Extra Credit WWE

On Monday night, our campus was crawling with visitors for a special event. We have discussed the success and reason for the success of WWE in class, so it was no surprise when crowds of people spilled out of Diddle Arena to watch the show. At first, I had thought of going just for the sake of a good laugh, but also to experience the audience participation that we talked about in our evaluations of why WWE fans are so engaged? When I realized tickets started at $15 for a nose-bleed seat, and frankly I wasn’t willing to pay for a staged fight, I decided to take a different approach. I sat outside of DSU and watched the crowds as they came and left from the show.

When I first got there, the crowds surrounding the building was ridiculously large. So many people were wearing their favorite fighter’s t-shirt, or even a plastic replica of the championship belt. that’s when I realized the different levels of fans. When we watch the videos during class we only took into account for the fans in the stadium. In every video the stadium was packed to the very top, so there had to be some fans that couldn’t get a seat. My assumption is that they were waiting outside just like these fans to catch a glimpse of their admired wrestlers. I mean people were illegally sneaking towards the back of the entrance and crossing police tape just to see these actors. This act of dedicated fans reiterated the idea of audience engagement and the success of WWE. The people that waited outside the building, men and women and children, were so wrapped up in the excitement of the event that they were just happy to be four feet from a professional WWE wrestler. Their dedication to attending the tournaments, and buying merchandise, and simply the support they give to the wrestlers is why WWE can be honest with its audience and still be successful. The relationship between WWE and its fans is mutually valued, and that’s one reason why WWE is so respected as an entertainment enterprise.