UF Study: Alienation, Not Love For Athletics, Fuels Wrestling Mania

July 25, 2000

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Truth wears body oil, justice sports bulging pecs and The American Way is a struggle against oppressive individuals who manipulate society for their own gain, says a University of Florida researcher who has studied the country’s infatuation with professional wrestling.

Audiences know that productions of the World Wrestling Federation, known as the WWF, are sports entertainment, not athletic competitions, and come in droves to experience the events as passion plays that re-enact their personal and social struggles, said Aaron Feigenbaum, who did the research for his doctoral dissertation in anthropology at UF.

“(Wrestling) superstars do not engage in heroic struggles against the gods or in epic quests for immortality,” he said. “They engage in battles against tyrannical employers, moral crusaders, hypocritical power brokers and a social system that threatens their freedom and leaves them alienated from their fellow human beings.”

Viewers tuning in to WWF’s “Raw is War,” the top-rated show on cable television, may witness a wrestler driving a hearse into the arena and threatening to take another superstar’s soul, or they may see 20,000 fans cheering for a sock, Feigenbaum said.

” Seinfield,’ the most popular television sitcom of the 1990s, is often referred to as the show about nothing,’” he said. “In contrast, sports entertainment may be considered the show about everything.’

“For those who want action, there is action,” he said. “For those who want to see scantily clad males or females, there are scantily clad males or females. For those who want political satire, there is plenty of it. And for those who wish they could punch their boss, sports entertainment can provide that as well.”

Feigenbaum combined a variety of study methods in his research. He interviewed a representative sample of the wrestling audience, analyzed tapes of televised events, attended live wrestling performances, studied sports entertainment Internet sites and interviewed key individuals in the business. He found that, like religious ceremonies and other rituals, professional wrestling lets people break free from everyday roles and create new ones, as well as reconfigure or make sense of their world, he said.

Superstars who battle it out for various championships symbolize social relationships and moral ideas, said Feigenbaum, who now works as a writer for the WWF.

“Oftentimes we get individuals seeking employment who are avid fans of wrestling and can’t see past it,” said Laura Bryson, managing editor of WWF Magazine, who wanted to hire Feigenbaum after he called WWF to research his dissertation. “Aaron, on the other hand, understands the psychology of sports entertainment and what makes it appealing.”

Chyna, a female wrestler who competes against males, personifies women trying to make it in a man’s world, while D-GenerationX, a group of rebellious superstars, typifies young adults revolting against authority, Feigenbaum said. Mankind, a silly and lovable buffoon who used a sock to engage the audience, represents the child in all of us, he said.

Wrestling fans are stereotyped as blue-collar and uneducated, but a recent survey shows that more than 40 percent of the audience have annual incomes of at least $40,000 and 62 percent had attended college or earned a college degree, he said.

In mimicking the real life experiences of its audience, professional wrestling stories reflect the geopolitics of the day from the all-American types of the 1920s to the Cold War heroes of the 1980s, Feigenbaum said.

“After the Cold War ended, the focus turned inward to injustices in American society,” he said.”‘Bad guys’ were either big corporate types who try to control people, or moral crusaders who demean the audience’s tastes.”

But even though anger and alienation lie at the heart of sports entertainment, the experience is meant to be fun and entertaining, with something for everyone, he said.

The interaction between fans and performers distinguishes professional wrestling from other sporting events, Feigenbaum said. “It gives fans an opportunity to laugh, to cry, to celebrate, to revolt, to come together with others and to break free from everyone,” he said. “It provides everything and anything for a society that expects everything and anything.”