Description
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into fields outside of wrestling, including film, football, and various other business ventures. The company is additionally involved in licensing its intellectual property to companies to produce video games and action figures.
The promotion was founded in 1953 as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), a Northeastern territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Following a dispute, CWC left the NWA and became the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in April 1963. After rejoining the NWA in 1971, the WWWF was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1980 before the promotion left the NWA for good in 1983. In 2002, following a legal dispute with the World Wildlife Fund, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In 2011, the promotion ceased branding itself as World Wrestling Entertainment and began solely branding itself with the initials WWE.
Prior to September 2023, the company's majority owner was its executive chairman, third-generation wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, who retained a 38.6% ownership of the company's outstanding stock and 81.1% of the voting power. The current entity, which was originally named Titan Sports, Inc., was incorporated on February 21, 1980, in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, but reincorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law in 1987. It acquired Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd., the holding company for the WWF, in 1982. Titan was renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. in 1999, and then World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. in 2002. In 2023, its legal name was changed to World Wrestling Entertainment, LLC.
WWE is the largest wrestling promotion in the world. Its main roster is divided into two touring brands, Raw and SmackDown. Its developmental brand, NXT, is based at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Overall, WWE programming is available in more than one billion homes worldwide in 30 languages. The company's global headquarters is located in Stamford, Connecticut, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, and Munich.
As in other professional wrestling promotions, WWE shows are not true contests but entertainment-based performance theater, featuring storyline-driven, scripted, and partially choreographed matches; however, matches often include moves that can put performers at risk of injury, even death, if not performed correctly. The pre-determined aspect of professional wrestling was publicly acknowledged by WWE's then-owner Vince McMahon in 1989 in order to avoid taxes from athletic commissions. WWE markets its product as sports entertainment, acknowledging professional wrestling's roots in competitive sport and dramatic theater.
In 2023, WWE began to explore a potential sale of the company, amidst an employee misconduct scandal involving McMahon that had prompted him to step down as chairman and CEO, although he returned as executive chairman. In April 2023, WWE made a deal with Endeavor Group Holdings, under which it would merge with Zuffa, the parent company of mixed martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to form TKO Group Holdings, a new public company majority-owned by Endeavor, with McMahon serving as executive chairman of the new entity, and Nick Khan becoming president. The merger was completed on September 12, 2023. In 2024, McMahon, who was by now no longer the majority WWE stockholder, ended his ties with the company amid a sex trafficking scandal.
