TOP FIVE LIST: Ways Pro Wrestling Has Helped Grow Media Platforms from TV in the ’50s to cable and podcasts and PPV and streaming

Many have called wrestling the world’s oldest sport. If you visit the Dan Gable Wrestling Hall of Fame (which, as a former Iowa resident is totally worth visiting Waterloo for, but don’t expect much else to do), there are exhibits that include nods to the original Olympic Games and wrestling being mentioned in the bible (plus PWTorch’s editor Wade Keller is part of their Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in the “Excellence in Writing on Pro Wrestling” category).

Throughout history, it’s fascinating to see how different forms of communication and media have wrestling at the forefront. There is and always will be a loyal fanbase. The size of that fanbase will dip and grow, but if you look at each boom, they keep getting bigger and bigger in size of reach. From 900-number hotlines, to third party information news sites, message boards on fan theories, and as early as being a carnival draw, professional wrestling has consistently been called on to gather eyeballs to a new platform.

Television Sets

Times were certainly much more primitive when professional wrestling was in its early stages. Entertainment consisted more of radio, games with family, and reading. You could go out to see a film, but a television set in your home? That was considered a “fad” by many. How little life changes.

When new technology is introduced, the establishment doesn’t want to have to rethink how they do things. Who’d want to see a movie on such a small screen. Fast-forward to today and many of us consume full length movies or live sports on screens that fit into your pocket.

Like any other medium, it’s not about the hardware that delivers it that sells it to the masses, but the software it delivers. There had to be a reason to shell out the money to see something that you could only see on that device. It’s why so many streaming services pay so much for content today.

In the early-’50s, the public had heard about Gorgeous George, and they were annoyed at his antics. This man who was “better than everyone else” (and he knew it) knew how to push buttons. Seen as a “sissy” more concerned with his looks and how he smelled, along with some unfortunate homophobia, people were ready to see George get his comeuppance. It is the core of what makes wrestling work.

They built up a bad guy to make people pay for tickets to see this guy lose, and ticket for entry was available nationwide and it was television companies and the network sponsors who ultimately gained from an explosion in wrestling popularity.

Cable

Ted Turner said that there were three things that helped build WTBS into a “superstation,” and later a cable network which grew into an entertainment conglomerate. They were Atlanta Braves baseball, “Andy Griffith Show” reruns, and ‘Rasslin, as Ted called it.

Ted was very loyal to those brands. He didn’t stop at showing only Braves baseball when showing sports, nor did he stop acquiring old syndicated programs to fill the blocks of time. In fact, if you grew up watching WCW on TBS, you learned about not only “The Andy Griffith Show,” but “Gilligan’s Island.” I didn’t understand “Sanford and Son” at the time, but made me familiar later in life when I revisited the show. Solid watch as an adult.

Professional wrestling became to important to Ted that when all of the territories that provided him content were drying up. He purchased Jim Crockett Promotions, part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) which was rechristened WCW. There were hours of content dedicated to shows like WCW Saturday Night, WCW Pro, and WCW Main Event, plus semi-annual specials called WCW Clash of the Champions.

In the late-1990s, WCW Nitro was responsible for TNT being a top network that was demanded by many cable customers.

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Check out the latest episode of “PWTorch ’90s Pastcast” with Patrick Moynahan and Alex McDonald, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “wade keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

PPV

When wrestling was a territorial business, the way money was made was to get on television, show some stars and some of the moves they could do, but you rarely were able to watch a match between two opponents you actually cared about. That was saved for the live event at “insert local arena name here.” You had to pay for a ticket.

Those TV shows you watched were nothing more than commercials – even being paid for by the promotion to be on television so they could sell the local tickets, in some cases. Then came the technology where you could make ticket money from the entire nation, not just the local market.

It was hard to convince your parents to take you across country to see this match, but now it was possible to watch it from your own home and see the big, important matches and moments. It was another game-changer in delivering content to their audience.

Podcasts

I learned what podcasts were because of the Pro Wrestling Torch. Before there were iPhones or audio jacks in cars to play sound from an mp3 player, I would download all the shows I wanted to hear from the list on the website and burn them to a CDRW (points if you have any clue what all of that meant). PWTorch was doing podcasts before “podcast” was a word; Wade called them “audio show” back in 2003.

This was the shoot interview I couldn’t afford on DVD, the news from the 900-numbers, and a different type of content that was people having a conversation among experts about a topic you are interested in without them having to hit time cues, causing the discussion to stop just as it was getting to the good stuff.

Then I started hearing about musicians and comedians having podcasts, as well as getting news from a source that no longer had to first be interested in pleasing the network that would give the reporter lists of what was appropriate for their advertisers and management.

Other wrestling voices started entering the space. Retired wrestlers telling old stories and finding a second career or a way to learn that we, as a fanbase, really care about the people behind the characters.

Now you see many actors, directors, and networks all with podcasts. Too bad for Wade. The guy still manages to make too much content for a day even if you had no other interests and all kinda of competition now after it really was quite revolutionary of PWTorch at the time.

Streaming

If you watch anytime I’m on a PWTorch YouTube show, you’ll see all kinds of physical media behind me. I have more appreciation for art by owning it, and having access to it at any time. I’m awaiting the apocalypse when there is no internet to deliver the streaming content, as I will find a generator and be able to catch up on all the movies I’ve missed. The only hobby where I need it live is my wrestling habit.

Eventually there were streams on Hulu and YouTube, and I was able to keep up with content without cable. There were many that preferred the convenience of cable, weren’t sure how to work an app, or couldn’t yet rely on internet speeds, so cord-cutting took a few more years before people started catching on that you can start paying for the content you want, and not an entire package of channels.

Netflix was the obvious groundbreaker, and Hulu was right behind them. You’d see WWE content find its way to Netflix with old documentaries or Hulu would have trimmed down versions of TV shows.

Then the WWE took one of the largest risks they’d ever take. PPV was no longer going to be the way of delivering big monthly “payoff” shows, but they’d stream live as a part of a $10 monthly package on the WWE Network! As a fan who struggled to justify $50 PPV cards that I would likely watch once, this was massive! Not only live content, but my old WCW? I could relive the ECW years I missed?

Networks started noticing that streaming was cutting in on their market share and were starting up their own streaming services. When Universal was launching Peacock, they knew how loyal the wrestling audience had been with the years of WWE programming being on many of their networks, and WWE was tapped as a resource to gain eyeballs to everything else they had on their platform, plus adding a whole new subscriber base of wrestling fans. Netflix took a look at that and one-upped them, making the massive contract for worldwide distribution of WWE now teamed up with the world’s largest streamer.