WWE No Mercy, also known asNXT No Mercy from 2023 to 2024, is aprofessional wrestling event produced byWWE, aprofessional wrestling promotion based inConnecticut. The first No Mercy was held on May 16, 1999, inManchester, England, and was the only No Mercy event produced in theUnited Kingdom. A second No Mercy was then held in October that year inCleveland, Ohio, United States. Beginning with this second event, No Mercy became the annual Octoberpay-per-view (PPV) until 2008. The event was then discontinued and replaced byHell in a Cell in 2009. After eight years, No Mercy was reinstated in October 2016. However, No Mercy was again discontinued after the September 2017 event, as WWE reduced the amount of yearly PPVs held after they had ended the production of brand-exclusive PPVs followingWrestleMania 34 in 2018. In 2023, WWE again revived the event, this time for itsdevelopmental brand,NXT, in September.
The first four events were held when the promotion was still called the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In May 2002, the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and in 2011, the "WWE" name became anorphaned initialism for the promotion. During the firstbrand extension, No Mercy was held exclusively for theSmackDown brand from 2003 to 2006. When the event was reinstated for the second brand extension in 2016, it was again SmackDown-exclusive and was thenRaw-exclusive in 2017. It then became exclusive for NXT in 2023. In addition to traditional PPV, the 2016 and 2017 events werelivestreamed on theWWE Network, and then justPeacock and the WWE Network beginning in 2023.
On May 16, 1999, the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) held apay-per-view (PPV) in theUnited Kingdom, specificallyManchester, England, titledNo Mercy.[1] The pay-per-view market was relatively new to Britain at the time: beforeOne Night Only in 1997, all pay-per-view events were broadcast for free onSky Sports. The UK-exclusive pay-per-views were established to serve as promotion for the new delivery method, however, were booked and treated similar tohouse shows.[2] This first event would be the only No Mercy event produced in the United Kingdom, as the WWF held asecond No Mercy later that same year on October 17, but inCleveland, Ohio, United States.[3] No Mercy continued as the annual October PPV for the promotion (with the May UK PPV renamedInsurrextion, held until 2003) until2008.[4] The event was then discontinued and replaced byHell in a Cell in 2009, which became the annual October PPV.[5]
In March 2002, the WWF introduced thebrand extension, where the promotion divided its main roster into two brands,Raw andSmackDown!, where the wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform[6]—in May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).[7] The2002 event, which was the first to be held under the WWE name, featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown! brands,[8] but from 2003 to 2006, the PPV was produced exclusively for wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand.[9][10][11][12] FollowingWrestleMania 23 in 2007, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive PPVs,[13] thus the2007 and2008 events featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, andECW brands[14][4]—ECW was established as a third brand in 2006.[15]
In February 2010, the ECW brand was disbanded.[16] In April 2011, the promotion ceased using its full name, with the "WWE" name becoming anorphaned initialism for the promotion,[17] and in August that year, the first brand extension ended.[18] In July 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand extension, again dividing the roster between the Raw and SmackDown brands. No Mercy wasreinstated that year for October and was again produced exclusively for SmackDown but was also the first No Mercy event to belivestreamed on theWWE Network.[19] Thefollowing year, it was moved up to September and produced exclusively for Raw.[20] This 2017 event would be the final No Mercy event held, as followingWrestleMania 34 in 2018, WWE again discontinued brand-exclusive PPVs, resulting in WWE reducing the amount of yearly PPVs produced.[21]
During a conference call held byShawn Michaels, the Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative, on July 27, 2023, WWE announced the return ofNo Mercy for wrestlers of the company'sdevelopmental brand,NXT. It was the first to be livestreamed onPeacock in the United States, where the WWE Network service merged in 2021. Unlike previous No Mercy events, it did not air on PPV as NXT's events ceased airing on traditional PPV beginning in 2022.[22] Starting from October 2024, all NXT major events ceased using the NXT logo, thus reverting the name to WWE No Mercy.
Jim Johnston, who was a long-time music composer for the promotion, wrote a song titled "No Mercy", which was used as a regular theme song for the events in 2002, 2004 and 2006, while a remix version in collaboration with Eric & The Hostiles was used in 2007.[8][10][12][14] For the 2016 and 2017 events, the theme song was by KIT and was also titled "No Mercy". Other theme songs were "Used Up" by composer Max Power, "A.D.D." byVanilla Ice featuringCasey Chaos and "Oh Hell Yeah" byH-Blockx in 1999, "RamRod" by composers Daniel Holter and Mike Standal in 2000, "Click Click Boom" bySaliva in 2001, "Today is the Day" byDope and "Last Man Out" by Victor Reid both in 2003, "Save Me" byShinedown in 2005 and "All Nightmare Long" byMetallica in 2008.[19][20]
^Sacco, Justine; Weitz, Michael (April 7, 2011)."The New WWE" (Press release).Connecticut:WWE.Archived from the original on May 3, 2018. RetrievedNovember 25, 2021.
^Nemer, Paul (August 30, 2011)."Raw Results – 8/29/11".WrestleView.Archived from the original on November 6, 2016. RetrievedNovember 5, 2016.
