Major Players in Pro Wrestling: WWE

Today, there are thousands of pro wrestling leagues, or promotions, around the world. However, for this blog, I’m only going to focus on the three biggest in the U.S. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Total Nonstop Action (TNA) and Ring of Honor (ROH). My next few posts will be a general overview of these three promotions. I’ll start with the WWE.

World Wrestling Entertainment

The WWE is the premier wrestling promotion in the world. If you wrestle, chances are, your ultimate goal is to one day end up here.

Along with being the top wrestling organization, in terms of funds, status and quality of production, WWE has also had the greatest amount of influence on the pro wrestling business. They created the term “Sports-Entertainment”, were the first to incorporate dramatic storylines with the in-ring action and were one of the first promotions to have the wrestlers be portrayed more as over-the-top characters than as legitimate athletes. This has become the blueprint for just about all wrestling organizations today.

Currently the WWE is under the “brand extension”, which divides their large roster of wrestlers up so that they can compete exclusively on one of their three major televised shows, Raw, Smackdown or ECW. The WWE and the brand extension can be compared to Major League Baseball, where there’s the American League and the National League and the teams in each league only play each other with a couple of exceptions, like interleague play and the World Series. However, even though the two leagues are separate, they are all still under the MLB banner, which is the same case for Raw, Smackdown and ECW being all under the WWE banner despite being presented as separate entities.

Based on the talent exclusive to each show, Raw is generally considered WWE’s top brand with Smackdown a close second and ECW a very distant third.

Here are some of the WWE's current big stars:

John Cena

Raw Superstar, John Cena is a former 3-time holder of the WWE Title [the top title on the Raw brand]. Up until he injured himself during a match in September by accidentally tearing his pectoral tendon while performing a move, Cena was WWE champion for over a year . This is a feat unheard of nowadays since title reigns usually last four or five months, maybe even a couple of weeks for some. Once he went down with the injury, Cena had to vacate his position as champion since he would not be able to physically defend his title. Cena is a bit of a controversial figure in the WWE because despite carrying the company by holding their most prestigious title, being pushed as the #1 babyface and main eventing nearing every major WWE show for more than a year, crowds across the country couldn’t help but boo him. After the injury, Cena was supposed to be out of action until late March or early April, but he made a surprise return way earlier than expected in last month.



Randy Orton

Randy Orton is the current holder of the WWE Title, having won the belt after it was vacated by John Cena. Orton is arguably the top heel in the WWE and is dubbed “The Legend Killer” due to him building his career on disrespecting and physically attacking various WWE Hall of Famers and other pro wrestling veterans. Ironically, Orton comes from a hall of fame pedigree. His father, “Cowboy” Bob Orton, and his grandfather Bob Orton Sr., were both former wrestlers and are considered legends in pro wrestling.


Shawn Michaels

“The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels is one of the veterans of the WWE. Michaels is probably also one of the more decorated wrestlers in the history of the WWE, having held every major championship in the promotion. Despite being one of the older members on the Raw roster, HBK isn't afraid to high risk wrestling moves such as moonsaults [a move where one wrestler does a back flip and lands on their opponent] and elbow drops from the top rope.


The Undertaker

The Undertaker is one of the more popular wrestlers on Smackdown. He is another WWE veteran who is mainly a brawler and uses a lot of punches and kicks. One of Taker’s claims to fame in the WWE is going undefeated in his matches at Wrestlemania (the WWE’s biggest annual pay-per-view of the year). “The Phenom” is currently 15-0 and it is the longest streak in Wrestlemania history. Also, in my opinion, the Undertaker has some of the coolest entrances.

Undertaker Wrestlemania 23 Entrance

Edge

Edge wrestles for Smackdown and is the current holder of the World Heavyweight Title, the top belt on his brand. Edge spent the early parts of his career in the WWE as apart of a tag team, however the team eventually split and Edge would go on to become a star on his own. The "Rated R Superstar" is another one of the WWE's top heels and he is also one of the few wrestlers to have held the World Heavyweight Title and the WWE World Title on separate occasions during the WWE brand extension era.