The History of the No Way Out Pay-Per-View: A Casual Fan's Guide

Making its return to the WWE after a three-year absence is the No Way Out pay-per-view, which will take place on June 17th at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. 

Only one match has been announced so far for this year’s No Way Out show, and that’s the main event of the newly heel Big Show taking on John Cena. 

No Way Out is the latest WWE PPV to return after a brief hiatus, and it is expected that the theme of this year’s PPV will revolve around matches in which there is “no way out,” such as cage matches. 

Before we see the 2012 version of the reincarnated PPV next month, though, I think it’s important that we go back and take a look at the history of No Way Out.  

A Brief History of No Way Out

Note: Some of the info used in this section is based off of the WWE's No Way Out Wikipedia page. 

The first No Way Out pay-per-view took place as part of the “In Your House” series on February on Feb. 15, 1998, and after disappearing in 1999, it returned on Feb. 27, 2000 as simply No Way Out. 

From 2000 to 2009, No Way Out served as the WWE’s February pay-per-view, and it was exclusive to the SmackDown brand from 2004 to 2006. 

In 2008 and 2009, No Way Out centered around Elimination Chamber matches for the World Heavyweight and WWE Championships or for the No. 1 contender’s spot for each of those titles. 

But in 2010, the No Way Out name was temporarily retired, and the February PPV was rebranded simply as Elimination Chamber after fans voted to rename it in a WWE.com poll.

No Way Out Facts and Trends 

• Edge (2009) is the only superstar in history to walk into No Way Out with one championship (the WWE title), but walk out with a different one (the World Heavyweight title) 

• Five of the 11 No Way Out pay-per-views have featured some sort of cage match, including the last two, each of which featured two Elimination Chamber matches. 

• Eddie Guerrero captured his first and only WWE Championship at No Way Out in 2004. 

• According to prowrestling.about.com, the name of the first No Way Out PPV (1998) was changed to “No Way Out of Texas” because of fear of a possible lawsuit from WCW due to the NWO initials. Oddly enough, the NWO would debut in the WWE at No Way Out in 2002. 

• Chavo Guerrero has won the most titles at No Way Out, winning the Cruiserweight Championship three times (2004, 2005 and 2007) at the pay-per-view.   

Best Matches in No Way Out History 

No Way Out has a long line of great matches, but here are the top three (in my opinion, of course):  

3. World Heavyweight Championship: Kurt Angle defeats The Undertaker (2006) 

The Undertaker has won just about every major singles match that he has ever been in (because most of them have taken place at WrestleMania), but this is the best match of Undertaker’s career that actually resulted in a loss. 

A phenomenal match between two of the best wrestlers ever here.  

2. WWE Championship: Eddie Guerrero defeated Brock Lesnar (2004) 

The greatest moment in No Way Out history came at the end of this match, when Guerrero celebrated the biggest win of his career. 

Not many ever expected Guerrero to ever win a World title, but he proved everyone wrong and did so in epic fashion against the young Brock Lesnar.  

1. Three Stages of Hell Match: Triple H defeated “Stone Cold” Steve Austin 

The long-running epic rivalry between Austin and Triple concluded with this amazing Three Stages of Hell Match, the best match we’ve ever seen between one Hall of Famer and a surefire future one. 

Only Bret Hart vs. Austin at WrestleMania XIII and Triple H vs. Undertaker rank above this as far as Austin or Triple H matches go, making this the second best match of both men’s careers.  

My Thoughts on No Way Out

Traditionally, No Way Out has been a fantastic pay-per-view. 

But No Way Out was at its best when it was a February PPV on the road to WrestleMania and even when it was reformatted with the Elimination Chamber matches in 2008 and 2009.

No Way Out’s chronology officially ended in 2009 (it didn’t continue with Elimination Chamber in 2010, 2011 and 2012), so the 2012 No Way Out pay-per-view will be the first under its new format that is expected to revolve around cage matches. 

We’ve seen so many classic battles at No Way Out in addition to the ones I mentioned above (Triple H vs. Cactus Jack in 2000, Kurt Angle vs. The Rock in 2001, Chris Jericho vs. Steve Austin in 2002, The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan in 2003, etc.) that it’s going to be extremely hard for this year’s show to live up to that. 

Presumably, Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk will be added to No Way Out, and that match could and likely will rank among the greatest matches in the PPV’s history. 

However, the 2012 version of No Way Out has some big shoes to fill as No Way Out has traditionally been one of the WWE’s better B-level pay-per-views. 

There was plenty of head scratching when No Way Out was rebranded as Elimination Chamber in 2010, but now that it’s back, I don’t think it’s ever really going to live up to the standards it set with a string of excellent and star-studded PPVs in the early to mid-2000s.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.