Skip to main content

Pay-Per-Views

Wrestlemania 1

Pay-per-views (PPV) began after Vince McMahon Jr. bought many wrestling territories in the United States. The first ever PPV was Wrestlemania debuting in 1984. Wrestlemania was smaller a production than it is nowadays. In fact, next year in 2024, it will be the 40th Wrestlemania held in Philadelphia, PA. Looking at the commercials, it will be one of the biggest events yet! Every month there is a pay-per-view all with different gimmicks and titles, but there are four shows that have stayed the same yearly.

Wrestlemania, Summer Slam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble are continuous each year. Survivor Series came up first in 1987. It normally is always around Thanksgiving time. The show itself has evolved since it used to be just five against five with random teams; they tried to focus on good versus bad. Now, like every PPV, there are more matches that are important to the show. The other two were both introduced in 1988.

Summer Slam’s best memory has to be “The Mega Bucks vs. The Mega Powers,” which still is one of the best tag team matches in WWE history. It was during the first ever Summer Slam, putting Andre the Giant and the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase versus the "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. Summer Slam was probably the most viewed PPV after Wrestlemania as it plays toward the end of the summer.


Hulk Hogan (right) and Macho Man (left)

The Royal Rumble is my favorite PPV. As stated above, it also was introduced in 1988. This PPV normally happens in late January, the name given because of the large Battle Royal that happens. 30 men get into a ring and battle it out! It’s quite funny. It was not an important PPV until 1992 when they changed the rule that whoever won would win the World Heavyweight Championship. The first to win was Ric Flair.


Other PPVs that change up yearly are the Money in the Bank, where they climb ladders to get the contract from the briefcase for a title match of their choosing, and the Elimination Chamber where six people fight. Two start and four others are in pods at the corners of the ring. There is a black, steel cage surrounding them, but the only way to win is to get pinned. No matter what the PPV is, there is one every month!


Recently, women have been allowed to have their own matches like the men. Women’s Royal Rumble, Women’s Money in the Bank, Women’s Elimination Chamber, etc. Other matches that have been added include the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at Wrestlemania which began in 2014. It is a fight in honor of Andre the Giant, and the winner gets the large Andre the Giant trophy.


Carmella winning Money in the Bank in 2017

My dad told me they no longer call these events PPVs as you don’t really have to buy them anymore like you had to when growing up. Now, everything is streamed. He said they are called Premium Live Events; however, the UFC just finalized their purchase of WWE, so who knows? Maybe the classic PPV will make a comeback?


Pics:

https://411mania.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/wrestlemania1-645x370.jpg


https://media.bleacherreport.com/w_800,h_533,c_fill/br-img-images/002/987/335/c27814015c2eb9509b7110f1c2c7fc29_crop_north.jpg


https://www.wwe.com/f/styles/gallery_img_ml/public/all/2018/05/119_SD_06272017ej_1309--3d024591c9320ec2a0d2f02f31130733.jpg


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WWE: Then and Now

Vince McMahon Sr. (left) and Vince McMahon Jr. (right) World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has such a long history that includes many name changes, but no matter what, the fanbase has stuck by its side. Vince McMahon Jr. is the name most people associate with WWE as he has run the company for over 40 years. WWE was not the large company it is today, for McMahon Jr. shaped the corporation to fit his standards. In 1982, McMahon Jr. bought World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) from his father McMahon Sr. and changed the name to World Wrestling Federation (WWF)... that extra W just wasn’t doing it for him. After purchasing the company, McMahon went into different wrestling territories and bought wrestlers from them; thus, those territories eventually went bankrupt. Vince himself owned the New York territory of entertainment wrestling, but his advancements into other territories included famous faces, such as Stu Hart with Stampede Wrestling covering the Montana area and Memphis Wrestling ...
1 comment
Read more

Factions

(left to right) Jimmy Uso, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Solo Sakoa, Jey Uso While I was going to do this post on The Bloodline, I realized how many factions were involved in WWE. Yes, The Bloodline has been a lot of WWE recently, but as my dad said… they are slowly losing traction and becoming less of the ‘main drama’ on the show. Factions are groups of wrestlers in their own ‘cliques,’ and there are many of these factions that can be recalled throughout the years. The Bloodline is run by Roman Reigns as the ‘Tribal Chief’ because of his Samoan background–the numerous ethnicities of WWE are what I want my next post to be about. Jey Uso joined Roman next as the ‘Right Hand Man’ with his twin brother Jimmy. Paul Heyman became Reign’s ‘special counsel’ or ‘wise man.’ Solo Sikoa, the Uso’s younger brother, joined the Bloodline later. Recently, Sami Zayn made it his goal to ruin the Bloodline. He joined as a fake member, gaining their trust before beginning to crumble the tribe from within. Now...
Post a Comment
Read more