Professional Wrestling and the Commercial Stage by Eero Laine

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-306
Author(s):  
Josh Howard
Keyword(s):  
Professional Wrestling

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

2021 ◽  
pp. 135485652110173
Author(s):  
Stephen McCreery ◽  
Brian C Britt ◽  
Jameson Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Professional Wrestling ◽  
Brand Relationship ◽  
Social Tv ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
World Wrestling Entertainment

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.

“Real” Life

2020 ◽  
pp. 135-141
Author(s):  
Sharon Mazer
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Professional Wrestling ◽  
The Real ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
The Right

What fans come to recognize and interact with as they “get in on the game” and move from “mark” to “smart,” is the play outside the play: first the signs of a hero or villain, then the inevitable failure of the representatives of authority in the ring to assure a fair fight and a just end, and finally that the true power lies in the hands of the promoter whose purchase of a wrestler includes the right to dictate his success or failure. For fans, not only are the stories that are told to them in the ongoing professional wrestling narratives drawn from life, life itself can be read through the structures and understandings that professional wrestling provides. The real contest is not between wrestlers, with whom fans identify, but between themselves as competing experts and, most important, between themselves as consumers and the guys with the money and power.

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