Pro-Wrestling The GREAT PRETENDERS Page Pro-Wrestling The GREAT PRETENDERS Page
Last updated 7 June 2003
Take a dash of melodrama, add some trickery and pour it into the marketing blender. It's a recipe for pro wrestling success.
IMAGINE A PARALLEL UNIVERSE IN CAPITAL LETTERS. ALL IS BRAVADO AND HEAD-BANGING. BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED AT THE LEVEL OF THE HIGHEST DECIBEL. IT IS A WORLD OF SIMULATED VIOLENCE, SEXUAL INNUENDO AND INCESSANT SHOUTING.
On television, some may find it tiresome, like any story spelled out in capital letters. But now - in the flesh - big-league professional wrestling is coming to town. Tomorrow night, the World Wrestling Federation will bring its touring showcase, "Raw Is War," to the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
There, bruisers and bimbos will take center stage, donning garish costumes and outlandish faces. They will threaten each other's life and limb. They will dramatize elaborate story lines fraught with themes of betrayal and revenge. And they will take turns pretending to drop each other on their head or hit each other in the face. From time to time, they'll make a variety of obscene gestures and the crowds will jeer - loving every minute of it.
Showtime is 7:30 p.m., but the arena in Uniondale has been sold out for more than two months. Some 14,000 tickets, ranging in price from $35 down to $13, were sold in a matter of hours, bought up by a crowd that included teenagers, young men in their 20s and some parents with kids in tow.
"Raw" will be taped and shown next Monday on the USA Network from 9 to 11 p.m., its usual time slot. Not to be outdone, the WWF's archrival, Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling, is scheduled to bring its version of mayhem for the masses to the Coliseum on April 30.
With about 63 million American homes now equipped to receive cable programs, WWF's "Raw" ranks among the nation's top five cable shows each week, seen in an estimated 5 million households. WCW's Monday night show, "Nitro," plays to another 2 million to 3 million households and ranks in the top 10 to 15 cable shows. Last fall, the tandem dominated prime time, outdrawing ABC's once-unbeatable "Monday Night Football."
By the late 1990s, professional wrestling has become big business, tightening its grip on a good number of American pocketbooks with a marketing pitch especially appealing to younger generations.
The WWF, for instance, granted a license to Candy Planet last month for a line of gum and candies, using WWF personalities. A trivia game also is in the works, to be marketed by Cardinal Industries in Long Island City. Another hot item is "WWF War Zone," a $50 item that topped the video game sales chart in December. Players control photo-real facsimiles of WWF wrestlers in the ring. Its rival in the shops is the WCW-based "Revenge," which features Hulk Hogan.
Toymakers also displayed a new generation of interactive toys in February - wrestling figures who sweat and taunt each other in the recorded voices of real wrestlers. At the same time, a compact disc featuring WWF "artists" was among the nation's top 10 sellers. T-shirt sales also continue to fuel the profit margin. And three months ago, WWF officials announced the purchase of the bankrupt Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, with plans to move into the gambling and theme-restaurant businesses.
During TV's early days in the 1950s - the era of Gorgeous George - pro wrestling was a curious and comic footnote on the entertainment scene. Now, professional wrestling grosses an additional billion dollars in merchandise sales annually, aside from its revenues from pay-per-view and cable television as well as arena ticket sales around the country.
For viewers unfamiliar with the phenomenon of professional wrestling, shows such as WWF's "Raw Is War" might not seem like wrestling at all.
The show is the brainchild of Vince McMahon, the WWF boss and owner of a business started by his grandfather more than 50 years ago. Now in his mid-50s, McMahon bought out his father's interest in 1982 and began to turn the family business into a bonanza - thanks to cable television.
At the outset, he made two significant decisions that revolutionized professional wrestling. First, he publicly conceded that the action in the ring was bogus. And he chose to devote his energies to the invention of outrageous and complicated stories about his wrestlers and himself.
A recent "Raw" show illustrates McMahon's hands-on approach, playing a recently created role of an evil wrestling promoter named "Mr. McMahon," his fictional alter-ego. His character's goal is to destroy arch-enemy "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, the WWF's most popular star.
In the opening minutes, Mr. McMahon was in the ring with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The Rock was furious - convinced that Mr. McMahon and 7-foottall Paul Wight, a former WCW wrestling star, were conspiring to aid the despised Austin regain his championship title.
The Rock had just learned that Wight has been hired to serve as guest referee in The Rock's next title match with Austin and feared an unholy alliance. "You need a reality check, Dwayne," Mr. McMahon goaded. "After all I've done for you, your championship is mine. You're not going to lose it. Not to Steve Austin. That would be a nightmare." Then, the hulking Wight joined them in the ring and a scuffle broke out.
"This is just what Steve Austin wants," Mr. McMahon screamed. But he managed to make peace and even got The Rock and Wight to shake hands. "This is a historic moment in WWF history," a ring announcer proclaimed, the usual hyperbole, and the crowd went wild. The first half-hour of "Raw'" went by without a wrestling hold in sight.
But the new generation of wrestling fans - in their 20s and teens and younger - do not seem to feel any deprivation of action, despite these extended dialogues. The success of pro wrestling in the 1990s is, in fact, a mixture of melodrama, mayhem and marketing, and teenagers know that something new has happened.
"I've been watching the evolution of wrestling since 1991," Rob Rocco, an 18-year-old college freshman from Smithtown, said in a recent interview.
When he was a kid, he recalled, the story lines were the standard good guy vs. bad guy stuff. Eight years ago, for instance, he saw Hulk Hogan fight Sgt. Slaughter. "Slaughter was supposed to be anti-American and Hogan was the ultimate all-American idol. He'd tell kids to take their vitamins and say their prayers." Hogan won, proving to 10-year-olds that evil could be beaten, even if the bad guy was bigger.
But since then, the line between the good guys and the bad guys has become blurred. When Steve Austin's "Stone Cold" character debuted in 1996, Rocco said, he was supposed to be a villain. But the more trash Austin talked and the more he insulted the crowd, the more people cheered him. And he became a hero.
"He's a character they never had before," Rocco said. "Drinking beer in the ring, hating everybody, attacking Mr. McMahon. Every week, he does something to upset the boss and people love it. Once, they actually fought in the ring, the ultimate battle between employer and employee."
Of course, he said, everyone knows it's all made up, but that's never spoiled the fun. "You never know what's going to happen next."
There's also a growing sexual component in the plot lines. Val Venis, for instance, pretends to be a former porn star. He is usually followed by a bevy of scantily clad women whom he attempts to sell to his opponents before the match. When he boasts of his ability to steal the wives of bad-guy wrestlers, the crowds cheer.
Sex, obviously, is part of the sell. "I think it's really just a soap opera for guys," said Bryan Schaer, a 19-year-old college freshman at the State University at Albany. "You have all these guys beating each other up and all these blondes running around the ring. It's not real, but you have all this drama outside the ring."
Growing up in Smithtown, he watched the matches as a kid. When he realized the action wasn't on the up and up, he said, he grew bored with the fakery and stopped watching. "Then, a couple of years ago, I just got back into it again. I knew it was all scripted - not only the fights but the conversations in the middle of the ring. It's all part of the show."
But success on cable TV and in the marketplace comes at a time when professional wrestling is under heightened scrutiny by social scientists, parents' groups and church officals, concerned with the increased use of sexual themes and simulated violence in its story lines.
A recent investigation of "Raw" by Indiana University researchers found the incidence of risque material was on the rise, with less than 36 minutes of each two-hour show devoted to wrestling.
They counted 1,658 instances of a character grabbing or pointing to his or her crotch, 157 instances of wrestlers or audience members making obscene gestures and 128 episodes of simulated sexual activity. On 609 occasions, wrestlers or others were struck by objects such as garbage cans.
On the program's content, WWF spokesman Jay Andronaco responded: "We don't suggest that anyone under the age of 14 watch `Raw Is War.' But that's a parent's job. We know we're not for everybody." About 70 percent of the Monday night audience is between the ages of 18 and 34, and about one-third are women. Both blue-collar and college-educated men watch the show, he said. "That's something everybody would like to do on TV."
But wrestling's potential copycat effect on younger viewers is a concern of mental-health professionals, said Sandy Wolkoff, director of consultation services at the North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights.
"We're now hearing about teenagers setting up fake wrestling rings in their backyards, literally maiming each other because they think it's cool," she said. "Wrestling in the 1990s is sending out a different message, and when kids play these games on their own, imitating the hijinks and high drama they see on TV - yes, there is the potential to get hurt."
But wrestling is not the only culprit, Wolkoff continued. "We're seeing the same things happening with other sports. Wrestling is taking on all of the negative campiness of football, basketball and other commercialized sports." No longer relegated to drab, late-night, black-and-white TV, wrestling now has a sexiness that attracts young people, she said.
The reshaping of professional wrestling began in the mid-1980s, when McMahon moved to transform the image from a grunt-and-groan exercise in half-nelsons into an unabashed fiction called "sports entertainment."
It was a revolutionary idea, says sports historian Jeff Archer, author of "Theater in a Squared Circle: The Mystique of Professional Wrestling," published by White-Boucke in December. Now, "everything is predetermined," Archer said by phone from his home in California. "It's all planned, including the outcome, before the match starts." Drawing up shortand longterm plans, promoters know months ahead of time who is going to win and lose, the author said. "Nothing is left to chance. Both the WWF and WCW have creative staffs called `bookers,' the people who invent the characters and the story lines . . . When accidents do happen, they're a result of miscalculation."
This new era gained momentum in 1985 with WWF's first WrestleMania. The three-hour pay-per-view spectacular has become the Super Bowl of the wrestling world, serving as the climax to a year of story-line insults. WrestleMania XV was held last night in Philadelphia, with an estimated crowd of several million in 800,000 homes watching on cable.
During the past 15 years, cable TV has played a crucial role in the growth of the sports entertainment concept. "In the mid-'80s," Archer noted, "the networks didn't want to have anything to do with wrestling while cable embraced it. Now more than 60 million homes have cable, and millions of people are watching wrestling. So the word is that the networks are now rethinking their position, especially after wrestling put such a dent into `Monday Night Football' last year."
The WWF's success in the late 1980s prompted Ted Turner to move into the field, Archer said. In 1989, Turner bought out a network of southern wrestling federations and formed World Championship Wrestling for the TBS network in 1991.
Fueling the rivalry with Vince McMahon, Turner offered big money to WWF stars Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Randy Savage in 1993 to lure them to the new federation. At the time, McMahon also was facing legal troubles, charged with the illegal distribution of steroids. He was later acquitted, but during an 18-month period, the new WCW overtook the WWF in the ratings.
McMahon countered with a "new generation" of wrestlers, which he ballyhooed as younger, faster and more daring. "Raw Is War" made its debut in 1993, about the time story lines started to become even more elaborate, Archer said.
The two rivals continue to snipe at each other, undoubtedly helping the ratings of both. WCW chief Eric Bishoff has called the WWF's programing "tasteless" and "demented." And in a recent interview, he told TV critics that WCW will be "advertiser-friendly," steering clear of ethnic, sexual and gender stereotyping, such as the WWF's tagteam, Too Much, who pose as a pair of gay wrestlers and are roundly booed by crowds.
McMahon takes the position that "Raw Is War" is rated TV-14 with a parental warning that the show is not suited for children. "He has said that our plots are no different than other adult dramas seen on prime-time network TV," said WWF spokesman Andronaco.
While the WCW promises a higher level of taste, Bishoff's style is comparable to McMahon's, Archer observed. "He's often in the ring, like McMahon, playing the villain, making fun of his wrestlers." In one story line, Bishoff claimed he had lost control of the WCW to Ric Flair and allied himself with the New World Order, a group within the WCW.
"That's the angle McMahon borrowed when he created The Corporation," Archer said. But kids can see far more sex and violence on daily television than in the fare concocted by pro wrestling, he believes. "You might see guys pounding the hell out of each other in the ring, but it's after 9 p.m. When we were attacking Iraq, kids could see hundreds of people dying. That's real. Wrestling isn't. If two human beings were fighting like that in the street, kids know they'll both end up covered with blood."
Roman Pettway, who is 13 and lives in Hempstead, is one of the kids who knows. He started watching the matches when he was 4, but by the time he was 8, he knew they were fake. And it didn't matter. "They were just fun to watch, like a comedy on TV," he said. "It's like a story book, like last week when the Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness surrounded Mr. McMahon's house and threatened to kidnap his daughter. That was pretty exciting, but you knew the Undertaker was just playing with Mr. McMahon's head."
His friends, he said, don't try to copy the scenes they see on TV, like jumping off the top of the ropes. But some kids do imitate the obscene gestures. "I saw on TV news where some kids got suspended from school" for flipping a finger, just like Stone Cold, he said.
His friend Jamoki Hamilton, 14, has been a fan for six years. Like a kid who once suspected the authenticity of Santa Claus, he remembers having "little suspicions" about the ring action when he was 10.
"Until then," he said, "I thought they were really killing each other. Like every kid does at one point. But I wondered, if a guy drops someone on his head, would the other guy just get up like that? So my curiosity grew, and I started taping the shows. Sometimes I could see that the guy's head never did hit the floor or someone was pulling his punches."
Now an A student in Hempstead, Jamoki runs an e-mail newsletter for wrestling fans and has become more aware of the marketing aspects of the wrestling game. "Like seeing sponsors like M&M candy and Spaghettios on the wrestling shows, things kids like. And in the stores, they're selling these action toys and championship belts. You know adults aren't gonna buy those things."
STARS OF the World Wrestling Federation will complete a month-long tour tomorrow night, appearing in arenas in 15 cities, including some in New Jersey and New York. Here are some of the headliners scheduled for Nassau Coliseum:
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin. In his mid-30s, the WWF's biggest hero, he is a sworn enemy of "Mr. McMahon," who is plotting to destroy him. The WWF Web site displays 68 Austin items on its merchandising list. Most famous for his gospel quotation: "Austin 3:16 . . . I just whipped your ass."
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Scheduled to defend his championship title against Steve Austin in WrestleMania XV last night, he won the crown in 1998 by defeating Austin. Now 26, he lost the crown to Mankind a few months later and regained it in January.
Mick "Mankind" Foley. Raised in East Setauket, he also fights under the ring names of "Cactus Jack" and "Dude Love." Known to use a baseball bat in the ring.
Mark "The Undertaker" Callaway. A ghoulish figure, he heads The Ministry of Darkness, a group of henchmen including a trio known as The Brood. During a recent "Raw Is War," they surrounded McMahon's home in Connecticut and threatened to kidnap his daughter.
Glenn "Kane" Jacobs. He is known for his entrance into the ring in a burst of flames.
Vince McMahon. The WWF's chief executive, he is often in the ring in the guise of his alter ego, "Mr. McMahon," an evil promoter out to thwart Steve Austin's career. To that end, he founded "The Corporation," a thuggish group headed by The Rock.
Paul "The Giant" Wight. He was lured away from Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling by Mr. McMahon to protect The Rock and harass Steve Austin. Wight, 27, was found not guilty of assault for breaking a fan's jaw in June. The incident occurred in the Marriott Hotel lobby in Uniondale after a wrestling match at the coliseum.
Rena "Sable" Mero. The WWF's prettiest contender, she is currently the federation's women's champion but most widely known for her appearance on the pages of April's Playboy magazine.
Debra McMichael. Sexy manager of tag-team champs Owen Hart and Jeff Garrett, she appears at ringside.
Owen Hart and Jeff Garrett. The WWF's tag-team champions last year.
Some patented finishing moves by WWF wrestlers:
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin's "Stone Cold Stunner" is an arm lock used to smash the opponent's head into the mat.
The Undertaker's "Tombstone Piledriver" is performed by dropping the opponent on his head, his legs perpendicular to the canvas.
Sable's "Sable Bomb" is executed by throwing the opponent from the shoulders headfirst into the mat.
Owen Hart's "Sharpshooter" is a leg lock, a twisting leg move applied to the opponent's legs to cause excessive pain.
The Rock's "Corporate Elbow" is an elbow drop, done by falling onto the head of a prone opponent.