ABSTRACT
For many fans of professional wrestling, an oft-heard reply to revealing one’s fandom is “Wrestling? You like that? You know that’s fake, right?” The wrestling fan’s sly reply might be something akin to, “Hamlet? You like that? You know that play’s fake, right?” The “reality” of wrestling is both a non-issue for fans and a necessary suspension of disbelief for the drama of the genre. Pro wrestling shows are shows about sport, just as Star Trek is a show about the future or Sesame Street is a show about puppets. In the late 1990s, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the world’s most successful and visible professional wrestling company, began using the term “sports entertainment” to refer to its product. “Sports entertainment” acknowledges pro wrestling as sportthemed drama, not sport itself. WWE – which runs hundreds of live events in dozens of counties, produces half a dozen hours of cable television per week, sells merchandise based on their characters and brands, and maintains a streaming media service for its monthly special events and extensive back catalog of shows – had revenue of $542.6 million in 2014.1 That figure is in real, not fake, dollars. As Oliver Lee Batman puts it, “[Pro wrestling] is first and foremost a performance. [. . .] And second, [. . .] wrestling is big business.”2
