Chapter 12. Fan Perception

Although the preceding chapters of attempted anthropological analysis have tried to interpret what happens in the wrestling ring, it is highly instructive to learn what wrestling fans have to say about what the witness in the ring. It is a fairly widely held view that most professional wrestling fans are illiterate. On the contrary, they can be quite eloquent when asked about their favorite sport, and their remarks are necessary for a full understanding of wrestling. When wrestling fans view professional wrestling, they are confronted with cultural representations of varying degrees of good and evil. While some fans reject Face wrestlers as their idols and embrace Heels, their powers of discrimination are not radical. The cultural representations of professional wrestling are too constrained for any serious discrimination to occur. The symbolic playground on which WWF wrestlers romp is too constrained to allow fans to rebel against its overarching moral structure.

The WWF presents heroes and villains, and over three-fourths of the fans I interviewed at Madison Square Garden in 1990 and 1991 accepted the characters at face value. The favorite wrestlers by far were the Ultimate Warrior, champion at that time, and Hulk Hogan. The Warrior was valued most for his size and unorthodox wrestling style. "He's big and strong, he's a really good wrestler," one boy said, and a twenty-year-old women added, "He's very nice looking and I think he fights well...the funny faces he makes and the growling noises." One man in his twenties was more philosophical about the champion: "He said it himself, 'I'm neither righteousness nor injustice, I'm the Ultimate Warrior.' He don't care about the fans cheerin', and he don't care if they boo."

"The Immortal" Hulk Hogan was admired for his physique and his morals, points emphasized in his pre-match speeches. "He's a real American, just like they say, big, blond, muscles; he loves little kids," a thirtysomething man commented. A young girl said about Hogan, "He's strong, he's better...what he says he's gonna do, he's gonna do it." One woman in her early twenties claimed Hogan was her most disliked wrestler, however, charging, "He's full of shit, strictly full of shit. I don't like the way he does business...he has the minds of the youths up here brainwashed." Her favorite was a more humble wrestler, the working class hero Dusty Rhodes: "He's not trying to be more than he is...he's an average American human being." Another fan favorite was former Heel the Big Bossman, a Georgia prison guard before coming to the WWF. "He should be like what the cops around here are," said one appreciative New York City fan.

The WWF seems to do a very effective job of persuading fans to hate their Heels. Their central cads received scathing remarks from fans, especially Mr. Perfect, an arrogant wrestler: "He thinks he's perfect, but the only person who's perfect is God." The same young boy said about "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, "He likes to buy people." Another young man had harsh words to say about Earthquake, who was feuding with Hogan at the time: "You just want to get out and slap him in the face a few times." On a few rare occasions Heels were chosen by fans as their favorite wrestlers, mainly because their wrestling skill eclipsed their characterization.

Children make up a significant part of the WWF audience, and most older fans thought that wrestlers were good role models for children. One fan qualified his praise, recommending, "For a kid ten years old, you would have to explain to a kid that this is not real, because they might grow up believing it." A young woman reported that her brothers buy all the WWF toys and have started to wrestle at home. Another woman had more cautionary words to say: "There are a lot of kids who take it seriously...we saw many of them the last time we were here in the hallways beating up each other." Even if the action of professional wrestling is taken lightly by some doubters, its icons are clearly very powerful and provocative.

On the issue of the treatment of women and ethnic groups by the WWF, fans were very ambivalent. One young man said he didn't like the stereotypes, but added, "I guess it sells tickets. You gotta do that. It's just good marketing." Heel consort Sherri Martel, who will be discussed next in the chapter, received no sympathy even though she is regularly brutalized in matches: "She is so hateful...she is very good at being mean." Miss Elizabeth, Randy "Macho Man" Savage's former manager, is not as harshly criticized, but is seen as not fitting in to the wrestling world. "She's too pretty, she might get hurt," one man said. Virgil, the black valet of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, received not sympathy but derision from a young African-American boy, who commented, "I don't like him, he's stupid." An African-American man in his thirties was not troubled by the state of minorities in the WWF, observing, "There's very few, but the ones that are on top have been around for a while." However, one man did say that the treatment of some ethnic groups was like a "circus."

Two fans stated that they still did not trust Nikolai Volkoff, a former Heel who had recently turned face in the spirit of glasnost. On the other hand, some fans thought Sergeant Slaughter, who had recently returned to the WWF as an Iraqi sympathizer, was only resorting to those unpopular tactics to have a chance of winning the championship belt. "He's still a real American in my mind," said one young man. After the Persian Gulf War began this opinion began to change; the pro-Iraqi characterization went beyond the limits of taste in professional wrestling. "There's so much problems in the world today ...hopefully he won't show up here so he won't get shot at."

Some fans seem to attach great significance to wrestling in their lives. "We went to 'Wrestlemania' last year, it was the experience of a lifetime," one woman told me. Another young woman asserted, "I took this [wrestling] very, very religiously. I used to watch it every single time." The claims of wrestling broadcasts were taken at face value by one fan I interviewed, who explained to me how one "injured" wrestler was waiting for clearance from his doctor to be able to wrestle again. The symbolic action of professional wrestling seems to be very real to some fans.

On the crucial question of whether competition in professional wrestling is real or not, fans are divided, although all consider it to be "entertaining." The range of opinion is best summarized by two teenage female fans. "It may look real to some people, but not all the time," one admitted. Her companion snapped back defensively, "You can't say that all of it is fake though, you can't say that people don't get hurt." One young man claimed professional wrestling is a "sporting event," while another young women asserted, "It's like American politics, it's full of shit." Wrestling seems to have different meanings for different people, but they would all agree, in the words of one fan, "they put on a good show." Otherwise they would not attend live wrestling events every month.

Continue to Chapter 13