Then.. Now.. Forever..

A snapshot of the presentation

Executive SummaryHistory Eras

Acquisition

Superstars & Divas

Various Initiatives

PPVs & Network

The Golden Era of Wrestling

History of WWE

Bruno Sammartino and Lou Thesz: The mainstays

History of WWE- CWC► James "Jess" McMahon was a successful boxing

promoter who began working with Tex Rickard in

1926

► Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt had created a new

challenge of professional wrestling that he called

“Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling”

► Mondt eventually took over the New York wrestling

scene, with the aid of several bookers, one of

whom was Jess McMahon

► Together, McMahon and Mondt created the Capitol

Wrestling Corporation Ltd. (CWC)

The inception of territorial wrestling organizations

History of WWE- WWWF

WWWF

► In early 1963, the World Wide Wrestling

Federation (WWWF) was formed by McMahon

and Mondt

► The WWWF operated in a conservative manner

compared to other pro wrestling territories

► After gaining a television program deal, the

WWWF was doing sell out business by 1970

► At the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the

McMahons and WWWF employee Jim Barnett

all withdrew from the organization

End of the territories

History of WWE- WWF► In March 1979, for marketing purposes, the World Wide Wrestling

Federation was renamed the World Wrestling Federation

► That same year, the son of Vincent J. McMahon, Vincent K. McMahon,

founded Titan Sports, Inc

► Against his father's wishes, McMahon began an expansion process by

acquiring various territories

► McMahon hired AWA talent Hulk Hogan, who had achieved popularity

outside of wrestling, notably for his appearance in Rocky III as

Thunderlips

► Other wrestlers took part of the roster, such as André the Giant, Jimmy

"Superfly" Snuka, The Magnificent Muraco, Junkyard Dog, "Mr.

Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Ricky "The

Dragon" Steamboat, Nikolai Volkoff and the Iron Sheik thus starting the

“Golden Era” of wrestling

WWE through the generations

Various Eras

Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan: The Pioneers

Various Eras- The Glorious Past

► The WWF was hit with allegations of steroid

abuse and distribution in 1992 and was

followed by allegations of sexual harassment

by WWF employees the following year

► The steroid trial cost the company an

estimated $5 million

► This drove many WWF wrestlers to the only

major competition at the time, WCW

► In 1993, the WWF broke new ground in

televised professional wrestling with the début

of its cable program WWF Monday Night Raw

► WWF was being shown across the United

States by 1983, which was in stark contrast

to the territorial agreements

► WrestleMania, the first ever Pay-Per-View,

was a major pay-per-view success; and was

marketed as the Super Bowl of professional

wrestling

► The event and hype surrounding it led to

the term Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection, due

to the cross-promotion of pop-culture and

professional wrestling

Golden Era New Generation Era

Steve Austin: The Biggest Superstar of all time

Various Eras- Changing Guard

► Two of the top stars of the Attitude Era, Steve

Austin and The Rock, left the company

► Replaced by newcomers such as Brock Lesnar

and Randy Orton

► Due to the influx of wrestlers from the

acquisition of WCW and ECW led to brand

extension by creation of Smackdown!, a

completely new show with a different roster

► "Ruthless Aggression" became the major

theme for many years that included an action

figure line

► Monday Night Wars continued between

Monday Night Raw and WCW's Monday

Nitro

► WWF transformed itself from a family-

friendly product into a more adult oriented

product

► Steve Austin was slowly promoted as an

anti-hero and the face of the company

► The creation of the Mr. McMahon

character soon led to the Austin vs.

McMahon feud, the central storyline

during the Attitude Era

Attitude Era Ruthless Aggression

John Cena and CM Punk: Modern Day Hogan & Savage

Various Eras- Present & Future

► In August 2011, WWE effectively ended the

Brand Extension when they gave Raw the

tagline "SuperShow“

► As of Raw's 1,000th episode, airing on July 23,

2012, WWE Raw removed the "SuperShow"

tagline as well as becoming a three-hour

broadcast, extended from two-hours

► Also around the same time, during the

promos, wrestlers started using real life of

each other during the build up to the matches

giving this era the name of “Reality Era”

► In 2008 WWE acknowledged that 60% of

its audience was made up of women and

children

► This forced a shift in programming

content included doing away with most

of the "vulgar" language, heavy violence

and adult themes

► During this period, WWE attempted to

gain popularity with a mainstream

audience by inviting celebrities to be the

guest host of Raw

PG Era Reality Era

All down to one man: Vince McMahon

Acquisitions

The biggest territory in the entire North America

Acquisitions- Territories► Vince McMahon believed that wrestling should

market itself as sports entertainment rather

than a sport to grow and hence he went on a

buying spree of territories

► McMahon decided to start telecasting his

shows in the region of these territories and

promoting it to the point that the heads of the

wrestling companies had to accept his offer of

buying them out

► The only company that was able to resist was

Mid Atlantic promotion of Jim Crockett, which

went on to become WCW

At one time beat WWE for rating for 117 weeks

Acquisitions- WCW► 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

► In March 2001 McMahon acquired WCW from

AOL Time Warner for a number reported to be

around $7 million

► Contracts of the big name stars like Hulk

Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Bill

Goldberg were not included in the purchase of

the company

Pioneers of adult-theme based content on TV

Acquisitions- ECW► Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW),

which was a company started by Paul Heyman

in 1994, overnight became the hottest

wrestling show on TV due to an overdoese of

violence and adult-theme based content,

which was a precursor to the Attitude Era

► However a shortage of cash led to Paul

Heyman filing for bankruptcy even though the

PPV buy rates were 2nd only to WWE

► The assets of ECW, which had folded after

filing for bankruptcy protection in April 2001,

were purchased by WWE in mid-2003

The backbone of the industry

Superstars and Divas

Ever evolving models of contractual relationship

Superstars► WWE contracts typically range from

developmental contracts to multi-year deals.

Most personnel are independent contractors

► This clause of independent contractors allows

the company to escape from the medical

benefits that the company would otherwise

have to pay and hence saving on a lot of

money and formalities

► However the company offers multiple other

benefits like TA and rehabilitation program fee

► The wrestlers make money out of their

appearances, PPV buy rates and merchandise

First promotion to use women as Valets

Divas► The first promotion to use women as valets

and then later on female wrestlers for which a

separate division was created

► Mae Young, who died in January 2014 was the

first female wrestler to gain prominence and

was showcased on the card along with male

wrestlers

► Miss Elizabeth (For Randy Savage) started the

trend of valet

► WWE partnered with various magazines to

allow the Divas to pose for photo-shoots and

gain royalties out of it

Expansion and Community Service initiatives

Various Initiatives

Various community services

Various Initiatives- Active

The ones that caused a loss

Various Initiatives- Defunct

Pioneers in both the fields

PPVs and WWE Network

Introduced the concept of PPVs in the industry

PPVs► In March 1979, for marketing purposes, the

WWE has broadcast pay-per-views since the

1980s, when its classic "big four" events were

first established

► WWE pay-per-views are made available in the

United States by In Demand, Dish Network or

DirecTV

► In January 2014, WWE announced that the

WWE Network, a service launching in

February, would feature its entire back catalog

of pay-per-view events, as well as all future

pay-per-views from WrestleMania XXX

onwards

Started their own network which helped in stock boost

WWE Network

Purchase TNA/ROH

Change the orientation of programming

More social media promotion

Cut down on the movies department

Recommendation For Future

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