Researchers seek how professional wrestling appeals to fans
LAWRENCE — Critics may deride it as fake, and the outcomes may be determined before a match is ever held, but professional wrestling is still widely popular, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars annually and drawing thousands of spectators to live events. University of Kansas researchers have conducted a study examining the motivations of World Wrestling Entertainment fans, information they argue will help not only understand the phenomenon better but help produce a better product for fans and enhanced revenue for the WWE.
Beginning in the late 19th century and evolving from circus sideshows to multimillion-dollar, pay-per-view television events, wrestling has had a storied history. Yet academic research on the entertainment/sport has been largely limited to its effects on society, what it teaches children and other sociological questions. Claire Schaeperkoetter, doctoral research fellow at KU; Jordan Bass, assistant professor of health, sport and exercise science; and Kyle Bunds, assistant professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at North Carolina State University, surveyed more than 400 WWE fans from eight countries to find out why they enjoy professional wrestling.
“The predetermined nature of wrestling is unique,” Bass said. “It’s hard to script a women’s golf event or basketball game, but wrestling is scripted. Fans know the outcomes are predetermined, but people still revel in the outcome.”
Bass and Schaeperkoetter surveyed fans with questions based on the Manual for the Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption, a tool used widely to gauge why people enjoy certain sporting events. Respondents rated whether 10 motives were a reason they enjoyed wrestling: vicarious achievement, aesthetics, drama, escape, acquisition of knowledge, physical skill of athletes, social interaction, physical attractiveness of athletes, enjoyment of aggression and novelty.
Novelty, physical skill of athletes and enjoyment of aggression rated the highest among the motivations. Physical attractiveness of athletes and vicarious achievement scored the lowest. The findings align well with what professional wrestling is best known for, Bass said.
“The novelty of wrestling is unique. You have new storylines coming up every week, and that is something that’s different from most other sports,” Bass said.
Understanding the motivations of fans can be beneficial to both the spectators and WWE as well as provide insight to a major economic engine, the researchers said. WWE is a publicly traded company that makes more than $500 million per year, and fans spend large sums of money to watch pay-per-view events and attend live matches. By understanding what fans like best about the spectacle can ensure WWE gives fans what they want: novel storylines, wrestlers with physical skill and outcomes full of aggression they will enjoy. The study also verified that the Manual for the Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption, designed for more traditional sports, can apply to professional wrestling as well.
The findings are uniquely beneficial to WWE as well. Sporting organizations can research how much fans enjoy their product, but if an NBA team is bad, a marketing department can’t quickly and easily change the on-court product, Schaeperkoetter said. The WWE, however, can quickly change directions if fans are not happy. The organization, as well as the endeavor in general, has proven to be remarkably adaptive and innovative throughout its history.
“Wrestling has always been at the forefront of technology. They were among the first to get on public television, and the same was true for cable television,” Schaeperkoetter said. “They were also at the forefront of going to pay-per-view with their biggest events.”
WWE also recently launched the WWE Network, which provides subscribers access to virtually all of the organization’s broadcasted matches online. While it has struggled to reap subscription numbers it originally envisioned, the network was hailed for its groundbreaking approach to providing content directly to fans and not through mediums such as television or cable companies.
“Wrestling is an awkward fit between sport and entertainment,” Bass said. “It’s entertainment, but it’s masquerading as sport with real, non-predetermined outcomes. A lot of the drama of sport is not knowing what’s going to happen. Understanding the motivations of fans can provide a unique insight into a major cultural and economic phenomenon.”