WWE Originals

Credits

Editions by
mr3urious, WWEISWAR, LARDLOGORETURNS, CrazySpruiker2001, DatuDimatablan, and AUnnamedDragon

Video captures courtesy of
WWE

Background

This is a division of World Wrestling Entertainment (the WWE) used to produce the WWE's television shows and pay-per-views. Until May 2002, it was known as WWF Originals, but used the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) name on-screen.

World Wrestling Federation

Contents 1st Logo (1985-March 26, 1988, November 15, 2010-May 7, 2021) 2nd Logo (March 27, 1988-1990) 3rd Logo (1990-1995) 4th Logo (1995-1996) 5th Logo (1996-1997) 6th Logo (1997-November 11, 1998) 7th Logo (March 2, 1998-May 5, 2002)

World Wrestling Entertainment

Contents 1st Logo (May 5, 2002-2005) 2nd Logo (2005-July 20, 2012) 3rd Logo (July 23, 2012-September 19, 2018) 4th Logo (September 24, 2018-April 9, 2021) 5th Logo (April 10, 2021-)

World Wrestling Federation

1st Logo (1985-March 26, 1988, November 15, 2010-May 7, 2021)

• 
  Original version
• 
  The variant seen on the November 15, 2010 episode of Monday Night Raw
• 
  Updated variant seen on "old-school" tribute episodes of Monday Night Raw in 2013 and 2014
• 
  Updated variant seen on the throwback episode of SmackDown on May 7, 2021, with "TOGETHER' added on the bottom.

Logo: Against a space background with stars that fly toward us throughout, two halves of the then-current WWF logo come from the top and the bottom of the screen with orange "shadow" effects, cross each other's path, then merge to form an outline of the logo (which is a stylized "W" that is "divided" to look like two "W"s, and also has two protrusions at the upper right for an "F"). Rainbow-colored lasers cross the logo filling it with a gold color that turns silver after they're gone. Beneath, the words "WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION" fly inwards one by one from the bottom of the screen, in white font and with the shadow effect. The logo "shines".

Variants:

• A short, silent version (without the logo forming) was seen on Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling.
• Surprisingly on November 15, 2010, this logo was spotted on WWE Monday Night Raw as part of the WWF special old-school tribute, but the word "FEDERATION" is crossed off in red, replacing it with "ENTERTAINMENT".
• On the March 4, 2013 "old-school" episode of Monday Night Raw, a variation of this logo was used. The logo is remade with present day computerized graphics. The "F" is removed from the logo, and "THEN. NOW. FOREVER." replaces "WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION". The logo was also used on the January 6, 2014 "old-school" edition of Monday Night Raw and other "old-school" tributes, including the throwback special episode of SmackDown.
• On the SmackDown special tribute, "TOGETHER" is added on the bottom.

Technique: Likely CGI.

Music/Sounds: A 1980s guitar-driven pop/rock instrumental. Some laser zaps are heard when the details are added onto the WWF logo, and "whooshes" are heard when the words zoom out below. An announcer says "The recognized symbol of excellence in sports entertainment." near the end.

Music/Sounds Variant:

• Sometimes, a dramatic synth tune is used instead, with no announcer. Laser zaps are heard when the lasers shoot at the logo, and "whoosh" sounds are heard when the logo and text appear. This was used in WrestleMania III, for one.
• Another "whoosh" was added for the "TOGETHER" variant for the throwback episode of SmackDown aired on May 7, 2021.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen on USA and syndicated WWF shows of the time period. You may see it on an old video. Was quite common in the early 2000s, when the WWF repeated episodes of Wrestling Challenge on TV. Was most recently seen on the WWE Greatest Rivalries: Shawn vs. Bret DVD in portions, and in full on the November 15, 2010 episode of Monday Night Raw. The "THEN. NOW. FOREVER." variant appeared at the start of both the March 4, 2013 and January 6, 2014 "old-school" episodes of Monday Night Raw. The silent variant is extinct as it was only seen on Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling, which hasn't been re-aired in years.

2nd Logo (March 27, 1988-1990)

• 

Logo: A silver-gray, three-dimensional WWF logo with no details flies across a landscape of rivers and mountains. It rises up, and the background is now an orange and purple sky. Lightning strikes the logo, adding the silver details, first to the first "W", then the second, and finally the "F". "WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION" fades in below.

Variant: Starting in 1989, the logo became static, lasting only for two seconds. No music plays here.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: A guitar-driven, more imposing hard rock instrumental. An announcer says "The WWF: What the world is watching!" The voiceover was done by the WWF's interview man at the time, "Mean" Gene Okerlund. Howard Finkel, the WWF's ring announcer, also did the voiceover at one time, when Okerlund temporarily left the company.

Music/Sounds Variant: Sometimes, a different rock tune is used, and the same announcer says "The World Wrestling Federation... what the world is watching!" This is probably a WWE Classics on Demand invention, to cover up the spiel including the then-forbidden "WWF" initials and possibly uncleared music.

Availability: Was used for WWF shows at the time, both syndicated and on USA Network, as well as WWF pay-per-views.

3rd Logo (1990-1995)

• 

Logo: On a twilight background with a horizon, the WWF logo, in a transparent blue 3D form, rises and turns to a 45-degree angle and comes closer to the camera as a glowing speck flies around the logo. "WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION" in a 45-degree angle zooms out in the Futura font.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic tune with an announcer saying "The World Wrestling Federation. For over 50 years, the revolutionary force in sports entertainment."

Availability: Was used for WWF shows at the time (including pre-1995 episodes of Monday Night Raw), as well as WWF pay-per-views.

4th Logo (1995-1996)

• 

Logo: On a stone or ice floor against a cloudy black sky, a large monolith rises up. The monolith has the WWF logo carved out of it and "THE WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION" written below on all sides. The camera pans around and stops facing up at one of the logos, with the sun in the top left shining.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: Same as the last logo.

Availability: Was used for WWF shows (including episodes of Monday Night Raw) and pay-per-views at the time.

5th Logo (1996-1997)

• 
• 

Logo: Against a cloudy red sky with lightning, several copies of "THE WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION" circle around to the top of the screen and disappear, followed by a {{color|red}] and gold WWF logo from 1996-1998 (the WWF logo from before, only tilted and against a square, not unlike the logo used for the WWF In Your House series of pay-per-views) turning to face us, slightly facing the left. The text "THE WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION", curved at first, then straightening out, rises up from the bottom.

Variant: A more common version of the logo has blue, black, and white colors.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: Another dramatic tune with thunderclaps with an announcer saying "The following is a special presentation of the World Wrestling Federation.". For a short while, the same announcement from the previous two logos was used instead.

Music/Sounds Variant: For the color variant, we also hear Howard Finkel shouting "Noise, loud and Raw HERE WE GO!".

Availability: Again, this was used for WWF shows (including episodes of Monday Night Raw) and pay-per-views at the time.

6th Logo (1997-November 11, 1998)

• 

Logo: We see some random images and names of countries flying around and flashing. This is followed by languages and several "5,000,000"s flying around and flashing as well along with more random images. Eventually, we see a globe background, with some blue hexagons, and another globe at the bottom left of the screen. The WWF logo from the previous logo, this time tilted towards the right with the square and outline of "WWF" colored blue, drops down from the top. "THE WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION" (with "THE" displayed over "WORLD") is shown below, along with the URL www.wwf.com.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: A hip hop-like tune with an male announcer saying "In 80 countries, in seven languages, to over a half billion homes each week, the World Wrestling Federation: The worldwide leader in sports entertainment."

Music/Sounds Variants:

• Sometimes, a different announcer is used.
• On later uses, the spiel is altered thusly: "In over 100 countries, in seven different languages, to more than a half billion viewers each week, the World Wrestling Federation: The worldwide leader in sports entertainment."

Availability: Once again, this was used for WWF shows (including episodes of Monday Night Raw) and pay-per-views at the time. The original version is retained on a VHS of a British WWF: One Night Only PPV.

7th Logo (March 2, 1998-May 5, 2002)

• 

Logo: We see a looped video of a neon Earth with a outlined sun, the bottom of a ring close-up, another Earth zooming in, crowds cheering and explosions which speeds up faster as time goes on. "#1 Worldwide Leader", "World", "Wrestling", "Federation", and other stuff like that are also seen (the words "World Wrestling Federation" are never seen at the same time). The animation abruptly ends with "ATTITUDE" appearing for a fraction of a second, followed by a quick light pan of the WWF logo (much like the original, but it seems like a 5-year old's scribble of the logo with a red line underneath). The WWF logo is stylized to have a harder edge, like their product, and is modeled after the Nike "swoosh".

Variants:

• On the 2001 disc of WWE Royal Rumble: The Complete Anthology, Vol. 3, only the last few seconds of this are shown and the ending pan of the WWF logo is replaced with a pan of the WWE logo.
• Another variant shows several past logos as the logo goes, the last few seconds of this logo is shown. This was seen at the 2001 Survivor Series event during the WWF vs. Alliance (WCW/ECW) storyline.
• During the waning days of the logo, a closing variant was used to end shows and PPVs. The variant is simply a light moving left to right, illuminating the WWF logo from behind in the process.

Technique: CGI and live-action.

Music/Sounds: Electric guitar riffs and sped-up sounds from the video clips that culminate in a thunderclap-like sound.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• Two versions of the regular variant's music exist. The first is noticeably louder, while the second is quieter. *The Survivor Series 2001 variant, fitting in with the event, uses the 5th logo's music (the event was the climax of the WWF vs. Alliance storyline, with the losing company going out of business).
• The closing variant is silent.

Availability: Very rare/near extinction.

• The World Wildlife Fund (also known as the "World Wide Fund for Nature" outside the United States and Canada) now allows this logo, so it has a very slim chance of reappearing.
• The logo itself debuted on TV on the November 17, 1997 edition of Monday Night Raw (by then rebranded as Raw is War) and made its debut as a opening logo on March 2, 1998 and on PPV on Unforgiven: In Your House.
• It appeared before Raw (is War), SmackDown!, Sunday Night Heat and other shows, as well as PPVs and the WWF's direct-to-video content.
• The last show to have this logo was the May 5, 2002 edition of Sunday Night Heat and the last one on DVD was the Tagged Classics DVD. As for PPVs, Insurrection 2002 was the last pay-per-view to have this logo. It resurfaced "unblurred" on the DVD release Brock Lesnar: Here Comes The Pain. In the United Kingdom, the logo is a bit more common and appears on some of Silver Vision's WWE Tagged Classics DVDs without blurs.
• The opening and closing versions appear on a VHS release of SummerSlam 2001.

Final Note

On May 5, 2002, the World Wrestling Federation changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) because the World Wildlife Fund sued them in 2000 due to the pro wrestling company sharing their initials, and WWF's popularity around the world spreading like wildfire due to famous wrestlers like Dwayne Johnson, Steve Austin (known by their wrestling names "The Rock" and "Stone Cold"), Val Venis, and Kurt Angle, among others.

World Wrestling Entertainment

1st Logo (May 5, 2002-2005)

• 
  Opening logo
• 
  Closing logo

Logo: We see a globe, with pictures of wrestling clips, and the brand logos of Raw, SmackDown!, Sunday Night Heat, Velocity, Afterburn, Experience, and Bottom Line. These images are interspersed among crowd scenes like the last logo. Towards the end, "ATTITUDE" and "ENTERTAINMENT" appear for fleeting moments. Then, we see a quick light pan of the WWE logo (exactly like the 1998 WWF logo, but missing the "F", and with the {{color|red|| line closer up). The WWE logo essentially just has a W divided to look like two Ws, and with a red "swoosh" below it.

Variants:

• At the end of WWE programs, we see just the light panning across the logo with "ENTERTAINMENT" added underneath it.
• For the logo's first two years, the logo contains a WWE Tough Enough logo instead of the WWE Experience logo.
• On episodes of Monday Night Raw sometime between 2004 and 2005, a pan of Eric Bischoff replaces the WWE logo due to his tenure as the brand's general manager from 2002 to 2005. Sometimes, a second pan of either Mick Foley or "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would appear after Bischoff's - Bischoff's was accompanied by booing, while Foley's/Austin's would have cheering instead.

Technique: CGI and live-action.

Music/Sounds: A somewhat calm rock-like tune mixed with sped-up audio clips from the footage.

'Availability: Seen on WWE shows (e.g. Raw and SmackDown!) and PPVs from the era.

2nd Logo (2005-July 20, 2012)

• 
  Opening logo (standard)
• 
  Opening logo (first variant)
• 

Logo: We see a black-and-white clip of an old wrestling match from the early 20th century. We zoom out to reveala TV screen in a large tunnel. The screen displays historic WWE clips (pertaining to things such as WrestleMania and Hulk Hogan). Eventually, we see a shot of a crowd, and the screen zooms in before a light flashes and engulfs the screen. When the light disappears, we see the WWE logo at the bottom left on a black background, shining. "WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT" appears next to the logo, glowing red for a brief moment.

Trivia: The wrestling match shown at the beginning may be the match between Ernest Roeber and August Faust that was filmed by the Edison Manufacturing Company in 1901.

Variants:

• In its first uses, "THE POWER IS BACK" would appear next to the WWE logo.
• The end of WWE programs use the 2002 logo's closing variant, though larger and more three-dimensional.
• Sometime around 2010, the footage is slightly changed to show scenes of Gorgeous George, Ric Flair, Ted DiBiase, Sr., Sheamus, The Miz, and John Cena.
• Beginning on January 16, 2011, the ending section of this logo is instead the WWE logo assembling and shooting sparks on a dark blue background.
• In the logo's final uses, footage of the Undertaker is replaced with that of Kane.

Technique: CGI and live-action.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic fanfare mixed in with sound bytes and announcer chatter from the clips, ending with a sound bite of Jim Ross saying "The world is watching!" and a humming sound. The audio was changed along with the footage sometime around 2010 with the sound bite of John Cena saying "The champ is here!"

Availability: Appeared on all WWE shows (examples being Raw, SmackDown and NXT) and PPVs from 2005 to 2012.

3rd Logo (July 23, 2012-September 19, 2018)

• 
  2012-2014
• 
  2014-2018

• 
  2012-2014
• 
  2014-2018

Logo: We start out with an overhead shot of the SunLife Stadium with fireworks. This cuts to still shots of various wrestlers and other people in WWE's history. As the shots get faster, the WWE logo zooms out halfway until the background flashes various arenas. The end result is the WWE logo to the left on a white background. "THEN" appears followed by "NOW" and "FOREVER" from the right center downwards respectively.

Closing Variant: Against a black background, thin gray lines form the glowing word "ENTERTAINMENT" as the screen eases back. When they finish, the text glitters and there is a bluish-white flash revealing the then-current WWE logo. The word "ENTERTAINMENT" flashes out and ghostly remains appear behind the WWE logo which slowly zooms in until we fade to black.

Variant: Beginning with the August 18, 2014 edition of Monday Night Raw, the scratch logo is replaced with the new WWE logo. The new logo is smoothed out to remove the scratches. The closing variant was also updated to feature the new logo.

Technique: CGI and live-action for the opening logo. Entirely CGI for the closing logo.

Music/Sounds:

• Opening: The sound of fireworks, followed by a short guitar piece with ticking noises in the background. When the arenas flash, there is some explosion like noises.
• Closing: A rising violin piece with a large explosion like sound when the WWE logo appears.

Music/Sounds Variant: When the opening logo debuted, a hum like noise is heard instead of the guitar sounder.

Availability: Despite no longer being in use, it's still quite common.

• Seen on all of WWE's flagship programming which includes Monday Night Raw, SmackDown (Live), Main Event, 205 Live!, WWE NXT and all PPVs and DVDs. The original opening variant debuted on "Raw 1000", the 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw and was last used on the 2014 SummerSlam pay-per-view event.
• The closing variant also debuted on "Raw 1000" but it was only occasionally used due to time constraints.
• The logo in general was last used on the September 19, 2018 edition of WWE NXT.
• Should still appear on its respective programming on the WWE Network.
• It also appears on the video games WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, and WWE 2K19.

4th Logo (September 24, 2018-April 9, 2021)

• 

Logo: Starting off on a black background, slightly curved footage of Hulk Hogan slamming André the Giant from WrestleMania III rises up from the bottom of the screen. The screen begins to zoom out as various scenes from WWE's past begin to play and the word "THEN" appears above the scenes. The camera quickly turns to the right and goes down a hallway consisting of scenes from the past before rotating to the left once more. The screens are showing modern WWE footage as "NOW" rises up facing the right on the left center of the screen. The camera then quickly pans down another hallway showing more scenes. The camera stops than begins to zoom out to reveal that the hallways are in the shape of the current WWE logo. As it finishes rotating back, the "W"s turn white while the "slash" turns red. The word "FOREVER" rises from below as the WWE logo flashes. "FOREVER" flashes as the background turns dark blue.

Technique: A combination of CGI and live action.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic theme composed by CFO$, WWE's in-house composer. In 2020, the theme was updated to a dramatic fanfare.

Availability: Very common. Appears at the beginning of Monday Night Raw, 205 Live!, and NXT on the USA Network, SmackDown! on Fox, and NXT UK on the WWE Network as well as pay-per-view events and WWE Network specials. It also appears on the video game WWE 2K20.

5th Logo (April 10, 2021-)

• 

Logo: It starts in the same way as the previous opening, but with updated and additional images and footage from WWE's past, on the other hallway showing more scenes, "TOGETHER" rises up from the same position with additional modern footages showing the crowd and fireworks displays (whether indoor and outdoors, from WrestleMania), and when the WWE logo rotates from its same position, a light flashes with "FOREVER" following on it.

Variant: An alternate variant is also used on some episodes of shows: "FOREVER" rises up in the same position from the 3rd hallway with clips from the wrestlers interacting with the fans, with "TOGETHER" on the bottom of the WWE logo.

Technique: Same as the 4th logo.

Music/Sounds: A dramatical-pop musical theme with choral accompaniment and soundbites from WWE's legends and superstars, with an eagle-flying like sound effect at the near end of the theme.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• Beginning on the February 14, 2022 episode of Monday Night Raw, we hear an announcer saying each word when the words rising up.
• Beginning on April 2, 2022 at WrestleMania 38, an EDM-pop musical theme is used with the same soundbites and announcing position.

Availability: Very common, it made its debut at WrestleMania 37, and appears at the beginning of Monday Night Raw, 205 Live!, and NXT on the USA Network, SmackDown! on Fox, and NXT UK on the WWE Network and Peacock as well as pay-per-view events and WWE Network specials. The variant is used on the video game WWE 2K22.

Logo History

Here is the logo history of the company (excluding the 5th logo):