No Fans = No Wrestling

One of the most important aspects about wrestling thats makes it different from every other sport is the importance of the fans. A professional baseball or football game could still be played without any spectators present. The only difference that a lack of spectators would make in theory would a lack of noise. Athletes in popular professional sports don't technically need people to watch them play their chosen sport.

The following statement comes from a blog entry that was part of the MIT course that I mentioned in a previous post:

"Professional wrestling, like theatre, relies on an unwritten social contract. Simply stated, that contract concerns the obligations of both audience and entertainer: the entertainer is expected to give a satisfactory performance and the audience is expected to respond accordingly."

I think that the author has made a really great point here. Wrestling relies on the spectators. If there aren't fans present to watch a match, it's simply like a practice or rehearsal. An actor can't perform without an audience, and neither can a wrestler. The goal of a wrestling match is to draw a reaction from the audience with each maneuver that's performed. "The audience rewards the effort by applauding or energizing their response in other ways : smiles, oohhs and ahhs etc.". Whether that reaction is positive (known as a "pop") or negative (known as "heat"), that part really doesn't matter. A wrestler's character predicts what kind of a reaction they will receive from the crowd, they just need to concentrate on making that reaction happen.

It's also important to put the fans first in both theatre and wrestling because they are "economically driven entities". Both businesses "need a cash flow to stay afloat". For the most part we are given what we want, with the exception of a few (...okay more than a few) storylines that just weren't up to par for most people. In my next post I will be discussing one of the ways in which WWE is trying to reach out to the fans and give them what they want.

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As an added bonus, I've included the first part of the Empty Arena match which aired during Halftime of Superbowl XXXIII in 1999 between Mankind and The Rock. How ironic...