WWE is not a wrestling company

From usa's tv week
Whoooa Nellie! When Brands Go Horribly Wrong: Psst--Vince McMahon and the WWE Are No Longer In the Wrestling Business. Publicist Alerts the Media.

If you are a boy baby boomer of a certain age, and grew up in the Los Angeles area, like I did, one of your fondest memories of TV as a kid was watching Dick Lane and wrestling on KTLA live from the Olympic Auditorium in downtown L.A.

Lane’s signature call was “Whooooa Nellie” as he watched some wrestler like Freddie Blassie climb up on the ropes and post of the ring and leap down, stomping another wrestler, or at least seeming to. I remember that tag team matches were my favorites. Reading a blog by Ed Fuentes remembering Lane, it reminded me that he was also endlessly promoting pro wrestling and urging us viewers to attend the matches live.

As a kid getting into almost daily fights and getting stomped by my older brother, wrestling on TV as narrated by Lane was mesmerizing.

If you grew up in New York I guess the equivalent experience was watching Dennis James announce wrestling on TV.

In the book about TV called “The Box” by Jeff Kisseloff, James talked about his days announcing wrestling: “When I went to my first wrestling match, I said, ‘I can’t play this straight.’ Yet, I had to find some happy medium so that the wrestlers wouldn’t hate my guts, so I added sound effects. If a guy was twisting another guy’s leg, I had a crackle bone that I would twist. If he pulled on his trunks, I would tear a window shade. I got hold of a slide whistle when they went up and down. I did one whole wrestling match in rhyme: ‘They’re out of the ring, but now they’re back, and when they do, two heads will crack.’ ”

Most of the wrestlers knew they needed to develop outlandish personalities to distinguish themselves for the TV audience.

Noted one observer in “The Box,” talking about a wrestler from those early days of TV named George Wagner, “When he wrestled as George Wagner he wasn’t a drawing card. Then he came up with Gorgeous George, and television made him a star.”

Another wrestler from those early days, Lou Thesz, remembers in “The Box” that Gorgeous George “got a lot of what we call in the business ‘heat,’ a big response from women. After that, a lot of guys took it upon themselves to come up with some kind of gimmick, like Farmer Jones, who would enter the ring with his pig. I wouldn’t wrestle on the same card with girl wrestlers or midgets or when some idiot brought in a bear, because then you are guilty by association--although I did train a kid who wrestled a bear in Tennessee and kicked the hell out of that bear. He was booked with that bear about a week later. The bear [was in the ring] and saw the kid coming, and it left. The bear remembered him.”

While wrestling never really disappeared from the nation’s airwaves, it didn’t hit a second golden age until Vince McMahon and his World Wrestling Federation (later called World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE) made it bigger than it had ever been, primarily by taking what had been a local phenomenon and making it national. Many say the event that marked professional wrestling’s great comeback was WrestleMania in 1985 and the appearance of a WWF wrestler named Hulk Hogan. That, in turn, led to the boom of WWF (and later, WWE) shows on national TV, from ‘’Smackdown” to “Raw.”

I hadn’t given the WWE much thought lately when we here at TVWeek received a press release the other day that we wrote up and published as follows:

Drew Carey Inducted Into Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. Huh? Drew Carey??!!

Comedic actor and game show host Drew Carey is the newest member of the WWE Hall of Fame.

According to the WWE, "Carey established his place in WWE history as a surprise entrant in the 2001 Royal Rumble. However, Carey’s fortunes quickly turned, when the massive WWE Superstar Kane entered the ring, prompting Carey to eliminate himself from the match."

The announcement adds, "The WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony...will take place at the Philips Arena [in Atlanta] on Saturday, April 2, and the one-hour TV special will air Monday, April 4, at 8/7c on USA Network."

Next thing I know, I’ve received an email from one Kellie Baldyga, a publicist for WWE, DEMANDING that we correct the story. She also copied our owner, Rance Crain, on the email.

What had drawn her ire was the headline. Baldyga wrote in her email, “We are no longer a wrestling company but rather a global entertainment company with a movie studio, international licensing deals, publisher of three magazines, consumer good distributor and more.”

No doubt WWE is into more things than just wrestling, which is its bread and butter, I thought, but this can’t really be a big deal. I was busy and emailed her I’d call her the next day, which was yesterday, March 17.

First thing yesterday morning I received this email from her: “Chuck, did you mean call me today (Thursday)? I apologize but I really need the correction made sooner than later if possible…”

As regular readers to this blog may recall, for most of my career as a journalist I haven’t gotten along with most publicists. Most of them don’t like me, and I don’t have patience for many publicists.

Baldyga was beginning to bother me. First, our headline was perfectly fine and accurate. Second, what was this “demand” about changing OUR headline?

I called her and introduced myself. The conversation then basically went as follows:

Me: Your release says that Carey is being recognized as being an entrant in the 2001 Royal Rumble. I believe that was a wrestling event.

Kellie: No, we don't do wrestling events. They're entertainments. And we don’t call them wrestlers. They’re superstars and divas.

I’m thinking to myself, is she kidding me? Is this woman mad? The company’s official name is World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. Its crown jewel is an event called WrestleMania. In the best tradition of wrestling on TV since its earliest days, they put on terrific shows (and events), with athletes who are performers and they’ve got storylines that are far more elaborate than any Gorgeous George and Freddie Blassie would have ever imagined. Why would they want to run away from who they are, from what’s made them wildly successful beyond most people’s dreams?

Me: Kellie, I really don't have time for this. WWE presents wrestling events. I'm not going to change the headline or anything in the item. If you'd like, I'll just remove it.

Kellie: Huh? What?

Me: Kellie, I don't have time for this. What do you want me to do?

Kellie: Remove it.

So I did.

Kellie sent me a follow-up email saying “I hope nothing was contentious in our conversation…” She added, “I know the perception is that we are a wrestling company but we are actually much more than that--we are a global media company which is how our Chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon, positions us.”

Whatever. Take away wrestling from WWE and what do you basically have? I don't think WWE is quite as diverse as global media companies such as News Corp. or Time Warner or Viacom, but what do I know.

As I went to sleep last night I kept thinking about what I had read in Ed Fuentes' remembrance about wrestling in L.A., and hearing Dick Lane’s voice in my head from decades ago: “Call Richmond 95171. That's Richmond 95171 to reserve your tickets now!! Whoooa Nellie!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
so to round up
not wrestling company-global entertainment company
not wrestling event-entertainments
not wrestlers-superstars and divas (but you already knew that )

It's a sad day when a WRESTLING promotion is so ashamed of its product that it basically denies it's existance. i was pkanning on a major rant here, but I don't want to watse my breath saying things that have been discussed on here many many times before..

Will agree with Cymru here - So much to rant and argue about it. But if they continue this then I am turning off! Thank god for ROH and TNA!!

A global entertainment company, yea right what making half baked films

A good read and endorses my theory that Vince is so desperate to be mainstream and cymru your right its really sad, it's even sadder for us wrestling fans who watch wrestling for only the company to seemingly have wrestling at the bottom of their agenda.

Hopefully when the time comes for HHH and who ever else to take over the reigns the focus will go back to wrestling as HHH may be a wrestling man first and not a thirst for mainstream acceptance like Vince but who knows.

One thing I will say on this matter is I bet the vast majority of you loved the return of the Rock. For me he personified entertainment> wrestling.

Hero wrote:One thing I will say on this matter is I bet the vast majority of you loved the return of the Rock. For me he personified entertainment> wrestling.

True, but we enjoyed the return of "The Rock", not the return of "The major movie star, Dwayne Johnson"

very interesting article. Just a few of points

1. I don't think Vince is ashamed of the WWE being a wrestling company - i used to think this and it made me annoyed, but then I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that rather than it being shame, Vince sees his company as transcending professional wrestling. Hence Sports Entertainment. This goes back to an article I made a few weeks ago about the Streak being the last frontier for the WWE. WWE have achieved all their goals in wrestling terms and so the only way to evolve is by way of diversification. WWE have made new mountains for themselves and this is in the entertainment business. In some ways its only logical, but in another it just goes to show how obsessed and greedy MacMahon is.

2. With the WWE becoming a global entertainment company expect more wrestlers to star in WWE produced films and even TV shows - yes I believe this is what Vince wants, he wants his very own WWE channel, which will broadcast not just wrestling but other entertainment products besides. The Rock is a perfect example of this; firstly when he returned on Raw he said he was the most electrifying man in all of 'entertainment' not sports entertainment and then in his 'via satellite' promo he said how he had paved the way for guys like Cena to make it in Hollywood. There is a very interesting interview with Jericho on WWE.com about his participation in DWTS and in it Jericho says he wants to prove to Hollywood that WWE superstars can be just as entertaining because he said Hollywood looks down on the WWE. I believe this is the direction Vince wants to take the WWE. If you will the WWE will have a tag line similar to that of the PS3 - the wrestling is just the start!

3. The WWE may diversify but it will always remain a wrestling company so I wouldn't worry too much; I seriously doubt they will ever change the name of WrestleMania or the company again. I mean it just doesn't have the same iconic ring to it - Global Entertainment Mania!!! :huh:

Punk is gonna be in trouble!

CM Punk wrote the following on Twitter, noting that he is a wrestler…

"No stupid coats. No pyro. No dancers. No bells, no whistles. Never needed it. I am a wrestler."

"No, stupid. Also, to anybody else who said something similar, urine off."

Punks always been vocal about the very basics

Vince is very insistent though at present on everyone being known as 'superstars' in everything they do.

Hero wrote:Vince is very insistent though at present on everyone being known as 'superstars' in everything they do.

I think Punk has the integrity to be himself; I don't think he's obsessed with becoming world champion at all costs. Besides Vince would be foolish to punish him for using his right to freedom of speech. Punk has paid his dues since being buried by Taker at HIAC 09 and is one of the best, if not the best heel in the WWE today. Punk deserves to be at the top for his hard work, commitment and talent.

However I don't think the WWE is the be all and end all for Punk; he loves the wrestling industry and I think if anything ludicrous was to happen and Punk was fired, he would either go back to ROH or wrestle in Japan; I know he thinks highly of Japan.

Vince hasn't called wrestlers wrestlers for years its hardly new

Out of interest, when was the term "superstars" first coined? Anyone got any ideas?

I think it was around the mid 80s when Vince raided the territories