How fake sports, make sports

The wild and wonderful world of professional wrestling is one that has a lasting impression on the world of sports here today. The company that has had the most success at cultivating audiences for over forty years is the World Wrestling Entertainment, regularly referred to as the WWE. The WWE has accomplished its merit through weekly shows, a monthly pay-per-view and a touring schedule that would have the Rolling Stones marveling.

The industry will always remain polarizing, mainly regarding if the wrestling is “real” or “fake”. I am here to tell you it is both, offering a renewed sense of bipartisanship to this country.

The realness lies with the “bumps” these athletes take, a term used to describe when a wrestler falls on the mat or ground as a result of their opponent. The realness lies with the rigorous traveling. How rigorous is this travelling? The WWE has two brands: Raw and Smackdown, and the two brands in total perform over 570 live shows on a yearly basis. The realness lies with the side effects from wrestling hundreds of nights a year, the pain and sadly the reality of pain medicine dependency.

The “fakeness” of the business includes the matches being pre-determined. The fakeness lies with the chairman, Vince McMahon, having ultimate sovereignty over the content portrayed as well as determining match results. By this I mean Vince McMahon and the powers that be, will lay a blueprint for the talent (wrestlers) and it is the wrestlers responsibility of executing this blueprint in the most compelling and entertaining way.

It would be fair to suggest this blueprint sounds an awful lot like a Broadway production. However, it would be unfair to say that Broadway performers are fake actors, the way the pro-wrestlers are considered fake athletes.

So if you want to hear how Pro-wrestling impacts and ultimately influences the world of sports, then “give me a hell yeah!”

Some would say the biggest opponent of the WWE is the UFC. The UFC is a Mixed Martial Arts promotional company that has several, yearly, pay-per-view fights. The biggest difference, is that the UFC does not pre-determine their fights which has always been a compelling part of their sport. However, at the end of the day the UFC needs to put bodies in seats and eyes on screens. This is where the sports world takes pages out of the WWE’s playbook. The PPVs in the UFC are chosen by the UFC based on who would be the biggest draw, so while the product is real, it is not wholly “earned”, but rather based on who would galvanize the most fans. WWE dominated the sports entertainment industry by connecting the wrestler’s contracts to the PPV sales, a model adopted by the UFC. We have also seen the sport reach it’s peak in popularity not by the quality or realness of the product, but rather the antics and persona that a Conor McGregor possesses.

A key element to the success of professional wrestling industry is its ability to tell stories through the lens of sports. Stories are how we inherently understand the world, and also why we love sports. When we talk about teams or players we tend to look at the bigger picture; good guys, villains and everything in between. Wrestling has served as an influence to many of the worlds greatest athletes, such as Muhammad Ali. Already a great boxer at the time, he sought to become a superstar unlike any before. Gorgeous George, a famous heel ( wrestler speak for bad guy), in the wrestling industry illustrated the recipe to stardom for Ali by being brash, arrogant and entertaining. The idea was that this personality would attract crowds and that Ali would become polarizing. This development by Ali, allowed the boxer to expand the sport of boxing by using tactics and antics of a successful professional wrestler. Superstars such as McGregor implore similar tactics.

The WWE is also making strides forward that will undoubtedly, in my estimation, translate into the world of sports in the future.

One of the Hallmarks of the WWE, in it’s current state, is that they are coining a women’s revolution. Previously, the WWE coined the Female talent as “divas” and their role within the company was to serve as a sex-symbol. The revolution, led by the chief brand officer of the company, Stephanie McMahon, was one where female competitors have become on par with male talent as far as company support. With this revolution, we have seen Female wrestlers main event PPV events, even hosting the first female only PPV. What the WWE has done is create a model for how to be mutually inclusive at branding both men and women. The WWE has shown sports industries how to get women the same recognition and respect in the sports world, that others such as the NBA’s lopsided coverage compared to the WNBA.

Another trend I suspect will continue is athletes from other sports opting to join the WWE family. The most notable, Ronda Rousey, who blossomed to become arguably the biggest star in the UFC, joined the WWE in 2018. Former athletes have always been apart of the talent pool the WWE goes after. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, before he became the famous wrestler turned Hollywood tycoon was a football player at the University of Miami and a Canadian football player for the Calgary Stampeders. A reason I believe that the WWE will continue to recruit top notch stars is because we are starting to see it with individuals like Rousey, but also with safety concerns in other sports. We often hear rhetoric of parents questioning if they would “let their sons play football”, and the WWE allows individuals to pursue athletics and have a safer career.

Another key development by the WWE is the instilment of it’s very own streaming network, the WWE Network. The network allows fans to watch all of the years pay per views, with a monthly fee of $9.99. This streaming service also serves as an archive of every pay-per-view the company has ever produced as well as additional wrestling documentaries and shows. With streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime many individuals are straying from the traditional cable/PPV form of presentation. This network allows wrestling fans to go down a rabbit hole of endless content, and offers a great way to present their content to a viewing audience moving forward.

Ultimately, sports industries are trying to make their product the most entertaining and there is no one that blends sports and entertainment quite like the WWE.

Wrestling has always been prevalent in sports, and like a cockroach and Twinky during a nuclear attack, will survive.