Contact: Maridith Geuder
When "Diamond Dallas Paige," "Sting, " "The Warrior," and other pro wrestlers apply a scorpion death lock to their opponents, thousands of rabid fans cheer them on.
Away from the arena, those same fans also are buying wrestling merchandise, ordering pay-per-view events and renting videos about a sport that is skyrocketing in popularity.
To gain a better understanding of exactly who these fans are, two Mississippi State University researchers and a group of graduate students recently traveled to a Jackson match. Led by Andy Gillentine and Clay L. Daughtrey, this scientific tag-team polled ticket buyers to learn more about wrestling fans' consumer habits and the reasons they so love wrestling.
Gillentine and Daughtrey are assistant professors in the department of health, physical education, recreation, and sport. They, along with 17 graduate students in the department's sports administration program, completed more than 350 surveys in the first on-site data collection conducted for World Championship Wrestling.
With tickets in the $20-$25 range, the Jackson event drew a near-sellout crowd of nearly 10,000, Gillentine said.
"Our sports administration graduate program asks students to identify marketing practices and event management practices that are working," he said. "Wrestling does both well."
Owned by media mogul Ted Turner, WCW is based in Atlanta. Gillentine said WCW and its competitor, the World Wrestling Federation, had combined revenues of more than $1 billion last year.
"No one can argue that wrestling doesn't make money," he said. "We want to find out why fans are so attracted to this sport."
Initial impressions generated by the MSU survey indicate that the Jackson crowd included a high number of return customers, many with high purchasing power. The MSU researchers soon will be comparing their data with that of a separate event collected by colleagues at Texas A&M University.
In addition to helping the WCW identify customer traits in two locations, the university research is providing students with a unique out-of-class learning experience.
"To learn more about sports management and to introduce the business side of sports, we're taking them right to the source," Gillentine said. "Wrestling does a great job of creating a high level of fan interest, and we're letting students experience that firsthand."
Future research opportunities may include additional demographic surveys and student internships in the WCW's own research department.
"We hope this study has opened doors to what will become a continuing opportunity for Mississippi State students," Gillentine said.