History
The first Free For All was broadcast on January 21, 1996 as the pre-show to the 1996 Royal Rumble. The show was hosted by Todd Pettengill and, besides hyping the Royal Rumble, featured a match between Duke "The Dumpster" Droese and Hunter Hearst-Helmsley with the winner becoming the 30th entrant into the Rumble and the loser becoming the 1st entrant. The last Free For All match was broadcast on July 6, 1997 as the pre-show to In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede and featured The Godwinns defeating The New Blackjacks.
The show was originally simulcast on the Prevue Channel. The original format was changed in 1998 with the United States premiere of Heat, a weekly show on the USA Network featuring live matches, which also served as the countdown show to PPV events on the weeks when the promotion had scheduled pay-per-view events. Beginning with SummerSlam 1998, Free For All became exclusively a preview show featuring promotional material such as pre-match interviews and video summaries on the events that led up to the matches on the pay-per-view. Occasionally, Free For All was replaced with special shows for major PPV events. For WrestleMania 2000, Free For All was replaced with an eight hour-long show entitled WrestleMania All Day Long, which was only available as part of a purchase option for WrestleMania 2000.
Following No Way Out 2009, the "Free For All" name was discontinued in the United States, though it continues to be used in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and in Italy.
Read more about this topic: WWE Free For All
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