-->''"If [Vince [=McMahon=] and Kevin Dunn] could have figured out a way to put on ''{{WrestleMania}}'' without the wrestling, they would have done it."''
--->-- '''Anonymous WWE employee''', summing up Vince [=McMahon=]'s approach to ProfessionalWrestling.

World Wrestling Entertainment (known as WWE) is the ProfessionalWrestling juggernaut formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation. Run by the somewhat crude iconoclast Vince [=McMahon=] Jr., the then-WWF revolutionized the pro wrestling world in the '80s, using a series of closed-circuit broadcast events, colorful characters, and clever cross-promotion with MTV to transform wrestling from a regionalized industry with a series of small players in a loose confederation into its own private Idaho, and transforming themselves from a small-time racket that ran out of New England bingo halls into a multi-billion-dollar global entertainment conglomerate that squashes anybody who dares to compete with them like a roach. Its success has also turned wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, The Undertaker, "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Rock, Triple H, Batista, Randy Orton and John Cena into household names. In 2001, the organization absorbed its two major competitors, {{WCW}} and {{ECW}}; this eventually led to an explosion of independent promotions looking to capture fans jaded by the lack of competition in the national wrestling scene, with {{TNA}} (a former subsidiary of the National Wrestling Alliance, much like WCW) emerging to become a viable national competitor in the mid-to-late-2000s, although they're nowhere near the scale that WCW was (nor is that promotion as beloved by "smart marks" as the original ECW was).

Originally known as the WWF, an agreement with the World Wildlife Fund (who have also used WWF as their initials since their inception) in the 1990s allowed the wrestling promotion to use the initials in certain contexts, particularly merchandise, and the wildlife protection outfit to use the initials in others. In 2002, the World Wildlife Fund (now the World Wide Fund For Nature in every country except the United States) sued, claiming that the World Wrestling Federation had violated that agreement, and won; as a result, the wrestling promotion underwent a rebranding that turned the company into World Wrestling Entertainment. While the classic WWF logo is still permitted to be used in cases involving past wrestling footage and products, and the name "World Wrestling Federation" can still be used in past footage, the case forced WWE to stop using the "WWF" initials -- this means that people saying the initials in past footage are censored (usually the "F" is silenced when someone says "WWF"), and the Attitude Era "scratch" logo is censored no matter what (this means that the on-screen WWF "bug" is covered by the current WWE logo with a extra-large black border, and all other viewable "scratch" logos are blurred out in every instance, down to the patches on the referee's shirts).

Perhaps the only thing as staggering as WWE's success in the wrestling world has been its spectacular series of failures outside of it. The World Bodybuilding Federation, [=McMahon=]'s attempt to do for bodybuilding what the WWF did for wrestling, failed because, let's face it, nobody really cares about bodybuilding. The XFL, an attempt at post-season football with looser rules and a WWE-style presentation, drew spectacular {{ratings}} for its first game...then bombed completely as interest waned due to the bush-league players (an attempt at introducing a WWE-style feud didn't help matters); it lasted a whole season before it folded. [=SmackDown=] Records, WWE's foray in the music industry, managed to sign exactly one artist (Neurotica) before going belly-up and being merged into WWE Records, the label that releases albums featuring albums of entrance themes (which nowadays is about 98% heavy metal/hard rock) for the wrestlers on the roster. The company's latest venture is WWE Films, a movie studio that produces starring vehicles for their wrestlers; their output hasn't had a whole lot of critical acclaim, but it's experienced middling financial success, so it may be the first of WWE's outside-wrestling ventures to not be a complete fiasco.

WWE's roster is currently broken up into three "brands", each of which has a prime-time program: [[WWERaw RAW]] (WWE's flagship brand) has ''Monday Night RAW'', ECW (the newest brand, which is but a pale shadow of the defunct wrestling organization of the same name) has ''ECW on Sy-Fy'', and [[WWESmackDown SmackDown]] (the "B-show" brand, and, perhaps ironically, the most SmartMark friendly) has ''Friday Night [=SmackDown=]!'' (yes, the exclamation point is mandatory). In addition, WWE produces ''A.M. RAW'', a Sunday-morning one-hour recap show that focuses on the RAW brand; ''Saturday Night's Main Event'', a now-twice-yearly special that features cross-brand matches; and most recently, ''Superstars'', which is really just an excuse to throw the Brand Extension into the fireplace and have wrestlers from all three brands fight each other without having them show up on each others' shows. ([=McMahon=] has intimated that he'd love to add yet another prime-time program on Wednesday nights. Let's hope nobody takes him up on the offer; it's already difficult enough for all but the most dedicated fans to follow all the original programming produced.)

One of the most notable things about WWE is how fervently it tries to distance itself from the stigma of being professional wrestling. Announcers exclusively refer to their talent not as "wrestlers", but as "Superstars", and the major players in the company prefer to refer to their business as "sports entertainment". From the moment this phrase was first uttered, there has been a concentrated effort on WWE's part to present itself not as [[{{Kayfabe}} a bunch of guys pretending to fight each other]] (which would insult the audience's intelligence and doom any chance of mainstream acceptance), but rather as a unique type of Action/Adventure series, as "real" or "fake" as any other TV show. Whether this works or not [[FanHater is up for debate]].

Recently, WWE seems to be undergoing significant changes in how it is marketed. Among other things, the fans are now referred to as the "WWE Universe", and all free programming [[LighterAndSofter is now rated TV-PG]], in an attempt to appeal to the increasing number of younger viewers. The shift appears to be working; the WWE's sponsorship has since moved significantly more up-market - Pepsi, for instance, has been announced as a new sponsor (a move that no doubt pleased [[TradeMarkFavoriteFood CM Punk]]).
----
!!Tropes:
* ActionGirl: All Divas qualify as this
** FauxActionGirl: What the majority of the Divas ''actually'' qualify as, though they do try...
***AllMenArePerverts: This assumption is probably the reason why so many "FauxActionGirls" get pushed.
* AllAmericanFace (Hulk Hogan, Sergeant Slaughter [before and after his feud with Hulk Hogan], John Cena, to the extreme. Sometimes Triple H. Subverted with Kurt Angle and JBL.)
* AlliterativeName (Hunter Hearst Helmsley)
* TheArtifact (Tag Team Championships)
* AssShove: The various colonoscopy skits.
* AuthorAppeal: It's been historically known that Vince [=McMahon=] loves big, muscular men, and he will push them, regardless of talent. Less well-known is his love of angles that center around deviant sexuality, such as the Katie Vick angle which was based around rape and/or necrophilia, or his constant pushing for an incest angle of some form.
* AuthorAvatar: The [=McMahon=] family (and to an extent, Triple H)
* BadassDecay (The Great Khali after losing the World Heavyweight Championship; Kane after his unmasking; Austin during his heel turns)
**Kane was losing long before that, the bigger problem after unmasking girls found him attractive instead of the hideous monster he claimed.
***Austin actually was a pretty vicious badass during the early stages of the heel turn and when he feuded with Angle. The REAL cause of his badass decay was his slow turn into a self-deprecating comedy character that said "WHAT?!" at the end of each sentence (''[[Memes/ProfessionalWrestling WHAT?]]''), I said at the end of each sentence (''WHAT?''). It eventually ruined other wrestler's promo time (''WHAT?''), it still haunts a wrestler's attempt at selling a match or a feud to the audience (''WHAT?''). It's even been heard in {{TNA}}. (''WHAT?'')
* BadassFamily (The Guerreros, the [=McMahons=])
* BadassGrandpa (Ric Flair, Undertaker, occasionally Mr. [=McMahon=])
* BadassLongcoat (Undertaker, Edge)
* BetterThanItSounds We're not lying when we tell you the new ECW is a fake. But its not that bad of a show, they just shouldn't have named it ECW.
* TheBumblebee (Rey Mysterio and John Cena, and Jeff Hardy to a lesser extent)
* BoringInvincibleHero (Hulk Hogan, Triple H, John Cena)
* ButtMonkey (Santino Marella)
** Chavo Guerrero. Because there's nothing more humilliating than jobbng to Hornswoggle.
* CatchPhrase And how! Besides, I'm sure that there are many more than the below examples:
** Hulk Hogan: "Whatcha gonna do, when Hulkamania runs wild on you?!"
** Randy Savage: "OHHHH YEAAHHH!"
** Ric Flair: "Diamonds are forever... and so is Ric Flair", "kiss-stealing, wheeling, dealing, jet-flying, limousine-riding son of a gun", "To be The Man, you gotta beat The Man", and, of course, "WOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
** Steve Austin: "Gimme a hell yeah!"
** [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]]: "If ya SMELLLLLLL... WHAT THE ROCK... is cookin'!"
** Triple H: "I am The Game, and I am ''that'' damn good!"
** Mankind: "Have a nice day!"
*** Mick Foley: "...right here, in (insert host city)!" (''gives thumbs up for cheap pop'')
** Kurt Angle: "It's true, it's (damn) true!"
** John Cena: "The champ is here!" and "You can't see me!"
** Undertaker: "You'll...burn...in...hell!" and "Rest...in...peace!"
** Vicky Guerrero: "EXCUSE ME!"
** R-Truth: "WASSUP!?"
** Dolph Ziggler: "Hi, I'm Dolph Ziggler"
** Ron Simmons/Faarooq: "DAMN!"
** D-Generation X: "And if you're not down with that we've got two words for you... SUCK IT!"
* ChannelHop: ''Raw'' went from the USA Network to TNN/Spike TV (1999-2005), and back to USA.
** [=SmackDown!=] went from UPN to TheCW, and finally to MyNetworkTV.
** ''Saturday Night's Main Event'' went from {{NBC}} to {{Fox}}, and was revived on NBC.
* CharacterTiers (Exists as the three brands: Raw is quite clearly the flagship "A-Show", [=SmackDown=]! is (by default to some fans) the "[[BShow B-Show]]" (though it is technically the second "A-Show") and ECW is the "C-show".
* CharacterDevelopment
* CoolMask (kane, Rey Mysterio jr)
* DarkerAndEdgier: The Attitude Era, the period in the late 1990's and early 2000's where the product was loaded with ultra-violence and sex appeal.
* DarkIsNotEvil (The Undertaker)
* DeepSouth (Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Jeese and Festus)
* DiscontinuityNod: In a 2007 promo on Raw, Shawn Michaels and Triple H took shots at the infamous Katie Vick angle.
-->'''Shawn Michaels:''' I don't know who writes this garbage, but this is the worst debacle since that whole Katie Vick thing years ago!
* DorkAge: The New Generation era is mostly better forgotten; save Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, little good came out of that time.
* DumbMuscle (Subverted. Very muscular wrestlers like Batista, Bobby Lashley or Triple H, although not being geniuses, aren't dumb either.)
* EstrogenBrigadeBait (Jeff Hardy, John Cena, [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys Randy Orton]])
* EvilForeigner (Played straight with Kamala, Vladimir Kozlov, William Reagal, and Finlay when he was heel. Subverted with Kofi Kingston, Finlay and Rey Mysterio)
* FaceHeelTurn
* FascinatingEyebrow: The Rock's The People's / Corporate Eyebrow
* FanDumb (Oh dear GOD the Fan Dumb! I'll give you an example, John Cena hasn't held a world title since the Backlash PPV and when he finally DID go after the title he lost his first two attempts to Randy Orton the Heel Champion (Which means he is a weak coward) Cena finally defeats Orton at Breaking Point and we're already hearing "CENA BURIED ORTON!" It was one fucking match and he's been taking the fall against Orton since Wrestlemania 24! Then again this is also...)
** At Survivor Series 2008, after several months of announcing, John Cena finally returned to the rings after being injuried at Summerslam, got a title shot for the World Heavyweight Championship, and won. The next day, cries in the various wrestling forums were endless. However, these guys didn't mentioned that EDGE DID EXACTLY THE SAME THING, except ''that he didn't even fight'' (well, if you count as a fight appear at the very end of the fight, spear Triple H and Jeff Hardy, and pin Triple H).
** Same goes for the next PPV, Armaggedon, in which Jeff Hardy, after almost a year trying, finally won his first WWE championship. All the people who complained about Jeff's victory were the very same who said that said title needed a brand new champion. Maybe what they wanted to say was that it needed a new ''heel'' champion.
** After Batista's latest return, he announced that he was moving back to ''[=SmackDown!=]''; people complained about ''that'' for two reasons: they either didn't want Batista screwing up the awesome-as-of-late ''[=SmackDown!=]'', or they hated that the RAW main event would only have John Cena and Randy Orton in it (since Triple H and Shawn Michaels had reformed DX again). Note that these are the same people that are constantly crying and complaining whenever Batista wins a title - or even a title shot. But it doesn't stop here. Batista then announced that he was going to remake his old tag team with Rey Mysterio and go for the Unified Tag Team Championship; lots of complaints came out of this, saying that Cryme Tyme and The Hart Dynasty deserved a shot at the tag titles more. Once again, these people complained that the tag team division had very few teams. Wonder what those people would say if Batista decided to go for the World Heavyweight Championship?
*** [[MemeticMutation That the Batista Code had kicked in again.]]
*** We want to see good tag teams go after the titles, teams such as Miz and Morrison, The Hardyz if Jeff was still active, Primo and Carlito, etc, not Batista and Rey Mysterio.
* FetishFuel
* FiveMovesOfDoom (John Cena is (in)famous for this)
* FridayNightDeathSlot: Averted, when {{UPN}} moved [=SmackDown!=] to Friday nights, and again, when it [[ChannelHop switched to]] MyNetworkTV, the WWE aggressively promoted the show, and it more or less retained their audience.
* FunWithAcronyms (Let's see: '''I'''rwin '''R'''. '''S'''hyster, the wrestling taxman...'''H'''enry '''O'''. '''G'''odwin and '''P'''hineas '''I'''. '''G'''odwin, wrestling swine-farmers, '''M'''ontel '''V'''ontavious '''P'''orter, the CaptainErsatz for Terrell Owens... There are more, I'm sure... Rosey the '''S'''uper '''H'''ero '''I'''n '''T'''raining)
* FunnyAneurysmMoment / HilariousInHindsight, [[YourMileageMayVary depending on your POV]] (Triple H and Stephanie [=McMahon=] were "married" (and later divorced) in a story line. ''During'' this very storyline, Triple H and [=McMahon=] actually began dating in real life, and later married and had children. Their relationship - real life or fake - was never mentioned again on air after the "[=McMahon=]-Helmsley" storyline).
* TheGiant (André the Giant, Kevin "Diesel" Nash, The Big Show and The Great Khali, and to a lesser extent, Kane, and The Undertaker)
* GimmickMatches
* HeelFaceTurn
* HijackedByGanon ([[spoiler:Vince [=McMahon=]]] as the Higher Power in 1999.)
* Jobber
* LargeHam (YOU...ARE...FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!)
** Also, Santino Marella.
** This is actually the manner in which many of the wrestlers portray themselves, showing their own personalities turned UpToEleven.
* LighterAndSofter: After WWE's free shows are rated TV-PG, starting in 2009. The pay-per-views were rated TV-14, until the ''Hell in a Cell'' PPV, which was rated TV-PG.
** The addition of little person wrestler Hornswoggle and his inclusion in many storylines seemed to come at the very beginning of this new phase of the WWE's existance. Needless to say many fans [[RuinedForever don't seem to like]] the overly cartoony matches he's involved in very much.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: Mick Foley's four Wrestling personas - Catcus Jack, Dude Love, Mankind and [[AsHimself himself]] - are all completely separate characters.
* LoserLeavesTown (The Career Threatening Match forces determined wrestler to leave if he loses said match. Oh, and there's the [[ExactlyWhatItsaysOnTheTin Loser Gets Fired match]])
** In the upcoming match with Randy Orton at Bragging Rights, John Cena will move from Raw to Smackdown if he loses his match.
** But he won.
* ManipulativeBastard (Edge and Triple H, and sometimes Mr. [=McMahon=])
* MemeticMutation: Plenty of wrestling catchphrases become memes, but there are also some bits get popularized, frequently due to {{Narm}}. Batista is the most frequent victim these days.
* {{Mondegreen}} Shelton Benjamin's music has been modified several times because of this.
* NeverLiveItDown: To the Canadians, Shawn Michaels is forever known as the guy that screwed Bret Hart out of the WWF Championship. They would chant "YOU SCREWED BRET!" whenever he appears in Canada. Likewise, Bret Hart is still remembered by casual fans for him being screwed out of the title.
** The typical SmartMark response towards a Triple H victory would be, "OMG TRIPLE H BERRIES HIS OPPONENT, LULZ!", despite the fact that, although Triple H has more or less acknowledged that he has backstage influence, he still has to answer to Vince [=McMahon=], who is his father in law.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore (Yes, we DO KNOW that it's fake, thank you)
* OutWithABang
* PintSizedPowerhouse (Rey Mysterio may be short, but...)
* PlayingWithFire (Kane; the inferno Match)
* PowerStable: Some examples:
** The New Hart Foundation (1997)
** D-Generation X (1997-2000)
** The Corporation (1998-1999)
** Evolution (2003-2005)
** Legacy (since 2008)
* RingOldies (Finlay is 49 years old. Undertaker and Shawn Michaels are 44-45 years old. Triple H is 41 years old. However, special mention goes to Ric Flair who retired at the age of 59)
* RuinedFOREVER: Invoked by the FanDumb on a nearly monthly basis since WWF bought out WCW.
* ShockingSwerve
* SuplexFinisher: Somewhat surprisingly, very few wrestlers use a suplex as an actual finishing move.
* TakeThat: During the Monday Night Wars, and against those who left the WWE on bad terms.
** The MoralGuardians, the Right To Censor, is a take that towards the Parents' Television Council.
* TearJerker (Ric Flair's retirement is a good example)
* TheWesley: Just about any wrestler who is overpushed (that is to say, given more screen-time and wins than their talent level or popularity would deserve); currently, you could probably place Hornswoggle in this category.
* ThirdPersonPerson: The Rock says that The Rock hasn't been mentioned yet!
* TooSoon: The Muhammad Hassan angle on [=SmackDown=], Who Killed Mr. [=McMahon=]?
** Although the latter is more of a "too early", [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Benoit_double_murder_and_suicide considering the circumstances]].
* [[TrashTheSet Trash The [=TitanTron=]]]: Happens each time when the WWE upgrades its [=TitanTron=]. For example, on an episode of Raw in 2007, Triple H throws his sledgehammer at the [=TitanTron=] to make way for the current [=TitanTron=] HD set used on Raw, [=SmackDown=], ECW, and Superstars.
* TheUmbridge (Vicky Guerrero)
* {{Unperson}}: Chris Benoit, though he is still mentioned in WWE's official title histories, match results, etc., as well as 2009's WWE Encyclopedia.
* UnpleasableFanbase (ENTIRELY! Nothing Vince [=McMahon=] does pleases the 'Smark' community, it's gotten to the point where you can not watch Raw go into a discussion thread and insult a segment you vagely heard about and be agreed with. No MATTER the actual quallity)
* VinceRusso rose to prominence as the mastermind behind the Attitude Era. (In actuality, it was the combination of Vince Russo's ideas and Vince [=McMahon=] filtering out the ''really bad'' ones.)
* XPacHeat (John Cena drew this for a long time during his first 3 reigns as WWE Champion, to the point where he was once booed out of the building in his own hometown.)
** The same thing happened to Edge during a triple threat match against Beniot and Batista during his face run after his neck injury. The WWE wised up and made Edge the brilliant heel he is today.
** And of course there's the TropeNamer, Sean "X-Pac" Waltman.
* WildSamoan (The Wild Samoans, Umaga, Taka, Rikishi Fatu, averted by Manu, Rosey)
* WorldsStrongestMan (Mark henry's gimmick)
* WrestlingDoesntPay: Especially egregious in the late '80s and early '90s.
* YesMan: The general attitude of Vince [=McMahon=] to some people is that he refuses to take "no" for an answer.
-----
<<|{{Producers}}|>>
<<|ProfessionalWrestling|>>