This is a chronological list of pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming events made by American professional wrestling company WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). Each month, WWE holds one or two yearly pay-per-view/livestreaming events. Since 2022, WWE calls these kind of events Premium Live Events. One event is usually three hours long and features six to twelve matches. The events are a big part of how the WWE earns money.[1][2]
Starting in 1985, WWE made Premium Live Events that can be watched live via pay-per-view outlets. Since February 2014, with the start of the WWE Network, events are also legally streamed live on the internet.[3]
History
Many people believe wrongly that the first WWE, then known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), pay-per-view was November 1985's The Wrestling Classic. This was a tournament held at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago. The first WrestleMania event, in March of the same year, was on pay-per-view in some areas.[4] The first two WrestleManias earned much money. After WrestleMania III became one of the best events in wrestling history, the WWF then decided to have more pay-per-views.
The first Survivor Series event took place on November 29, 1987. It was shown at the same time as NWA's Starrcade which was thought to be the biggest yearly event for NWA. The WWF informed cable companies that if they were showing Starrcade, they would not be allowed to show future WWF events. Most companies showed Survivor Series. Because of this, Starrcade did not make much money that year. This is thought to be the start of many problems for Jim Crockett Promotions.[5]
The first Royal Rumble in January 1988 was shown on the USA Network. It had the highest rating in the network's history up until that time. The event became a pay-per-view the next year.[6]
The first SummerSlam was held in Madison Square Garden in August 1988.[7] These four events - the Royal Rumble in January, WrestleMania in March or April, SummerSlam in August, and Survivor Series in November - were the only yearly pay-per-view offerings (other than the King of the Ring) from the WWF until 1995. After World Championship Wrestling (WCW) started showing more pay-per-views, the WWF increased the number of pay-per-views it made. At first, the WWF used the name In Your House for its new shows. Beginning in 1996, it began using other names along with the In Your House name (such as Badd Blood and No Way Out of Texas). This was done to avoid confusion. By the end of February of 1999, the In Your House name was no longer used.
Both companies increased the number of pay-per-views until they each had one pay-per-view event each month. From the late '90s until 2003, WWE had a once-a-month pay-per-view schedule. The pay-per-view events in the United States can be bought through iN DEMAND, Dish Network or DirecTV.
Up until 2003, WWE ran two pay-per-views a year which were only shown in the United Kingdom. After the brand extension started, they stopped doing these two events. Instead of the UK events, they did international tours which were taped for television.
In February 2014, WWE introduced the WWE Network. a subscription service, where PPV events were streamed live and more WWE content, including every previous PPV event, were available for a lower monthly price.[3] In 2021, events began airing on NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock, in the United States, ending the WWE Network there.[8] Over the following years, the service was also ended in other countries when different streaming platforms took over its content: Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, Disney+ in the Philippines, Binge in Australia, and Abema in Japan.[9][10][11][12] On 1 January 2025, the WWE Network will end completely in most countries, as WWE content will move to Netflix in the rest of the world.[13]
Brand extension
In June 2003, WWE decided to only use people from one brand for many of its pay-per-views. Only the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series events used people from different brands. WrestleMania and The Royal Rumble were the only events with wrestlers from different brands competing against each other. This allowed WWE to show more pay-per-view events, such as Cyber Sunday and The Great American Bash. From late 2005, they decided to change this and matches with people from different brands were shown more often. In March 2007, WWE said they would stop only using one brand on each pay-per-view. All of its pay-per-views would have matches from all three brands.[14] When the brand extension was reintroduced in 2016, WWE started making their pay-per-view and livestreaming events single-branded again, except for the "big four" events.[15] This stopped again following WrestleMania 34 in 2018.[16]
