WWE Video Library

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) video library is currently the largest collection of professional wrestling videos and copyrights in the world.[1] It's comprised not only of past and current works by World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly the World Wrestling Federation) but the works of now out of business professional wrestling promotions dating back to the 1950s.[2] The library currently stands at over 75,000 hours of content; including weekly television shows, pay-per-views, and recorded house shows.[1] The collection represents a very significant portion of the visual history of modern professional wrestling. In recent years WWE has made their classic holdings available to public view through their WWE 24/7 video on demand service and various home-video releases.

Please note that the dates listed below for purchased organizations and libraries represent the duration of that company, and may not necessarily represent the extent of historical video owned.

Contents

[edit] Classic WWE holdings

The library includes all past and present World Wrestling Entertainment tapes dating back to the 1950s, including all previous forms of the company:

Although not wrestling content, the library's holdings also include footage from various WWF/E produced ventures including the 1985-1987 cartoon series Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, 1989 film No Holds Barred, 1990-1992 World Bodybuilding Federation, 2001 XFL, and any motion pictures produced by WWE Films.

[edit] Non-WWE purchases

For years World Wrestling Entertainment has engaged in a campaign of purchasing libraries of defunct wrestling promotions. The first significant purchases took place in 2001, when they bought the complete historical archives of their former competitor World Championship Wrestling.[3] The purchase of Extreme Championship Wrestling in 2003[4] gave the company the majority of all recent national professional wrestling content.


^‡ Former WWE developmental territory
^† International World Class Championship Wrestling owns all post-1988 footage of WCCW and its successor promotions.[5]

[edit] National Wrestling Alliance

Throughout its history, WWE has had a long and complicated relationship with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). For many decades, until the mid-1980s, the NWA acted as a governing body of the many various regional wrestling promotions, and membership allowed for decreased regional competition and the shared use of big-name stars for local events. WWE (as Capitol Wrestling) was a member of the NWA between 1952 and 1963, and again (as the WWWF) between 1971 and 1983.

Jim Crockett Promotions was an NWA member for its entire existence, and by the end of the promotion's run was, more or less, the NWA, thanks to its control of the largest regional NWA promotions. This was exemplified by the presence of all major NWA titles in World Championship Wrestling when Crockett Promotions morphed into WCW in the 1980s. WCW's relationship with the NWA was even more convoluted than WWE's, until WCW left the NWA in 1993.

As a result of WWE's former membership in the NWA, through its ownership of WCW and its predecessor libraries, and through its ownership of Extreme Championship Wrestling (which was an NWA member until it suddenly severed ties in 1994) and other smaller regional promotions, WWE owns a vast amount of NWA footage, making up the majority of significant NWA matches from the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s.

[edit] Condition

Although professional wrestling has been on television throughout the medium's existence, not all broadcasts were recorded, nor necessarily saved, and most promotions did not have a regular television presence until the 1970s. The historical availability of individual, non-televised matches is also sketchy, as likely only the most significant bouts were recorded for posterity, and as with any footage of increasing age, can be lost to time.

In addition, a number of factors have adversely affected the quality of some surviving tapes. For example, upon taking control of the World Championship Wrestling library it was noted that the tapes were unlabeled and not categorized.[6] The condition of some WCW tapes is such that WWE either can't or won't air them on WWE 24/7.[7]

[edit] Editing

WWE owns the unedited master tapes for all content in the library, however, due to a lawsuit over the "WWF" initialism brought on by the World Wildlife Fund they are no longer allowed to use the letters WWF or the "scratch" logo used between 1998 and 2002.[8] As a result, any instance of someone saying "WWF" (though not World Wrestling Federation) or shots of the "scratch" logo are edited out on any re-airings or video releases, except for the UK exclusive WWE Tagged Classics DVD range.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b WWE (2006-06-05). "WWE Amasses 75,000 Hours Of Content". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-20.
  2. ^ a b c d e Video Library. TV Shows > WWE 24/7 On Demand. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-02-20.
  3. ^ a b WWE (2001-03-23). "WWE Entertainment, Inc. Acquires WCW from Turner Broadcasting". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
  4. ^ a b WWE (2006-05-25). "WWE Launches ECW As Third Brand". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
  5. ^ a b Has Kevin Von Erich sold the WCCW videotape library to Vince McMahon and WWE?. WCCW Frequently Asked Questions. World Class Memories. Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
  6. ^ Storm, Lance. Part One: Lance's Thoughts. Book Marks - The Death of WCW. Storm Wrestling. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  7. ^ "June 9, 1997". The Monday Night Wars. WWE 24/7.
  8. ^ corporate.wwe.com (2002-05-06). "World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Drops The "F" To Emphasize the "E" for Entertainment". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
v • d • e
World Wrestling Entertainment
History
Programming
Developmental territories
Former and defunct
developmental territories
Subsidiaries
Defunct subsidiaries
Other wrestling
organizations acquired