WWE New Year's Revolution was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

event produced by

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

, a professional wrestling promotion based in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. The event was created in 2005 and its name was a play on the Western tradition of

New Year's resolution A New Year's resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western World but also found in the Eastern World, in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise im ...

s, being held in early January each year the event was produced. It was held as a pay-per-view (PPV)

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of e ...

from 2005 to 2007. To coincide with WWE's brand extension, New Year's Revolution was held exclusively for wrestlers from the

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

brand for its three years as a PPV event. In 2008, New Year's Revolution was removed from the schedule when the company reduced the number of PPVs per year after the discontinuation of brand-exclusive PPVs following

WrestleMania 23 WrestleMania 23 was the 23rd annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW brand divisions. The eve ...

in April 2007. In January 2020, WWE revived the event's name for a series of WWE Live shows for Raw and

SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes sim ...

titled the New Year's Revolution Tour; this tour was not held in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The PPV event was notable for featuring the

Elimination Chamber match The Elimination Chamber is a professional wrestling elimination-based match held in the WWE. The match was founded by Chris Jericho , created and introduced by Eric Bischoff in November 2002. It features a large chain-linked circular steel ...

during its first two years. Also notable was the 2006 event, which saw the very first Money in the Bank cash-in match. After

John Cena John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American part-time professional wrestler, actor, and former rapper. He is currently signed to WWE. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is tied ...

had retained the

WWE Championship The WWE Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, representing the Raw brand division. It is one of two world titles on WWE's main roster, alongside SmackDow ...

in an Elimination Chamber match,

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

used his Money in the Bank contract and defeated Cena to win the championship.

History

New Year's Revolution was an annual January pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and va ...

(WWE). The name was a play on the Western tradition of

s. The first New Year's Revolution took place on January 9, 2005, and aired live on PPV from

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...

, which was the first and so far only pay-per-view event produced by WWE to be held in Puerto Rico. The main event was an

Elimination Chamber The Elimination Chamber is a professional wrestling elimination-based match held in the WWE. The match was founded by Chris Jericho , created and introduced by Eric Bischoff in November 2002. It features a large chain-linked circular steel ...

match, a special elimination-based professional wrestling match type that was promoted on rare occasions in WWE at that time with a total of six participants. The original Elimination Chamber structure was 16-feet-high and weighed 10-tons. It was composed of two miles of chain, steel grating, and

plexiglass Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...

pods (two wrestlers started the match while the other four were contained in the pods with one each let into the match at random every five minutes). The 2006 event also featured an Elimination Chamber match as the main event, which also saw the very first Money in the Bank cash-in, where Mr. Money in the Bank

used the contract and defeated

WWE Champion The WWE Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, representing the Raw brand division. It is one of two world titles on WWE's main roster, alongside SmackDow ...

right after Cena had retained the title in the Elimination Chamber match. The annual Elimination Chamber match was then moved to the December to Dismember PPV later that year, thus the 2007 New Year's Revolution event did not feature the Elimination Chamber match. The New Year's Revolution PPV was then canceled in 2008, after WWE reduced the number of PPVs per year after the discontinuation of brand-exclusive PPVs following

in April 2007. In 2002, WWE held a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

that split its roster into two distinctive

brands A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

of wrestling,

and

, where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform. New Year's Revolution was produced exclusively for wrestlers of the Raw brand all three years the PPV was held. In April 2011, the promotion ceased using its full name with the "WWE" abbreviation becoming an

orphaned initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

. In January 2020, after 13 years since the 2007 PPV, WWE revived the New Year's Revolution name for a series of WWE Live shows called the New Year's Revolution Tour, which were held as supershows, featuring wrestlers from both Raw and SmackDown. The tour began on January 4 and was scheduled for a total of nine shows. The tour was cut short as the ninth and final show, which was scheduled for March 15, had to be canceled due to the onset of the

just a few days beforehand. The pandemic caused WWE to suspend its live touring schedule until July 2021, thus a New Year's Revolution Tour was not held that year. While not part of the New Year's Revolution chronology, WWE reintroduced a New Year's-themed event, which took place as the January 6, 2021, episode of ''

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * ''WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * ''NXT UK'', the British spin- ...

'', entitled New Year's Evil, a name previously used by former rival

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nati ...

(WCW) for a 1999 episode of ''

Nitro Nitro may refer to: Chemistry *Nitrogen, a chemical element and a gas except at very low temperatures, with which many compounds are formed: **Nitro compound, an organic compound containing one or more nitro functional groups, -NO2 **Nitroalkene, ...

''. WWE also introduced a pay-per-view event called Day 1, which unlike New Year's Revolution, it was scheduled take place on New Year's Day itself in 2022.

Reception

The 2005 event never reached

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's top ten list for Recreational Sports DVDs. The first week the event appeared on the Billboard chart, it ranked 19th. The following week, the event ranked 17th, only to drop off the chart the next week. The 2006 event ranked third on its first week in the chart's top ten list. The following week, the DVD reached second on the list, and remained in the top ten for five weeks until the week of April 8, 2006, when the event dropped to 11th. The 2007 event ranked second in its first week in the top ten. The DVD remained in the top ten for four weeks until the week of March 31, 2007, when it ranked 11th. '' Canadian Online Explorers professional wrestling section rated the 2005 event a three out of ten stars. The main event was rated a seven out of ten stars. The 2006 event was given a rating of three out of ten stars also, with the main event being rated six out of ten stars. The 2007 event was rated six out of ten stars, the highest for the PPV's three-year run. The main event for 2007 was given a six out of ten stars rating, the same as the previous year's main event.

Events

Pay-per-view events (2005–2007)

As a pay-per-view event, only three New Year's Revolution PPVs were held, beginning in 2005 with the final in 2007. All three events were held exclusively for wrestlers from the Raw brand.

New Year's Revolution Tour (2020)

The New Year's Revolution Tour was originally scheduled to be a tour of nine WWE Live shows, however, the final show was canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ninth and final show had been scheduled to be held on March 15 at the

Covelli Centre The Covelli Centre is a multi-purpose arena in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. It opened in 2005, thanks in a large part to a $26 million HUD redevelopment grant secured in 2000 by Congressman James A. Traficant Jr. It is home to the Youngstown ...

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, whi ...

, but

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

governor Mike DeWine issued a ban of mass gatherings of over 100 people or more. Below are the eight shows that got to be held for the 2020 tour. These house shows were held as supershows, featuring wrestlers from both Raw and SmackDown.

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Year's Revolution, Wwe Recurring events established in 2005 Recurring events disestablished in 2007