Sports Entertainment: My Captured Experience

For anyone who doesn’t know. I am an avid wrestling fan. It is nothing to be ashamed of, but I have grown up with it. Wrestling is sort of like baseball…it has a past time and die-hard fans. As a fan, there are times where opportunities arise and I get a chance to experience WWE live. Yes, I know it’s scripted and fake. Seeing the athletes though is really phenomenal. Online journalism can be so beneficial for events such as Survivor Series. Many fans post media on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I was one of those fans. Although I wished I had brought my camera, but phone was the best media presenter I had. To go further than the 140 characters that limits such fan, I will give you an in sight on my night on Sunday!

First off, having floor seats was incredible. My best friend and roommate Jordin and I were sitting in section A and six rows from the ring. Not only did we have great seats for the pay-per-view, we had a great view of the wrestlers coming from the stage. To compare how the stage and how everything is set up, WWE use to have a legit ramp that the entertainers would walk down. Now it is just the floor and no hierarchy point of view. At times it was difficult to see them entering the ring since every other fan was trying to snap a picture as they walked by. Either way, better than sitting up in the seats!

As the show began, lots of fireworks. Almost too close to comfort. If you’ve never watched or even know about WWE or any of the brand shows (Raw, Smackdown, NXT) then I will brief you really quick. People say it’s fake because, it is…to a certain point. They do know what is going to be the results of a match even before the event happens. Storylines and the people who create them are very interesting to see. It pretty much is a soap opera. There is lots of drama, fighting (obviously), and plot twist that can blow people’s minds. I for one enjoy that aspect. This was Jordin’s first time going to a WWE event and even watching it. She got lucky, you’re welcome! 🙂

The thing that get’s me is how involved the children get! Kids love all the action that happens. There are times were the language and situations are a little dicey, but other than those moments…kids adore all these super stars! Wrestling is such a great atmosphere as I said before because it brings all kinds of people together for one reason. There were kids, older fans, families, and students like me! We are are there for one reason, to see the wrestlers. Pay-Per-Views also bring the ‘regulars’. Before a match, they would have clips of the storyline built up to the point of the match that was about to happen. One shot, there was a guy in the crowd who was attending that night (last night) He was sitting across from me on the other side of the ramp. Such a neat thing to witness. Along with him, there was another man who is called ‘Sign Guy’. I have seen him several times and my dad got to meet him! Sign Guy always had clever signs he holds up and gets the wrestlers attention. You can always spot him because he wears a red cap and a light blue shirt. I’m sure there were other people in attendance that are popular or always going to events, I wish someday I can be one of those people!

Since this was a live-event. Everyone in the WWE Network got to see this happening. One thing that I didn’t understand about WWE marketing is that only people with the WWE Network can view this event. Before, if you had satellite services such as DirectTV or Dish you could purchase and watch. Now, if you pay $9.99 a month, you get access to pay-per-views as well as other past events. The WWE Network didn’t do as good as the industry thought it would do. Recently, they grew to world-wide. Meaning that anyone now can stream for the ten bucks a month.  I currently have this network and it is pleasant to have. The downside of this is that once I registered on my laptop, that is the only way I can use it. This service is not like Netflix where you can go from iPhone to TV to laptop. My laptop is the only way I can see anything that isn’t on TV. Crazy, huh?

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So, how does this fit into online journalism again? Many websites can stay connected through the live event. My dad was looking at one while the pay-per-view was happening. He was also texting me throughout asking what was happening! Like I said before, many fans were posting on social media sites. Journalism can be loosely tossed around in recent times. Like we discussed in class, some jobs really don’t need photographers anymore because they want the writer to do their own media. I think quality is slowly declining because who wants to see grainy photos all over the web. Even with what happened on Sunday I saw more phones (guilty as charged) than cameras. I could have been one of those people with my snazzy camera shooting everything, but with my poor memory I forgot it!

So now you know about my crazy obsession with WWE Wrestling. I had a blast on Sunday and I can’t wait to attend more shows like this! I didn’t want to get in depth of each match because I could have gone on and on about it and some of you may have been bored to death. A few things to wrap this up; John Cena was there. He’s always a crowd favorite. Some of the matches were super long (and not necessary) and STING made his rumored debut!