The American
professional wrestling promotion
WWE (formerly World Wrestling Federation, or WWF) has been broadcasting
pay-per-view (PPV) events since the mid 1980s, when its classic "Big Four" events (
Royal Rumble,
WrestleMania,
SummerSlam, and
Survivor Series) were first established between 1985 and 1989—with the company's very first PPV being
WrestleMania in 1985. The company's PPV lineup expanded to a monthly basis in 1995 following the introduction of the
In Your House series of pay-per views (which were replaced by standalone ppvs in 1999) before expanding even further in the mid-2000s during the first
WWE brand extension. In addition, WWE produced international PPVs not available in the United States between 1997 and 2003. In 2022, the company began recognizing
Money in the Bank as one of their five biggest events of the year, thus making it a "Big Five" event along with the classic "Big Four";
King of the Ring was considered a "Big Five" event from 1993 until 2002, after which, it was discontinued as a PPV until 2024. Following WWE's original brand extension in 2002, the company promoted two touring rosters,
Raw and
SmackDown, representing its television programs,
Raw and
SmackDown, with the two United Kingdom PPVs held that year being the first ones to be brand exclusive. Following
Judgment Day in 2003, brand-exclusive PPVs were expanded to all WWE PPVs, except the traditional "Big Four", which continued to showcase the entire roster, while the remaining PPVs alternated between Raw and SmackDown. A special
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) reunion PPV in 2005 led to the creation of an
ECW brand in 2006, which also received its own dedicated PPV events. In March 2007, WWE announced that all subsequent non-"big-four" PPV events following
WrestleMania 23 would feature performers from all brands, which ended brand-exclusive PPVs. In 2008, all WWE PPV events began broadcasting in
high definition. The company's PPV business began to drastically change with the launch of the online streaming service, the
WWE Network, on February 24, 2014. WWE's focus shifted away from delivering their events solely on PPV channels, with their main focus on livestreaming all of the events on the WWE Network, including some exclusive events, such as
NXT TakeOver. After the second brand extension in July 2016, brand-exclusive events returned with the "Big Four" again as the only ones to feature both the Raw and SmackDown brands. Brand-exclusive events would once again come to an end, this time after
WrestleMania 34 in April 2018 with the events again featuring wrestlers from all brands. Beginning with
NXT TakeOver 31 in October 2020, the TakeOver events started airing on traditional PPV in addition to livestreaming. In late 2021, WWE discontinued the TakeOver series, but has continued to promote major
NXT events periodically; however, beginning with the 2022 calendar year, WWE ceased broadcasting NXT's major events on PPV with them subsequently only available via livestreaming. The
2021 edition of Fastlane would be the beginning of WWE phasing out the standalone WWE Network, with the company partnering with other platforms to distribute its content. Beginning with that edition of Fastlane in the United States, events began airing on
NBCUniversal's streaming service,
Peacock, following a merger of the American WWE Network under Peacock in March that year. The standalone version of the American WWE Network shut down on April 4. Over the next couple of years, other countries would see their own version of the WWE Network merge under other services. In
Indonesia, the WWE Network merged under
Disney+ Hotstar in January 2022, followed by a merger under
Disney+ in the
Philippines in November that year, while in Australia, it merged under
Binge in January 2023 and then
Abema in Japan that September. With this increased emphasis of digital platforms over traditional PPV outlets, WWE began to refer to all PPV and livestreaming events as "Premium Live Events" (PLEs), starting with the
Day 1 event on January 1, 2022. In January 2025, the majority of the countries that still had the WWE Network merged under
Netflix, with only a small number of countries maintaining the WWE Network due to pre-existing contracts. Beginning with
Wrestlepalooza in September 2025,
ESPN's
direct-to-consumer streaming service assumed the streaming rights for main roster PLEs in the United States as part of a five-year deal following WWE's contract with Peacock. Also as part of the deal, select events also air on ESPN's linear channels. This changeover to ESPN was originally to begin with
WrestleMania 42 in April 2026, but in August 2025, it was announced the deal had been moved up. NXT's PLEs continued to air on Peacock until March 15, 2026, before switching to
YouTube, with Peacock only maintaining the ''
Saturday Night's Main Event (SNME
) specials as well as replays of recent episodes of SmackDown
until at least 2029 as well as exclusive documentaries; outside the US, SNME'' streams on YouTube. In January 2026, more countries merged under Netflix, while Sub-Saharan Africa and Japan remain on
SuperSport and Abema, respectively. On April 1, 2026, the last four remaining countries that were still on the standalone WWE Network transitioned to Netflix, permanently shutting down the WWE Network after 12 years. In addition to ESPN, WWE's events are still made available on traditional PPV outlets in the United States. WWE also partnered with
Fandango to broadcast PLEs in select theaters across the United States, beginning with the
2025 SummerSlam, which was initially exclusive to select
Regal Cinemas, with events after SummerSlam expanding to other theater chains. In Canada, WWE's PLEs are available through
Vu!,
Shaw PPV, or
SaskTel PPV, and was formerly shown in select locations of the
Cineplex Entertainment chain. In Australia, PLEs are shown on
Main Event. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, all PLEs were shown on Sky Sports Box Office until 2019, when
BT Sport took over rights to WWE content. In India and South Asia, a single broadcaster (currently
Sony Ten) generally holds the rights to all WWE programming, with PLEs broadcast for no additional charge. Currently, WWE's PLEs for the Raw and SmackDown brands are generally held on Saturdays and are typically 3 to 4 hours in length, with some events running longer or shorter. NXT's PLEs have also mostly shifted to Saturdays and last between 2 to 3 hours. Prior to 2022, all PLEs were generally held on Sundays. The change was attributed to WWE president Nick Khan who felt that "big sports events were better on Saturday nights". WWE also airs a pre-show before most events which includes interviews, match previews, and a panel of experts analyzing the upcoming line-up. They were originally simply called
Pre-Show, but beginning with
Payback 2013, they were rebranded as
Kickoff (although
WrestleMania XXX in 2014 used the
Pre-Show branding) before being rebranded again to
WWE Countdown to [event] beginning with
NXT Stand & Deliver in 2024. The pre-shows also used to host some matches but these were phased out in early 2022, although some pre-shows still occasionally have matches. WWE also airs a post-show media press conference following some events, including NXT events. Previously, they would air a post-show for some events, known as
Fallout. Each
Fallout included interviews and a panel of experts analyzing the event. WWE also previously held post-show editions of
Raw Talk for Raw-branded events and
Talking Smack for SmackDown-branded events. ==Past events==