Even though the term "pay-per-view" is something that WWE is trying to shy away from, they are still planning on producing monthly special events that they will build up to on Raw, Smackdown and Main Event. For what it's worth, if you go to
WWE.com it still lists these shows as "pay-per-views" so perhaps that name is sticking around or they just need to update their website. A schedule of all the Special Events was
recently released that will take the company from Extreme Rules this Sunday all the way to WrestleMania 31 next March. Here's the full listing with dates, location and arena listings. May 4th - Extreme Rules, IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ June 1st - Payback, Allstate Arena in Chicago, IL June 29th - Money In the Bank, TD Garden in Boston, MA July 20th - Battleground, Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, FL August 17th - SummerSlam, Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA September 21st - Night of Champions, Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN October 26th - Hell In A Cell, American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX November 23rd - Survivor Series, Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO December 14th - TLC, Quickens Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH January 25th - Royal Rumble, Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA February 22nd - Elimination Chamber, Fedex Forum in Memphis, TN March 29th - WrestleMania 31, Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA A few notes on the listings: - There will be 12 events over the next year. All of them will take place in the United States of America. The start time for them will be 8pmET except for WrestleMania, which will start at 7pmET. - There are only two 3-week gaps between events (Money in the Bank to Battleground and Survivor Series to TLC), so WWE did a good job of spacing them out and allowing storylines to build. - In recent years, WWE had two events in October. That was never a smart move because the NFL season is in full swing and the MLB playoffs are also going on. Those shows rarely did well with all that competition. Having two events in June is a better move. They made the switch by moving Battleground to July while Money in the Bank is in late June instead of mid-July. - Los Angeles remains the home of SummerSlam. It's become an annual tradition. Fans are used to it. It puts WWE in the Hollywood spotlight for a weekend, so it's understandable why WWE would keep going back there. The monthly special events or PPVs will continue to be the major events that WWE builds their stories around. It will drive people to hopefully subscribe to WWE Network if they haven't done so already and for those without the Network in other countries, they can still use traditional PPV methods to watch them.