WWE Fatal 4-Way

Fatal 4-Way was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on June 20, 2010, at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. The show was based on certain matches on the card that are contested as fatal four-way matches. The event received 143,000 pay-per-view buys, down on The Bash's figure of 178,000 buys. This was the final WWE pay-per-view event to be held in Nassau Coliseum after the coliseum will have a renovation. Also, this was the first and only Fatal 4-Way event produced by WWE.

Background

Fatal 4-Way featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that build tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches.

The main feud on Raw was a fatal four-way match for the WWE Championship between defending champion John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge and Sheamus. After Cena retained his title against Batista in an "I Quit" match at Over the Limit, Sheamus attacked Cena. On the May 31, 2010 edition of Raw, Bret Hart was announced as the new Raw General Manager. Before Batista could cut a promo, Hart interrupted and said that if Batista wanted his rematch, then he would have to qualify. Batista refused to wrestle, citing an injury and Hart then let Orton qualify by forfeit. Edge and Sheamus won their respective qualifying matches to gain entry into the match alongside Orton. John Cena was next to cash in on the action, defeating Jorgian for the belt. The following two weeks saw the four wrestlers compete against each other in singles and tag team bouts.

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.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship

The WWE World Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. The championship was established by the then-World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) on April 29, 1963 as the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship, following the promotion seceding from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The title is currently held by Triple H, who is in his ninth reign.

It is the oldest championship currently active in the promotion, and is presented as being the most prestigious title in WWE, with many matches for the title having headlined pay-per-view (PPV) events – including WWE's signature PPV event WrestleMania.

For the period between 2002 and 2013, the title was one of three world titles in WWE, along with the World Heavyweight Championship and ECW Championship (2006−2010). But following the decommissioning of the ECW title, and unification with the World Heavyweight title, it is once again promoted as WWE's sole primary championship.

Match

A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, modern matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by frictional heat generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matches are packaged in matchboxes, and paper matches are partially cut into rows and stapled into matchbooks. The coated end of a match, known as the match "head", consists of a bead of active ingredients and binder; often coloured for easier inspection. There are two main types of matches: safety matches, which can be struck only against a specially prepared surface, and strike-anywhere matches, for which any suitably frictional surface can be used. Some match-like compositions, known as electric matches, are ignited electrically and do not make use of heat from friction.

Etymology

Historically, the term match referred to lengths of cord (later cambric) impregnated with chemicals, and allowed to burn continuously. These were used to light fires and fire guns (see matchlock) and cannons (see linstock). Such matches were characterised by their burning speed i.e. quick match and slow match. Depending on its formulation, a slow match burns at a rate of around 30 cm (1 ft) per hour and a quick match at 4 to 60 centimetres (1.6 to 23.6 in) per minute.