of the first nationwide Pay per view [[WrestleMania]] in 1985. Incorporating well known actors such as [[Mr. T]] into the production helped to turn the WWF and WrestleMania into a mainstream hit.<br />
<br />
Allegations of steroid abuse hit the WWF in 1994 as well as sexual harassment claims. They were a costly public relations nightmare that led to big cuts in salary for the wrestlers and staffs and saw many wrestlers leave to [[Ted Turner]]'s [[World Championship Wrestling]] (the former JCP, which Turner bought in 1988), including Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Due to the steroid allegations, as well as WCW signing away many wrestlers from WWE, the company began promoting what they called the New Generation around 1994. This era focused less on wrestlers with bodybuilder physiques and more on performance. The two big names during this time were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, who were smaller, but were known to be great performers. Other wrestlers who were prominent during this time included the Undertaker, Diesel, and Razor Ramon. Talent who would become prominent in the Attitude Era also began to be shown during this time. Most notably, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, and Triple H. In 1996, Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) would leave for WCW. Their last night with the company has been known as the "Curtain Call." At a house show at Madison Square Garden, Hall and Nash, along with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H) and Shawn Michaels broke character to bid each other farewell. The four were part of a backstage group known as "The Kliq," which also consisted of Sean Waltman, who was not with the company at the time. As a result, since Hall and Nash were leaving for WCW and Shawn Michaels was the WWE Champion at the time, only Triple H was punished for the incident. Originally, Triple H was to win the 1996 King of the Ring, but did not. Instead, Stone Cold Steve Austin would win, leading to his now famous Austin 3:16 line and his eventual rise in the company. However, Triple H would win in 1997. Meanwhile, Hall and Nash would start appearing on WCW television in the summer of 1996. Eventually, they would form the New World Order, or nWo, with Hulk Hogan.<br />
<br />
Stone Cold [[Steve Austin]] rose as a star in the late 1990s in what is known as The Attitude Era, which saw a movement away from family fun to attacking authority, more violence, and swearing. The WWF and WCW went head to head during this time, including having competing wrestling shows on Monday nights. As a response to the nWo, WWE formed their own faction in D-Generation X, or DX for short. In contrast to the nWo, which had more of a gang mentality, DX took a more juvenile prankster approach. The group was originally composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestleMania XIV, Michaels would leave WWE for the next four years, only coming back periodically. Triple H took control of DX, and added Sean Waltman, who had been known as the 1-2-3 Kid years prior in WWE, and was known as Syxx in WCW as X-Pac. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn), who had already been associated with DX formed the DX Army. At SummerSlam 1997, Austin suffered a neck injury during a match with Owen Hart in which Hart botched a piledriver. At Survivor Series 1999, he was written out of WWE storylines in order to have neck surgery that would keep him out of action for the majority of 2000. During Austin's absence, fellow WWE superstar The Rock would begin to rise in popularity. Eventually, he would become just as big as Austin was, becoming the top babyface in the company during Austin's absence. Although some would argue that The Rock became an even bigger star than Austin. It was also during this time another superstar began to rise in Triple H, who had become the top heel in the company. In September 2000, Austin returned to the WWE at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. However, it would be another month or so before he would begin competing in matches on a regular basis. In March 2001, the WWF bought selected assets of WCW (see Going Public below), ending the Monday Night Wars, as well as The Attitude Era. In the years following, many talent from WCW would have runs in WWE. These include Booker T, Buff Bagwell, and Diamond Dallas Page, who were arguably three of the biggest names WWE brought over in the immediate months following the purchase. Bagwell was released in July 2001, while Booker T and Page would be apart of the Invasion storyline, which ran for the better part of 2001. Other WCW talent who would come over to WWE included Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Rey Mysterio. On March 31, 2003, Goldberg, who was WCW's most famous home-grown talent made his debut in the WWE, he left a year later at WrestleMania XX.<br />
<br />
In the summer of 2001, WWE attempted to negotiate with WCW wrestler, Sting. However, a segment on ''SmackDown'' featuring The Rock and Booker T convinced him to decline. For the next 13 years, WWE tried to get Sting, but were unsuccessful. A noticeable attempt was made in 2011, leading up to WrestleMania XXVII, with the 2.21.11 promotion. Many believed this to be Sting, however, it was a promo for the Undertaker. In July 2014, Sting signed a deal with WWE, and anyone who pre-ordered the game WWE 2K15 would receive a code in which they could play as Sting. On November 23, 2014, at Survivor Series, Sting finally made his official WWE debut, 13 years after the purchase of WCW. His first match was at WrestleMania 31, where he lost to Triple H.<br />
<br />
From 2002-2008, WWE entered the Ruthless Aggression Era. It retained many aspects of the Attitude Era, but also focused more on in-ring action. Talent who would become prominent during this time period included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, CM Punk, and Edge, who had already been with the company for a while but was a mid-carder. Lesnar, Cena, Batista, and Orton all made their television debuts within 2002.<br />
<br />
In 2008, WWE started the PG Era. With no competition to worry about, as well as the unwanted attention garnered by the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide, WWE decided to go back to more family-friendly programming similar of the late 1980s to early 1990s. Talent such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Ryback, and Dolph Ziggler would become major names.<br />
<br />
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched the WWE Network. The network contains the entire past pay-per-view events from WWE, WCW, and ECW, as well as original programming. It also features Over the Edge 1999, the event in which Owen Hart died from a botched accident, in its entirety. Although the fifteen minutes in which paramedics got Hart out of the ring, and the backstage interview with Jeff Jarrett have been edited out. It also features events featuring Chris Benoit, although an advisory is shown prior.<br />
<br />
On February 22, 2016, Shane McMahon made his first appearance on WWE programming since 2009. This was to set up a match between McMahon and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32. Afterward, McMahon would return to Raw, co-running it with his sister, Stephanie McMahon. On May 25, 2016, it was announced that another Brand Extension would take place and ''SmackDown'' would start airing live on Tuesdays on the USA Network starting July 19, 2016. This has been referred to as the New Era.<br />
<br />
==Going Public==<br />
On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television by launching a special program known as ''SmackDown!'' on the fledgling [[UPN]] network. The Thursday-night show became a weekly series on August 26, 1999, making ''SmackDown!'' the first weekly wrestling show to air on a broadcast network since ''Wrestling from Marigold Arena'' ended its run on the old DuMont network in March 1955.<br />
<br />
On the back of the success of the Attitude Era, on October 19, 1999 the WWF's parent company, Titan Sports (by this time renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.) became a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares priced at $17 each. WWF announced its desire to diversify, including creating a nightclub in Times Square, producing feature films, and book publishing. <br />
<br />
In 2000 the WWF, in collaboration with television network [[NBC]], announced the creation of the XFL, a new professional American football league that debuted in 2001. The league had surprisingly high ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated primetime show in the history of American broadcast network television at the time). NBC walked out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to continue alone. However, after UPN demanded that ''SmackDown!'' be cut by half an hour, McMahon shut down the XFL.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/05/10/xfl_folds_ap/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com]</ref><br />
<br />
In March 2001 McMahon's empire grew when he acquired selected assets of his main competitor WCW (including its trademarks, its video library and selected wrestler contracts, though not the promotion itself), which had been losing money and was sold for about $7 million. The former WCW, which remains under Time Warner ownership, reverted to its previous name of Universal Wrestling Corporation<ref>[http://www.timewarner.com/sites/timewarner.com/files/ckeditor/public/files/Time_Warner_Inc_Entity_List_v7.pdf Time Warner Inc.'s Worldwide Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies List]</ref> and now exists only to deal with old wrestler contracts and lawsuits.<ref>[http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-court-of-appeals/1204668.html Eudy v. Universal Wrestling Corporation Inc.]</ref><br />
<br />
In May 2002 the name of the company was changed from the WWF to WWE after it was ruled that the World Wildlife Fund owned the rights to the WWF label in the United Kingdom.<ref>http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/agreements/wwf/worldwildlife.1997.01.20.html</ref><ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/2002_05_06.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
Later in 2002, WWE acquired the assets of the defunct American Wrestling Association (specifically, its trademarks and video library) from AWA founder Verne Gagne. Another smaller defunct wrestling company, Extreme Championship Wrestling (which closed its doors in April 2001), had its assets, including its video library, purchased in the summer of 2003.<br />
<br />
Initially, WWE had planned to branch WCW into its own entity. The original plan was for ''RAW'' to be the WCW show, while ''SmackDown'' would become the WWE show. However, on July 2, 2001, at a show in Tacoma, the last 20 minutes of ''RAW'' were given to WCW. A match between Booker T and Buff Bagwell for the WCW Championship was met with negative criticism from fans. Attendees at the arena began chanting "This Match Sucks!" and "Boring!" A week later, the Invasion storyline began when ECW was added. In April 2002, about a month before the name change, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, one on ''RAW'', the other on ''SmackDown!'' due to the overabundance of talent left over from the ''Invasion'' storyline (which involved talent from the absorbed ECW and WCW rosters interacting in WWF storylines). This is known as the WWE ''Brand Extension''. For the first few months of the Brand Extension, the WWE Undisputed Champion appear on both shows. After SummerSlam 2002, Brock Lesnar who had won the Championship from the Rock, signed with SmackDown. With that, the Undisputed WWE Championship once again became the WWE Championship. A week later, Eric Bischoff introduced the Big Gold Belt that once represented the WCW Championship (also called the World Championship), as the World Heavyweight Championship for the RAW brand, and awarded it to Triple H. Following the Brand Extension, a yearly ''Draft Lottery'' was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups. <br />
<br />
In August 2002, the company launched [[WWE Niagara Falls]], a retail establishment in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 2003, WWE held their first annual "Tribute to the Troops" shows in [[Iraq]] and [[Afghanistan]].<ref>http://corporate.wwe.com/community/troops.jsp</ref><br />
<br />
On May 26, 2006, WWE revived Extreme Championship Wrestling as its third brand with the new ECW program airing Tuesday nights on the Sci Fi Channel (now SyFy).<ref>http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/scifi|accessdate</ref><br />
<br />
The final episode of WWE's ECW show aired on February 16, 2010. In that episode, the final ECW title match was held. Ezekiel Jackson won the bout and became the final man to hold the ECW title.<br />
<br />
The next week, WWE aired a new breed of wrestling television show. ''WWE NXT'' aired on the SyFy network in ECW's stead. ''NXT'' has sinced been moved to a livestreaming internet format along with ''WWE Supertstars''.<br />
<br />
On August 29, 2011, it was announced that ''Raw'' would feature ''SmackDown'' Superstars full-time. As a result, the Brand Extension as well as the Draft, was discontinued. However, on May 25, 2016, WWE announced a new Brand Extension. On the July 19, 2016 episode of ''SmackDown'', the Draft took place. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was drafted to ''SmackDown''. In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced the creation of the WWE Universal Championship. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship simply became the WWE World Championship. At SummerSlam 2016, Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first ever Universal Champion.<br />
<br />
==Current pay per view/WWE Network event schedule==<br />
* NXT TakeOver: San Antonio<br />
* [[Royal Rumble]]<br />
*Elimination Chamber (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Fastlane (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Orlando<br />
* [[WrestleMania]] 33<br />
* Payback (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Chicago<br />
* Backlash (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Extreme Rules (''Raw'')<br />
* Money in the Bank (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* Great Balls of Fire (''Raw'')<br />
* Battleground (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn<br />
* [[SummerSlam]]<br />
* No Mercy (''Raw'')<br />
* Hell In A Cell (''SmackDown!'')<br />
* TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs (''Raw'')<br />
* NXT TakeOver: WarGames<br />
* [[Survivor Series]]<br />
* Clash of Champions<br />
* Roadblock<br />
<br />
== Current championships and accomplishments ==<br />
==== Raw ====<br />
<!---Please do not post title changes if the match has not yet aired on USA TV.---><br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Universal Championship<br />
| Brock Lesnar<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Women's Championship<br />
| Alexa Bliss<br />
| August 28, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Intercontiental Championship<br />
| The Miz<br />
| June 4, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Cruiserweight Championship<br />
| Enzo Amore<br />
| October 22, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Raw Tag Team Championship<br />
| Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins<br />
| August 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====SmackDown====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| WWE Championship<br />
| AJ Styles<br />
| November 7, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United States Championship<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Women's Championship<br />
| Natalya<br />
| August 20, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship<br />
| The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)<br />
| October 8, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
====NXT====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Championship<br />
! Current Champion<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Championship<br />
| Drew McIntyre<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Women's Championship<br />
| ''Vacant''<br />
| August 24, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| NXT Tag Team Championship<br />
| Sanity (Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)<br />
| August 19, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| WWE United Kingdom Championship<br />
| Pete Dunne<br />
| May 20, 2017<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==== Accomplishments ====<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Accomplishment<br />
! Latest Winner<br />
! Date Won<br />
|-<br />
| Royal Rumble<br />
| Randy Orton<br />
| January 29, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Men)<br />
| Baron Corbin<br />
| June 18, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Money in the Bank (Women)<br />
| Carmella<br />
| June 27, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal<br />
| Mojo Rawley<br />
| April 2, 2017<br />
|-<br />
| Cruiserweight Classic<br />
| T.J. Perkins<br />
| September 14, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<br />
| The Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)<br />
| November 19, 2016<br />
|-<br />
| Mae Young Classic<br />
| Kairi Sane<br />
| September 12, 2017<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Defunct championships===<br />
*'''World Heavyweight Championship''' (2002-2013) - Awarded to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of ''Raw''. Unified with the WWE Championship on December 15, 2013.<br />
*'''WWE Undisputed Championship''' (2001-2002) - Became the WWE Championship after Brock Lesnar signed with ''SmackDown'' on August 26, 2002.<br />
*'''WWE Hardcore Championship''' (1998-2002) - Briefly renamed the WWE Texas Hardcore Championship in the Summer of 2002 when it was held by Bradshaw.<br />
*'''WWE European Championship''' (1997-2002)<br />
*'''WCW World Heavyweight Championship''' (2001) - Renamed the World Championship from November 19, 2001 to December 9, 2001.<br />
*'''WCW World Tag Team Championship''' (2001)<br />
*'''WWF Light Heavyweight Championship''' (1981-2001) Officially recognized by WWE from 1997-2001.<br />
*'''Million Dollar Championship''' (1989-1992, 1995-1996, 2010)<br />
*'''WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship''' (1991)<br />
*'''WWF Women's Tag Team Championship''' (1983-1989)<br />
*'''WWF Canadian Championship''' (1985-1986)<br />
*'''WWF International Heavyweight Championship''' (1959-1963, 1982-1985) <br />
*'''WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship''' (1967-1985)<br />
*'''WWF International Tag Team Championship''' (1969-1985)<br />
*'''WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship''' (1978-1985; defended mainly in then-affiliated New Japan Pro Wrestling and became exclusive to New Japan after it split from the WWF in 1985, continuing until it was retired on December 31, 1989)<br />
*'''WWF North American Heavyweight Championship''' (1979-1981)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Championship''' (1970-1975)<br />
*'''WWWF United States Tag Team Championship''' (1963-1967)<br />
*'''ECW Championship''' (1994-2001, 2006-2010)<br />
*'''WWE World Tag Team Championship''' (1971-2010) Unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship to create the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship<br />
*'''ECW Television Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''ECW Tag Team Championship''' (1992-2000)<br />
*'''WWE Divas Championship ''' (2008-2016)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Florida Tag Team Championship''' (2008-2012)<br />
*'''FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship''' (2008)<br />
*'''FCW 15 Championship''' (2011-2012)<br />
<br />
===Defunct accomplishments===<br />
*'''King of the Ring''' (1985-2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015)<br />
*'''Diva Search''' (2003-2007)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://www.wwe.com WWE.com]<br />
*[http://corporate.wwe.com/ Official WWE Corporate Website]<br />
*[http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=WWE WWE Stock]<br />
*[http://www.wwe.co.jp Official WWE Japanese Website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Wrestling]]<br />
[[Category:Entertainment]]<br />
[[Category:World Wrestling Entertainment]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Iron_Man&diff=1385858Iron Man2017-11-07T06:29:22Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Iron Man''' is a superhero found in the [[Marvel Comics|Marvel Universe]]. His real name is Anthony "Tony" Stark. <br />
<br />
Tony Stark is an [[industrialist]], [[inventor]], and [[scientist]]. His mind ranks with other genius superheroes such as Hank "Yellowjacket" Pym and Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards. When Tony was younger, he supplied foreign nations with arms. However, his weapons fell into the wrong hands. Amidst a battle, he was wounded. His body was found by a local doctor known as Ho Yinsen. Yinsen repaired him the best he could. However [[shrapnel]] drew ever nearer to his heart and threatened his life, so Ho constructed a vest which would use an electromagnet to halt the shrapnel's progression. Tony would be confined to it for the rest of his life.<br />
<br />
Ho Yinsen and Tony worked together and, by combining their genius, found a way to make the vest more portable. An Iron Man armor was constructed. It was gray, dull, and clunky, but had massive offensive capabilities. However, before the suit was completed Ho Yinsen found himself between Stark and the rebels who had incapacitated him. Yinsen bravely gave his life so Iron Man could live.<br />
<br />
Stark was forever grateful and decided, in repentance of his thoughtless actions and in memory of Yinsen's sacrifice, he would be vigilant in continuing his fight against tyranny and evil.<br />
<br />
Tony Stark is not, however, without his own flaws. He did spend some time as an [[alcoholic]]. But with the help of his friends, like [[Captain America]], Thor and Giant Man, he got through it. Because of this, he was indebted to them for the rest of his life.<br />
<br />
Similar to [[Batman]], Iron Man has no innate superpowers (though his engineering genius might count as one). All of his powers are based on his armor, which is bulletproof, endows him with superhuman strength and the ability to fly, and bristles with weaponry. He has designed several variant suits for different tasks—for example, an enormous suit he calls "Hulkbuster" is used to corral the Hulk during his rampages. Tony carefully guards the technology he uses in his suit to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.<br />
<br />
==Movies==<br />
*[[Iron Man (film, 2008)|''Iron Man'']] (2008)<br />
*''[[Iron Man 2]]'' (2010)<br />
*''[[Marvel's The Avengers]]'' (2012)<br />
*''[[Iron Man 3]]'' (2013)<br />
*''[[Avengers: Age of Ultron]]'' (2015)<br />
*''[[Captain America: Civil War]]'' (2016)<br />
*''Spider-Man: Homecoming'' (2017)<br />
*''Avengers: Infinity War (2018)<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comic Books]]<br />
[[Category:Marvel]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Marvel_Cinematic_Universe&diff=1385857Marvel Cinematic Universe2017-11-07T06:28:15Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
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<div>The '''Marvel Cinematic Universe''', or MCU for short, is an ongoing series of films produced by Marvel Studios that feature characters from Marvel Comics. It started in 2008 with the release of [[Iron Man (film, 2008)|''Iron Man'']].<br />
<br />
<br />
==Films==<br />
The films are being released in "phases."<br />
<br />
===Phase One: Avengers Assembled===<br />
* ''Iron Man'' (2008)<br />
* ''The Incredible Hulk'' (2008)<br />
* ''Iron Man 2'' (2010)<br />
* ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger]]'' (2011)<br />
* ''Thor'' (2011)<br />
* ''The Avengers'' (2012)<br />
<br />
===Phase Two===<br />
* ''Iron Man 3'' (2013)<br />
* ''Thor: The Dark World'' (2013)<br />
* ''Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' (2014)<br />
* ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' (2014)<br />
* ''Avengers: Age of Ultron'' (2015)<br />
* ''Ant-Man'' (2015)<br />
<br />
===Phase Three===<br />
* ''Captain America: Civil War'' (2016)<br />
* ''Doctor Strange'' (2016)<br />
* ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'' (2017)<br />
* ''Thor: Ragnarok'' (2017)<br />
* ''Spider-Man: Homecoming'' (2017)<br />
* ''Black Panther'' (2018)<br />
* ''Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018)<br />
*''Ant-Man and the Wasp'' (2018)<br />
* ''Captain Marvel'' (2019)<br />
* ''Untitled Avengers Film'' (2019)<br />
<br />
==Television Series==<br />
The MCU has also produced television series to tie-in with the films.<br />
<br />
* ''Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (2013)<br />
* ''Marvel's Agent Carter'' (2015-2016)<br />
* ''Marvel's Daredevil'' (2015)<br />
* ''Marvel's Jessica Jones'' (2015)<br />
* ''Marvel's Luke Cage'' (2016)<br />
* ''Marvel's Iron Fist'' (2017)<br />
* ''Marvel's The Defenders'' (2017)<br />
* ''Marvel's The Punisher'' (2017)<br />
<br />
==Non-MCU==<br />
Although a considerable number of Marvel characters are apart of the MCU, there are still a few that are not, due to rights being owned by other studios. Among them is ''X-Men'', which 20th Century Fox owns the rights. Another is ''Fantastic Four'', also owned by 20th Century Fox. In addition, the film rights to ''Spider-Man'', despite the inclusion of the character in the MCU with the release of 2016's ''Captain America: Civil War'', continue to be owned and controlled by Sony Pictures. On November 6, 2017, Disney was in talks to purchase 21st Century Fox, which would mean the rights of ''X-Men'' and ''Fantastic Four'' would revert to Marvel.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/11/06/disney-has-been-talks-buy-parts-21st-century-fox-reports-say/836737001/</ref><br />
[[Category:Comic Book Movies]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Marvel_Cinematic_Universe&diff=1385855Marvel Cinematic Universe2017-11-07T06:25:47Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Marvel Cinematic Universe''', or MCU for short, is an ongoing series of films produced by Marvel Studios that feature characters from Marvel Comics. It started in 2008 with the release of [[Iron Man (film, 2008)|''Iron Man'']].<br />
<br />
<br />
==Films==<br />
The films are being released in "phases."<br />
<br />
===Phase One: Avengers Assembled===<br />
* ''Iron Man'' (2008)<br />
* ''The Incredible Hulk'' (2008)<br />
* ''Iron Man 2'' (2010)<br />
* ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger]]'' (2011)<br />
* ''Thor'' (2011)<br />
* ''The Avengers'' (2012)<br />
<br />
===Phase Two===<br />
* ''Iron Man 3'' (2013)<br />
* ''Thor: The Dark World'' (2013)<br />
* ''Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' (2014)<br />
* ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' (2014)<br />
* ''Avengers: Age of Ultron'' (2015)<br />
* ''Ant-Man'' (2015)<br />
<br />
===Phase Three===<br />
* ''Captain America: Civil War'' (2016)<br />
* ''Doctor Strange'' (2016)<br />
* ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'' (2017)<br />
* ''Thor: Ragnarok'' (2017)<br />
* ''Spider-Man: Homecoming'' (2017)<br />
* ''Black Panther'' (2018)<br />
* ''Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018)<br />
*''Ant-Man and the Wasp'' (2018)<br />
* ''Captain Marvel'' (2019)<br />
* ''Untitled Avengers Film'' (2019)<br />
<br />
==Television Series==<br />
The MCU has also produced television series to tie-in with the films.<br />
<br />
* ''Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (2013)<br />
* ''Marvel's Agent Carter'' (2015-2016)<br />
* ''Marvel's Daredevil'' (2015)<br />
* ''Marvel's Jessica Jones'' (2015)<br />
* ''Marvel's Luke Cage'' (2016)<br />
* ''Marvel's Iron Fist'' (2017)<br />
* ''Marvel's The Defenders'' (2017)<br />
* ''Marvel's The Punisher'' (2017)<br />
<br />
==Non-MCU==<br />
Although a considerable number of Marvel characters are apart of the MCU, there are still a few that are not, due to rights being owned by other studios. Among them is ''X-Men'', which 20th Century Fox owns the rights. Another is ''Fantastic Four'', also owned by 20th Century Fox. In addition, the film rights to ''Spider-Man'', despite the inclusion of the character in the MCU with the release of 2016's ''Captain America: Civil War'', continue to be owned and controlled by Sony Pictures. On November 6, 2017, Disney was in talks to purchase 20th Century Fox, which would mean the rights of ''X-Men'' and ''Fantastic Four'' would revert to Marvel. <ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/11/06/disney-has-been-talks-buy-parts-21st-century-fox-reports-say/836737001/</ref><br />
[[Category:Comic Book Movies]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Spider-Man&diff=1385854Spider-Man2017-11-07T06:20:49Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
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<div>'''Spider-Man''' is a [[Marvel Comics]] [[superhero]] created by [[Stan Lee]] and Steve Ditko in 1962. The Spider-Man comics were considered groundbreaking from their inception in that the hero's alter-ego, Peter Parker, often faced personal struggles more closely associated with everyday life than usual superhero fare. Notably, Parker has held a wide variety of jobs, depending on his status at the time, ranging from photographer to dishwasher to high-school science teacher. He is also notably not humorless, unlike many superheroes such as [[Batman]]—some fans have called his ability to enrage enemies through endless taunting his "extra superpower".<br />
<br />
Peter Parker was a physically unimposing youth deeply interested in science who was bitten by a radioactive spider. This being the 1960s, radiation worked differently than it does today, and the bite imbued him with "spider-powers"—the proportional strength, agility, and endurance of a spider; the ability to stick to walls, ceilings, and other surfaces; and a "spider-sense", what seemed like limited ESP, allowing him to sense incoming danger a moment before it would become unavoidable. He also designed devices called "web-shooters" that shot a chemical concotion of his own devising, which acted as webs, allowing him to net criminals with a flick of his wrist.<br />
<br />
Spider-Man is, along with [[Batman]] and [[Superman]], one of the most famous and widely recognized characters of the superhero genre. 2002 saw the release of a major [[Hollywood]] film based on the character, directed by [[Sam Raimi]] and starring [[Tobey Maguire]]. The film was a financial success, and two sequels followed, also directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as the titular character. A [[Broadway]] [[musical theater]] production with music by [[U2]] is in the works, but has suffered many setbacks related to actor injuries and going over-budget. In 2012, a reboot, ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', was released. The film was directed by Marc Webb and starred Andrew Garfield in the title role. The film was a success, and led to a sequel, ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'', released in 2014. The sequel fared well at the box office, but was met with a mixed reaction critically. In 2015, it was announced that Marvel and Sony had reached an agreement that would allow Spider-Man to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was also confirmed that Andrew Garfield would not continue as Spider-Man. On June 23, 2015, actor Tom Holland was announced as the new Spider-Man, with the first MCU entry, ''Spider-Man: Homecoming'', released on July 7, 2017.<br />
<br />
Unlike many superheroes, Spider-Man is fully religious, a [[Christian]] [[Protestant]], known to pray during moments of great emotion—whether in desperation during a pitched battle or in quiet gratitude while lying in bed watching his wife sleep.<br />
<br />
==Major Villains ==<br />
<br />
Spider-Man has a classic array of villans that many people love as much as the hero himself. <br />
<br />
===Green Goblin===<br />
The Green Goblin has many different human identities, the most devious of which was Norman Osborn, the father of Peter Paker's best friend, Harry. Osborn had started a major science and engineering company with his partner, Mendel Stromm. Osborn soon found out that Stromm had embezzled money from their company and promptly had him arrested. Later, Osborn found a mysterious chemical while going through Stromm's notes. Supposedly, it could multiply a person's strength and intelligence. Osborn tried to recreate the serum, but missed a few steps. The formula turned green, and exploded on Osborn. After he left the hospital, he realized that the formula had given him what he wanted, but also transformed him into a psycopathic criminal. With increased greed and lust for power, Osborn created his character the Green Goblin and turned to crime. Goblin wanted to gain a reputation by killing Spider-Man, but lost in combat. From that day on, the two superhumans were arch enemies. The Green Goblin has made two appearances in Spider-Man films. The first was as Norman Osborn, in 2002's ''Spider-Man'', played by Willem Dafoe. The second was in 2014's ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'', as Harry Osborn, played by Dane DeHaan.<br />
<br />
===Doctor Octopus===<br />
Also known as "Doc Ock," Otto Octavius was a nuclear physicist. During an accident in which a four-armed apparatus was attached to his back, he became able to control the four mechanical arms by thought. After this accident, Octavius effectively became known as Doctor Octopus. He is one of the best known villains from the early years of Spider-Man. To date, Doctor Octopus has only appeared in one film, 2004's ''Spider-Man 2'', in which he was played by Alfred Molina.<br />
<br />
===The Lizard===<br />
The identity of the Lizard is Dr. Curt Connors. Dr. Connors appeared in the Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Man 2'' (2004) and ''Spider-Man 3'' (2007), played by Dylan Baker. However, The Lizard did not appear in either film. The first appearance of the Lizard was in the film, ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', in which he was played by Rhys Ifans.<br />
<br />
===Venom===<br />
A fan favorite, Venom is the result of a symbiote, and a man known as Eddie Brock. The symbiote originally bonded to Spider-Man, causing him to have a black suit for a time. One night at a church, Spider-Man was able to rid himself of the suit, and the symbiote bonded with Brock. Eddie Brock/Venom appeared in ''Spider-Man 3'' (2007), played by Topher Grace. However, the inclusion of Venom in the film was met with criticism. Sam Raimi did not want to include Venom in his films, and only wanted to focus on Spider-Man's early villains. However, Sony forced Raimi to shoehorn the character into the film. In May 2017, Sony announced that Tom Hardy would play the character in a solo film.<br />
<br />
===Carnage===<br />
As an offspring of the Venom symbiote bonded with a psychopath known as Cletus Kasady to create Carnage. As of 2016, Cletus Kasady/Carnage has not appeared in any films. Some fans are skeptical as to whether or not he will, since the story of Cletus Kasady could cause a Spider-Man film to receive an R rating, due to the graphic nature of his story and the character.<br />
<br />
== Sources ==<br />
"Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide", written by Tom Defalco, copyright 2001<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
*[[X-Men]]<br />
*[[Spider-Man (film)]]<br />
[[Category:Marvel]]<br />
[[Category:Comic Characters]]<br />
[[Category:Superheroes]]</div>BoukenCrimsonhttps://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Marvel_Comics&diff=1385853Marvel Comics2017-11-07T06:20:04Z<p>BoukenCrimson: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Marvel Comics''' is an American [[comic book]] publisher. It was originally founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman. It is home to some of the most well known super heroes such as [[Spider-man|Spider-Man]], the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men. In 1996, Marvel Comics nearly declared bankruptcy due to in-fighting between Ronald O. Perelman, Carl Icahn, and Ike Perlmutter, as well as the price-raising policies of Perelman, including selling 40% of Marvel's stock for far more than the $87.2 million he paid for acquiring Marvel in the first place, which also resulted in several comic retailers being forced to fold, including at least 4,000 chains of Mile High Comics.<ref>http://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg37.html</ref><ref>http://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg38.html</ref> In 2006-2007, it featured the controversial Civil War comics event, in which character who did not reveal their secret identities to the government, an act which would have put their families in danger, were branded terrorists and hunted down by agents of H.A.M.M.E.R. a satire of the NSA. Superhumans who did not register were dragged from their homes and taken to a facility in an alternate dimension outside the universe, where they were treated similarly to real-life prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, tortured and isolated from their families and friends simply for protesting the government snooping in their private lives.<br />
<br />
==Notable Characters==<br />
*[[Spider-Man]]<br />
*[[Captain America]]<br />
*[[Iron Man]]<br />
*[[Thor]]<br />
*The Hulk<br />
*Wolverine<br />
*Daredevil<br />
*Elektra<br />
*The Punisher<br />
*Professor X<br />
*Magneto<br />
*Cyclops<br />
*Jean Grey<br />
*Storm<br />
*Deadpool<br />
*Black Widow<br />
*Hawkeye<br />
*Falcon<br />
*Doctor Strange<br />
*Blade<br />
*Ghost Rider<br />
*Red Skull<br />
*The Mandarin<br />
*Green Goblin<br />
*Venom<br />
*Carnage<br />
*Doctor Octopus<br />
<br />
==Notes and references==<br />
<references /><br />
<br />
[[Category:Comic Books]]<br />
[[Category:Disney]]</div>BoukenCrimson