WWE Pay Per View (1985)
The American professional wrestling promotion WWE has been broadcasting pay-per-view (PPV) events since the 1980s, when its classic "Big Four" events (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series) were first established—the company's very first PPV was WrestleMania in 1985. The company's PPV lineup expanded to a monthly basis in the mid-1990s following the introduction of the In Your House series of pay-per views before expanding even further in the mid-2000s during the first WWE brand extension. Following WWE's original brand extension in 2002, the company promoted two touring rosters, Raw and SmackDown, representing its television programs, Raw and SmackDown. The traditional "Big Four" continued to showcase the entire roster, while the remaining PPV events alternated between Raw and SmackDown cards. In March 2007, WWE announced that all subsequent PPV events would feature performers from all brands. In 2008, all WWE PPV events began broadcasting in high-definition.
-
Episode 1 - New Year's Revolution
Release Date: 2005-01-09New Year's Revolution (2005) was the first annual New Year's Revolution PPV. It took place on January 9, 2005 at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The main event was an Elimination Chamber match for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship between Triple H, Randy Orton, Batista, Edge, Chris Jericho, and Chris Benoit. Another primary match on the card was Muhammad Hassan versus Jerry Lawler.
-
Episode 2 - Royal Rumble
Release Date: 2005-01-30Royal Rumble (2005) was the eighteenth annual Royal Rumble PPV. It was presented by PlayStation and took place on January 30, 2005 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California and featured talent from both the Raw and SmackDown! brands. The main event was the annual 30-man Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from both brands. The primary match on the Raw brand was Triple H versus Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship. The primary match on the SmackDown! brand was a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship between reigning champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Kurt Angle, and The Big Show.
-
Episode 3 - No Way Out
Release Date: 2005-02-20No Way Out (2005) was the seventh annual No Way Out PPV. It was presented by Subway and took place on February 20, 2005 from the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The main event featured a Barbed Wire Steel Cage match for the WWE Championship between reigning champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield and The Big Show. The predominant match on the undercard, was Kurt Angle versus John Cena, where the winner would face the WWE Champion for the title at WrestleMania 21
-
Episode 4 - WrestleMania 21
Release Date: 2005-04-03WrestleMania 21 was the twenty-first annual WrestleManiaPPV. It was presented by Snickers and took place on April 3, 2005 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The main match on the Raw brand was Triple H versus Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship. The predominant match on the SmackDown brand was John "Bradshaw" Layfield versus John Cena for the WWE Championship. Another primary match was an interpromotional match between The Undertaker versus Randy Orton. The featured matches on the undercard were Kurt Angle versus Shawn Michaels and a Money in the Bank ladder match. The event also featured the return of Stone Cold Steve Austin who started his part-time appearances with WWE at this event. The event drew a Staples Center record attendance of 20,193 people and grossed more than $2.1 million in ticket sales.
-
Episode 5 - Backlash
Release Date: 2005-05-01Backlash (2005) was the seventh annual Backlash PPV. It took place on May 1, 2005 at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire and was presented by Namco's Tekken 5. The event starred talent from the Raw brand. In the main event, Batista defended the World Title in a singles match against Triple H. From the five scheduled bouts on the undercard, two received more promotion than the others. The first was a tag team match, in which Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan challenged Muhammad Hassan and Daivari. The other was a Last Man Standing match between Chris Benoit and Edge.
-
Episode 6 - Judgment Day
Release Date: 2005-05-22Judgment Day (2005) was the seventh annual PPV of the same name and took place on May 22, 2005 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was presented by Clearasil. The event featured wrestlers and other talent that performed on the SmackDown! program. The main event was an "I Quit" match featuring two wrestlers fighting until one stated "I Quit." WWE Champion John Cena defended the title against John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). Two featured bouts were scheduled on the undercard. In respective standard wrestling matches, Rey Mysterio fought Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle fought Booker T.
-
Episode 7 - ECW One Night Stand 2005
Release Date: 2005-06-12ECW One Night Stand (2005) was a professional wrestling PPV event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held on June 12, 2005 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, New York.The main event was a tag team match between The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray and D-Von) and the team of Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman. Two of the matches on the undercard were Chris Benoit versus Eddie Guerrero, and Mike Awesome versus Masato Tanaka. Rob Van dam, who had proposed the idea to Vince McMahon, could not compete due to injury but would go on to headline the 2006 event against John Cena.
-
Episode 8 - Vengeance
Release Date: 2005-06-26Vengeance (2005) was a professional wrestling PPV event presented by THQ's Juiced, which took place on June 26, 2005 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the fifth annual Vengeance event. The event starred wrestlers from the Raw brand. The main event was a Hell in a Cell match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Batista and Triple H. One of the predominant matches on the card was John Cena versus Chris Jericho versus Christian in a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship. Another primary match on the undercard was Kurt Angle versus Shawn Michaels in a rematch of their bout at WrestleMania 21.
-
Episode 9 - The Great American Bash
Release Date: 2005-07-24The Great American Bash (2005) was a professional wrestling PPV that took place on July 24, 2005, at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. The event featured wrestlers and other talent that performed on the SmackDown! program. The main event was Batista defending the World Heavyweight Championship against John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). One of the featured matches on the undercard was Rey Mysterio versus Eddie Guerrero while the other was Orlando Jordan versus Chris Benoit for the WWE United States Championship. The event grossed over $375,000 in ticket sales from an attendance of 8,000, and received about 233,000 pay-per-view buys, the same amount as the following year's event. The event was also available free of charge for Armed Forces members and their families.
-
Episode 10 - SummerSlam
Release Date: 2005-08-21SummerSlam (2005) was the eighteenth annual SummerSlam professional wrestling PPV event. It was presented by THQ's WWE Day of Reckoning 2 and took place on August 21, 2005 at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C. featured talent from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. The main match on the Raw brand was Hulk Hogan versus Shawn Michaels. The predominant match on the SmackDown brand was a No Holds Barred match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Batista and John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). Another primary match on the Raw brand was for the WWE Championship between John Cena and Chris Jericho. The main match on the undercard featured a Ladder match for the custody of Dominick between Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero.
-
Episode 11 - Unforgiven
Release Date: 2005-09-18Unforgiven (2005) was the seventh annual Unforgiven PPV and took place on September 18, 2005 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The event featured wrestlers and other talent that performed on the Raw program. To date, it is the only WWE pay-per-view event ever to be held in the state of Oklahoma. The main event was a standard wrestling match, in which Kurt Angle challenged WWE Champion John Cena. Two featured bouts on the undercard was another standard match, in which Shawn Michaels fought Chris Masters and a steel cage match, where the ring is enclosed by a steel cage, in which Matt Hardy fought Edge. Unforgiven grossed over $485,000 in ticket sales from an attendance of approximately 8,000, and received about 243,000 pay-per-view buys.
-
Episode 12 - No Mercy
Release Date: 2005-10-09No Mercy (2005) was the eighth annual No Mercy professional wrestling PPV and was presented by Sony's PlayStation 2. It took place on October 9, 2005 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas and featured wrestlers and other talent from WWE's SmackDown! brand. The main event was a standard wrestling match, in which World Heavyweight Champion Batista defended against challenger Eddie Guerrero. One of the featured preliminary matches was a Casket match between The Ortons (Randy and "Cowboy" Bob) and The Undertaker. Another primary preliminary match was a standard match between John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and Rey Mysterio.
-
Episode 13 - Taboo Tuesday
Release Date: 2005-11-01Taboo Tuesday (2005) was a professional wrestling PPV event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on November 1, 2005 at the iPayOne Center in San Diego, California. It was the second annual Taboo Tuesday event in which the fans were given the chance to vote on stipulations for the matches. The voting for the event started on October 24, 2005 and ended during the event. The event starred wrestlers from the Raw brand. The main event was a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship featuring Kurt Angle, John Cena and Shawn Michaels. Two bouts were featured on the undercard. The first was a Steel Cage match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship where Ric Flair fought Triple H. The other featured an Interpromotional tag team match where Rey Mysterio and Matt Hardy (SmackDown!) defeated Chris Masters and Snitsky (Raw).
-
Episode 14 - Survivor Series
Release Date: 2005-11-27Survivor Series (2005) was the 19th annual Survivor Series PPV. It was presented by NovaLogic's Delta Force: Black Hawk Down and took place on November 27, 2005 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. The first of the main events was an interpromotional 5-on-5 Survivor Series match, a type of elimination match, between Team SmackDown! (Batista, Rey Mysterio, John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL), Bobby Lashley, and Randy Orton) and Team Raw (Shawn Michaels, Kane, The Big Show, Carlito, and Chris Masters). The other main event was a standard wrestling match between wrestlers from the Raw brand, in which WWE Champion John Cena defended his title against Kurt Angle. Another match was a Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Ric Flair.
-
Episode 15 - Armageddon
Release Date: 2005-12-08Armageddon (2005) was the sixth Armageddon PPV. It was presented by Microsoft's XBox 360, and took place on December 18, 2005 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island and was a SmackDown! brand-exclusive event. The main event was a Hell in a Cell match between Randy Orton and The Undertaker. One of the predominant matches on the card was an Interpromotional tag team match between WWE Tag Team Champions Batista and Rey Mysterio and World Tag Team Champions Big Show and Kane. Another primary match on the undercard was Booker T versus Chris Benoit in the fourth match of their "Best of 7" series for the vacant WWE United States Championship.