WWE - Change to World Wrestling Federation (WWF)

In 1979, World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). On 21 February 1980, the son of Vincent J. McMahon, Vincent K. McMahon founded Titan Sports Inc. Vince McMahon Jr. purchased Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. from his father and other stock holders (Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland and Phil Zacko) on 6 June 1982. The elder Vince McMahon had established the northeastern territory as one of the most vibrant members of the NWA. Vincent J. McMahon had long since recognized that professional wrestling was more about entertainment than actual sport. Against his father's wishes, Vincent K. McMahon began an expansion process that fundamentally changed the industry.



Other promoters were angry when Vince McMahon began syndicating WWF television shows to television stations across the United States, in areas outside of the WWF's traditional northeastern stronghold. Vincent K. McMahon also began selling videotapes of WWF events outside the Northeast through his Coliseum Video distribution company. Vince McMahon Jr. effectively broke the unwritten law of regionalism around which the entire industry had been based. To make matters worse, McMahon used the income generated by advertising, television deals, and tape sales to poach talent from rival promoters. Wrestling promoters nationwide were now in direct competition with the WWF.

Hulk Hogan, due to his appearance in Rocky III, had a national popularity that few other wrestlers could offer, which is what led Vince McMahon Jr. to sign him. Roddy Piper was brought in, as well as Jesse Ventura (although Ventura rarely wrestled in the WWF at that point due to the lung disorder that caused his retirement, moving to the commentator booth alongside Gorilla Monsoon). André the Giant, Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco, Paul Orndorff, Greg Valentine, Ricky Steamboat, and the Iron Sheik (Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri) rounded out the roster. Hulk Hogan was clearly Vincet K. McMahon's biggest star, causing some people to debate whether the WWF could have achieved national success without him.



The WWF would tour nationally in a venture that required huge capital investment; one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse. The future of not just McMahon's experiment, but also the WWF, the NWA, and the whole industry came down to the success or failure of McMahon's groundbreaking concept, WrestleMania. WrestleMania was a pay-per-view extravaganza (in some areas; most areas of the country saw WrestleMania available on closed-circuit television) that Vine McMahon Jr. marketed as being the Super Bowl of professional wrestling. The concept of a wrestling supercard was nothing new in North America; the NWA had been running Starrcade a few years prior to WrestleMania, and even the elder McMahon had marketed large Shea Stadium cards viewable in closed-circuit locations. However, Vincet K. McMahon's vision was to make the WWF and the industry itself mainstream, targeting more of the general television audience by exploiting the entertainment side of the industry. With the inaugural WrestleMania the WWF initiated a joint-promotional campaign with MTV, which featured a great deal of WWF coverage and programming, in what was termed the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection. The mainstream media attention brought on by celebrities including Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, and Cyndi Lauper at the event helped propel WrestleMania to become a staple in popular culture.

The original WrestleMania, held in 1985, was a resounding success. This event is sometimes credited as the debut of what Vince McMahon Jr. called "Sports Entertainment", in contrast to his father's preference of pure wrestling. 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. In 1987, the WWF produced what was considered to be the pinnacle of the 1980s wrestling boom, WrestleMania III. A rematch of the Wrestlemania III feature bout, once again pitting Champion Hulk Hogan against Andre the Giant on Main Event, was seen by 33 million people, which is still the record for the most watched wrestling match in North America.



World Wrestling Federation - 1980s
World Wrestling Federation - 1990s
Hulk Hogan - Hulkster / Hollywood Hogan / Hulkamania
Andre the Giant - Eigth Wonder of the World

WWE

WWE - Formation as Capitol Wrestling Corporation

Roderick James McMahon was a boxing promoter whose achievements included co-promoting a bout in 1915 between Jess Willard and Jack Johnson. In 1926, while working with Tex Rickard, he started promoting boxing at the Garden. The first match during their partnership was a light-heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach.



A few years earlier, around 1920, professional wrestler Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt had created a new challenge of professional wrestling that he called Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling to make the entertainment more appealing to spectators. At the time, pro wrestling consisted primarily of mat grappling; and while the sport had flourished a decade earlier under Frank Gotch, the fans had since grown tired of the painfully deliberate pace of the bouts.



However, Mondt discovered a solution that would completely transform the industry, as he convinced Lewis and Sandow to implement a new form of wrestling that combined features of boxing, Greco-Roman, freestyle, lumber-camp fighting, and theater into what he deemed “Slam Bang Western-Style Wrestling.” He then formed a promotion with wrestler Ed Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow. They persuaded many wrestlers to sign contracts with their Gold Dust Trio. After much success, a disagreement over power caused the trio to dissolve and, with it, their promotion. Mondt formed partnerships with several other promoters, including Jack Curley in New York City. When Curley was dying, Mondt moved to take over New York wrestling with the aid of several bookers, one of whom was Roderick "Jess" McMahon.

Roderick James McMahon and Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd (CWC). The CWC joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953. In November 1954, Jess McMahon died, and Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's associates, brought in Vincent James McMahon to replace his father in the promotion. McMahon and Mondt were a successful combination, and within a short time, they controlled approximately 70% of the NWA's booking, largely due to their dominance in the heavily populated Northeast region. Mondt taught McMahon about booking and how to work in the wrestling business. Due to the dominance in the northeast, the CWC was referred to by AWA legend Nick Bockwinkel as the "Northeast Triangle", with its territory being defined by Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and Maine as points of the triangle.



WWE

WWE - Introduction

WWE is an American publicly traded, privately controlled Entertainment Company dealing mainly in professional wrestling. WWE major revenue sources coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales. WWE is currently the largest professional wrestling company in the world, reaching 13 million viewers in the U.S and broadcasting its shows in 30 languages to more than 145 countries. WWE promotes under two brands, known as Raw and SmackDown.



Vince McMahon is the majority owner, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the WWE Company. Together with his wife Linda McMahon and their children Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon (WWE Executive Vice President of Talent and Creative Writing) the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of the voting power in the WWE. WWE headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, and Mumbai.



WWE holds a huge library of videos, representing a significant portion of the visual history of professional wrestling. WWE began as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation in 1952, which promoted under the banner of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and later the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In 1982, it was sold to the same family's Titan Sports company, which later changed its name to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, before finally becoming World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002, and simplified to WWE in 2011.

WWE
RAW
SmackDown