WWF vs. WWE: Which Is The Better Brand?

The WWF and WWE each had real highlights. Which brand reigns supreme?

From 1979 to 2002, the World Wrestling Federation was a leader in sports entertainment, growing out of the Capitol Wrestling Company and World Wide Wrestling Federation brands to precede it. The WWF encompasses some of the hottest eras in wrestling history like the original Hulkamania run and the Rock N Wrestling Connection, besides the Attitude Era.

From 2002 to the present, the company became known as World Wrestling Entertainment, stemming from issues with the World Wildlife Fund that had shared an acronym, as well as Vince McMahon’s vision to rebrand as a well rounded entertainment company. These years have seen WWE grow its business online and internationally as the singular dominant presence in US-based pro wrestling.

Now that it has been over sixteen years and there has been time to develop a comparable historical body, we can somewhat fairly compare WWF and WWE in terms of accomplishments, successes, and products, and more. So, this article takes a look at which brand is better based on five key criteria to arrive at a conclusion of which brand is ultimately superior to the other.

#6 Stars

When Vince McMahon took over his father’s business, he not only inherited a cast of established stars who had worked in the territory already, but set out on an aggressive national expansion that included recruiting other top talents from all over. So it is that the early days of the WWF era can lay claim to Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, Randy Savage, and The Ultimate Warrior to name a few. The latter days of the WWF brand included its own cavalcade of marquee players like Steve Austin, The Rock, and Mick Foley.

There are those talents who straddle the WWF and WWE eras like Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, Kane, and The Big Show. It’s probably fairer to categorize them as WWF guys given when they made their names and quite arguably worked in their primes, but for the sake of argument, we’ll leave them out of the discussion. So, the WWE years can offer up more decisively John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Batista, and Roman Reigns.

Each era has real strengths, and it’s largely a toss up when it comes to pure in-ring talent. When it comes to connecting with an audience, transcending wrestling, and capturing the imagination, we can’t deny the legends of the WWF in this category.

Advantage: WWF