This blog post examines how WWE, known as a scripted show, has grown into a massive global entertainment phenomenon by combining narrative, characters, and live performances to thrill fans worldwide.
When tensions escalated this year as Israel and Iran exchanged airstrikes, one striking comment caught my eye: “The relationship between South Korea and North Korea is like WWE, while theirs is like UFC.” The meaning behind this analogy is relatively clear. South Korea and North Korea often limit themselves to localized provocations or verbal tensions because neither wants full-scale war, and this resembles a WWE show following a script. In contrast, the Israel-Iran conflict escalated to actual missile launches and bombing of urban centers, making it comparable to the unscripted, real-life combat of UFC.
Thus, the term ‘WWE’ has become a metaphor. Clashes or confrontations that are essentially staged, mutually agreed-upon performances are likened to WWE, while crossing that line into actual, fierce conflict is compared to UFC. This analogy starkly illustrates the nature of WWE as both a sport and entertainment.
Consequently, many question WWE. The question is: “Why watch a show where they’re just putting on a show?” However, contrary to this skepticism, WWE is a massive entertainment industry with a very dedicated fan base. While there are slight variations each season, its scale is by no means small.
Major U.S. sports like MLB or NBA, considered the four major leagues, average around 1.5 to 1.8 million viewers per national broadcast. So, how many viewers does WWE have? Raw averages about 1.5 million viewers, while SmackDown surpasses 2 million. The sheer size of WWE’s audience is far larger than the common perception, making it difficult to dismiss it as merely “fake.”
Furthermore, the common thread among Dwayne Johnson, John Cena, and Dave Bautista—three actors currently thriving in Hollywood—is that they all started as WWE wrestlers. This clearly demonstrates how powerful a stage WWE provided for entertainment.
So, how did WWE build such a massive entertainment empire? At its core lies ‘narrative.’ WWE is less a sport and more akin to a grand drama performed with the whole body by muscular actors. In other words, WWE is entertainment structured around dramatic storytelling, not sport.
Recalling that the very origins of professional wrestling stemmed from the purpose of providing entertainment enjoyment to audiences rather than pure sporting competition makes this easier to understand. The original grappling-focused style of wrestling inevitably lacks the intensity and viewing appeal found in events with clear stakes, like the Olympics or national team competitions. Consequently, professional wrestling actively incorporated diverse styles and dramatic elements—like tag matches, ring invasions, and referee assaults—to enhance the spectacle.
Furthermore, to captivate audiences, it established a clear good-versus-evil dynamic, predetermined winners and losers, and structured matches so wrestlers could deliver thrilling performances within this framework. The fundamental reason for this approach aligns with why people love sports.
In truth, while winning and losing matter in sports, what draws people in even deeper is the underlying ‘narrative’. A team’s performance throughout a season becomes its story; a narrative unfolds as losing streaks and comebacks, setbacks and hopes accumulate. When a team like the Chicago Cubs, long deprived of a championship, finally reaches the top, people cheer not just for the victory but for the narrative of a ‘moving conclusion after a long wait’.
The same applies to individual players. Son Heung-min has long been a representative player in the league, but his greatness wasn’t solely defined by his goal or assist totals. What made him truly special was the narrative of his decade-long dedication to his club, never leaving, striving for a championship, and ultimately completing that story with a Europa League victory. Lionel Messi also experienced disappointment at the World Cup during his prime, but later completed an emotional narrative by winning the Qatar World Cup alongside younger players. Michael Jordan became the iconic symbol of the 1990s not just for his simple statistics, but for the narrative of overcoming the Detroit Bad Boys, achieving the three-peat, and returning to the pinnacle after retirement and comeback.
WWE deliberately maximizes the power of this sports narrative. Each match features a hero and a villain, and wrestlers act out their assigned characters according to a pre-written script. While the outcome is predetermined, the ‘how’ of the victory is crafted through the wrestlers’ performance. Through this process, narrative builds match by match, culminating explosively at major events like WrestleMania.
Thus, WWE should be understood as entertainment built on narrative. This becomes clear when we recall that mechanisms like the equal distribution of broadcast revenue or draft priority for weaker teams in American professional sports leagues are also devices designed to enrich the league’s overarching narrative.
The question, “Why watch something that’s scripted and fake?” is easily countered by considering how deeply people immerse themselves in dramas or movies. Marvel series or The Avengers didn’t gain popularity because they depicted real events, nor did Squid Game spark a global craze because it was based on a true story. People know these are fabricated narratives, yet the more compelling the story, the deeper they become immersed.
WWE simply added live, real-time action and acrobatic stunts based on physical prowess. That’s why wrestlers describe themselves not as mere athletes, but as performers.
The key figure behind this massive entertainment empire is undoubtedly Vince McMahon. During his father’s era, professional wrestling was strictly regional entertainment, with local associations operating in different areas. Vince McMahon expanded it into a nationwide entertainment industry. He leveraged national broadcasts to expose the WWF across the United States, recruited popular wrestlers, and created the pinnacle of the narrative through the mega-event WrestleMania.
Through subsequent transformations—competing with WCW, adopting adult-oriented storylines, the rise of antiheroes, and the mass-market strategy of the John Cena era—WWE has continuously reinvented itself. The result is a massive business that in 2024 achieved approximately $1.4 billion in revenue and $681 million in operating profit.
Ultimately, WWE represents the pinnacle of true sports entertainment, blending scripted and unscripted combat. At the center of this entire journey was Vince McMahon, a figure who repeatedly made decisions that defied conventional wisdom. His obsession and passion, though sometimes appearing irrational, were the driving force behind building the WWE empire.
