WWE in the United Kingdom

The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) began globally expanding in the late 1980s, holding its first European event in France in 1987 before holding events in Italy and then in Britain, where the first show was on 10 October 1989 at the London Arena, in front of a crowd of 15,000, and broadcast exclusively on Sky One.^[1][2] The main event in this match featured Hulk Hogan (with Miss Elizabeth) defeating Randy Savage (with Queen Sherri). From 1989 to 2001, WWE was promoted under concert promoters, brothers Harvey and Martin Goldsmith, for UK and European shows.^{[citation needed]}

The WWF's first tour of events in Europe was held in the United Kingdom and Ireland, called UK Rampage, between April and May 1991. The first Rampage was held in London on 24 April and was televised by BSkyB to British and Irish viewers.^[3][4] Four more events were held in the country later in 1991 as part of the WWF European Rampage Tour, including the supercard event Battle Royal at the Albert Hall, in London.^[5][6] Nine events were held in the country as part of the European Rampage Again Tour in 1992, including one televised event at Sheffield Arena (see UK Rampage (1992)).^[7] The final televised Rampage event in the country was again at Sheffield Arena on 11 April 1993 as part of the WWF European Spring Tour.^[8] Over the years, the WWF continued hosting various untelevised house shows in Britain, including Mayhem in Manchester in 1998.^[9]

SummerSlam 1992 was the first WWE pay-per-view taped in and broadcast from the UK on August 29 (aired August 31).^[10] In 1997 the company held its first UK-exclusive pay-per-view, WWF One Night Only,^[11] followed by WWF Capital Carnage in 1998^[12][13] and No Mercy in 1999.^[14] From 1999 to 2002 they ran a fall pay-per-view from the UK known as WWE Rebellion.^{[15][16][17][18]} In addition from 2000 to 2003 they ran a spring pay-per-view from the UK known as WWE Insurrextion.^{[19][20][21][22]} Insurrextion in 2003 at the Telewest Arena in Newcastle marked the last of WWE's UK exclusive pay-per-views.^[23][24] In 2004, the WWE taped its first show of the flagship Raw program in the UK for a global audience.^[25]

Mayhem in Manchester was a professional wrestling event exclusively for United Kingdom (UK), produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) that took place on 4 April 1998 at the Nynex Arena in Manchester, England. The event was released later in an edited form on VHS in North America and in the UK. With the exception of the "Old School" editions of WWE Raw on November 15, 2010, March 4, 2013, and January 6, 2014, along with the Raw 25 Years on January 25, 2018, and the Throwback SmackDown edition on May 7, 2021, this was the last ever WWF event to feature the WWF New Generation logo with the posts, ring skirt, floor mats and steps as light blue with the ropes colored red, white and blue.

WWE started to broadcast their weekly arena shows Raw and SmackDown! from the UK in 2004. Due to the time change, all broadcasts were recorded and aired on tape delay. Beginning in 2005 WWE would record twice per year in the United Kingdom, once in the spring and once in the fall. From 2006 to 2009, WWE's recording schedule in the United Kingdom included episodes of ECW.^[26] As of May 2019^[update] all recordings have occurred in England, with the exception of November 2016 which took place at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.^[27]

WWE programming were originally broadcast (then as WWF) in Britain on the Sky network of premium television channels beginning in the 1980s, with a small selection of shows (including Sunday Night Heat and four pay-per-views a year) briefly being broadcast on Channel 4 in 2000 and 2001.^[43][44] During 2004, four of the company's pay-per-views were broadcast on PPV service Setanta Sport.^[45] In 2014, WWE renewed a 5-year deal with Sky to carry programmes through the end of 2019, which included Main Event being added to the schedule.^[46][47]

In June 2019, BT Sport (known as TNT Sports since 2023) announced that they had gained the broadcasting rights for WWE in the UK; their deal began in January 2020.^[48] The broadcasting deal with TNT Sports expired at the end of 2024,^[49] after which Raw and SmackDown broadcast live on Netflix in the country.^[50]

WWE's online streaming service, WWE Network, launched on 19 January 2015 in the United Kingdom.^[51][52] The service closed in the country in January 2025 as part of the global WWE-Netflix deal.^[53]

The second WWE Performance Center branch opened on 11 January 2019 in Enfield, London.^[54][55]