Pro Wrestling
Register
Advertisement
Pro Wrestling
Annual WWE Pay-Per-View Events
Date Event
January WWE-Royal-Rumble-Logo 2017 Royal Rumble
February Elimination Chamber 2018 logo Elimination Chamber
April WrestleMania 38 logo WrestleMania
May WrestleMania Backlash logo Backlash
June Hell In A Cell Logo DarkBackground Hell in a Cell
July MITB 2015 Money in the Bank
August
SummerSlam 2015
SummerSlam
October
Extremeruleslogo
Extreme Rules
November WWE Survivor Series 2016 Logo Survivor Series

Each month, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) holds one or two annual pay-per-view events usually three hours long. Pay-per-view events are a big part of the revenue stream for WWE.

History[]

It is a commonly held misconception that the first WWF pay-per-view was November 1985's The Wrestling Classic, a tournament held at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, but the first WrestleMania event, in March of the same year, was available on pay-per-view in some markets. The first two WrestleMania's were undeniable financial successes, and after WrestleMania III became perhaps the best known event in wrestling history, the WWF decided to expand their pay-per-view offerings.

The first Survivor Series event was offered on November 29 1987, scheduled directly against NWA's Starrcade, traditionally considered to be that promotion's biggest yearly event. The WWF informed cable companies that if they chose to carry Starrcade, they would not be allowed to carry future WWF events. The vast majority of companies showed Survivor Series (only three opted to remain loyal to their contract with the NWA), and the resulting financial blow to Starrcade was in many ways the beginning of the end for Jim Crockett Promotions.

The debut of the Royal Rumble in January 1988 was actually shown on the USA Network, where it drew the highest rating to that time in the network's history. The event became a pay-per-view the following year.

The first SummerSlam was held in Madison Square Garden in August 1988. These four events - the Royal Rumble in January, WrestleMania in March or April, SummerSlam in August, and Survivor Series in November - were the only annual pay-per-view offerings (other than the King of the Ring) from the WWF until 1995, after rival World Championship Wrestling had expanded the number of their pay-per-view shows. Initially, the WWF used the In Your House brand, but beginning in 1996 began using other names to compliment the In Your House name (such as Badd Blood and No Way Out), to avoid confusion. By the end of February 1999, the In Your House name was nonexistent.

This trend escalated to the point that by 1996, both companies showed monthly events on pay-per-view.

The WWE ran twice yearly pay-per-views which were exclusive to the UK up to 2003, but after the brand extension occurred they were scrapped in favour of tours, with a TV taping included, so now the WWE has the WrestleMania Revenge tour after WrestleMania at the beginning of the year and the Survivor Series tour at the end of the year, in the UK. Each includes a RAW, SmackDown!, and an ECW taping.

In Australia, WWE's pay-per-views are shown on Main Event. In the United Kingdom, only usually around 8 of them charged for and are shown on Sky Box Office. These are all charged at £14.95 GBP and has no extra charge for WrestleMania like in the USA. The other events are seen on the subscription channel Sky Sports 1.

Active and upcoming events[]

The following is a list of the current, active titles for events scheduled by WWE.

Date Event Venue City
November 4, 2023 Crown Jewel Mohammed Abdu Arena Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
November 25, 2023 Survivor Series Allstate Arena Rosemont, Illinois
January 27, 2024 Royal Rumble Tropicana Field St. Petersburg, Florida
February 24, 2024 Elimination Chamber Optus Stadium Perth, Australia
April 6 & 7, 2024 WrestleMania XL Lincoln Financial Field Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Brand extension[]

In June 2003, WWE announced to further their brand extension and make their pay-per-views exclusive to a particular brand (RAW, SmackDown!, and later, ECW). The only exceptions to this were the established Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series events which remained joint productions, and WrestleMania being the only event with wrestlers from different brands competing against each other. This allowed WWE to eventually add more pay-per-view events to their offerings, such as Cyber Sunday and The Great American Bash (itself a revival of an old NWA and WCW event). From late 2005, the restrictions were relaxed and interbrand matches in brand-exclusive events were becoming more frequent. In March 2007, it was announced that the idea of brand-exclusive events was scrapped and would now feature matches from all three brands. The brand-exclusive events were:

Pay-per-view Brand Years Note
WWE New Year's Revolution Logo New Year's Revolution RAW 2005-2007 N/A
WWE-Backlash-Logo Backlash SmackDown! 2004-2006, 2017 N/A
Bad Blood Logo 3 Bad Blood RAW 2003-2004 N/A
WWE Vengeance Logo Vengeance RAW 2004-2006 In 2003, Vengeance was a Smackdown! exclusive event
WWE-Unforgiven-Logo Unforgiven RAW 2003-2006 N/A
CS Cyber Sunday RAW 2006-2008 From 2004-2005, the event was promoted under the name Taboo Tuesday.
WWE-Armageddon-Logo Armageddon SmackDown! 2004-2006 In 2003, Armageddon was a Raw exclusive event
WWE-No-Way-Out-Logo No Way Out SmackDown! 2002-2007 Returned in 2012
JD Judgment Day SmackDown! 2004-2006 N/A
WWE-Great-American-Bash-Logo The Great American Bash SmackDown! 2004-2006 N/A
No Mercy Logo No Mercy RAW
SmackDown!
2003-2006, 2017
(Raw)
2016 (SmackDown)
N/A
December to Dismember2 December to Dismember ECW 2006 This was the only ECW exclusive pay-per-view.

Former pay-per-view events[]

Pay-per-view Year (s) Active Notes
The Wrestling Classic 1985
This Tuesday in Texas 1991
King of the Ring 1993–2002
In Your House 1995–1999
Bad Blood 1997, 2003–2004
Over the Edge 1998–1999 Discontinued after the death of Owen Hart at the 1999 event.
Fully Loaded 1998–2000 Replaced by Invasion in 2001, and permanently discontinued when replaced by Vengeance in 2002.
Invasion 2001
One Night Stand 2005–2008
December To Dismember 2006
New Year's Revolution 2005–2007 This pay-per-view was removed because WWE decided to reduce the number of pay-per-views per year.
Unforgiven 1998–2008
Cyber Sunday/Taboo Tuesday 2004–2008
Judgment Day 1998, 2000–2009
The Bash The Great American Bash (2004–2008),
The Bash (2009)
Breaking Point 2009
Fatal 4-Way 2010 was set to make a return as a 2012 PPV but was scrapped by WWE.
Bragging Rights 2009–2010 was set to make a return as a 2012 PPV but was scrapped by WWE.
Capitol Punishment 2011 replaced by No Way Out in 2012.
Vengeance 2001–2007, 2011 replaced by Hell in a Cell in 2012.
Over The Limit 2010–2012 replaced by Battleground in 2013.
Backlash 1999-2018 replaced by Clash of Champions in 2019

See also[]

Advertisement