WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (d/b/a WWE) is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company that deals primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing and direct product sales. WWE also refers to the professional wrestling promotion itself, founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1952 as Capitol Wrestling Corporation. As of 2014, it is the largest wrestling promotion in the world, holding over 300 events a year, and broadcasting to about 36 million viewers in more than 150 countries. The company's headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut, with offices in major cities across the world.

As in other professional wrestling promotions, WWE shows are not legitimate contests, but purely entertainment-based, featuring storyline-driven, scripted, and choreographed matches, though they often include moves that can put performers at risk of injury if not performed correctly. This was first publicly acknowledged by WWE's owner Vince McMahon in 1989 to avoid taxes from athletic commissions. Since the 1980s, WWE publicly branded their product as sports entertainment, which is considered to acknowledge the product's roots in competitive sport and dramatic theater.

WWE Network

WWE Network is a subscription-based video streaming service owned by WWE, using the infrastructure of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. The concept was originally announced in 2011. On January 8, 2014, WWE announced the network would launch on February 24 in the United States. The company stated on July 31 that the service was expected to go live in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, Middle East, Spain, Turkey, Nordics and the North Africa, among other countries starting on August 17. It was unexpectedly made available in the UK and Ireland a week earlier than planned, on January 13, 2015, after a delay from the previous November. The WWE Network consists of both a 24-hour linear streaming channel and on-demand programming from WWE's library.

History

Development and U.S. launch

In September 2011, WWE officially announced plans to launch the WWE Network in 2012 as a pay-TV channel. WWE then conducted a survey asking people if they would pay for the WWE Network if it were a premium channel. In an email sent to WWE fans who might be interested in the WWE Network, WWE surveyed fans for their thoughts about the WWE Network airing WWE's pay-per-views to subscribers for no additional charge. The survey also noted that feature repeats of Raw and SmackDown, as well as footage from World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), XFL, Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW), American Wrestling Association (AWA) and WWE movies would also make the lineup. Original programming was also noted in the survey.

Roman Reigns

Leati Joseph "Joe" Anoaʻi (born May 25, 1985) is an American professional wrestler, former professional Canadian football player, and a member of the Anoaʻi family. He is signed to WWE, where he performs under the ring name Roman Reigns as of February 2016.

After playing collegiate football for Georgia Tech, Anoaʻi started his professional football career with brief off-season stints with the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) in 2007. He then played a full season for the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Eskimos in 2008 before his release and retirement from football.

Anoaʻi then pursued a career in professional wrestling and was signed by WWE in 2010, reporting to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling. Using the ring name Roman Reigns, he made his main roster debut in November 2012 alongside Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose as the Shield. Reigns is a two-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion, a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion (with Rollins), and was the 2015 Royal Rumble winner and the 2014 Superstar of the Year. He also tied the WWE record for most eliminations in a Survivor Series elimination match with four in the 2013 event, and set the record for most eliminations in a Royal Rumble match with 12 in the 2014 event.

WWE Raw

WWE Raw (often stylized as WWE Monday Night Raw) is a sports entertainment television program that currently airs live on Monday evenings at 11 pm on the USA Network in the United States. The show debuted on January 11, 1993 and has since been considered as the flagship program of WWE.

Raw moved from the USA Network to TNN in September 2000, which was rebranded to Spike in August 2003. On October 3, 2005, WWE Raw returned to the USA Network, where it remains today. Archived episodes of the show air on the WWE Network, with select episodes available on-demand.

Since its first episode, Raw has broadcast live from 208 different arenas in 171 cities and towns in ten different nations (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006 and 2007, 2015, South Africa,Germany,Japan,Italy,India and Mexico). As of the show's 1,000th episode that aired on July 23, 2012, Raw has become a three-hour broadcast from two hours, a format that had previously been reserved for special episodes.

Kevin Owens

Kevin Steen (born May 7, 1984) is a Canadian professional wrestler who is signed to WWE under the ring name Kevin Owens. Owens is a one-time WWE Intercontinental Champion. Prior to debuting on the main WWE roster in May 2015, Owens wrestled in WWE's developmental branch NXT, where he held the NXT Championship.

Steen began his career in 2000 at the age of 16. Prior to joining WWE in late 2014, from 2007 Steen wrestled under his birth name for Ring of Honor (ROH), where he held the ROH World Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship. He also wrestled extensively on the independent circuit for 14 years, including stints in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he held the PWG World Championship and PWG World Tag Team Championship, All American Wrestling (AAW), where he held the AAW Heavyweight Championship, and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), where he held the CZW Iron Man Championship.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2000–2004)

Steen first developed an interest in professional wrestling after watching a match between Shawn Michaels and Diesel at WrestleMania XI at the age of 11. Three years later, his parents allowed him to start training with Serge Jodoin, a wrestler based in Quebec. The following year, he began training with Jacques Rougeau. He also trained with Terry Taylor, whom he has called his "main trainer". Steen had his first match on his sixteenth birthday in L'Assomption, Quebec on May 7, 2000. Steen trained with Rougeau and wrestled for Rougeau's promotion for four years, before beginning to wrestle with several other Canadian promotions, including the International Wrestling Syndicate.