Each month, World Wrestling Entertainment holds one or two annual pay-per-view events. One event is usually three hours long and features six to twelve matches. Pay-per-view events are a big part of the revenue stream for WWE.

History

It is a commonly held misconception that the first WWF pay-per-view was November 1985's The Wrestling Classic, a tournament held at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, but the first WrestleMania event, in March of the same year, was available on pay-per-view in some markets. The first two WrestleManias were undeniable financial successes, and after WrestleMania III became perhaps the best known event in wrestling history, the WWF decided to expand their pay-per-view offerings.

The first Survivor Series event was offered on November 29 1987, scheduled directly against NWA's Starrcade, traditionally considered to be that promotion's biggest yearly event. The WWF informed cable companies that if they chose to carry Starrcade, they would not be allowed to carry future WWF events. The vast majority of companies showed Survivor Series (only three opted to remain loyal to their contract with WCW), and the resulting financial blow to Starrcade was in many ways the beginning of the end for Jim Crockett Promotions.

The debut of the Royal Rumble in January 1988 was actually shown on the USA Network, where it drew the highest rating to that time in the network's history. The event became a pay-per-view the following year.

The first SummerSlam was held in Madison Square Garden in August 1988. These four events - the Royal Rumble in January, WrestleMania in March or April, SummerSlam in August, and Survivor Series in November - were the only annual pay-per-view offerings (other than the King of the Ring) from the WWF until 1995, after rival World Championship Wrestling had expanded the number of their pay-per-view shows. Initially, the WWF used the In Your House brand, but beginning in 1996 began using other names to compliment the In Your House name (such as Badd Blood and No Way Out), to avoid confusion. By the end of February of 1999, the In Your House name was nonexistent.

This trend escalated to the point that by 1996, both companies showed monthly events on pay-per-view. Until recently, World Wrestling Entertainment had a once-a-month pay-per-view schedule, which they had from the late '90s until 2003 totalling twelve a year. WWE currently produces 16 shows yearly and now charges $39.95 USD for each, except for WrestleMania, which is USD $49.95. The pay-per-view events in the United States can be bought through iN DEMAND, Dish Network or DirecTV.

The WWE ran twice yearly pay-per-views which were exclusive to the UK up to 2003, but after the brand extension occurred they were scrapped in favor of tours, with a TV taping included, so now the WWE has the WrestleMania Revenge tour after WrestleMania at the beginning of the year and the Survivor Series tour at the end of the year, in the UK. Each includes a RAW, SmackDown!, and an ECW taping.

In Australia, WWE's pay-per-views are shown on Main Event. In the United Kingdom, only usually around 8 of them charged for and are shown on Sky Box Office. These are all charged at £14.95 GBP and has no extra charge for WrestleMania like in the USA. The other events are seen on the subscription channel Sky Sports 1.

Brand extension

In June 2003, WWE announced to further their brand extension and make their pay-per-views exclusive to a particular brand (RAW, SmackDown!, and later, ECW). The only exceptions to this were the established Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series events which remained joint productions, and WrestleMania being the only event with wrestlers from different brands competing against each other. This allowed WWE to eventually add more pay-per-view events to their offerings, such as Cyber Sunday and The Great American Bash (itself a revival of an old NWA and WCW event). From late 2005, the restrictions were relaxed and interbrand matches in brand-exclusive events were becoming more frequent. In March 2007, it was announced that the idea of brand-exclusive events was scrapped and would now feature matches from all three brands. [1] The brand-exclusive events were:

Upcoming pay-per-view schedule

Former pay-per-view events

• 1985: The Wrestling Classic
• 1991: Tuesday in Texas
• 1993-2002: King of the Ring
• 1995-1999: In Your House
• 1997, 2003-2004: Bad Blood
• 1998-2000: Fully Loaded
• 1998-1999: Over The Edge
• 2001: InVasion
• 2006: December to Dismember

International pay-per-views

• 1997: One Night Only
• 1998: Mayhem in Manchester
• 1998: Capital Carnage
• 1999: No Mercy (UK)
• 1999-2002: Rebellion
• 2000-2003: Insurrextion

References

See also

• Saturday Night's Main Event (non-pay-per-view supercard)
• The Main Event (non-pay-per-view supercard)
• List of WCW pay-per-view events
• List of ECW pay-per-view events