WWE No Way Out

No Way Out was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced every February by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. 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. The final event was held in 2009, with Elimination Chamber replacing No Way Out in 2010.^[1][2]

During its time, the event had been held in two countries: the United States and Canada. It had been held in eight U.S. states and one Canadian province, where every event had been held in an indoor arena. Each event featured talent from WWE competing in various professional wrestling match types. Eight championship matches have taken place in the main event during its run.

Professional wrestling is a non-competitive professional sport, where matches are prearranged by the promotion's writing staff, and is also considered an athletic performing art, containing strong elements of catch wrestling, mock combat, and theatre. Each PPV event features several professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers are portrayed as either villains or heroes in the scripted events that build tension and culminate into a wrestling match or series of matches.

Contents 1 History 2 Dates and venues 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

History

No Way Out was a pay-per-view (PPV) event consisting of a main event and undercard that featured 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.^[3] 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.^[3]

In 2002, WWF was court ordered to change their name, which resulted in the promotion changing its name to WWE.^[4] Later that year, WWE held a draft that split its roster into two distinctive brands of wrestling, Raw and SmackDown,^[5] and ECW in 2006.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[9][10] The following year saw No Way Out again host two more Elimination Chamber matches.^[11][12] Furthering the new Elimination Chamber concept of the event, a survey indicating a possible renaming for No Way Out took place in September 2009. Voted by fans via WWE's official website, Elimination Chamber became the name of the February 2010 pay-per-view event, winning against Heavy Metal, Battle Chamber, Chamber of Conflict and the original No Way Out name.^[13] Despite the poll, it was later announced by WWE that Elimination Chamber would not be considered a part of the No Way Out chronology.^[14] Despite this, the event is still promoted in Germany as No Way Out because of concerns an "elimination chamber" would bring back the imagery of gas chambers that were used in concentration camps in World War II (in Germany, certain references to the National Socialist Workers Party are still prohibited).^[15][16][17]

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.

Dates and venues

#	Event	Date	City	Venue	Main Event
01 !1	No Way Out of Texas: In Your House !No Way Out of Texas: In Your House	01998-02-15 February 15, 1998[18]	Houston, Texas[19][20]	Compaq Center[19][20]	Jeff Jarrett (c) vs. Justin Bradshaw for the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship Steve Austin, Owen Hart, Cactus Jack, and Chainsaw Charlie vs. Triple H, Savio Vega, and the New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg) in a no disqualification match.[19][21]
02 !2	No Way Out !No Way Out (2000)	02000-02-27 February 27, 2000[18]	Hartford, Connecticut[22]	Hartford Civic Center[22]	Triple H (c) vs. Cactus Jack in a Hell in a Cell match for the WWF Championship.[23][24]
03 !3	No Way Out !No Way Out (2001)	02001-02-25 February 25, 2001[18]	Las Vegas, Nevada[25]	Thomas & Mack Center[25][26]	Triple H vs. Steve Austin in a Three Stages of Hell match Kurt Angle (c) vs. The Rock for the WWF Championship[25][27]
04 !4	No Way Out !No Way Out (2002)	02002-02-17 February 17, 2002[28]	Milwaukee, Wisconsin[28]	Bradley Center[28][29]	Chris Jericho (c) vs. Steve Austin for the Undisputed WWF Championship[28][30]
05 !5	No Way Out !No Way Out (2003)	02003-02-23 February 23, 2003[31]	Montreal, Quebec[32]	Bell Centre[32]	Steve Austin vs. Eric Bischoff The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan[7][31]
06 !6	No Way Out !No Way Out (2004)	02004-02-15 February 15, 2004[33]	Daly City, California[34]	Cow Palace[33][34]	Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Eddie Guerrero for the WWE Championship[33][35]
07 !7	No Way Out !No Way Out (2005)	02005-02-20 February 20, 2005[36]	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[37]	Mellon Arena[37]	John "Bradshaw" Layfield (c) vs. The Big Show in a barbed wired Steel Cage match for the WWE Championship[38][39]
08 !8	No Way Out !No Way Out (2006)	02006-02-19 February 19, 2006[40]	Baltimore, Maryland[41]	1st Mariner Arena[42]	Kurt Angle (c) vs. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship[43][44]
09 !9	No Way Out !No Way Out (2007)	02007-02-18 February 18, 2007[45]	Los Angeles, California[46]	Staples Center[46]	John Cena and Shawn Michaels vs. Batista and The Undertaker[47][48]
10 !10	No Way Out !No Way Out (2008)	02008-02-17 February 17, 2008[49]	Las Vegas, Nevada[50]	Thomas & Mack Center[50]	Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. Umaga vs. Chris Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy in an Elimination Chamber match[9][10]
11 !11	No Way Out !No Way Out (2009)	02009-02-15 February 15, 2009[51]	Seattle, Washington[51]	KeyArena[52]	John Cena (c) vs. Chris Jericho vs. Edge vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Mike Knox vs. Kane in an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship
(c) - refers to the champion prior to the match

See also

• List of WWE pay-per-view events
• WWE Elimination Chamber

References

External links

• Official No Way Out website

WWE pay-per-view events No Way Out No Way Out of Texas 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Current Royal Rumble Elimination Chamber WrestleMania Extreme Rules Over the Limit Bragging Rights Money in the Bank SummerSlam Night of Champions Hell in a Cell Vengeance Survivor Series TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs Former The Wrestling Classic (1985) No Holds Barred (1989) This Tuesday in Texas (1991) One Night Only (1997) Capital Carnage (1998) In Your House (1995–1999) Over the Edge (1998–1999) Fully Loaded (1998–2000) Invasion (2001) King of the Ring (1993–2002) Rebellion (1999–2002) Insurrextion (2000–2003) Bad Blood (1997, 2003–2004) December to Dismember (2006) New Year's Revolution (2005–2007) Unforgiven (1998–2008) No Mercy (1999–2008) Cyber Sunday (2004–2008) Armageddon (1999–2000, 2002–2008) No Way Out (1998, 2000–2009) Backlash (1999-2009) Judgment Day (1998, 2000-2009) One Night Stand (2005–2009) The Great American Bash (2004–2009) Breaking Point (2009) Fatal 4-Way (2010) Capitol Punishment (2011)