Scribd
Upload
120 views

Main Article:: Monday Night Wars

The WWF was hit with allegations of steroid abuse and distribution in 1992. This was followed by allegations of sexual harassment by WWF employees the following year.[32][33] McMahon was eventually exonerated, but the allegations brought bad public relations for the WWF, and an overall bad reputation.

Uploaded by

C.N. Krishna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
120 views

Main Article:: Monday Night Wars

The WWF was hit with allegations of steroid abuse and distribution in 1992. This was followed by allegations of sexual harassment by WWF employees the following year.[32][33] McMahon was eventually exonerated, but the allegations brought bad public relations for the WWF, and an overall bad reputation.

Uploaded by

C.N. Krishna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 8

New Generation Era (1992–1997)

Main article: Monday Night Wars

The WWF was hit with allegations of steroid abuse and distribution in


1992. This was followed by allegations of sexual harassment by WWF
employees the following year.[32][33] McMahon was eventually
exonerated, but the allegations brought bad public relations for the
WWF, and an overall bad reputation. The steroid trial cost the company
an estimated $5 million at a time of record low revenues. This helped
drive many WWF wrestlers over to rival promotion World
Championship Wrestling (WCW), including 1980s babyface hero Hulk
Hogan. During this period, the WWF promoted wrestlers of a younger
age comprising "The New Generation", featuring Shawn
Michaels, Diesel, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker, in an
effort to promote new talent into the spotlight.

In January 1993, the WWF debuted its flagship cable program Monday


Night Raw. WCW countered in September 1995 with its own Monday
night program, Monday Nitro, which aired in the same time slot as Raw.
[34]
 The two programs would trade wins in the
ensuing ratings competition (known as the "Monday Night Wars") until
mid-1996. At that point, Nitro began a nearly two-year ratings
domination that was largely fueled by the introduction of the New World
Order (nWo), a stable led by former WWF performers Hulk Hogan,
Scott Hall (the former Razor Ramon), and Kevin Nash (the former
Diesel).[35]

The Attitude Era (1997–2002)


Main article: Attitude Era

See also: Montreal Screwjob

As the Monday Night Wars continued between Raw Is War and


WCW's Nitro, the WWF would transform itself from a family-friendly
product into a more adult-oriented product, known as the Attitude Era.
The era was spearheaded by WWF VP Shane McMahon (son of owner
Vince McMahon) and head writer Vince Russo.

1997 ended with McMahon facing real-life controversy following Bret


Hart's controversial departure from the company, dubbed as
the Montreal Screwjob.[36] This proved to be one of several founding
factors in the launch of the Attitude Era as well as the creation of
McMahon's on-screen character, "Mr. McMahon".

Before the Montreal Screwjob, which took place at the 1997 Survivor


Series, former WCW talent were being hired by the WWF,
including Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind, and Vader. Austin was
slowly brought in as the new face of the company despite being
promoted as an antihero, starting with his "Austin 3:16" speech shortly
after defeating Jake Roberts in the tournament finals at the King of the
Ring pay-per-view in 1996.[37]
On May 6, 1998, Titan Sports, Inc. was renamed World Wrestling
Federation, Inc. It was renamed World Wrestling Federation
Entertainment, Inc. a year later.

On April 29, 1999, the WWF made its return to terrestrial television,
airing a special program known as SmackDown! on the
fledgling UPN network. The Thursday night show became a weekly
series on August 26, 1999—competing directly with WCW's Thursday
night program Thunder on TBS. In 2000, the WWF, in collaboration
with television network NBC, announced the creation of the XFL, a new
professional football league that debuted in 2001.[38] The league had high
ratings for the first few weeks, but initial interest waned and its ratings
plunged to dismally low levels (one of its games was the lowest-rated
prime-time show in the history of American television). NBC walked
out on the venture after only one season, but McMahon intended to
continue alone. However, after being unable to reach a deal with UPN,
McMahon shut down the XFL.[39] WWE maintained control of the XFL
trademark[40][41] before McMahon reclaimed the XFL brand, this time
under a separate shell company from WWE, in 2017[42] with intent
to relaunch the XFL in 2020.[43]

On October 19, 1999, World Wrestling Federation, Inc. launched


an initial public offering as a publicly traded company, trading on
the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the issuance of stock then
valued at $172.5 million.[44] The company has traded on the NYSE since
its launch under ticker symbol WWE.[45]

By the fall of 1999, the Attitude Era had turned the tide of the Monday
Night Wars into WWF's favor. After Time Warner merged
with AOL, Ted Turner's control over WCW was considerably reduced,
and the newly merged company announced a complete lack of interest in
professional wrestling as a whole and decided to sell WCW in its
entirety. Although Eric Bischoff, whom Time Warner fired as WCW
president in October 1999, was nearing a deal to purchase the company,
in March 2001 McMahon acquired the rights to WCW's trademarks,
tape library, contracts, and other properties from AOL Time Warner for
a number reported to be around $7 million.[46] Shortly
after WrestleMania X-Seven, the WWF launched the Invasion storyline,
integrating the incoming talent roster from WCW and Extreme
Championship Wrestling (ECW). With this purchase, WWF now
became by far the largest wrestling promotion in the world. The assets of
ECW, which had folded after filing for bankruptcy protection in April
2001, were purchased by WWE in 2003.[47]
World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE (2002–present)

Current WWE minority owners/front office executives/wrestlers Triple


H and his wife Stephanie McMahon

On May 5, 2002, the World Wrestling Federation announced it was


changing both its company name and the name of its wrestling
promotion to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after the
company lost a lawsuit initiated by the World Wildlife Fund over the
WWF trademark.[48] Although mainly caused by an unfavorable ruling in
its dispute with the World Wildlife Fund regarding the "WWF"
initialism, the company noted it provided an opportunity to emphasize
its focus on entertainment.[49]

First brand split (2002–2011)


Main articles: WWE brand extension and WWE draft
In March 2002, WWE decided to create two separate rosters, with each
group of wrestlers 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 "brand
extension".

Beginning in 2002 a draft lottery was held nearly every year to set the
rosters, with the first draft to determine the inaugural split rosters, and
subsequent drafts designed to refresh the rosters of each show. On May
26, 2006, WWE announced the relaunch of ECW as a third WWE brand.
The new ECW program aired until February 16, 2010.[50] All ECW
wrestlers at that point became free agents that could sign either Raw or
SmackDown.

On April 7, 2011, WWE, via the WWE Corporate website, announced


that the company was ceasing use of the full name World Wrestling
Entertainment and would henceforth refer to itself solely as WWE,
making the latter an orphan initialism. This was said to reflect WWE's
global entertainment expansion away from the ring with the ultimate
goal of acquiring entertainment companies and putting a focus on
television, live events, and film production. WWE noted that their new
company model was put into effect with the relaunch of Tough Enough,
being a non-scripted program (contrary to the scripted nature of
professional wrestling) and with the launch of the WWE Network (at the
time scheduled to launch in 2012; later pushed back to 2014). However,
the legal name of the company remains as World Wrestling
Entertainment, Inc.[14]

End of the brand split (2011–2016)

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).[51] Championships previously exclusive to
one show or the other were available for wrestlers from any show to
compete for; the "Supershow" format would mark the end of the brand
extension, as all programming and live events from when the original
announcement was made until July 2016 featured the full WWE roster.
[52]

In 2013, the company built the sports medicine and training


facility WWE Performance Center in the east Orange County, Florida in
partnership with Full Sail University from Winter Park, Florida. The
training facility is targeted at career and athletic development for the
company's wrestlers.[53] Full Sail is also home base to
WWE's NXT brand,[54] which over the years has grown and expanded
from a small developmental territory into a globally touring brand in its
own right.[55] On August 20, 2019, it was announced that NXT would
have a weekly, live, two-hour show Wednesday nights on the USA
Network (which began September 18), whereby NXT's designation as a
third main roster brand became official.[56][57]

You might also like