Pro-wrestling fandom and digital archives of wrestling event merchandise

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has dominated the sports entertainment industry for nearly three decades. Its merchandise has become a part of wrestling history, with fans using social media to share images that document their attendance at live events and their engagement with wrestling-related artifacts, such as event merchandise. Social media platforms such as Instagram provide a digital repository where fans can document their experiences while interacting with other fans.

Face vastaan Heel

Artikkeli käsittelee stereotyyppisen ”hyvän” ja ”pahan” kamppailua yhdysvaltalaisessa televisioidussa showpainissa. Showpaini on yleisöviihdettä, jossa kamppailulajit yhdistyvät teatterimaiseen esiintymiseen käsikirjoitetuissa ja ennalta päätetyissä tarinoissa. Showpaini on suureellista spektaakkelia, jossa käytetään liioiteltuja reaktioita.Tämä artikkeli käsittelee hyvän ja pahan kohtaamista showpainissa yhden erityisen kuvaavan tapausesimerkin kautta, joka on valikoitu yhdysvaltalaisesta WWE-showpainiorganisaatiosta. Tapausesimerkissä ”hyvä” (face) eli Shinsuke Nakamura kohtasi ”pahan” (heel) eli Samoa Joen sarjassa otteluita, jotka televisioitiin suurelle yleisölle ja joihin liittyi runsaasti oheismateriaalia Internetissä. Artikkelimme tarkastelee, kuinka tämä spektaakkelinen kokonaisuus rakennettiin tarinallisesti näistä elementeistä. Kysymme, miten ja millaisista osista televisioitu showpaininarratiivi rakentuu.Avainsanat: showpaini, mediaspektaakkeli, urheiluviihde, face, heel.Face versus Heel. Battle of Good and Evil in American televised professional wrestlingThe article investigates the stereotyped battle of “good” versus “bad” on televised American professional wrestling. Professional wrestling, or “Sports Entertainment” as WWE-promotion calls it, is an extremely popular audiovisual spectacle, which combines elements of sports, martial arts, theatre, and dance performances. It also uses spectacular theatrical reactions and audience participation on competitions, where outcomes are (usually) predetermined.Demonstrating a structural analysis of the narrative, the article focuses on the construction of a professional wrestling spectacle by doing a case study on a series of matches from WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), where Shinsuke Nakamura, a stereotyped “good” wrestler (so-called Face) fought against Samoa Joe, a stereotyped “evil” wrestler (so-called Heel).Keywords: professional wrestling, show wrestling, media spectacle, sports entertainment, face, heel

WWE fan reception and shifting perceptions of masculinity in the Trump era

This article will study the world of American professional wrestling in connection to the reception of masculine tropes by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) fans. Wrestling fans, who are in majority male and traditionally come from the American working class, are in the unique position to voice, or scream, their opinions of positive or negative masculine behaviours that they see live in the ring. Since it is a scripted show (or in wrestling jargon, a ‘work’), it offers us a fascinating insight into how men view masculine behaviour as they view the action from a fictional distance. As unlikely at it may seem, I will argue that based upon their live reception of positive and negative masculine traits, modern WWE fans are surprisingly liberal in their condemnation of masculinist beliefs such as misogyny, having a hatred of oppressive patriarchal systems and, mostly recently, opposing the sleazy objectification of women. I will additionally challenge accusations that wrestling is a fundamentally misogynistic industry, with particular reference to the modern reception of female wrestlers as serious athletes, rather than erotic valets leading males to the ring, or as sex objects in general, with reference to the successful 2015 ‘Divas revolution’ and the company’s decision to rename them ‘superstars’ in all broadcasts – giving them equal status to their male counterparts.

Social TV and the WWE: Exploring the fan-to-brand relationship in a highly engaged, live-viewing, interactive online space

Social television (TV) engagement has become more commonplace as viewers seek alternative ways of engaging with TV shows and other viewers. This is especially true with televised professional wrestling; 119,506 tweets were analyzed using social network analysis during the four World Wrestling Entertainment telecasts. Results show that brand-affiliated users primarily interact among one another and not the fans themselves, despite fans reaching out to the brand, resulting in significant social stratification and low interactivity within the community. The findings suggest that when fans think they are able to join and contribute to the brand’s ongoing conversation, those fans might still be highly motivated to communicate with the brand, even if the brand does not reciprocate.

Kayfabe, Smartdom and Marking Out: Can Pro-Wrestling Help Us Understand Donald Trump?

Donald Trump has enjoyed a nearly 30-year relationship with World Wrestling Entertainment as a business partner, fan, in-ring performer and 2013 Hall of Fame Inductee. Noting this long running involvement, it has become a widespread contention that Trump’s style as a political campaigner owes a debt to his experiences within the world of professional wrestling. Taking such claims seriously, this article argues that an engagement with concepts developed within professional wrestling studies would benefit political studies by offering new analytical approaches for the study of the political phenomenon that is Donald Trump. Providing a brief introduction to professional wrestling studies, this article outlines how the concepts of kayfabe, smart fandom and marking out help address a key question for political scholars: how to explain a cynical American electorate’s engagement with and emotional investment in the campaign of such an obvious political fraudster.

A Real American Hero: WWE Wrestling from American Exceptionalism to Commercial Transnationalism

Major World Wrestling Entertainment storylines in the video streaming era problematize its historically central Real American hero-figure. This article considers this shift against the concepts of American exceptionalism, the global franchising of sport, and commercial nationalism. It argues that the shift reflects WWE’s new foci on domestic and global markets combined with the intensified cross-border media flows characterizing the streaming video marketplace. A new form of commercial nationalism—a commercialized transnationalism—results.

Through the Perilous Fight: A Case Analysis of Professional Wrestling During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The rapidly escalating COVID-19 pandemic has forced the sport industry into unchartered territory. Beginning on March 11, 2020, when the National Basketball Association suspended its season, the American sports landscape has consequently encountered an unprecedented number of temporary suspensions, postponements, and cancellations. Although most major leagues and their pertaining sports have halted to a sudden stop, professional wrestling has surprisingly continued on, including World Wrestling Entertainment’s WrestleMania 36, which was held without fans in attendance. The maintenance of professional wrestling during the COVID-19 crisis has presented a unique situation, in which fans and companies involved in the sport have rallied on social media platforms behind the sport’s relative normality in a time of global uncertainty. Leveraging publicly trackable Twitter data, we analyzed public sentiments toward two of the largest companies (e.g., World Wrestling Entertainment and All Elite Wrestling) in the professional wrestling industry and related trends during the widespread onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The results represent exploratory insights surrounding the continuation of professional wrestling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effect of superstar gig workers on shareholder value: evidence from professional wrestling

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to measure the effect of superstar gig workers, defined as independent contractors who are the most successful in their field, on shareholder value. Gig workers comprise as much as 33% of the workforce and are projected to exceed 50% by 2028. Thus, understanding their impact on shareholder value is important.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses OLS regression analysis. To establish causality regarding wealth effects, the sudden deaths of superstar gig workers are used. To facilitate the uncontaminated measurement of wealth effects, sudden deaths that coincide with a significant event on a [−3, 3] window about the death event are not used.FindingsThe sudden death of a superstar gig worker causes shareholder wealth to increase significantly by 0.35% or almost $1.5m. Rational and behavioral explanations are offered for this result.Research limitations/implicationsGeneralizability is limited because data on superstar gig workers in traditional corporations are unavailable. For this reason, this paper uses the only available data, namely, data on superstar wrestlers, who are contracted to perform in matches (i.e. “gigs”) in a lucrative promotion (e.g. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)). Future research could examine the effect of corporate gig workers on shareholder value if the data become available at some point.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to document the effects of any type of gig worker, whether superstar or regular, on shareholder value.

Statistical Analysis of Championship Matches Outcomes in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Pay-Per-View Events

WWE Pay per view events features championship or title matches where WWE branded and coveted titles are hotly contested. This paper presents the analysis of the frequency of winnings in WWE PPV events from the year January 2000 to February 2019. Some definite criteria were applied to the raw data to ensure that the outcome was either a champion win or lose. Champions of any official titles of the WWE have retained their titles in 664 (63.78%) occasions of the PPV events, while new champions have emerged on 377 (36.22%) occasions. It was also observed that it is only in 14 (5.3%) that any of 266 PPV events were shown without at least a champion win while 59 (22.2%) of the PPV events have been shown without witnessing at least a champion lose. In conclusion, it appears that PPV events often favored the reigning champions and the probability of champions losing their titles and new champions emerging is small.