World Wrestling Entertainment
What is the story behind the forming of the WWF?
For starters, it should be known that the World (Wide) Wrestling Federation was not the first group with a desire to split from the NWA. On June 14, 1957 NWA champion, Lou Thesz, lost a controversial match to Edouard Carpentier in Chicago in a match promoted by Fred Kohler. Carpentier would then go around the country losing a "World Title" he didn't really own, because the NWA board would not recognize the title switch. However, Vince McMahon, Sr. did not jump on the bandwagon of owning his own World Title just yet, though a neighboring promotion run by Tony Santos out of Boston would. Under the NWA rules, Santos would not be allowed to invade a fellow memberÕs territory, but by defecting from the highly recognized organization, Santos would not have to abide by those rules, and there began a promotional war in the northeast between Santos, and other promoters led by Vince McMahon, Sr.
Eventually McMahon decided that he needed his own World Champion in order to stay alive in the Northeast territory. The only way to do this was to separate from the NWA. The bigger problem was that McMahon wanted NWA Champion Buddy Rogers as his first champion.
As NWA champion, Buddy Rogers' bookings were controlled by Toots Mondt, promoter in the Northeast. The other NWA promoters were dissatisfied because Mondt rarely let Rogers defend the belt outside the Northeast. Mondt and Vince McMahon Sr. wanted to keep Rogers and the NWA title, but Rogers didn't want to lose his $25,000 deposit on the belt. So Rogers lost the NWA title to Lou Thesz in Toronto on January 24, 1963. Rogers was not recognized as the first WWWF champion right after losing to Thesz. Instead, Rogers was awarded the WWWF title in mid-April 1963, with the explanation that he has won a (fictitious) tournament in Rio de Janeiro.
Rogers was chosen as the first WWF Champon because of his built in credibity as a World Title holder. However, the general feeling was that he may be getting a bit stale, and a younger champion was needed. Bruno Sammartino was picked to carry the torch, but nothing is that easy in the world of professional wrestling.
"Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers called the WWWFÕs offices about three weeks before the big match with Bruno to tell the promoters he suffered what he called a "mild" heart attack. But he told them not to worry, because he was still planning to be in New York for the big match. When the day of the match came, it turned out RogersÕ condition was far worse than he was letting on. He showed up that night in a wheel chair. Now keep in mind that this was not an angle where the heel shows up in bandages to try to get out of the match. RogerÕs condition was kept a secret to the fans, because the promoters were afraid they would have to cancel the show and reschedule the already postponed title change to another date yet again. Such an occurrence would probably have been tragic to the already fledgling promotion. But Rogers knew what this match meant to the promoters and promised he would go on no matter his condition. As the night wore on, the promoters grew more and more worrisome because Rogers never left his wheel chair. On top of that, he was said to have looked "out of it." The preliminary matches were going on as nobody knew if the scheduled main event would take place or not. Since Rogers promised to go on no matter what, there was no backup plan. If he could stand up out of his wheel chair and make it to the ring they would have to tell 20,000 plus wrestling fans there was no main event tonight.
According to reports, the only time Rogers got out of the wheel chair that night was when he rose to walk to the ring for his match. But he was still to have looked out of it. Sammartino knew he had to be gentle with him that night, so Rogers took the dive and found himself in the bear-hug and submitted in just 48 seconds. The promoters wondered what the response would be for such a short match, especially when fans were used to hour-long World Title matches at the time, but the response was unbelievable. Nobody could believe a relative nobody like Bruno could defeat the already legendary Rogers so easily, and Bruno became an overnight success. Now Rogers deserves an awful lot of credit just for showing up that night, and putting over Bruno. Rogers retired after this match, although he did return to the ring in 1967.
Sammartino held on to the title for a remarkable 7 years and 3 months, touring the country and the globe to establish the WWWF as a world wresling power and bringing much needed crdibility to teh World Title. Bruno actually wanted out before 1971, but the McMahons (Vinces Sr. and Jr.) had a hard time determining who to pass the torch to. After some deliberation, Ivan Koloff was chosen as an interim champion to whom Bruno dropped the belt. Pedro Morales defeated Koloff, and was hoped to be the next Sammartino. It was not to be, as Morales' popularity and skills never lived up to the Bruno Sammartino legend.
Tony Santos (the Boston Promoter) smelled blood and began putting the pressure on the WWWF since they just lost their biggest drawing wrestler and had a champion the fans just werenÕt taking to.Ê The McMahons felt the pressure, and they had to find a way to compete or be pushed out of the business completely.
In 1971-1983, the WWWF re-joined the NWA as a regional promotion and the WWWF World title was dropped in status to the WWWF title, a regional title.ÊThe NWA system provided a safeguard for its members against competition.Ê If a non-member organization invaded a memberÕs territory, the NWA board would send the biggest name wrestlers to the territory and run cards on the same nights.Ê Since they were using bigger names, they would usually draw better crowds and put the non-member promotion out of business.Ê When placed with the choice of relinquishing recognition or not having a promotion to recognize in the first place, the decision was obvious.
But just because the McMahons decided to recognize current NWA World Champion Dory Funk, Jr. as their champion, was no reason they couldnÕt continue recognizing Morales as the WWWF Champion (as long as the word ÒWorldÓ wasnÕt attached to it there was no problem).Ê So the WWWF wound up with the best of both worlds.Ê They had a title most people associated as a ÒWorldÓ title, although they just couldnÕt come out and say thatÕs what it was, and they had NWA protection.
But protection was not good enough.Ê The McMahons, with the NWA backing them, wanted Boston for themselves, so went in to take over the territory and put Tony Santos out of business.Ê They succeeded in their endeavor and from hereafter Boston became another piece of the WWWF territory.Ê Somehow, the McMahons came out smelling like a rose.
By 1973, it was apparent that Morales wasn't bringing in the revenue that the McMahon's expected from their champion. Stan Stasiak was used as the interim champion, and reigned for 9 days before dropping the title to Bruno Sammartino.
Bruno's second reign lasted 3 and a half years, with his popularity and drawing power were as strong as ever. Eventually, teh time came to give another wrestler a shot, and the McMahons went out on a limb. They gave the title to a heel, and kept it on him.
Billy Graham won the belt on April 30, 1977 after pinning Bruno while using the ropes for extra leverage. The bad guy cheated to win the belt, so Bruno didn't look like a weak competitor. The fans loved to hate Graham and he reigned supreme for almost a full year before all American good guy Bob Backlund defeated him in 1978.
In 1979 the name change, a purely cosmetic one, took place. In a move that may be coming back to haunt them in 2001, the WWWF became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Ownership and front office personnel remained unaffected. About this same time, the WWF phased out their North American title and replaced it with what is today known as the Intercontinental title. Currently, the World Wildlife Fund (also WWF) is suing the Federation over use of the initials.
By 1983, Vince McMahon Jr. had taken over control of the promotion and wanted out from the shadow of the NWA, so he changed the name of his title to the "WWF World Championship" and established the WWF as an autonomous organization with World title status. The champion at the time, Bob Backlund, didn't have the flash and charisma that Vince Jr., was looking for in his World champion. So, in a move made famous by his dad, McMahon put the belt on an interim heel champion, in this case The Iron Sheik, only to have him drop it to a babyface a few weeks later.
The babyface in question was Hulk Hogan. And the world of professional wrestling changed forever.
In 1985, Vince McMahon began to conquer the wrestling world. WrestleMania premiered in March 1985, Survivor Series became the next Pay-Per-View in November, 1987. Royal Rumble and Summerslam joined the ranks in 1988. In 1989, the WWF has their first United Kingdom PPV, now a twice yearly tradition in May (Insurrextion) and December (Rebellion). King of the Ring rounded out the "Big Five" in 1993. Since WrestleMania XI in April, 1995 there has been a WWF Pay-Per-View about every 4 weeks, essentially once a month. (In rare instances, such as in the year 2000, there was no March PPV, but both Wrestlemania and Backlash were held in April.) We can no expect no less than 14 PPVs, at least 24 home video releases, and 416 hours of TV programming per year from the WWF.
With the succession of the WCW from the NWA in 1987, the formerly powerful NWA became all but nonexistant. Rounding out the Big Three was the AWA (another offshoot of the NWA), which was forced out of business by 1991. In 1994 ECW became the new #3 promotion when the broke off from the NWA. ECW went out of business in 2000, unable to compete with WCW and WWF.
In 1999, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. (WWFE) became a publically traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2000, WWFE announced it was expanding into football, creating the short-lived XFL. The 2001 8-team season will be the only season played by XFL.
In March, 2001 the WWF bought it's competition when it acquired all rights to WCW. Additionally, WWF has resurrected the ECW name as part of the Invasion/Alliance angle.
Also in 2001, the WWF expanded into "Reality Series" programming with the 14 weeks series Tough Enough. The premise, according to WWFtoughenough.com:
Over 4000 people sent in videotapes.
Of those 4000, only 230 people were invited for a tryout at WWF New York in Manhattan.
In a day, those 230 were cut down to 25.
Only 13 made the final cut.
They are being given the opportunity to live out their dream - becoming a WWF Superstar.
They are not competing against each other for money. They are working and living together, trying to fulfill their dreams.
Only one man and one woman will win a contract with the World Wrestling Federation.
This is their story.
On October 4, 2001 Maven, the Tough Enough male winner, made his premiere on WWF Smackdown. He went on to capture the WWF Hardcore Title several times, and even eliminate the Undertaker from the 2002 Royal Rumble. Tough Enough 2 is currently airing, and casting is underway for Tough Enough 3.
In a bold move, McMahon essentially buried the WCW brand name in November, 2001 at Survivor Series. Several title unification matches took place, in addition to a "Winner-Take-All" main event which saw the WWF put WCW "out of business". In December, 2001, the World Titles of the two federations were unified by Chris Jericho, making him the first Undisputed Champion since the days of Lou Thesz. It seems as if the WCW brand name is buried for good.
2002 had it's share of surprises for the WWF as well. Calling it a "brand extension," McMahon created two separate rosters within the WWF. Each roster appears exclusively on Smackdown (headed by McMahon) or Raw (headed by Ric Flair, on-air co-owner of the Federation), respectively. The only times both rosters are on one card are the monthly Pay-Per-View events. This experiment, in theory, gives more stars their chance to shine, as there are now half as many performers on each TV show.
In May of 2002, as a result of litigation against the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Federation changed it's name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Their slogan, "Get the F Out!" adds humor to the logistical nightmare facing the WWE. A press release from the WWE indicated that the name change would be completed by October 2002.
By October 2002, the "brand extension" was also complete. The WWE Hardcore, European, and Intercontinental Titles had all been merged with the WWE (Raw) World Title. Addionally, the formerly "Unified" Championship had become the WWE (Smackdown) World Title. Each show also has it's own tag team championship. Rumor has it that McMahon is negotiating a deal to hold 19 pay-per-view events each year (excluding U.K. and oversea events). Essentially, the "Big Five" PPVs would be interpromotional, plus each brand would hold it's own event for each of the other 7 months of the year. Also rumored is that Raw will ressurect the WCW Nitro name, and ECW will return in late night programming.
--rberko1 updated from http://www.thesmarks.com/rspwfaq/part2/wwf.asp and http://www.kayfabememories.com/Regions/wwwf7.htm
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