Mid 20th Century
100-459: Survivor Series , branded as Survivor Series: WarGames since 2022, is a professional wrestling event produced annually since 1987 by WWE , the world's largest professional wrestling promotion . Held in November generally the week of Thanksgiving , it is the second longest-running pay-per-view (PPV) event in history, behind WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania . In addition to traditional PPV since
200-435: A bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether the individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in
300-415: A performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in the 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance
400-415: A professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
500-465: A Survivor Series match, each member of a team must be eliminated to win. The name of the match stems from this stipulation, as the winners are the "survivors", and in some cases, there has been only one survivor. There have sometimes been an additional stipulation placed on the Survivor Series match, such as members of the losing team being ( kayfabe ) fired. While typically contested between two teams,
600-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
700-520: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
800-513: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
900-574: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
1000-435: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Royal Rumble Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE ,
1100-404: A distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by the broader public. In the United States, wrestling
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#17328443059421200-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
1300-527: A few Survivor Series matches that were held between wrestlers of the two brands (e.g., Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown), but it was not the focus of the event. However, with the return of the brand split in 2016, Survivor Series took on the theme of direct competition between the Raw and SmackDown brands for brand supremacy, similar to the former Bragging Rights events held during the first brand split in 2009 and 2010. In addition to traditional Survivor Series matches pitting
1400-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
1500-754: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
1600-424: A more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise
1700-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
1800-658: A partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp which would see the 2025 Royal Rumble , as well as a future WrestleMania and a future SummerSlam, held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana . The date for the 2025 Royal Rumble was announced for February 1, thus marking the first Royal Rumble held outside of January. Due to the Rumble matches taking up a large amount of time (most Rumble matches last roughly one hour),
1900-513: A third brand in 2006. The first brand extension was dissolved in August 2011, but it was reintroduced in July 2016 (other brands, including NXT , NXT UK , and 205 Live , would also be active during this second brand split). The Royal Rumble, along with the other original "Big Four" events, were the only PPVs to never be held exclusively for one brand during either brand split periods. The 2008 Royal Rumble
2000-467: A traditional component to Survivor Series in there because it's large teams of people competing. We just upped the ante a little bit with WarGames and made it evolve. Survivor Series has been an amazing event for 36 years. And it needs to evolve a little bit and this year seemed like the right time to do it. During the Survivor Series: WarGames post-event press conference, Triple H was asked if
2100-497: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
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#17328443059422200-575: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
2300-436: Is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which
2400-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
2500-427: Is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as a genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has
2600-470: Is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain a " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to
2700-591: The 1993 event , the prize for winning is a world championship match at WrestleMania, with the exception of the 2016 event , where the prize was the WWE Championship (at the time known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship) as reigning champion Roman Reigns defended the title in the match. According to Hornswoggle , who worked for WWE from 2006 until 2016 and participated in two Rumbles, participants may learn their eliminations by knowing
2800-593: The 1995 event , Survivor Series was held on various Sundays before Thanksgiving. The 2005 and 2006 events were held on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, while the 2022 and 2023 events were held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The 1997 event was notorious as it featured the Montreal Screwjob . Survivor Series was going to be discontinued and rebranded in 2010, but following fan outcry, the company decided to continue with
2900-522: The 2015 event . From 1988 until 2024, it was held in late January, but will be held in early February in 2025. It is one of WWE's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania , SummerSlam , Survivor Series , and Money in the Bank , referred to as the "Big Five". The Royal Rumble match is generally held as the main event of the annual event. There are some exceptions, such as the 1988, 1996 , 1997 , 1998 , 2006 , 2013 , and 2023 events. In 1988,
3000-609: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
3100-920: The WWE Network , which launched in February that year, and in 2021, the event became available on Peacock as the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March that year. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, WWE had to present the majority of its programming for Raw and SmackDown from a behind closed doors set at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida , beginning mid-March. In August, these events were relocated to WWE's bio-secure bubble ,
Survivor Series - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-635: The WWE ThunderDome , hosted at Orlando's Amway Center . The 2020 Survivor Series was in turn produced from the ThunderDome and was WWE's final PPV to present the ThunderDome from the Amway Center, as in early December, the ThunderDome was relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida . In July 2021, WWE resumed live touring with fans. During the first brand extension period (2002–2011), there were only
3300-543: The independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in the United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including
3400-431: The spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from the competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on
3500-472: The "Big Four" annual PPVs, along with WrestleMania , Survivor Series , and SummerSlam , the promotion's then-four biggest shows of the year. From 1993 to 2002, it was considered one of the "Big Five", including King of the Ring , but that PPV event was discontinued after 2002 (although it to returned to PPV in 2024 ). In August 2021, Money in the Bank became recognized as one of the "Big Five". In May 2002,
3600-577: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
3700-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
3800-506: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
3900-402: The 2019 event had three teams against each other in three-way Survivor Series matches. The promotion had several tag team elimination matches earlier in 1987, albeit with three-man teams and the feuds loosely related. In an early break from the norm, the 1992 event had only one Survivor Series match. Only four Survivor Series events have not featured any Survivor Series matches. The 1998 event
4000-470: The 2022 Survivor Series would not be based on the brand supremacy concept. Additionally, he announced that the event would feature two WarGames matches , one each for the men and women, marking the first time for a main roster WWE event to feature the match. The 2022 event was in turn renamed as Survivor Series: WarGames , and it was also the first Survivor Series held on a Saturday. The NXT brand previously held an annual WarGames event from 2017 to 2021. With
4100-539: The 2022 event was the highest-grossing Survivor Series of all time as well as the most viewed. During Crown Jewel on November 4, 2023, WWE announced that the 2023 Survivor Series would retain the WarGames concept. The event is traditionally characterized by having the Survivor Series match , which is a type of tag team elimination match that typically features two teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. In
Survivor Series - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-641: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
4300-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
4400-477: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
4500-475: The Rumble event tends to have a smaller card than most other pay-per-view events, which routinely have six to eight matches per card though with the Royal Rumble expanding to a five-hour show as well as a two-hour kickoff pre-show starting in 2018, the card then mainly featured anywhere from nine to twelve matches with two or three of those matches taking place on the kickoff show. In 2022, however, WWE phased out
4600-615: The WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) following a lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund over the "WWF" initialism. In April 2011, the promotion ceased using its full name with the "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism . Also in March 2002, the promotion introduced the brand extension , in which the roster was divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform on their respective weekly television shows — ECW became
4700-466: The WarGames match moving to the main roster for Survivor Series, this subsequently ended NXT's WarGames event, which was replaced by Deadline . In an interview with The Ringer in regards to WarGames at Survivor Series, Triple H said: The tradition of the Survivor Series has ebbed and flowed and changed slightly over time, but this will be similar to that. This will not be Raw versus SmackDown. It will be much more story-line driven. I still look at it as
4800-449: The WarGames match would become a permanent fixture at Survivor Series and he said "we'll see", citing the success of the 2022 event. In regards to the event not including a traditional Survivor Series match, he was asked if the match was done for good and he said they "weren't done with anything", noting that this year was the time to freshen up the event but the traditional match could see a return at future events. Triple H also revealed that
4900-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
5000-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
5100-550: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
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#17328443059425200-512: The brand supremacy concept was dropped and the event was rebranded as "Survivor Series: WarGames", marking WWE's first main roster event to feature the match; NXT had its own WarGames event from 2017 to 2021 and it was discontinued after the match was moved to Survivor Series in 2022. The first Survivor Series , held in 1987, came on the heels of the success of WrestleMania III , as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) began to see
5300-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
5400-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
5500-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
5600-508: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
5700-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
5800-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
5900-459: The event to avoid potential transmission of the virus to members of the Raw and SmackDown rosters. Raw would win that year's competition with a 4–3 victory over SmackDown. The 2021 event also did not include NXT as the brand reverted to its status as WWE's developmental territory in September of that year. At the 2021 event, Raw again won the competition with a 5–2 victory over SmackDown. On September 19, 2022, WWE executive Triple H announced that
6000-422: The event. Survivor Series became the second longest running PPV event in history (behind WrestleMania ), and is also regarded as one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble , and SummerSlam , the promotion's original four annual events and their four biggest events of the year. From 1993 to 2002, it was considered one of the "Big Five", including King of the Ring , but that PPV event
6100-597: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
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#17328443059426200-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
6300-570: The first three-way Survivor Series elimination matches for men and women. NXT subsequently won that year's competition with a 4–2–1 victory, with SmackDown having 2 points, and Raw's sole win occurring on the pre-show. NXT would not compete at the 2020 event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outbreaks of the virus had occurred at both of NXT's home arenas, Full Sail University and the WWE Performance Center, prompting WWE to exclude NXT wrestlers from
6400-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
6500-455: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
6600-537: The inaugural 1987 event , it has aired via livestreaming since the 2014 event . It is also considered one of the company's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble , SummerSlam , and Money in the Bank , referred to as the "Big Five". The event was previously characterized by having Survivor Series matches , which were tag team elimination matches that typically featured teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. Stipulations had also been added to these matches, such as members of
6700-513: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
6800-471: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
6900-487: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
7000-493: The losing team being, in storyline , fired. Only four events have not featured the match: the 1998 event , which had an elimination tournament for the vacant WWF Championship (now WWE Championship), the 2002 event , which saw the debut of the Elimination Chamber match , and both the 2022 and 2023 events, which were based around WarGames matches for the men and women. WarGames is a team-based steel cage match where
7100-453: The lucrative potential of the pay-per-view (PPV) market. The first event capitalized on the big time feud between André the Giant and Hulk Hogan , who wrestled each other at WrestleMania III. Survivor Series was originally created to counter WCW's Starrcade . The first eight Survivor Series events took place on either Thanksgiving Day (1987–1990) or Thanksgiving Eve (1991–1994). Beginning with
7200-432: The main event was a tag team match , while for all the others, it was a men's world championship match. While originally only for men, a women's version of the Royal Rumble match was held as the main event at the 2018 event , which was also the first event to have two Rumble matches on one card. It subsequently became standard to have both a men's and women's Royal Rumble match at the annual event. The Royal Rumble match
7300-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
7400-531: The men and women from the two brands against each (2016 and 2018 also featured matches with the brands' tag teams going against each other), there were interpromotional matches that featured the brands' champions against each other in non-title matches (e.g., the Raw Women's Champion vs. the SmackDown Women's Champion ). The 2016 , 2017 , and 2018 events were contested between Raw and SmackDown. The 2016 event
7500-437: The platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of the venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as
7600-461: The pre-shows with the Rumble returning to around six matches on the card and a runtime of around three to four hours. The men's Royal Rumble match is usually located at the top of the card, though there have been exceptions, such as the 1988, 1996 , 1997 , 1998 , 2006 , 2013 , 2018 , and 2023 events. In these cases, 1988's main event was a tag team match, while the others were men's world championship matches, except in 2018. The 2018 Royal Rumble
7700-539: The promotion introduced the brand extension , in which the roster was divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform— ECW became a third brand in 2006. The first brand extension was dissolved in August 2011, but it was reintroduced in July 2016. Survivor Series, along with the other original "Big Four" events, were the only PPVs to never be held exclusively for one brand during either brand split periods. In 2014, Survivor Series began to air on WWE's online streaming service,
7800-714: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
7900-465: The roofless cage surrounds two rings placed side by side. The 2024 event will also be based around WarGames. After WWE reintroduced the brand extension in 2016, the events from 2016 until 2021 centered around competition between wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands for brand supremacy; NXT was also involved in 2019. In addition to Survivor Series matches between the brands, the champions of each brand faced off in non-title matches. In 2022,
8000-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
8100-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
8200-413: The top rope, with both feet touching the floor. The difference between a Royal Rumble and a standard battle royal is that in a standard battle royal, all participants start the match in the ring at the same time, where in a Royal Rumble match, two participants start and then the rest enter at timed intervals. The winner of the match is the last wrestler remaining after all others have been eliminated. Since
8300-505: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
8400-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
8500-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
8600-607: The whole team), but most notably, the event saw the debut of the Elimination Chamber match. The 2022 and 2023 events were the most recent to not include any Survivor Series matches, or any type of elimination stipulations, as both instead featured two WarGames matches, one each for the men and women, with the 2022 event also notable for being WWE's first main roster event to feature the WarGames match. Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling )
8700-476: The world's largest professional wrestling promotion . It is named after the Royal Rumble match , a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. After the inaugural 1988 event aired as a television special on the USA Network , the Royal Rumble has been broadcast via pay-per-view since the 1989 event and livestreaming since
8800-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
8900-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
9000-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
9100-504: Was created by wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson and the event was established by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). After the match was first tested at a house show in October 1987, the first Royal Rumble event took place on January 24, 1988, and was broadcast live as a television special on the USA Network . The following year, the event started to be broadcast on pay-per-view (PPV), and thus became one of
9200-400: Was discontinued after 2002. In August 2021, Money in the Bank became recognized as one of the "Big Five". In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) following a lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund over the "WWF" initialism. In April 2011, the promotion ceased using its full name with the "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism . Also in March 2002,
9300-476: Was in turn held in WWE's bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome , which at the time was hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida . WWE resumed live touring in July 2021 and the 2022 event was held at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis , Missouri . From its inception in 1988 up through the 2024 event , the Royal Rumble was held annually in late January. On June 24, 2024, WWE announced
9400-568: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
9500-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
9600-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
9700-485: Was the first WWE pay-per-view to be available in high-definition . In 2015, the Royal Rumble began to air on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network , which launched in February 2014, and in 2022, the event became available on Peacock as the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March 2021. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in March 2020, WWE had to hold its events behind closed doors . The 2021 event
9800-440: Was the first to include a women's Royal Rumble match, which was the main event for that year. It was subsequently the first in which two Rumble matches were contested on one card and it is now standard for the event to include both a men's and women's Rumble match. The Royal Rumble match is based on the classic battle royal , in which a number of wrestlers (traditionally 30) aim at eliminating their competitors by tossing them over
9900-401: Was the first without any Survivor Series matches, instead focusing on an elimination tournament for the vacant WWF Championship (now WWE Championship). The 2002 event was the second event to not include any Survivor Series matches. Instead, it had an elimination tables match and a triple threat elimination tag team match (in which only one member of a team had to be eliminated to eliminate
10000-510: Was the genesis for what became the theme of brand supremacy that began in 2017. In 2017 and 2018, Raw won the competition with a score of 4–3 and 6–1, respectively (SmackDown's one point in 2018 occurred on the Kickoff pre-show). The 2019 event saw the addition of the NXT brand, which previously served as WWE's developmental territory but became one of WWE's three main brands in 2019, and in turn featured
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