Pulled Wikipedia Core (19:04, 1 January 2026):
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (d/b/a WWE) was an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company that dealt primarily in professional wrestling, with ancillary revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing and direct product sales. WWE also referred to the professional wrestling promotion itself, founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1952 as Capitol Wrestling Corporation. Until 2020, it was the largest wrestling promotion in the world, holding over 300 events a year, and broadcasting to about 36 million viewers in more than 150 countries.[11] The company's final headquarters was in Austin, Texas after previously having been located in Stamford, Connecticut for most of its lifespan.[12][13]
From the history of the company timeline.
Brand extension
Main article: WWE Brand Extension
In March 2002, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, each appearing on one of their main programs, Raw and SmackDown, due to the overabundance of talent left over from the Invasion storyline. This was dubbed as the WWE Brand Extension. Despite much of the originally drafted talent departing by 2004, WWE continued to separate the shows, taking on younger talent, and holding a Draft Lottery every year. On May 26, 2006, WWE announced the relaunch of Extreme Championship Wrestling as a WWE brand. The new ECW program aired until February 16, 2010.[42]
Beginning with the August 29, 2011, episode of Raw, it was announced that Raw would feature talent from both Raw and SmackDown, and would be known as Raw Supershow (the "Supershow" suffix would be dropped on July 23, 2012). Championships previously exclusive to one show or the other were available for wrestlers from any show to compete for; the "Supershow" format would mark the end of the brand extension, as all programming and live events since the initial announcement was made have featured the full WWE roster.[43]
In 2013, the company built a sports medicine and training center in east Orange County, Florida in partnership with Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. The training facility is targeted at career development for wrestlers and athletic development.[44]
WWE Network
Main article: WWE Network
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched a 24/7 streaming network. The network includes past and present WWE shows, pay-per-views, and shows from the WWE Library.[45] The network reached 1,000,000 subscribers on January 27, 2015 under one year of its launch, with WWE claiming that it was thus "the fastest-growing digital subscription service ever".[46] After making strong inroads into China and India, the network surpassed 2,000,000 subscribers on January 25, 2017, and reached 2,723,000 subscribers a year later.[47]
All-Digital Transition
After achieving a record subscription level of 2,910,000 worldwide subscribers in the third quarter of 2017, WWE began negotiations with USA and other networks on a new television deal. Despite television ratings for their flagship Monday Night RAW show falling to a record low 1.3 on October 23, 2017, industry expectations were that the company would at least double its current deal. However after receiving lukewarm responses from USA and its competitors, on January 3rd, 2018 Vince McMahon made the announcement that all WWE programming would shift to the WWE Network immediately following WrestleMania 34.[48]
Decline
Gradually eroding revenue from live event programming in 2017 had been offset by the surge in Chinese and Indian subscriptions to the Network. The shift of Monday Night RAW to the Network led subscriber numbers to hit an all-time high of 3,240,000 in Q2 2018. However the start of the South China Sea Conflict in August 2018 would prove to be a crippling blow to both the Network and WWE as a whole. Following the Taiwan/China Conflict which led to US intervention, the Chinese government temporarily banned all American programming.[49] WWE Network subscriptions fell to 1,810,000 following the loss of the Chinese market, and in Q3 and Q4 the WWE posted losses of $12.1M and $23M.
The long-term attempt to replace headliner John Cena was met with limited success in 2016 and 2017 by Roman Reigns, who enjoyed a 17 month title reign following WrestleMania 32. Merchandising sales increased, but live event attendance per average fell below 3,000 during the second year of his tenure as champion. At SummerSlam in August 2017 the company turned John Cena heel, which provided a temporary lift in interest that was offset by limited availability due to movie projects. At the critically acclaimed WrestleMania 34, Cena dropped the title to Apollo Crews, who had been selected as the next face of the company.[50]
When the South China Sea Conflict ensued the WWE attempted to capitalize on the events by forming a heel organization led by Hideo Atami, Shinsuke Nakamura, and The Great Muta. The group, dubbed The East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere attacked WWE Champion Apollo Crews following his win over Bray Wyatt at SummerSlam 2018 and draped him with the Chinese flag. The angle was met with widespread criticism in the media for taking advantage of the South China Sea Conflict, as well as being xenophobic and casting Japanese wrestlers as Chinese. The use of the EACPS was also deemed offensive due to its World War II lineage and was quickly changed, but the angle continued throughout the fall. Protests numbering five figures took place outside of WWE headquarters in Stamford, CT and led to condemnation of the company by political figures on both sides. An immediate reaction was that The Rock pulled out of participation in WrestleMania 35.
The angle was dropped following Survivor Series 2018 but the damage was done. Average attendance fell to less than 2,500 in the first quarter of 2019, while Network Subscriptions collapsed to 900,000 paid subscribers. On February 8th, 2019 Vince McMahon made several major announcements that would have long-lasting and ultimately permanent effects on the company. The first was that WWE Network pricing would be raised to $19.99 per month. The second was that the company would begin a partial return to PPV, shifting WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and The Royal Rumble off of the Network. The third was that the corporate headquarters would be relocated to Austin, TX to ease the financial burden on the company, following a business tax increase by Connecticut. The final was that NXT would be immediately shuttered, with the bulk of its wrestlers being shifted to the main roster.
Network subscriptions would plateau at just under 700,000 subscribers during 2019, but despite the price increase and return to PPV the company continue to lose money (average loss per quarter was $15.5M). Despite this, the company continued the spend heavily. On July 17, 2019 WWE announced that it had come to terms on a two year deal with CM Punk that was rumored to be in excess of $6M per year and included a guaranteed WrestleMania final match.[51] At SummerSlam 2019 a heel Roman Reigns would regain the title from Apollo Crews. As head of an elite heel group called "The 1%ers" that included Finn Balor and Seth Rollins, Roman ran roughshod through the roster for the next six months, defeating Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Cody Rhodes. At WrestleMania 36 the WWE attempted a double-turn during the main event between CM Punk and Roman Reigns that was rejected by the live audience due to the one-sided nature of the match. CM Punk would leave the promotion immediately following the event.
Overshadowing WrestleMania 36 was the fact that attendance was only 43,263 at the City of Champions Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. This followed a financial call in February 12, 2020 that showed that the company had lost $62M during 2019. In May 2020 the WWE underwent a major round of belt tightening, releasing 25 wrestlers from their roster and declaring that they would no longer book what they now called "extravagantly wasteful stadiums" for their live events. The company also began to face its first competition in almost two decades as New Japan Pro Wrestling expanded into the United States under the moniker of World Combat Wrestling. During the second half of 2020 the wrestling world was stunned when Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar signed with WCW. In November parent company Bushiroad made a huge announcement, signing Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) to a three match deal worth $12M. On January 5th, 2021 the rival promotion booked Wrestle Kingdom 15 at the City of Champions stadium and drew 51,204 in paid attendance to see a main event of The Rock vs Brock Lesnar. Although a financial risk on par with the originial WrestleMania given the expense involved in signing all three wrestlers, the event was profitable and helped to establish World Combat Wrestling as a viable alternative to fans globally.
On January 12th, 2021 Vince McMahon responded with three major announcements. The first was a partnership with UFC for programming on the WWE Network, which would be rebranded the Combat Entertainment Network. The second was the return of Monday Night RAW to television after reaching a deal with PopTV for a weekly one-hour show. The third was that China had agreed to allow the Combat Entertainment Network back into their country. Paid subscriptions rebounded to 1,800,000 on average during 2021, and for the first time in three years the company had become profitable again.
On March 15th, 2021 a $250M judgment against WWE was upheld following a concussion lawsuit by several former wrestlers. Although immediately appealed, public pressure mounted against the company to settle. However cash reserves had been largely depleted, limiting the company's flexibility. Following WrestleMania 37 in San Antonio, TX where Enzo Amore defeated WWE Champion Big Cass in the main event, the Walt Disney Company made a $550M offer to buy the company. On July 14th, 2021 the Supreme Court declined to hear the WWE's concussion lawsuit appeal, and five days later Vince McMahon announced a $125M settlement. A month later Vince McMahon would sell World Wrestling Entertainment to the Walt Disney Company for $275M.
Although Disney initially intended to keep WWE programming alive on its networks, they would almost immediately receive an offer from World Combat Wrestling (New Japan). On September 19th, 2021 Disney announced that it would be selling the WWE name, contracts, and intellectual properties to WCW Inc. Disney would keep the rights to historical video from the WWE archives and would be allowed to license it under a shared agreement with WCW. An interpromotional event was held at Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Miami, FL on January 23, 2022, and two months later at WWE World Champion Enzo Amore would defeat WCW/IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada in the main event of WrestleMania 38.
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (d/b/a WWE) was an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company that dealt primarily in professional wrestling, with ancillary revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing and direct product sales. WWE also referred to the professional wrestling promotion itself, founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1952 as Capitol Wrestling Corporation. Until 2020, it was the largest wrestling promotion in the world, holding over 300 events a year, and broadcasting to about 36 million viewers in more than 150 countries.[11] The company's final headquarters was in Austin, Texas after previously having been located in Stamford, Connecticut for most of its lifespan.[12][13]
From the history of the company timeline.
Brand extension
Main article: WWE Brand Extension
In March 2002, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, each appearing on one of their main programs, Raw and SmackDown, due to the overabundance of talent left over from the Invasion storyline. This was dubbed as the WWE Brand Extension. Despite much of the originally drafted talent departing by 2004, WWE continued to separate the shows, taking on younger talent, and holding a Draft Lottery every year. On May 26, 2006, WWE announced the relaunch of Extreme Championship Wrestling as a WWE brand. The new ECW program aired until February 16, 2010.[42]
Beginning with the August 29, 2011, episode of Raw, it was announced that Raw would feature talent from both Raw and SmackDown, and would be known as Raw Supershow (the "Supershow" suffix would be dropped on July 23, 2012). Championships previously exclusive to one show or the other were available for wrestlers from any show to compete for; the "Supershow" format would mark the end of the brand extension, as all programming and live events since the initial announcement was made have featured the full WWE roster.[43]
In 2013, the company built a sports medicine and training center in east Orange County, Florida in partnership with Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. The training facility is targeted at career development for wrestlers and athletic development.[44]
WWE Network
Main article: WWE Network
On February 24, 2014, WWE launched a 24/7 streaming network. The network includes past and present WWE shows, pay-per-views, and shows from the WWE Library.[45] The network reached 1,000,000 subscribers on January 27, 2015 under one year of its launch, with WWE claiming that it was thus "the fastest-growing digital subscription service ever".[46] After making strong inroads into China and India, the network surpassed 2,000,000 subscribers on January 25, 2017, and reached 2,723,000 subscribers a year later.[47]
All-Digital Transition
After achieving a record subscription level of 2,910,000 worldwide subscribers in the third quarter of 2017, WWE began negotiations with USA and other networks on a new television deal. Despite television ratings for their flagship Monday Night RAW show falling to a record low 1.3 on October 23, 2017, industry expectations were that the company would at least double its current deal. However after receiving lukewarm responses from USA and its competitors, on January 3rd, 2018 Vince McMahon made the announcement that all WWE programming would shift to the WWE Network immediately following WrestleMania 34.[48]
Decline
Gradually eroding revenue from live event programming in 2017 had been offset by the surge in Chinese and Indian subscriptions to the Network. The shift of Monday Night RAW to the Network led subscriber numbers to hit an all-time high of 3,240,000 in Q2 2018. However the start of the South China Sea Conflict in August 2018 would prove to be a crippling blow to both the Network and WWE as a whole. Following the Taiwan/China Conflict which led to US intervention, the Chinese government temporarily banned all American programming.[49] WWE Network subscriptions fell to 1,810,000 following the loss of the Chinese market, and in Q3 and Q4 the WWE posted losses of $12.1M and $23M.
The long-term attempt to replace headliner John Cena was met with limited success in 2016 and 2017 by Roman Reigns, who enjoyed a 17 month title reign following WrestleMania 32. Merchandising sales increased, but live event attendance per average fell below 3,000 during the second year of his tenure as champion. At SummerSlam in August 2017 the company turned John Cena heel, which provided a temporary lift in interest that was offset by limited availability due to movie projects. At the critically acclaimed WrestleMania 34, Cena dropped the title to Apollo Crews, who had been selected as the next face of the company.[50]
When the South China Sea Conflict ensued the WWE attempted to capitalize on the events by forming a heel organization led by Hideo Atami, Shinsuke Nakamura, and The Great Muta. The group, dubbed The East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere attacked WWE Champion Apollo Crews following his win over Bray Wyatt at SummerSlam 2018 and draped him with the Chinese flag. The angle was met with widespread criticism in the media for taking advantage of the South China Sea Conflict, as well as being xenophobic and casting Japanese wrestlers as Chinese. The use of the EACPS was also deemed offensive due to its World War II lineage and was quickly changed, but the angle continued throughout the fall. Protests numbering five figures took place outside of WWE headquarters in Stamford, CT and led to condemnation of the company by political figures on both sides. An immediate reaction was that The Rock pulled out of participation in WrestleMania 35.
The angle was dropped following Survivor Series 2018 but the damage was done. Average attendance fell to less than 2,500 in the first quarter of 2019, while Network Subscriptions collapsed to 900,000 paid subscribers. On February 8th, 2019 Vince McMahon made several major announcements that would have long-lasting and ultimately permanent effects on the company. The first was that WWE Network pricing would be raised to $19.99 per month. The second was that the company would begin a partial return to PPV, shifting WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and The Royal Rumble off of the Network. The third was that the corporate headquarters would be relocated to Austin, TX to ease the financial burden on the company, following a business tax increase by Connecticut. The final was that NXT would be immediately shuttered, with the bulk of its wrestlers being shifted to the main roster.
Network subscriptions would plateau at just under 700,000 subscribers during 2019, but despite the price increase and return to PPV the company continue to lose money (average loss per quarter was $15.5M). Despite this, the company continued the spend heavily. On July 17, 2019 WWE announced that it had come to terms on a two year deal with CM Punk that was rumored to be in excess of $6M per year and included a guaranteed WrestleMania final match.[51] At SummerSlam 2019 a heel Roman Reigns would regain the title from Apollo Crews. As head of an elite heel group called "The 1%ers" that included Finn Balor and Seth Rollins, Roman ran roughshod through the roster for the next six months, defeating Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Cody Rhodes. At WrestleMania 36 the WWE attempted a double-turn during the main event between CM Punk and Roman Reigns that was rejected by the live audience due to the one-sided nature of the match. CM Punk would leave the promotion immediately following the event.
Overshadowing WrestleMania 36 was the fact that attendance was only 43,263 at the City of Champions Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. This followed a financial call in February 12, 2020 that showed that the company had lost $62M during 2019. In May 2020 the WWE underwent a major round of belt tightening, releasing 25 wrestlers from their roster and declaring that they would no longer book what they now called "extravagantly wasteful stadiums" for their live events. The company also began to face its first competition in almost two decades as New Japan Pro Wrestling expanded into the United States under the moniker of World Combat Wrestling. During the second half of 2020 the wrestling world was stunned when Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar signed with WCW. In November parent company Bushiroad made a huge announcement, signing Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) to a three match deal worth $12M. On January 5th, 2021 the rival promotion booked Wrestle Kingdom 15 at the City of Champions stadium and drew 51,204 in paid attendance to see a main event of The Rock vs Brock Lesnar. Although a financial risk on par with the originial WrestleMania given the expense involved in signing all three wrestlers, the event was profitable and helped to establish World Combat Wrestling as a viable alternative to fans globally.
On January 12th, 2021 Vince McMahon responded with three major announcements. The first was a partnership with UFC for programming on the WWE Network, which would be rebranded the Combat Entertainment Network. The second was the return of Monday Night RAW to television after reaching a deal with PopTV for a weekly one-hour show. The third was that China had agreed to allow the Combat Entertainment Network back into their country. Paid subscriptions rebounded to 1,800,000 on average during 2021, and for the first time in three years the company had become profitable again.
On March 15th, 2021 a $250M judgment against WWE was upheld following a concussion lawsuit by several former wrestlers. Although immediately appealed, public pressure mounted against the company to settle. However cash reserves had been largely depleted, limiting the company's flexibility. Following WrestleMania 37 in San Antonio, TX where Enzo Amore defeated WWE Champion Big Cass in the main event, the Walt Disney Company made a $550M offer to buy the company. On July 14th, 2021 the Supreme Court declined to hear the WWE's concussion lawsuit appeal, and five days later Vince McMahon announced a $125M settlement. A month later Vince McMahon would sell World Wrestling Entertainment to the Walt Disney Company for $275M.
Although Disney initially intended to keep WWE programming alive on its networks, they would almost immediately receive an offer from World Combat Wrestling (New Japan). On September 19th, 2021 Disney announced that it would be selling the WWE name, contracts, and intellectual properties to WCW Inc. Disney would keep the rights to historical video from the WWE archives and would be allowed to license it under a shared agreement with WCW. An interpromotional event was held at Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Miami, FL on January 23, 2022, and two months later at WWE World Champion Enzo Amore would defeat WCW/IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada in the main event of WrestleMania 38.
