2021 in professional wrestling describes the year's events in the world of professional wrestling.
The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected the professional wrestling industry worldwide in 2020, with many promotions presenting shows behind closed doors. Some events were canceled while others were rescheduled to occur in 2021. All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling reintroduced a limited number of live fans in the second half of 2020, while WWE had live fans at WrestleMania 37 in April 2021. The majority of promotions continued to present empty arena shows or shows with limited capacity, while AEW and WWE resumed live touring with full capacity crowds in July.
List of notable promotions
These promotions held notable events throughout 2021.
Calendar of notable shows
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Events affected by COVID-19
Canceled events
Notable events
- March 15 â ' premiered on YouTube
- March 18 â Under a new agreement between WWE and NBCUniversal, the WWE Network became a premium channel under Peacock in the United States. Following a brief transitional period, the standalone version of the WWE Network in the U.S. shut down on April 4. This did not affect the service outside of the U.S.
- April 9 â All Elite Wrestling held its first-ever house show, "The House Always Wins."
- May 30 â AEW Double or Nothing is the first major wrestling show to operate at full venue capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic
- June 4 â Beginning with this day's episode of Viernes Espectacular, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre resumed a live touring schedule after over a year of producing shows in Arena México without full capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- July 7 â Beginning with this day's episode of AEW Dynamite, which aired as a special episode called "Road Rager", All Elite Wrestling resumed a live touring schedule after over a year of producing shows from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, becoming the first major promotion to resume touring during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the first in AEW's "Welcome Back" tour, which continued with Fyter Fest (July 14 and 21) and concluded with Fight for the Fallen (July 28).
- July 16 â Beginning with this day's episode of WWE SmackDown, WWE resumed a live touring schedule for their Raw and SmackDown brands after nearly a year of producing shows from the WWE ThunderDome bio-secure bubble.
- August 13 â AEW Rampage premiered on TNT, marking the first weekly wrestling series to air Friday nights on a Turner channel since WCW Power Hour in 1994.
- August 20 - CM Punk returned to professional wrestling for the first time in seven years on a live special episode of AEW Rampage titled The First Dance.
- October 27 â Ring of Honor announced that they were going on hiatus until at least April 2022, and all talent and staff would be released from their contracts after Final Battle in December.
- December 7 â WWE established the WWE NIL program, which exclusively supports U.S. college athletes who decide to train as wrestlers.
Accomplishments and tournaments
AAA
AEW
AJPW
CMLL
DDT
Dragon Gate
MLW
Gleat
Impact
NJPW
NWA
ROH
Noah
Sendai Girls
WWE
Zero1
Title changes
AEW
CMLL
DDT
Ice Ribbon
Impact
IWRG
AAA
MLW
NJPW
NWA
Noah
ROH
The Crash
WWE
â Raw
â SmackDown
â NXT
â NXT UK
â Unbranded
Raw and SmackDown
Raw and SmackDown each have a world championship, a secondary championship, a women's championship, and a male tag team championship.
NXT
NXT UK
Unbranded
These titles are not brand exclusive. The colors indicate the home brand of the champions (names without a color are former WWE wrestlers, Hall of Famers, or non-wrestlers).
Awards and honors
WWE
WWE Hall of Fame
Impact
Impact Hall of Fame
Debuts
Retirements
Deaths
See also
References