No Way Out is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, produced every February by the American professional wrestling promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The event was created in 1998, with its inaugural event produced as an In Your House event in February of that year. The event in 2000 was rebranded as an annual PPV event for WWE. To coincide with the brand extension, the event was made exclusive to the SmackDown brand in 2004. In 2007, to follow the format of WrestleMania, all PPV events became tri-branded.
Since its inception in 1998, the event has been held in two countries: the United States and Canada. It has been held in eight U.S. states and one Canadian municipality, where every event has been held in an indoor arena. Each event features talent from WWE competing in various professional wrestling match types. Since the inaugural event, seven championship matches have taken place in the main event.
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No Way Out is a pay-per-view (PPV) event consisting of a main event and undercard that feature championship matches and other various matches. The first No Way Out was originally produced as an In Your House event for World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the former name of WWE. The In Your House event was titled No Way Out of Texas: In Your House, named after the location of the venue, Houston, Texas. It took place on February 15, 1998 and aired live on PPV.[1] In 1999, production of In Your House events were canceled, though many of the former In Your House events, such as No Way Out, Backlash, and Judgment Day among others, were rebranded as annual PPV events.[1]
In 2002, WWF was court ordered to change their name, which resulted in the promotion changing its name to WWE.[2] Later that year, WWE held a draft that split its roster into two distinctive brands of wrestling, Raw and SmackDown.[3], and ECW in 2006.[4] Before the draft, matches featured wrestlers from the roster without any limitations; after the draft, matches only consisted of wrestlers from their distinctive brands. The first No Way Out event to be produced under the WWE banner and with roster limitations was No Way Out (2003), which took place on February 23, 2003. The following year, WWE announced that PPV events, excluding WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble, would be made exclusive to each brand; No Way Out was made exclusive to the SmackDown brand.[5] After three years of being produced as a brand exclusive event, No Way Out (2007) was the final No Way Out event (and the final PPV overall) that was brand exclusive, as WWE announced that PPV events from then on would feature all three brands of WWE.[6]
In 2008, WWE held the ninth annual No Way Out event, which featured two Elimination Chamber matches, a specialty professional wrestling match type promoted on rare occasions in WWE.[7][8] Each No Way Out event has been held in an indoor arena, with nine events taking place in the United States and one event taking place in Canada. Four events took place in the United States west coast, three events took place in the east coast, two events took place in the midwest, and one took place in Southern Canada.
# | Event | Date | City | Venue | Main Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | No Way Out of Texas | February 15, 1998[9] | Houston, Texas[10][11] | Compaq Center[10][11] | Steve Austin, Owen Hart, Cactus Jack (Mick Foley), and Chainsaw Charlie (Terry Funk) versus Triple H (Paul Levesque), Savio Vega, and the New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn [Monty Sopp] and Road Dogg [Brian James]) in a no disqualification match.[10][12] |
2 | No Way Out (2000) | February 27, 2000[9] | Hartford, Connecticut[13] | Hartford Civic Center[13] | Triple H (c) versus Cactus Jack in a Hell in a Cell match for the WWF Championship where the ring was surrounded by a steel structure of metal.[14][15] |
3 | No Way Out (2001) | February 25, 2001[9] | Las Vegas, Nevada[16] | Thomas & Mack Center[16][17] | Kurt Angle (c) versus The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) in a singles match, or standard wrestling match, for the WWF Championship[16][18] |
4 | No Way Out (2002) | February 17, 2002[19] | Milwaukee, Wisconsin[19] | Bradley Center[19][20] | Chris Jericho (c) versus Steve Austin in a singles match for the Undisputed WWF Championship[19][21] |
5 | No Way Out (2003) | February 23, 2003[22] | Montreal, Quebec[23] | Bell Centre[23] | The Rock versus Hulk Hogan in a singles match[5][22] |
6 | No Way Out (2004) | February 15, 2004[24] | San Francisco, California[25] | Cow Palace[24][25] | Brock Lesnar (c) versus Eddie Guerrero in a singles match for the WWE Championship[24][26] |
7 | No Way Out (2005) | February 20, 2005[27] | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[28] | Mellon Arena[28] | John "Bradshaw" Layfield (c) versus The Big Show (Paul Wight) in a barb wired Steel Cage match for the WWE Championship, in which the ring was surrounded by a metal cage that contained barb wire[29][30] |
8 | No Way Out (2006) | February 19, 2006[31] | Baltimore, Maryland[32] | 1st Mariner Arena[33] | Kurt Angle (c) versus The Undertaker (Mark Calaway) in a singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship[34][35] |
9 | No Way Out (2007) | February 18, 2007[36] | Los Angeles, California[37] | Staples Center[37] | John Cena and Shawn Michaels versus Batista (David Bautista) and The Undertaker in an interpromotional tag team match.[38][39] |
10 | No Way Out (2008) | February 17, 2008[40] | Las Vegas, Nevada[41] | Thomas & Mack Center[41] | Two Elimination Chamber matches, in which the ring was surrounded by a steel structure of chain and girders: one from the Raw brand, and the other from the ECW/SmackDown brands.[7][8] |
11 | No Way Out (2009) | February 15, 2009[42] | Seattle, Washington[42] | Key Arena[43] | TBD |
Note: (c) - Refers to the champion before the match occurred.
World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events |
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Royal Rumble · No Way Out · WrestleMania · Backlash · Judgment Day · One Night Stand · Night of Champions |
The Great American Bash · SummerSlam · Unforgiven · No Mercy · Cyber Sunday · Survivor Series · Armageddon |
Former pay-per-view events |
The Wrestling Classic (1985) · This Tuesday in Texas (1991) · King of the Ring (1993–2002) |
In Your House (1995–1999) · Bad Blood (1997, 2003–2004) · Fully Loaded (1998–2000) · Over the Edge (1998–1999) |
InVasion (2001) · December to Dismember (2006) · New Year's Revolution (2005–2007) |
Former UK pay-per-view events |
One Night Only (1997) · Capital Carnage (1998) |
No Mercy (UK) (1999) · Rebellion (1999–2002) · Insurrextion (2000–2003) |