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The Benchmarking push: Rugby and WWE Wrestling on a one way trip: In terms of spectacle and sporting events in the US, where the Super Bowl was born and where I have now lived for a few months, I want to speak about Wrestling, or rather “Wrestlemania.” This may be grounds for a fight in a magazine dedicated to rugby, and in some ways, that is what I am hoping to provoke.
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What I have written
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03 October 2010 - The Benchmarking push: Rugby and WWE Wrestling on a one way trip
How can rugby, the most Olympic of sports, learn from WWE Wrestling, the least noble of all sports?
In terms of spectacle and sporting events in the US, where the Super Bowl was born and where I have now lived for a few months, I want to speak about Wrestling, or rather “Wrestlemania.” This may be grounds for a fight in a magazine dedicated to rugby, and in some ways, that is what I am hoping to provoke.
What does our noble sport, created by the rule breaker Web Ellis in 1823 have to do with a show created simply to bring in an audience? Nothing. Rugby is a sport with a capital ‘S’ while Wrestling simply pretends to be one. Wrestling is in and of itself pure spectacle, this is a given. But how was It possible to make this farce into a Sport? How can it attract millions of spectators? The answer is by creating spectacle in the same way that one can transform a sport into show business.
Personally, I do not follow wrestling, but I see in this phenomenon an extraordinary case history, an exceptional product of marketing that can push us in interesting ways to improve our product, which is obviously rugby. Not another Americanization of the sport, the hardliners might say, and this may be so. But, before we get too frustrated, we should look at the numbers and understand the dynamics of “Wrestlemania.” I would think that even the most conservative among us would be impressed with the statistics.
With the help of Wikipedia, lets try to understand what wrestling is, how it came about and how it has evolved to its present state. Wrestling is an English word that is comparable to the Italian word “fight”. In Italy, however, the term wrestling is used to refer to the spectacle in the USA that is known as Professional Wrestling or Pro Wrestling, in order to distinguish it from amateur wrestling, or the Olympic sport of Greco-Roman wrestling. In fact, in Pro Wrestling the protagonists are professional athletes that engage in exhibition bouts for the pure entertainment of the public. This 21st century spectacle can trace its roots to the19th century folk form of Catch wrestling that began in England and is popular today in many countries throughout the world, such as Japan (where is called Puroresu), Mexico (Lucha Libre) and Canada. Every match is controlled by a referee, even if the results are predetermined by booking, in the ring there are apparent rules to be followed, and the impartial figure of the referee is an essential posture for the spectacle. Usually, the referees are not well known, but once in a while a Special Guest Referee will be present to heighten the sense of spectacle. So, what exactly is World Wresting Entertainment (WWE)?
Behind wrestling there are a dozen or so federations, even if it is more accurate to speak of organizations and corporations. The most recognized of these federations is the WWE, Inc. that represents the small and mid-size franchises throughout the world. The WWE has a portfolio of businesses that create and transmit entertainment content for 52 weeks of the year and that reach enormous audiences worldwide. WWE targets families and children, with diverse platforms such as TV programming, pay per view, digital media and editorials. The WWE spectacles are broadcast in over 145 countries, in 30 languages and reach over 500 million homes on 5 continents. The WWE’s home base is in Stamford, Connecticut (USA), with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Shanghai, Tokyo and Toronto.
The owner of the WWE is Vincent Kennedy (Vince) McMahon. His wife Linda and his daughter Stephanie run the family business with him. The core products of the federation are obviously the TV spectacles, which include “Raw” and “Friday Night Smackdown”. The WWE also transmits live pay per view events, the most important of which is “Wrestlemania,” which occurs annually at the end of March. The day before this event there is a Hall of Fame ceremony, during which the inductees earn their place in the “Arch of Glory” and take their place among the world wrestling legends.
The WWE, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, with the seal of WWE. Even if they are currently losing money, it is an incredible money making machine. It employs roughly 600 dependents (excluding the wrestlers) and their annual earnings are in the millions.
Business diversification
The WWE has diversified its offerings and its capacity to generate diverse business, such as:
- Live events and TV transmission of live and pre-recorded events
- Merchandise
- Digital Media
- Studios
- Franchising and Sponsorship
The target public of the WWE
The WWE target audience is one of the most well understood at the level of live events worldwide and it reaches a large base of fans. The web channel “WWE.com” alone, garners more than 13, 2000, 000 visitors monthly of which:
- 65% have a high school diploma or above
- 29% of the target audiences have a household income of more than $75,000/yr.
- 44% of the viewers are women (data from Nielsen ratings 2010)
- WWE reaches 15.3 million viewers a week in the US alone
- The audience demographics show that 78% of the viewers are over 18 years old
- 22.4% are under 18 years old
- 23.3% are between 18 and 34 years of age
- 24% are between 35 and 49 years of age
- 30.3% are over 50 years of age
- The audience is culturally diverse
- The Monday night spectacle is the most watched cable program in the Hispanic market and the third most watched program in the African American market
- Hispanics represent 19% of the total audience, which is 28% above the national average
- African Americans represent 23% of the total audience, which is 81% above the national average.
International Agreements
The target audience and programming aside, to give an idea of the colossus that its behind “Wrestlemania” it is enough to know that the WWE has more than 200 licenses that it controls on the global level and it sells merchandise in 50 countries. The Federation has collaborations and partnerships with the largest marketing chains such as Wal-Mart, Target, GameStop, Toys “R” Us and Kmart that distribute products throughout the United States, In January, Mattel became the worldwide licensor of WWE toy products.
Music, Digital Media and Studios
Music is another fundamental component of the American multi-national, and as we already know, a fundamental key to creating entertainment and spectacle. The WWE partners with artists such as Metallic, Guns’N Roses, Aerosmith, Bob Dylan, Goo Goo Dolls and John Legend, who play and stage events linked to the live spectacles and to the pay per view events.
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