History
No Way Out was a pay-per-view (PPV) event consisting of a main event and undercard that featured championship matches and other various matches. The first No Way Out was originally produced as an In Your House event for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), the former name of WWE. The In Your House event was titled No Way Out of Texas: In Your House, named after the location of the venue, Houston, Texas. It took place on February 15, 1998 and aired live on PPV. In 1999, production of In Your House events were canceled, though many of the former In Your House events, such as No Way Out, Backlash, and Judgment Day among others, were rebranded as annual PPV events.
In 2002, the WWF was court ordered to change its name, which it did, to "WWE". Earlier that year, the WWF held a draft that split its roster into two distinctive brands of wrestling, Raw and SmackDown, and ECW in 2006. Before the draft, matches featured wrestlers from the roster without any limitations; after the draft, matches only consisted of wrestlers from their distinctive brands. The first No Way Out event to be produced under the WWE banner and with roster limitations was No Way Out (2003), which took place on February 23, 2003. Later that year, WWE announced that PPV events, excluding WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble, would be made exclusive to each brand; No Way Out was made exclusive to the SmackDown brand. After three years of being produced as a brand exclusive event, No Way Out (2007) was the final No Way Out event (and the final PPV overall) that was brand exclusive, as WWE announced that PPV events from then on would feature all three brands of WWE.
In 2008, WWE held the tenth annual No Way Out event, which featured two Elimination Chamber matches, a specialty professional wrestling match type promoted on rare occasions in WWE. The following year saw No Way Out again host two more Elimination Chamber matches. Furthering the new Elimination Chamber concept of the event, a survey indicating a possible renaming for No Way Out took place in September 2009. Voted by fans via WWE's official website, Elimination Chamber became the name of the February 2010 pay-per-view event, winning against Heavy Metal, Battle Chamber, Chamber of Conflict and the original No Way Out name. Despite the poll, it was later announced by WWE that Elimination Chamber would not be considered a part of the No Way Out chronology. Despite this, the event is still promoted in Germany as No Way Out because of concerns an "elimination chamber" would bring back the imagery of gas chambers that were used in extermination camps in World War II (in Germany, certain references to the National Socialist German Workers' Party are still prohibited). In 2012 WWE announced they were bringing back WWE No Way Out. It took place June 17, 2012 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In Germany, No Way Out was billed as No Escape
To date, each event has been held in an indoor arena, with eleven events taking place in the United States and one event taking place in Canada. Five events took place on the United States west coast, four on the east coast, one in the midwest, one in the southern United States and one in Southern Canada.
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