List of WWE pay-per-view events

Current pay-per-view events

Month	Event
January	Royal Rumble
February	No Way Out
March/April	WrestleMania
April	Backlash
May	Judgment Day
June	One Night Stand
	Vengeance
July	The Great American Bash
August	SummerSlam
September	Unforgiven
October	No Mercy
	Cyber Sunday
November	Survivor Series
December	Armageddon

Each month, World Wrestling Entertainment holds one or two annual pay-per-view events. One event is usually three hours long and features six to twelve matches. Pay-per-view events are a big part of the revenue stream for WWE.

History

It is a commonly held misconception that the first WWF pay-per-view was November 1985's The Wrestling Classic, a tournament held at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, but the first WrestleMania event, in March of the same year, was available on pay-per-view in some markets. The first two WrestleManias were undeniable financial successes, and after WrestleMania III became perhaps the best known event in wrestling history, the WWF decided to expand their pay-per-view offerings.

The first Survivor Series event was offered on November 29 1987, scheduled directly against NWA's Starrcade, traditionally considered to be that promotion's biggest yearly event. The WWF informed cable companies that if they chose to carry Starrcade, they would not be allowed to carry future WWF events. The vast majority of companies showed Survivor Series (only three opted to remain loyal to their contract with the NWA), and the resulting financial blow to Starrcade was in many ways the beginning of the end for Jim Crockett Promotions.

The debut of the Royal Rumble in January 1988 was actually shown on the USA Network, where it drew the highest rating to that time in the network's history. The event became a pay-per-view the following year.

The first SummerSlam was held in Madison Square Garden in August 1988. These four events - the Royal Rumble in January, WrestleMania in March or April, SummerSlam in August, and Survivor Series in November - were the only annual pay-per-view offerings (other than the King of the Ring) from the WWF until 1995, after rival World Championship Wrestling had expanded the number of their pay-per-view shows. Initially, the WWF used the In Your House brand, but beginning in 1996 began using other names to compliment the In Your House name (such as Badd Blood and No Way Out), to avoid confusion. By the end of February of 1999, the In Your House name was nonexistent.

This trend escalated to the point that by 1996, both companies showed monthly events on pay-per-view. Until recently, World Wrestling Entertainment had a once-a-month pay-per-view schedule, which they had from the late '90s until 2003 totalling twelve a year. WWE currently produces 15 shows yearly. The pay-per-view events in the United States can be bought through iN DEMAND, Dish Network or DirecTV. In Canada, these shows are available for order through the nation's largest pay-per-view providers, including Viewers Choice Canada, Bell ExpressVu, and Star Choice

The WWE ran twice yearly pay-per-views which were exclusive to the UK up to 2003, but after the brand extension occurred they were scrapped in favor of tours, with a TV taping included, so now the WWE has the WrestleMania Revenge tour after WrestleMania at the beginning of the year and the Survivor Series tour at the end of the year, in the UK. Each includes a RAW, SmackDown!, and an ECW taping.

In Australia, WWE's pay-per-views are shown on Main Event. In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland only the "big four" pay-per-views (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series) are available on the pay-per-view channel Sky Box Office. The rest of WWE's pay-per-views are shown on the subscription channel Sky Sports 1.

Brand extension

In June 2003, WWE announced to further their brand extension and make their pay-per-views exclusive to a particular brand (RAW, SmackDown!, and later, ECW). The only exceptions to this were the established Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series events which remained joint productions, and WrestleMania being the only event with wrestlers from different brands competing against each other. This allowed WWE to eventually add more pay-per-view events to their offerings, such as Cyber Sunday and The Great American Bash (itself a revival of an old NWA and WCW event). From late 2005, the restrictions were relaxed and interbrand matches in brand-exclusive events were becoming more frequent. In March 2007, it was announced that the idea of brand-exclusive events was scrapped and would now feature matches from all three brands. The brand-exclusive events were:

RAW New Year's Revolution (2005 - 2007) Backlash (2004 - 2006) Bad Blood (2003 - 2004) Vengeance (2004 - 2006) Unforgiven (2003 - 2006) Cyber Sunday (2004 - 2006) Armageddon (2003)

SmackDown! No Way Out (2004 - 2007) Judgment Day (2004 - 2006) Vengeance (2003) The Great American Bash (2004 - 2006) No Mercy (2003 - 2006) Armageddon (2004 - 2006)

ECW December to Dismember (2006)

ECW One Night Stand

Upcoming pay-per-view schedule

Date	Event	Venue and City
September 16, 2007	Unforgiven	FedExForum	Memphis, Tennessee
October 7, 2007	No Mercy	Allstate Arena	Rosemont, Illinois
October 28, 2007	Cyber Sunday	Verizon Center	Washington D.C.
November 18, 2007	Survivor Series	AmericanAirlines Arena	Miami, Florida
December 16 2007	Armageddon	TBA	TBA
January 27, 2008	Royal Rumble	Madison Square Garden	New York City, New York
February 17, 2008	No Way Out	TBA	TBA
March 30, 2008	WrestleMania 24	Citrus Bowl	Orlando, Florida
April 27, 2008	Backlash	TBA	TBA
May 18, 2008	Judgment Day	TBA	TBA
June 8, 2008	One Night Stand	TBA	TBA
June 29, 2008	Vengeance