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World Wrestling Entertainment is quite the venerable institution. The company dates back to the 1950s when the Capitol Wrestling Corporation took flight under the ownership of Jess McMahon--Vince McMahon Jr.'s grandfather.
Capitol Wrestling Corporation would eventually transition into the World Wrestling Federation in the 1960s. One huge name brought the WWWF to prominence; Bruno Sammartino.
In latest WWE NEWS, based on the stardom of Bruno, the fledgling promotion soared. The WWWF managed to control the coveted North East territory, which included the lucrative New York market.
Over time, many other stars would be the face of the company, men like Hulk Hogan and John Cena. But none of them had the lengthy title reigns of Bruno Sammartino. His record of nine years combined total is a record that might never be broken.
In modern times, the WWWF is now known as the WWE. Here are ten things you might not know about the company's storied history.
#1 The original Nature Boy Buddy Rogers led to the company leaving the National Wrestling Alliance
The modern WWE may not have happened had it not been for the original Nature Boy and a twenty thousand dollar deposit.
Buddy Rogers was the NWA world champion, but due to McMahon's influence he rarely worked outside of the North East territory. Many of the southern promotions which were members of the National Wrestling Alliance were understandably upset with this arrangement.
Rogers, like all champions of his era, paid a twenty thousand dollar deposit on the world title, to prevent double crosses or other shenanigans by the champion. Rogers refused to relinquish the twenty grand, which led to the Nature Boy dropping the NWA title to Lou Thesz.
The then-WWWF left the NWA in protest, and forged ahead on their own.
#2 The WWE lost its 'WWF' name to a wildlife conservation group
These days, there isn't the emphasis on owning a particular domain name as much as there once was. Smartphones and numerous web browsing tools have led to an easier time navigating the world wide web.
But back in the early 2000s, domain names were a hot property. Lawsuits filed by everyone from McDonald's to Madonna were aimed at gaining ownership of brands for use on the internet.
One of the major lawsuits of the day was brought by the World Wildlife Fund, an animal conservation corporation, and the World Wrestling Federation, as WWE was known at the time. The World Wildlife Fund would win the lawsuit, on grounds that they had been using the WWF logo for much longer.
So WWF became the WWE, and the rest is history. Now you know why WWE blurs out their logo on any show predating the law suit.
#3 Hulk Hogan was originally supposed to be a redhead
Back in the early 1980s, Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association was one of the hottest tickets in pro wrestling. Not only did they have Andre the Giant and Roddy Piper, they had a certain star in the making by the name of Terry "Hulk" Bollea.
AWA champion Bob Backlund allegedly refused to drop the title to Hogan, because of Bollea's lack of legit wrestling experience. So AWA sold Hogan's contract to Vince McMahon Sr.'s WWWF promotion.
When the Hulkster showed up for work, the senior McMahon gifted him a bottle of red hair dye. Hogan was going to portray an Irish man and appeal to that audience. Hogan, however, feared the hair dye would exacerbate his already steady hair loss. So he poured the hair dye down the shower drain.
Now it's difficult to imagine Hogan as anything but a blonde, but he nearly debuted as a red haired Irishman.
#4 It was the Wrestling Classic which made PPV a viable, profitable format
While the first WrestleMania was offered via pay per view in some markets, by and large the show was distributed via giant closed circuit television. People would pay an attendance fee and then watch the show on a movie theater sized screen. Much different than enjoying WWE conveniently in your own home.
So after WrestleMania, WWE presented the Wrestling Classic. It was a tournament format broadcast, which featured many of the top stars of the era. Junk Yard Dog would go on to win the tournament, unfortunately marking his last big win with the promotion.
The Wrestling Classic was widely distributed via pay per view, and is considered the first viable success story of wrestling PPVs. The Wrestling Classic firmly established both the WWE specifically and pro wrestling in general as legit pay per view buyrate draws.
#5 The McMahon family was promoting wrestling shows before the WWF existed in any form
Long before there was a WWE, or even a Capitol Wrestling Company, the McMahon family was busy working in the pro wrestling industry. This proud tradition reaches back to the early half of the 20th century.
The McMahon family patriarch at the time, Jess McMahon, took an interest in promoting wrestling since he was already promoting pro boxing. In Jess's era, many of the matches were still being portrayed as 'shoots,' even though in reality the sports entertainment model of scripted matches had been going on for years.
With the help of men like WWE Hall of Fame member Toots Mondt, McMahon promoted wrestling in the tri-state area, mostly focusing on New York and New Jersey markets. Eventually, the McMahon family would formally start their own promotion, of course, and the rest is history.
#6 Wrestlemania II was held on a Monday
By anyone's estimation, WrestleMania was a glorious mess of a pay per view.
For no readily discernible reason, the event was split between three separate venues. One part came live from New York City, another came from Rosemont Illinois, and the final part broadcast from Los Angeles, California.
This led to many difficulties with coordinating the three events and putting on the televised matches. No one knows why the WWE attempted such an ambitious, if bizarre, arrangement.
Even more bizarre than the three venues situation was the fact that Wrestlemania II was broadcast on a Monday. The WWE would abandon Monday night ppvs in favor of Sundays, and ever since WrestleMania has always happened on a Sunday.
But not WrestleMania II, the PPV that dares to be different.
#7 Years before the end of the Monday Night War, Vince McMahon took over World Championship Wrestling
In the early 1980s, the then-WWF was booming in business. Not only had they acquired Hulk Hogan, who would go on to be the biggest star in wrestling, but they were heavily promoting their WrestleMania card.
In order to expand his empire, McMahon tried to purchase the World Championship Wrestling time slot owned by Georgia Championship Wrestling. TBS owner Ted Turner rejected McMahon outright, fearing that the cartoonish programming the WWE offered would not go over well with the traditional wrestling fandom.
McMahon would acquire a controlling stake in GCW, and took over the time slot anyway. Many wrestling fans were upset that WWE was now airing in GCW's old time slot, and wrote to the network and called them in droves. Remember, this was before the internet.
The letter writing and call in campaign worked, and while Turner couldn't stop WWE programming from airing on the network, he could provide alternatives in different time slots.
Eventually, McMahon lost a lot of money on GCW and wound up selling his stake. It would be many years before WWE programming was on a Turner station.
#8 Vince McMahon promoted an NJPW match
One of the oldest arguments about sports entertainment is whether or not a wrestler could defeat a pro boxer. In recent years this has expanded to include Mixed Martial Arts as well.
In order to take advantage of both the surging popularity of Antonio Inoki, and the cult of personality that was Muhammed Ali, the NJPW promotion managed to contract an exhibition bout between the two men.
This was before PPV was prevalent as it is today, and Inoki turned to Vince McMahon Jr. to help promote the fight on closed circuit television in the United States.
McMahon often treated NJPW as an ally more than a rival--though that has probably changed--and their business relationship helped both promotions. By the way, in case you were wondering, "The Greatest" Ali got his butt kicked by Inoki. Badly.
#9 Shane McMahon was the 'evil' voice of Kaientai
In the late 1990s, one of the major selling points for WWE rival WCW was not the nWo, but the cruiserweight division.
Men like Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Jushin Thunder Liger and many more had made the WCW cruiserweight division one of the most exciting and unpredictable draws in wrestling of the day.
The WWE sought to copy this success with their Light Heavyweight division. They hired Taka Michinoku as their star Light Heavyweight. They even brought in an entire stable, Kaientai, to be his villains.
But the Light Heavyweight division never took off. Eventually, the division was retired and Taka joined Kaientai. The remaining members, Funaki and Taka, embarked on a gimmick where they were dubbed into English--badly.
The man who voiced the 'evil' voice of Kaientai was none other than Shane McMahon. Try dropping that tidbit the next wrestling trivia night.
#10 The Young Bucks have already been in a WWE ring.
Back before the formation of All Elite Wrestling changed the entire industry, one of the most pressing questions on the minds of fans and critics was this; Would the Young Bucks ever wrestle in a WWE ring?
Now, of course, that possibility seems quite remote. In all likelihood, The Bucks will retire from the ring without ever signing a WWE contract.
But did you know that the Young Bucks have already performed in a WWE ring? They just didn't call themselves the Young Bucks.
In 2008, the reformation of Degeneration X was the talk of the wrestling industry. However, DX were now heroes, and heroes are only as good as their villains.
The Miz and Morrison were chosen to fill this role. During their feud with DX, they engaged in the venerable tradition of facing a 'ringer' of their rivals. In this case, the ringers for Triple H and Shawn Michael were played by none other than Matt and Nick Jackson.
Truth is stranger than fiction!
There you have it: Ten things about WWE history you may not have known. Questions or comments? Please leave them after the article, and as always, thanks for reading!
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