Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who is the CEO of the WWE?
Vincent Kennedy McMahon (; born August 24, 1945) is an American professional wrestling promoter and executive, American football executive, and businessman. Since taking over the company from his father in the 1980s, he has worked in the corporate area of the WWE and behind the scenes. He currently serves as the majority owner, chairman and CEO of WWE as well as founder of Alpha Entertainment, which is the holding company of the American football league the XFL.
The WWE Hardcore Championship was a professional wrestling championship contested for in the United States–based World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion, formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) before May 2002. The title was only contestable in matches under hardcore regulations, and could be won only by individual wrestlers. As a professional wrestling championship, it was introduced by the WWF on its television program "Raw Is War" on November 2, 1998, in which WWF chairman Mr. McMahon awarded Mankind the title. In 2000, the WWF instated the "24/7 rule", a regulation stating that the title could be defended anywhere at any time as long as a referee was present, which led to numerous title changes in shorter time periods; the rule was discontinued in 2002. On the August 26, 2002 episode of "Raw", Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam defeated Hardcore Champion Tommy Dreamer to unify both titles; the Hardcore Championship was retired shortly thereafter. The title was reactivated on two occasions afterwards, although they are not considered official reigns by WWE according to their official title history. On the June 23, 2003 episode of "Raw", Mick Foley (who was the first champion as "Mankind") was awarded the Hardcore Championship belt by the "Raw" brand authority figure Stone Cold Steve Austin for his contributions in hardcore wrestling. Edge and Foley then introduced themselves as co-holders of the championship in 2006, due to a storyline with alumni of the hardcore wrestling-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion.
The 2005 draft was held on the June 6 episode of "Raw". The first draft lottery pick was then WWE Champion John Cena, thus moving the WWE Championship to Raw and having two titles on the brand. Eventually, then World Heavyweight Champion Batista was deafted to SmackDown as the last draft pick, leaving only the WWE Championship on "Raw". On the 2008 draft lottery, CM Punk got drafted to Raw and then won the World Heavyweight Championship from Edge, who was a SmackDown wrestler. Triple H, who was the WWE Champion at the time, got drafted to SmackDown while Kane, who was the then ECW Champion, got drafted to Raw. After the draft lottery in 2009, the WWE Championship was brought back to Raw when Triple H was drafted from SmackDown while the World Heavyweight Championship was brought back to SmackDown when Edge defeated John Cena to win the title at Backlash.
On the August 29, 2011, episode of "Raw", it was announced that performers from Raw and SmackDown were no longer exclusive to their respective brand. Subsequently, championships previously exclusive to one show or the other were available for wrestlers from any show to compete for—this would mark the end of the brand extension as all programming and live events featured the full WWE roster. In a 2013 interview with "Advertising Age", Stephanie McMahon explained that WWE's decision to end the brand extension was due to wanting their content to flow across television and online platforms.
The WWE European Championship is a former professional wrestling title competed for in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The title was created on February 26, 1997. The first champion was The British Bulldog who defeated Owen Hart in a tournament final. The title was retired briefly in April 1999 by then-champion Shane McMahon, who wanted to retire as an "undefeated champion". McMahon reintroduced the championship two months later and gave it to Mideon, who saw the title belt in Shane's travel bag and asked if he could have it. The title was finally retired on July 22, 2002 when WWE Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam defeated European Champion Jeff Hardy to unify the European title into the Intercontinental title. There have been a total of 27 recognized champions who have had a combined 37 official reigns. This is a chronological list of wrestlers that have been WWE European Champion by ring name.
Following the end of the first brand extension in August 2011, both the WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion could appear on both "Raw" and "SmackDown". In November 2013, the night after Survivor Series, then-World Heavyweight Champion John Cena made a challenge to then-WWE Champion Randy Orton to determine an undisputed WWE world champion. Orton defeated Cena in a TLC match at the pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the unified championship was renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship and retained the lineage of the WWE Championship; the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. Orton and subsequent champions held both championship belts until a single championship belt was given to then-champion Brock Lesnar in 2014.
The origins of the WWE Network can trace back to 2000 when USA Network filed the lawsuit against the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as the WWE) due to breach of contract which saw most of its programming moved to Viacom-owned TNN and MTV. The Delaware Chancery Court ruled in favor of the WWF in June 2000. Then CEO, Linda McMahon, revealed that WWF wanted its own cable network and testified that before WWF signed a rights deal with Viacom, the company had floated the idea of acquiring USA's Sci-Fi Channel, and reformatting it as a dedicated wrestling network. USA executives rejected the idea, and McMahon said that former USA Networks President Barry Baker encouraged her to talk to other programmers about potential deals. "I can tell you right now, Linda, you're not going to get anybody to give you a network," McMahon testified. In 2005, USA Network re-acquired the rights to all WWE programming.
WWE's origins can be traced back as far as 1952 when Roderick James "Jess" McMahon and Toots Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. (CWC), which joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1953. McMahon, who was a successful boxing promoter, began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing and wrestling at the third Madison Square Garden. It was not the first time McMahon had promoted wrestling cards, as he had already done so during the 1910s.
Following the end of the first brand extension in 2011, both the World Heavyweight Champion and WWE Champion could appear on both "Raw" and "SmackDown". In 2013, the night after Survivor Series, then-World Heavyweight Champion John Cena made a challenge to then-WWE Champion Randy Orton to determine an undisputed WWE world champion. Randy Orton defeated John Cena in a TLC match at the pay-per-view on December 15, 2013, to unify the titles. Subsequently, the WWE Championship was renamed WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The unified championship retained the lineage of the WWE Championship, and the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. With his victory over John Cena, Randy Orton became the final World Heavyweight Champion. Like with the Undisputed Championship, the Big Gold Belt was used in tandem with the WWE Championship belt to represent the WWE World Heavyweight Championship until a single belt was presented to then champion Brock Lesnar in August 2014.
The World Heavyweight Championship was established in 2002 as a second world championship in WWE during the time of the first brand extension. During this period, the World Heavyweight Championship would be the primary championship for either the Raw or Smackdown brand, with the WWE Championship on the other. The brand extension ended in 2011, allowing both championships to appear on both shows. On December 15, 2013, World Heavyweight Champion John Cena faced WWE Champion Randy Orton in a match at , where the World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship as Orton defeated Cena. At the event, it was announced that the unified titles would be called the "WWE World Heavyweight Championship". WWE officially recognized Orton as the final World Heavyweight Champion, and retired the title.
The World Wrestling Council (WWC) is a professional wrestling promotion based in Puerto Rico. It was originally established as Capitol Sports Promotions in 1973 by Carlos Colón Sr., Victor Jovica, and Gorilla Monsoon. It was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance until 1988. By the mid-1990s, the promotion had changed its name to the World Wrestling Council.
The 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-up was the twelfth WWE draft, produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between the Raw and SmackDown brands. The two-day event took place on the April 16 and April 17 episodes of "Monday Night Raw" and "SmackDown Live", respectively, on the USA Network in the United States. "Raw" was broadcast from Hartford, Connecticut at the XL Center, and "SmackDown" was broadcast from the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
The main event was for the WWE Undisputed Championship between The Rock and Brock Lesnar. Lesnar dominated early with some power moves. The Rock went for the Sharpshooter. Lesnar's manager Paul Heyman got involved in the match, as he was attacked by The Rock, who executed a Rock Bottom through a broadcast table on Heyman. The Rock and Brock Lesnar gave each other a "Rock Bottom". The match came to an end when Lesnar stopped a People's Elbow and a "Rock Bottom" and then executed the "F-5" on The Rock for the win and the title. Lesnar remained the youngest world champion in WWE history until Randy Orton won the World Heavyweight Championship in 2004, although Lesnar remains the youngest WWE Champion in history.
On May 23, 2005, Heyman returned in a segment with Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff announcing ECW One Night Stand, with Heyman in charge. On the May 22 episode of "Raw", Heyman appeared as ECW Representative promoting "One Night Stand". On May 25, 2006 it was announced that ECW would relaunch, as a third WWE brand. Heyman was in charge of the new brand on-camera but had minimal creative input off-camera as well. On the May 29 episode of "Raw", during a face-off with Mick Foley, Heyman announced that he was granted a draft pick from both Raw and SmackDown! by Vince McMahon. His Raw draft pick was former ECW wrestler (and Money in the Bank contract holder) Rob Van Dam, and his SmackDown! draft pick was Kurt Angle. Heyman predicted that Van Dam would defeat John Cena at "One Night Stand" for the WWE Championship and then declare himself the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion.
There have been 81 different champions. Chris Jericho has the most reigns with nine. Pedro Morales held the championship for a record total of 619 days and The Honky Tonk Man had the longest uninterrupted reign at 454 days, from June 2, 1987 until August 29, 1988. Dean Douglas had the shortest reign at just 13 minutes 52 seconds. Chyna is the only woman in WWE history to win the title. The youngest champion was Jeff Hardy, who won the championship at 23 years old, while the oldest champion was Ric Flair, who won the championship at Unforgiven in 2005 at the age of 56. There have been 10 vacancies throughout the title's history.
Owing to its TV program aired on TV Asahi, NJPW is the largest professional wrestling promotion in Japan and the second largest promotion in the world. It was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance at various points in its history. NJPW has had agreements with various MMA and professional wrestling promotions around the world, including WWE, World Championship Wrestling, American Wrestling Association, World Class Championship Wrestling, Impact Wrestling, WAR, UWFi, Ring of Honor, Pride Fighting Championships, and Jersey All Pro Wrestling. NJPW's biggest event is the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, held each year since 1992 and currently promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom banner.
The WWE Women's Championship was a women's professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion. The championship was generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. There have been a total of 30 recognized champions who have had a combined 59 official reigns. The title became vacant only twice in history for a total of 65 days and deactivated twice for a combined 1398 days. The following is a chronological list of wrestlers that have been WWE Women's Champion by ring name.
In the first half of 1996, the World Wrestling Association emerged in Puerto Rico, becoming the direct competition to WWC. The booking for the promotion was done by Félix López and Juan Rivera, who became the first WWA World Heavyweight Champion by defeating Goldust on August 31, 1996. Besides Rivera and Dustin Rhodes, the promotion featured the participation of other WWF talents including Jake Roberts, Fred Ottman, The Undertaker, Triple H, Bam Bam Bigelow, Charles Wright and Yokozuna. Its roster was completed by other talents from the independent circuits of Puerto Rico and Florida. In December 1996, the WWA held a match between Rico Casanova and Sid Vicious for the WWF Championship in a show held at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. On April 23, 1997, Rivera defeated Ramón Álvarez to win the WWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. However, the promotion closed in June of that year. The last of the Colón-Abdullah matches took place in 1997, when Colón won a "loser leaves Puerto Rico" contest. This banishment was short-lived, since he was brought in again and both teamed again one last time. By this time, Colón's popularity had started flailing and González was again promoted to the main event scene after performing several years in the midcard. WWC also contracted Laureano again and resumed the feud with Huertas-González. Despite this, he was later used to enhance the career of Ray González. A storyline was created where Colón would train González and help him win the Universal Championship a second time. He dropped the championship to Milton Adomo by accepting a challenge that Colón opposed. This marked the beginning of Ray González's first heel turn. After blaming Colón for losing the championship, he defeated all of the midcard face (fan favorite) wrestlers. Eventually Colón and González entered a feud and exchanged the title twice. González migrated to a rivalry with Pierroth, during which he defeated the Mexican luchador in hair vs. mask and loser leaves town matches. The Colón-González feud was immediately resumed and continued throughout 1999, with both once again exchanging reigns. Concurrently, Carly Colón was introduced to the public as a camera man. An angle to integrate him to the roster soon followed, with González slapping him after learning of his identity, leading to a series of confrontations.
As recognized by the WWE, the inaugural champion was The Fabulous Moolah, who won the title on September 18, 1956, which at that time was the NWA World Women's Championship (which still exists today). While she was still champion, it became the WWF Women's Championship in 1984. In May 2002, after the WWF was renamed to WWE, the championship became the WWE Women's Championship. At the start of the brand extension that began in March 2002, the Women's Championship was defended on any brand until it became exclusive to Raw in September that year. It was the only women's championship in the WWE until SmackDown created the WWE Divas Championship as a counterpart title in July 2008. The titles switched brands in April 2009. On September 19, 2010, at Night of Champions, the Women's Championship was unified with the WWE Divas Championship, retiring the Women's Championship.
In 2014, Sting would make his first appearance in WWE, interrupting the Survivor Series main event. Sting was the last major WCW star to never wrestle for WWE. At WrestleMania 31, Sting would face Triple H in a no disqualification match. The match was interrupted by the stables of WCW's nWo and WWE's DX, leading to a brawl between them and Sting's defeat in his first match in the company. Despite Sting having cut a promo on "Raw" saying the match would not be about the war between the companies "because that would be ridiculous at this point", the match finish has been interpreted as a desire of McMahon to reiterate his victory in the Monday Night War, with Scott Hall commenting, "That's Vince just reminding you who won, even if he's going to make money the other way".
Juan Rivera (born August 10, 1964) is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He is known for his work in the World Wrestling Council, where he won the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship three times and the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship three times. During the 1990s, he worked for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), initially under a mask as Kwang. He later portrayed Savio Vega, the eventual leader of a Puerto Rican stable, Los Boricuas.
Heyman was the lead writer for "SmackDown!" from July 2002 to February 2003. On Heyman's 2014 WWE documentary "Ladies and Gentleman, My Name is Paul Heyman", Heyman stated that the "SmackDown!" brand he was writing was beating "Raw" in ratings, merchandise and live show attendance during a time McMahon wanted real-life competition between the Raw and SmackDown! brands.
As of 2018, the company's Board of Directors has nine members: Vince McMahon, the company's Chairman of the Board and CEO; Stuart U. Goldfarb, President of Fullbridge, Inc.; Patricia A. Gottesman, former President and CEO of Crimson Hexagon; Frank A. Riddick, III, CEO of Shale-Inland Group, Inc.; Jeffrey R. Speed, former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Six Flags; Laureen Ong, former President of Travel Channel; Robyn W. Peterson, 
Chief Technology Officer and Head of Product, Mashable; Stephanie McMahon, Chief Brand Officer of WWE; and Paul "Triple H" Levesque, WWE's Executive Vice President of talent, live events, and creative.
She went through a confirmation process in the Connecticut State Assembly where she was questioned on her record as CEO of WWE. The State Senate approved her nomination by a vote of 34-1 and the House by 96-45 with some opponents expressing concerns that the nature of her WWE activities would send the wrong message. State representative Bruce Morris claimed she lacked "depth of knowledge regarding education." However, state representative John Hetherington said it "would be good to have someone outside the establishment on the board."
Linda McMahon, the CEO at the time, elected to close the nightclub in February 2003 so WWE could concentrate more on their global efforts. The retail shop closed two months later. This meant that WWE Niagara Falls was the only official WWE retail store in the world. The complex remained closed for two years until 2005, when the Hard Rock Cafe took over the lease and the business. On August 16, 2006, WWE returned to the former location for the 2006 Diva Search finale. WWE also held press conferences at the Hard Rock Cafe for WrestleMania's 24, 25, 27, 30.
In February 2013, Glory announced that former WWE Executive VP Andrew Whitaker had been hired as the global CEO of Glory Sports International. In August 2014, Glory announced that Jon J. Franklin had been appointed as new CEO of Glory Sports International. In January 2018, Glory announced that Franklin had moved to the role of Chief Development Officer, and former UFC executive Marshall Zelaznik had been hired as the new CEO.