Wrestling History

By fox2_eagle3

  • National Wrestling Alliance Formed (NWA)

  • Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC)

    Together, Roderick McMahon and Raymond Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd (CWC). The CWC joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953.

  • Vincent J. McMahon replaces father

    n 1954, Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's associates, brought in Vincent J. McMahon to replace his late father Jess in the promotion.

  • CWC Name change to World Wide Wrestling Federation

    In April, Rogers was awarded the new WWWF World Championship following an apocryphal tournament in Rio de Janeiro. He lost the title to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17, 1963, after suffering a heart attack shortly before the match. To accommodate Rogers' condition, the match was booked to last under a minute. Mondt left the company in the late sixties. Although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon Sr. still sat on the NWA Board of Directors, no other territory was recogni

  • WWWF became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)

    In March 1979, the WWWF became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The change was purely cosmetic, and the ownership and front office personnel remained unchanged during this period.

  • Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports

  • Purchased Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd

    Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. and in 1982 purchased Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd from his father. The elder McMahon had long since established the northeastern territory as one of the most vibrant members of the NWA. He had long since recognized that professional wrestling was more about entertainment than actual sport. Against his father's wishes, McMahon began an expansion process that fundamentally changed the industry.

  • WrestleMania 1

    It took place on March 31, 1985, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The attendance for the event was 19,121 fans. The event was viewed by over one million fans through closed-circuit television, making it the largest showing of an event on closed-circuit television in the United States at the time. The event was the start of the Rock 'n' Wrestling gimmick, which brought together professional wrestling and the music industry, and matches aired on MTV during the build up to the event. The

  • Saturday Night Main Event

    The WWF did incredible business on the shoulders of McMahon and his all-American babyface hero, Hulk Hogan, for the next several years, creating what some observers dubbed a second golden age for professional wrestling. The introduction of Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC in mid-1985 marked the first time that professional wrestling had been broadcast on network television since the 1950s.

  • World Championship Wrestling (WCW) created

    Ted Turner

  • Tri-State Wrestling Alliance

    ECW had its origins in 1989 under the banner Tri-State Wrestling Alliance owned by Joel Goodhart.

  • Tri-State Wrestling Alliance changed to Eastern Championship Wrestling

    n 1992, Goodhart sold his share of the company to his partner, Tod Gordon, who in return renamed the promotion Eastern Championship Wrestling.

  • Monday Night Raw

    Beginning as WWF Monday Night Raw, the program first aired on January 11, 1993. The show as presented would be barely recognizable to a viewer of today's programming - as the WWF at the time was attempting to cater to a younger audience with cartoonish, two-dimensional characters. It screened on the USA Network for one hour.[7] Of the wrestlers featured on that occasion, only one is still actively wrestling with WWE: The Undertaker. The original Raw broke new ground in televised professional wre

  • ECW Became Extreme Championship Wrestling

  • WCW Monday Night Nitro Begins

  • ECW "invaded" Raw from the Manhattan Center

    hey advanced a storyline, plugged their first ever pay-per-view and worked three matches in front of the WWF audience while McMahon called the action with both Jerry "The King" Lawler and Paul Heyman.

  • Montreal Screwjob

  • Monday Night Wars

    WWE records the Attitude Era to have begun on March 29, 1998 with Stone Cold Steve Austin becoming WWF Champion after defeating Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV, becoming the face of the company.[1][2] It concluded on April 1, 2001 at WrestleMania X-Seven with Austin embracing his long time archenemy Vince McMahon after defeating The Rock to become WWF Champion once again, days after World Championship Wrestling was bought out by the WWF.

  • Smackdown

  • WWF Buys WCW

  • ECW goes out of business

  • WWF becomes WWE

  • Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Founded

  • 1st TNA Inpact (FSN)

  • TNA off Air

    Sent to webcasts

  • TNA InPact returns on Spike

  • Return of ECW by the WWE

  • PG Rating

    In 2008, WWE initiated a change in its programming content. The United States parental guidelines rating system now rates all WWE television programs "PG" indicating family-friendly content in the programming.[29][30] Vince McMahon noted that the change to more family-friendly content is due to the changing demographics in WWE viewership.[31] As of 2010, women and young children make up 40% of the company's audience.

  • WGN Superstars

  • ECW Ends again

  • WWE NXT

    Described as a hybrid between reality television and WWE's scripted live event shows, the premise of the show follows select talent contracted to WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in a competition to become WWE's next breakout star with the help of mentors from WWE's Raw and SmackDown brands.

  • Return of WWE Tough Enough

    WWE Tough Enough is a professional wrestling reality television program produced by WWE wherein participants undergo professional wrestling training and compete for a contract with WWE

  • World Wrestling Entertainment becomes simply WWE

    This orphan initialism occurred 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.

  • Superstars and NXT moved to Internet

    WGN did not renew their contract with the WWE for the Thrusday night show, Superstars. Sci-Fi also gained the show Smackdown therefore they didn't need the show NXT. Both of these shows are still being filmed and shown but now on WWE.com

  • Saturday Morning Slam

    WWE debuted a new Saturday morning program (WWE Saturday Morning Slam) which is rated TV-G and has special restrictions barring the use of holds and moves aimed at the neck. Vince McMahon noted that the change to more family-friendly content is due to the changing demographics in WWE viewership.