World Wrestling Entertainment

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is a big company that produces professional wrestling shows. It is now the most popular company in the wrestling business. Vince McMahon, Sr. started the company in 1952. His son, Vince McMahon, Jr. is currently the chairman of the company and runs the company along with his wife Linda, his son Shane, and his daughter Stephanie.

The company used to be known as the World Wrestling Federation or the WWF. The WWF changed their name to WWE after a lawsuit against the World Wildlife Fund.

[edit] Television programs

WWE runs three major television programs each week. Each show has their own cast of wrestlers. WWE calls these casts brands. RAW is WWE's main show and has ran on Monday nights since 1993. SmackDown! has been running since 1999. It used to be on Thursday nights but moved to Friday in 2005. ECW is a program that started in 2006. ECW is based on the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) company that ran from 1993 until its bankruptcy in 2001.

Once or twice every month, WWE produces a pay-per-view event. These events have more important matches. The biggest pay-per-view of the year for WWE is called WrestleMania. WrestleMania has ran since 1985.

[edit] Champions

WWE have championships which are recognitions of a wrestler being the best in their brand. The most important championships are the WWE Championship for RAW, the World Heavyweight Championship for SmackDown! and the ECW World Championship for ECW.

There are also championships for specific divisions. These include the WWE Women's Championship which is fought for by women, the WWE Cruiserweight Championship which is fought for by wrestlers who have a weight that is less than 220 pounds. There are also two tag team championships where teams of usually two wrestlers fight for.

The current champions are:

Brand	Championship	Current champion(s)
RAW	WWE Champion	John Cena
	WWE Intercontinental Champion	Santino Morella
	WWE Women's Champion	Melina
	World Tag Team Champions	The Hardys - Matt and Jeff
SmackDown!	World Heavyweight Champion	The Undertaker
	WWE United States Champion	Chris Benoit
	WWE Cruiserweight Champion	Chavo Guerrero
	WWE Tag Team Champions	Paul London and Brian Kendrick
ECW	ECW World Champion	Bobby Lashley