 |
A Brief History on the WWE
Following a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund (also WWF), the Federation altered its name to World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE. Its parent company, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, also chose to accept this name. The lawsuit dealt with the wrestling company's breaching of an agreement with the Fund over use of the initials "WWF" in the United Kingdom. Rather than effort a financial resolution with the Fund, McMahon changed the name of the corporation. The logo was altered, and a promotional movement called "Get The F Out" was used to publicize this alter. Also, all verbal and visual reference to "WWF" and the World Wrestling Federation logo from the "Attitude" era were abridged out from old broadcasts. Some observers saw the new name as further acknowledgement by the business on its emphasis towards the amusement rather than athletic aspects of skilled wrestling.
Without WCW as rivalry, WWE decided to split the sponsorship into two "separate" brands based on its two largest television shows, RAW and SmackDown! Under this "split brands" agreement, each brand maintains a divide and non-overlapping roster of wrestlers, has championships limited to that brand (example: the WWE Championship on RAW and the World Heavyweight Championship on SmackDown! ), and is run by a diverse onscreen general manager. In 2004, WWE began the practice of sporadic PPV. RAW one month, then Smackdown the next, and so forth. The two brands join jointly as co-sponsors of each of the four original WWE pay-per-view cards: Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and Survivor Series. A yearly draft is scheduled a little bit after Wrestlemania, where 6 RAW and 6 Smackdown superstars change shows in order to "shake things up".
In 2005, WWE has started a "Legends" program, abiding the tradition of inducting new members into the WWE Hall of Fame at Wrestlemania weekend, and functioning with former legends such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Superstar Billy Graham to issue new licensed merchandise such as attire, action figures, video games, and DVDs. The Legends agenda began informally with the opening of WWE 24/7, WWE's on-demand service and the success of career showing DVDs such as The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection.
|
|
