World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.[6] (doing business as WWE, Inc.;[7] NYSE: WWE) is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales. It is currently the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world, reaching 13 million viewers in the U.S. and broadcasting its shows in 30 languages to more than 145 countries.[8] Like other professional wrestling promotions, WWE's shows do not feature legitimate sporting contests. Instead, its programs feature storyline-driven combat sport matches with predetermined outcomes and fighting maneuvers that are worked, all promoted as legitimate bouts.[9] Vince McMahon is the majority owner, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. Together with his wife Linda McMahon, and their children Shane McMahon and Stephanie! McMahon-Levesque (WWE Executive Vice President of Creative), the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of the voting power in the company . The company's headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, and Mumbai.[10][11] WWE holds an extensive library of videos, representing a significant portion of the visual history of professional wrestling. The company 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 becoming World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002, and simplified to WWE in 2011.[12] Contents 1 Company history 1.1 Capitol Wrestling Corporation (1952-1963) 1.2 World Wide Wrestling ! Federation (1963-1979) 1.3 Titan Sports, Inc. (1980-1999) 1.3.! 1 World Wrestling Federation 1.3.1.1 New Generation 1.3.1.2 Monday Night Wars 1.3.1.3 The Attitude Era 1.4 World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. (1999-2002) 1.4.1 Initial public offerings 1.4.2 Acquisition of WCW and ECW 1.5 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. / WWE, Inc. (2002-present) 1.5.1 Brand extension 1.5.2 Name dispute 1.5.3 Network changes and high-definition 1.5.4 Social Media and TV-PG Initiatives 1.5.5 "Supershow" Initiative and Developmental Restructuring 2 Wellness Program 3 TNA Entertainment, LLC lawsuit 4 Expansion beyond wrestling 4.1 Active properties 4.2 Defunct properties 5 Championships and accomplishments 5.1 Current champions 5.2 Other accomplishments 5.3 Developmental territory champions 5.4 Defunct championships 6 See also 7 References 8 External links Company history Main article: History of WWE Capitol Wrestling Corporation (1952-1963) Roderick James "Jess" McMahon was a boxing promoter whose achievements included co-promoting a bout in 1! 915 between Jess Willard and Jack Johnson. In 1926, while working with Tex Rickard (who actually despised wrestling to such a degree he prevented wrestling events from being held at the third Madison Square Garden in New York City between 1939 and 1948), 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 a! nd Sandow to implement a new form of wrestling that combined features o! f 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 Jess McMahon. Together, McMahon and 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.[13] 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.[14] World Wide Wrestling Federation (1963-1979) The NWA recognized an undisputed NWA World Heavyweight Champion that went to several different wrestling companies in the alliance and defended the belt around the world. The NWA generally promoted strong shooters as champions, to give their worked sport credibility and guard against double-crosses. While doing strong business in the Midwest (the Alliance's core region), these wrestlers attracted little interest in the Capitol territory. In 1961, the NWA board decided instead to put the belt on bleach blon! de showman "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, a much more effective drawing car! d in the region.[15] The rest of the NWA was unhappy with Mondt because he rarely allowed Rogers to wrestle outside of the Northeast. Mondt and McMahon wanted Rogers to keep the NWA World Championship, but Rogers was unwilling to sacrifice his $25,000 deposit on the belt (title holders at the time had to pay a deposit to insure they honored their commitments as champion). Rogers lost the NWA World Championship to Lou Thesz in a one-fall match in Toronto, Ontario on January 24, 1963, which led to Mondt, McMahon, and the CWC leaving the NWA in protest, creating the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in the process. The official WWWF logo from 1963 to 1979 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. Tw! o years later, NWA president Sam Muchnick and McMahon discussed a unification match between Thesz and Sammartino, with both parties agreeing to Sammartino winning the unified title. The match plans fell apart when Sammartino refused to take on the enlarged schedule and Thesz demanded a high guarantee for doing the job.[15] The WWWF operated in a conservative matter compared to other pro wrestling territories;[16] it ran its major arenas monthly rather than weekly or bi-weekly, usually featuring a babyface champion wrestling various heels in programs consisting of one to three matches, with the initial meeting often featuring a heel win in a non-decisive manner.[17] Although business was initially rather strong, crowds in Madison Square Garden fell off due to a lack of television exposure. After gaining a television program on a Spanish-language station, and turning preliminary wrestler Lou Albano as a manager for Sammartino's heel opponents, the WWWF was doing sellout busin! ess by 1970. Albano was soon joined by fellow managers Ernie Roth and F! reddie Blassie, forming the "Triumverate of Terror," managing heel opponents for Sammartino and later champions Pedro Morales and Bob Backlund.[18] Heels such as Ivan Koloff and Stan Stasiak were used to transition the title from one babyface to another; "Superstar" Billy Graham enjoyed a nine and a half month reign as a heel champion, as McMahon felt he would need this much time to build up Bob Backlund as championship material.[19] Mondt left the company in the late sixties. Although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon, Sr. quietly rejoined the organization in 1971, although he did not book an NWA world champion in his territory until Harley Race in the late 1970s. At the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and WWF employee Jim Barnett all withdrew from the organization.[15] In March 1979, for marketing purposes, the World Wide Wrestling Federation was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).[20] Titan Sports, Inc. (1980-1999) World Wrestli! ng Federation Vince McMahon, founder of Titan Sports, Inc. and current Majority owner, Chairman, and CEO of WWE. On February 21, 1980, the son of Vincent J. McMahon, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc.[21] and on June 6, 1982, purchased Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. from his father and other stock holders (Arnold Skaaland, Gorilla Monsoon, and Phil Zacko).[20] 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. The original logo for the company. The WWF was not the only promotion to have broken ranks with the NWA; the American
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