Internet and Social Media: From WWE Enemy to WWE Ally

Earlier this week, there was drama amongst the WWE Divas over an article that was written on WWE.com suggesting the Divas of Doom (collectively, Beth Phoenix and Natalya) are the saviors of the Divas Division. The topic sparked Nikki Bella to react on her Twitter account regarding how hard the Divas work and that though some of them had no wrestling background when they first started, all of them have busted their butts to hone their craft and be better performers. Many of the twitter community chimed in with some good and bad remarks. The interesting thing about this discussion in social media is that the argumentative topic was over an in-house article written by the WWE. Oh how the WWE has come from the earlier days of the Internet.

Ever since the mid-1990s, many wrestling fans started up their own wrestling websites where fans can read the latest news on their favorite wrestler. Just like the rest of the world has experienced, local information was suddenly spread worldwide. E-mails allowed information to be shared instantaneously. As the world advanced in this new form of communication, the veil of professional wrestling slowly was drawn back exposing how scripted their beloved sport really is. Prior to the wide use of the Internet, the secrets of professional wrestling were kept within the community of wrestlers. The illusion of storyline and reality were so blurred that many fans actually thought that what they saw on TV was actually how wrestlers really were in the real world. Countless arguments between fans and non-fans debated on the reality of wrestling. That all disappeared when photos, personal encounters, and inside information were slowly leaked via the Internet. To much of the chagrin of the wrestling industry, they were helpless in keeping the secrets amongst themselves.

To understand the impact, let’s take a look at the evolution of the Internet and social media in the past 10 years. In 2000, less than 50% of the US households were linked to the web. By 2010, that percentage has gone up to more than 75% of the households. In 2002, Friendster started. In 2003, Myspace started. In 2004, Facebook started. In 2005, Youtube started. In 2006, Twitter started. From the early to mid-2000s, due to the advancements in cell phone technology and telephone company plans, SMS text messaging became widely used around the world. This is the situation of life that the wrestling community was in, and because of this, the illusion of wrestling has disappeared. In its place was the acknowledgement of the creativity and athleticism of the wrestlers, but along with that came the criticism and angst toward sub-par shows and performances.

As the Internet became a prevalent way to expose the truth about wrestling, many wrestling companies like the WWE bad-mouthed the spread of inside knowledge by these fans. Many of them criticized the “dirt sheet” the fans would write concerning the behind the scenes actions of the business. To much of their dismay, scripted storylines for up-coming shows were released, which took away much of the “surprise” factor that these companies were trying to portray. Because of their despise of the wrestling fans who would give out spoilers, on the spot decision were made in order to keep the fans guessing as to what will actually happen. The ones who were most angered about these unexpected changes where the company’s creative teams who prepared long program for a particular wrestler but would have all that abruptly scratched because of the spoilers that were leaked on the web. As this scenario plagued the WWE for quite a long time, it’s only recently that the WWE has finally begun to use the Internet for their advantage.

As of the past year or so, the WWE has slowly been encouraging their wrestlers to get more involved with social media, but with caution, for many misconstrued messages can create a negative effect for themselves and the company. One example of who has led the WWE in this new format of promoting himself and the company is Zack Ryder. After much of his popularity died late last year along with receiving less and less airtime, Zack Ryder took it upon himself to launch a Youtube Channel entitled the Z! True Long Island Story. Without any support nor any hindrance from the WWE, Zack Ryder created 5-7 minute humorous videos of himself and his friends in effort to create a fan following and catch the attention of the WWE higher-ups. After releasing a new video every week for 29 weeks which he himself wrote, produced, and edited, the WWE has paid attention to what the fans were cheering for, and as a result, he is getting more airtime as of late. Riding along this wave, WWE.com has been releasing more news articles involving the current on-air storylines (like the Divas of Doom article), which has become the buzz across the Internet and social media. Apparently, what the WWE has come to learn is that instead of fighting the monster called the Internet, they have begun using this monster as their ally in bringing a new dimension to the wrestling experience.

With the in-sync combination of the Internet, Social Media, and on-air storylines, we can expect the WWE to slowly bring the veil back in front of the audience in keeping them guessing as to which is real and which is a storyline. There will always be the smart-alecks on the web with their opinions and their attempts to guess which is a legit story or not. They may be right or they may be not. We will only know after the fact. If we just sit back and relax and let the Internet community do what they do best, the WWE will continue to give us interesting and entertaining shows for all their fans to enjoy.