Bet On Wrestling

Wait… you can bet on professional wrestling, you ask? Yes you can!

Professional wrestling may be a pre-determined ‘sport’ where the winners are determined ahead of the matches, but that has not stopped bookmakers from offering customers with the opportunity to bet on shows.

After all, you could bet on who would rule supreme in Game of Thrones. You could bet on who Negan battered (quite literally) in The Walking Dead. So why shouldn’t you be able to bet on professional wrestling and it’s unique mix of soap opera drama and scripted violence?

Markets are limited when it comes to the matches, with customers usually only able to bet on who the winner will be, but for the bigger events, like WWE’s WrestleMania and Royal Rumble events, you will often find additional markets.

In the past you could have bet on UFC star Conor McGregor making the leap from mixed martial arts to professional wrestling and you could have bet on television presenter John Oliver making a surprise appearance at WWE WrestleMania after his presented a scathing segment about the company’s practice during his ‘Last Week Tonight’ show. You could even bet on how wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer would rate a match in his long-running Wrestling Observer newsletter.

Paddy Power are particularly big fans of wrestling, as you will know if you follow its social media platforms, and every year the Irish bookmaker offers punters the chance to play the WWE Royal Rumble Fantasy Game that allows customers to win VIP trips to WWE events as well as free bet prizes and more.

So as you can see, there has never been a better time to bet on professional wrestling and Bettingpro.com will have everything you need to know when you are looking to place your bets on the next major WWE event or on a show presented the fledgling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) promotion.

 

WWE – World Wrestling Entertainment

When you think of professional wrestling you immediately think of World Wrestling Entertainment – the premier brand that has been broadcast into homes across the globe on a weekly basis for several decades.

Having been considered a regional promotion in the North East of the United States for a couple of decades the WWE, then known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), shot to prominence in the early 80s as owner and third generation promoter Vince McMahon embarked on a mission to revolutionise the industry. No longer would WWF stay in its corner of the world, it became a national powerhouse that would tour North America and to bolster his entire McMahon went about raiding regional promotions of their best talent, sending many out of business.

The cultural phenomenon of Hulk Hogan, along with the era of ‘Rock n’ Wrestling’ then took WWF to even greater heights as demand for the product grew around the world, and after a lean period between 1993 and 1997 the company experience another explosion of popularity in the late 90s as the ‘Attitude Era’. With a racier and edgier product led by the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and The Undertaker, WWF capitalised on the rebel culture of 18-35 year olds during that time to smash television ratings records and pay-per-view buyrates, making wrestling cool again.

Of course those numbers were never going to be sustained for decade after decade and a decline set in once again during the early 2000s, when WWF was forced to rebrand as World Wrestling Entertainment due to a lost court battle with the World Wildlife Fund, but while weekly numbers are not what they once was the WWE remains the industry leader and continues to sign big-money deal after big-money deal to cement its status as number one.

Its biggest event, WrestleMania, is no longer a one-night event taking place in an arena somewhere. It is now an incredible week-long experience that sees thousands upon thousands of fans flock to the host city for a week that includes fan festivals, the Hall of Fame, meet and greets, television shows and, of course, WrestleMania itself, which is now held exclusively in packed stadiums holding between 70,000 and 80,000 fans. When it hit the AT&T Stadium in 2016, in excess of 101,000 filed into the home of the Dallas Cowboys NFL team to witness the biggest event in the history of the WWE – a night that saw current stars rub shoulders with past legends on a night where wrestling once again took centre stage in the entertainment world.

And WWE is not only leading the way in professional wrestling, it has also broke new ground in how it delivers content to its fans with the WWE Network, the company’s version of Netflix, proving to be a revolutionary approach that has inspired the likes of the UFC, NFL and NBA to follow suit by offering their own similar product.

Some may poke fun at the ‘fake sport’. Some will mock fans for following a show that has pre-determined results. But even in what could be considered a ‘down period’ for the company, what cannot be denied is that WWE remains a global powerhouse in the entertainment world.

 

Royal Rumble

WrestleMania might be seen as the Grandest Stage Of Them All, but the Royal Rumble is the pay-per-view that gets everyone excited about Mania. This is the start of the official Road to WrestleMania.
The Royal Rumble is named after the unique main event match that sees 30 wrestlers enter the ring at timed intervals and it continues until one man is left standing.

The first ever Royal Rumble, which featured 20 wrestlers, was aired in 1988 on the USA Network with Hacksaw Jim Duggan becoming the first ever winner as he eliminated One Man Gang to have his arm raised.

After the success of the 1988 Royal Rumble, the World Wrestling Federation – as it was known then – decided to include it as one of their special pay-per-view events. The following year it was increased to feature 30 wrestlers and the pay-per-view has kept the same format ever since, apart from 2011 when they made it a 40-man event for the only time ever.

In 1992, the Royal Rumble event saw the WWF Championship go on the line for the first time in this kind of match. The Rumble was eventually won by Ric Flair after he entered the ring at number three. In the history of the Rumble, only two men have won the match after entering at number one – Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit. Rey Mysterio has won it from number two.

The winner of the Rumble gets the opportunity to challenge the champion in the main event of WrestleMania. This was incorporated in 1993 when Yokozuna won and he went on to challenge Bret Hart for the title at WrestleMania IX.

The only time this has not been the case since, was during the 2016 Royal Rumble when Roman Reigns was ordered to defend his belt. He entered the ring at number one and lasted just under an hour before being eliminated by Triple H – who went on to win the Rumble and be crowned WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

Stone Cold Steve Austin holds the record for the most Royal Rumble wins, while Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, John Cena, Batista, Triple H and Randy Orton have won it on two occasions each. Seth Rollins won it last year after eliminating Brawn Showman.

In 2018, a women’s Rumble match was included for the first time with Asuka dumping out Nikki Bella to go onto the main event at WrestleMania 34. Becky Lynch took the accolade the following year after eliminating Charlotte Flair to get another title shot after failing to beat Asuka earlier in the night.

 

WrestleMania

There is no bigger event in the entire business of professional wrestling than WWE WrestleMania!

Wrestling guru Vince McMahon put everything on the line when he held the inaugural event at Madison Square Garden back in March 1985, and it proved to be a gamble that paid off as A-Team star Mr T teamed up with Hulk Hogan in a main event tag team match that also featured the late, great Rowdy Roddy Piper and boxing icon Muhammad Ali.

Since that night this event has developed an aura and a reputation of its own thanks to a long list of memorable moments that include Hulk Hogan slamming the legendary Andre The Giant, Stone Cold Steve Austin becoming champion for the first time, Mike Tyson ‘knocking out’ Shawn Michaels and the return of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson for a showdown with John Cena.

No longer is the event held in arenas, it is now a stadium affair with fans from every state in America and countries across the globe all descending on the host city for a week of fun and festivities surrounding this spectacular event.

Over 101,000 piled into the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas back in 2016 to set both an attendance record for the venue and one for WrestleMania itself, proving that while WWE may not have the mainstream stars it once had it is still an entertainment juggernaut with WrestleMania still the ‘Super Bowl of professional wrestling’.

History Of WrestleMania

DATE	EVENT	MAIN EVENT	VENUE	ATTENDANCE
March 31, 1985	WrestleMania	Hulk Hogan & Mr T beat Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff	New York, New York	19,121
April 7, 1986	WrestleMania 2	Mr T beat Roddy Piper	Uniondale, New York	16, 585
		The British Bulldogs beat Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake	Rosemont, Illinois	9,000
		Hulk Hogan beat King Kong Bundy	Los Angeles, California	14,500
March 29, 1987	WrestleMania III	Hulk Hogan beat Andre The Giant	Pontiac, Michigan	93,173
March 27, 1988	WrestleMania IV	Randy Savage beat Ted DiBiase	Atlantic City, New Jersey	18,165
April 2, 1989	WrestleMania V	Hulk Hogan beat Randy Savage	Atlantic City, New Jersey	18,946
April 1, 1990	WrestleMania VI	The Ultimate Warrior beat Hulk Hogan	Toronto, Canada	67,678
March 24. 1991	WrestleMania VII	Hulk Hogan beat Sgt Slaughter	Los Angeles, California	16,158
April 5, 1992	WrestleMania VIII	Hulk Hogan beat Sid Justice	Indianapolis, Indiana	62,167
April 4, 1993	WrestleMania IX	Hulk Hogan beat Yokozuna	Las Vegas, Nevada	16,891
March 20, 1994	WrestleMania X	Bret Hart beat Yokozuna	New York, New York	18,065
April 2, 1995	WrestleMania XI	Lawrence Taylor beat Bam Bam Bigelow	Hartford, Connecticut	16,305
March 13, 1996	WrestleMania XII	Shawn Michaels beat Bret Hart	Anaheim, California	18,853
March 23, 1997	WrestleMania 13	The Undertaker beat Sycho Sid	Rosemont, Illinois	18,197
March 29,1998	WrestleMania XIV	Stone Cold Steve Austin beat Shawn Michaels	Boston, Massachusetts	19,028
March 28, 1999	WrestleMania XV	Stone Cold Steve Austin beat The Rock	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	20,276
April 2, 2000	WrestleMania 2000	Triple H beat The Rock, Big Show & Mick Foley	Anaheim, California	18,034
April 1, 2001	WrestleMania X-Seven	Stone Cold Steve Austin beat The Rock	Houston, Texas	67,925
March 17, 2002	WrestleMania X8	Triple H beat Chris Jericho	Toronto, Canada	68,237
March 30, 2003	WrestleMania XIX	Brock Lesnar beat Kurt Angle	Seattle, Washington	54,097
March 14, 2004	WrestleMania XX	Chris Benoit beat Triple H & Shawn Michaels	New York, New York	18,000
April 3, 2005	WrestleMania 21	Batista beat Triple H	Los Angeles, California	20,193
April 2, 2006	WrestleMania 22	John Cena beat Triple H	Rosemont, Illinois	17,159
April 1, 2007	WrestleMania 23	John Cena beat Shawn Michaels	Detroit, Michigan	80,103
March 30, 2008	WrestleMania XXIV	The Undertaker beat Edge	Orlando, Florida	74,635
April 5, 2009	WrestleMania XXV	Triple H beat Randy Orton	Houston, Texas	72,744
March 28, 2010	WrestleMania XXVI	The Undertaker beat Shawn Michaels	Glendale, Arizona	72,219
April 3, 2011	WrestleMania XXVII	The Miz beat John Cena	Atlanta, Georgia	71,617
April 1, 2012	WrestleMania XXVIII	The Rock beat John Cena	Miami, Florida	78,363
April 7, 2013	WrestleMania 29	John Cena beat The Rock	East Rutherford, New Jersey	80,676
April 6, 2014	WrestleMania XXX	Daniel Bryan beat Batista & Randy Orton	New Orleans, Louisiana	75,167
March 29, 2015	WrestleMania 31	Seth Rollins beat Brock Lesnar & Roman Reigns	Santa Clara, California	76,976
April 3, 2016	WrestleMania 32	Roman Reigns beat Triple H	Arlington, Texas	101,763
April 2, 2017	WrestleMania 33	Roman Reigns beat The Undertaker	Orlando, Florida	75, 245
April 8, 2018	WrestleMania 34	Brock Lesnar beat Roman Reigns	New Orleans, Louisiana	78,133
April 7, 2019	WrestleMania 35	Becky Lynch beat Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair	East Rutherford, New Jersey	82,265

 

SummerSlam

SummerSlam is officially ‘The Biggest Party of the Summer’ in the world of professional wrestling. SummerSlam will always be seen as one of the four original pay-per-views, alongside Royal Rumble, WrestleMania and Survivor Series.

The first ever SummerSlam event was held in 1988 at Madison Square Garden in New York.  The main event featured Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage as the Mega Powers taking on the team of Andre the Giant and Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase – the Mega Bucks in a tag team match.

The following year saw the WWE mix wrestling with Hollywood as the main event saw Hulk Hogan team with Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake against Randy Savage and a 6ft 5in giant known as Zeus. Hogan and Zeus had recently been a part of a WWE financed movie called ‘No Holds Barred’ that saw Hogan’s character defeat Zeus, so the WWE kept that rivalry going at SummerSlam.

SummerSlam opted to take this party out of the United States in 1992 when they hosted the event at Wembley Stadium in England. At the moment, it is still the only pay-per-view event that has been staged in England and with its attendance of 80,355 it’s the fifth biggest crowd in the history of World Wrestling Entertainment.

That show at Wembley saw the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith battle his brother in law Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart in the main event with the Wigan-born wrestling winning the Intercontinental title belt to close the show.

In 1994, we were treated with a brother versus brother match, Bret Hart took on his brother Owen Hart in a steel cage at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Bret was the champion and he retained his title in an incredible match that showcased both of their talents. Bret escaped the cage first to keep hold of his championship belt.

The only other times SummerSlam has not been staged in the US was in 2004 and 2019 when it was staged in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The main event in 2004 saw Edge defeat Batista and Chris Jericho in a triple-threat match for the Intercontinental title, while Randy Orton beat Chris Benoit to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

In 2019, Seth Rollins won the Universal Champion for the second time in his career after beating former UFC champion Brock Lesnar by pinfall. Other matches in Canada saw Charlotte Flair defeat WWE legend Trish Stratus, while Bailey retained her Smackdown Women’s Championship by defeating Ember Moon.

There have been two occasions during SummerSlam that superstars have cashed in their Money in the Bank briefcases to win the title. In 2011, Alberto Del Rio cashed in seconds after CM Punk defeated John Cena for the WWE Championship. In 2013, Randy Orton cashed in with the help of HHH after Daniel Bryan had beaten John Cena for the WWE Championship.

History of SummerSlam

DATE	EVENT	MAIN EVENT	VENUE	ATTENDANCE
August 29, 1988	SummerSlam	The Mega Powers beat The Mega Bucks	New York, New York	20,000
August 28, 1989	SummerSlam	Brutus Beefcake and Hulk Hogan beat Randy Savage and Zeus	East Rutherford, New Jersey	20,000
August 27, 1990	SummerSlam	Ultimate Warrior beat Rick Rude	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	19,304
August 26, 1991	SummerSlam	Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warriors beat Col. Mustafa and Sgt. Slaughter	New York, New York	20,000
August 29, 1992	SummerSlam	The British Bulldog beat Bret Hart	London, England	80,355
August 30, 1993	SummerSlam	Lex Luger beat Yokozuna	Auburn Hills, Michigan	23,954
August 29, 1994	SummerSlam	The Undertaker beat The Undertaker	Chicago, Illinois	23,000
August 27, 1995	SummerSlam	Diesel beat King Mabel	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	18,062
August 18, 1996	SummerSlam	Shawn Michaels beat Vader	Cleveland, Ohio	17,000
August 3, 1997	SummerSlam	Bret Hart beat The Undertaker	East Rutherford, New Jersey	20,213
August 30, 1998	SummerSlam	Steve Austin beat The Undertaker	New York, New York	20,000
August 22, 1999	SummerSlam	Mankind beat Steve Austin	Minneapolis, Minnesota	17,370
August 27, 2000	SummerSlam	The Rock beat HHH	Raleigh, North Carolina	15,000
August 19, 2001	SummerSlam	The Rock beat Booker T	San Jose, California	15,293
August 25, 2002	SummerSlam	Brock Lesnar beat The Rock	Uniondale, New York	14,797
August 24, 2003	SummerSlam	HHH beat Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels	Phoenix, Arizona	16.113
August 15, 2004	SummerSlam	Randy Orton beat Chris Benoit	Toronto, Ontario	16,640
August 21, 2005	SummerSlam	Hulk Hogan beat Shawn Michaels	Washington DC	18,176
August 20, 2006	SummerSlam	Edge beat John Cena	Boston, Massachusetts	16,168
August 26, 2007	SummerSlam	John Cena beat Randy Orton	East Rutherford, New Jersey	17,441
August 17, 2008	SummerSlam	The Undertaker beat Edge	Indianapolis, Indiana	15,997
August 23, 2009	SummerSlam	CM Punk beat Jeff Hardy	Los Angeles, California	14,116
August 15, 2010	SummerSlam	Team WWE beat Team Nexus	Los Angeles, California	17,463
August 14, 2011	SummerSlam	CM Punk beat John Cena	Los Angeles, California	17,404
		Alberto Del Rio beat CM Punk (Cashed in)
August 19, 2012	SummerSlam	Brock Lesnar beat HHH	Los Angeles, California	14,205
August 18, 2013	SummerSlam	Daniel Bryan beat John Cena	Los Angeles, California	17,739
		Randy Orton beat Daniel Bryan (Cashed in)
August 17, 2014	SummerSlam	Brock Lesnar beat John Cena	Los Angeles, California	17,357
August 23, 2015	SummerSlam	The Undertaker beat Brock Lesnar	Brooklyn, New York	15,702
August 21, 2016	SummerSlam	Brock Lesnar beat Randy Orton	Brooklyn, New York	15,974
August 20, 2017	SummerSlam	Brock Lesnar beat Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe	Brooklyn, New York	16,128
August 19, 2018	SummerSlam	Roman Reigns beat Brock Lesnar	Brooklyn, New York	16,169
August 11, 2019	SummerSlam	Seth Rollins beat Brock Lesnar	Toronto, Ontario	16,904

AEW: All Elite Wrestling

Professional wrestling received a major shake-up in 2019 with the launch of All Elite Wrestling, and as the fledgling company prepares to make its weekly television debut in early October the bookmakers have decided it is time to ‘be elite’.

World Wrestling Entertainment, more commonly known as WWE, has had a stranglehold over the business of professional wrestling since early 2001 when Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) folded due to financial difficulties and AOL-Time Warner’s desperation to get rid of World Championship Wrestling resulted in the company selling WCW to WWE supremo Vince McMahon.

Since that date no company has managed to provide competition to the WWE, but that all changed in late 2018 when former WWE star, Cody Rhodes, teamed up with Nick and Matt Jackson, known collectively as The Young Bucks, to run a huge independent show in Chicago called ‘All In’. The event was a critical and commercial success and it earned the interest of the Khan family, known for their ownership of the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team and English soccer side Fulham.

Trademark filings surrounding the name All Elite Wrestling soon made their way into the press and in early 2019 the announcement was made – AEW would run its first official show in the second quarter of 2019 with Tony Khan, son of Jaguars and Fulham owner Shahid, heading up the company as president and CEO, with Rhodes and the Jacksons, alongside Kenny Omega, playing the roles of executive vice president while also featuring as in-ring performers.

AEW quickly swooped to sign up some of the top independent talent in the world of professional wrestling to put together a supremely talented roster, but the blockbuster signings that helped the group make a major splash were the captures of former WWE and WCW star Chris Jericho and one of WWE’s headline performers in recent years, Dean Ambrose, aka. Jon Moxley. Jericho debuted in the closing moments of the press conference to announce AEW’s launch, while Moxley ended months of speculation about him making the jump from WWE when he performed a post-match run-in during the company’s inaugural event, Double Or Nothing, in Las Vegas.

In that time All Elite Wrestling also announced blockbuster television deals with TNT, the former home of WCW, in the United States, as well as a deal with ITV in the United Kingdom, meaning AEW would have the opportunity to reach more viewers than the WWE in the UK! The launch of the show would not be for several months, so it was up to AEW to build up momentum ahead of the debut and it did just that with its maiden PPV, ‘Double Or Nothing’ and follow-up ‘All Out’ proving to be critical and commercial success.

The question is can they now help usher in another golden period for professional wrestling, the likes we have not seen since WWE and WCW went to war between 1995 and 2001 and lit up an entire industry with record-breaking television ratings, sky high PPV buy rates and a long list of stars who became household names.

Will AEW truly be elite?