WWE: How the WWE Has Embraced the World of Social Media

WWE has learned to love social media, and they are better off for it.

As the WWE has ushered in a new era of storytelling, and they have approached it with the 2011 anti-hero, CM Punk, they have also learned that Social Media isn’t the enemy anymore. It’s their friend.

Back When Wrestling Was Real

There was a time when the WWE still wanted the mainstream audience to harbor the delusion that wrestling was real. All the feuds and heels were real.

It worked for the longest time and required an insane commitment from its participants, but somewhere around the time of the Internet the WWE found that keeping their dirty little secret a secret was harder to do than ever before.

Behold the transformation to “sports entertainment.”

Of course the WWE wasn’t willing to give into the realities of the Internet age, only willing to embrace what they had to. They had to own up to their own charade, but they couldn’t embrace technology yet.

After all, it took them forever to admit that their wrestlers were performers, how quickly could the western world figure they would likely own up to the fact that the Internet was a great tool to leak information.

And leaking information was primarily what avid wrestling junkies searched the Internet for. The “dirt sheets” as they are so affectionately called have long been filled with the down and dirty rumors of professional wrestling.

Everything from storylines to backstage gossip. Of course, with all rumor sites there is a collection of info that is patently false, but still, there was enough there that was right enough of the time to make them a viable source for the wrestling addict.

Then something strange happened. The information age came full blast and now the need to seek out such rumors and gossip became null and void.

With Twitter, Facebook, texting and e-mail forwards in the last few years there was just no point in searching for something if you belonged to the right network of people.

Embracing the Beast

The WWE did what they had to mostly out of necessity, but they have embraced the beast, and it’s worked to perfection. Their use of Twitter and YouTube, in particular, has been incredible.

Take the Rock and John Cena. Their match at Wrestlemania 28 is still more than six months away, yet the tension between the two is palpable.

While the reality is that it’s likely nothing more than a story, the truth of the matter is that they have done enough to make everyone question whether or not their anger is real.

They have tweeted at each other time and time again, and Cena has been quite the YouTube sensation with his scathing rant in Australia about the Rock.

The Rock responded in kind with a video of his own which has 192 thousands views to this day.

Even Zack Ryder, a WWE no one has amassed a huge following with his own YouTube show and a Twitter following that rivals any of his WWE counterparts.

This is where the WWE is. They have seen the beast that is social media and they are willing to go into the fold with it. But rather than resisting it, they have manipulated it and turned it into a positive for themselves.

They are leaking videos, starting Twitter wars and allowing the rest of the world to buzz about what is going on.

There are times when the WWE product has felt old and antiquated but these days it’s anything but. The WWE figured if they couldn’t beat them, they should join them.

Embracing social media was the best decision they ever made.