My WWE Study

[AJ]

Hi John,

I thought you might like to read the study I wrote about WWE. I'm still a big WWE fan today but think that the WWE was better when targeted towards a family audience, however I enjoyed WWE during the 'Attitude era' and got me more interested in wrestling again.

I would be interested in your thoughts and what you think is good/bad about the study. I hope to write another one in the future so any advice/suggestions would be very appreciated.

Here's the study (you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it):

www.geocities.com/wrestlingworldwide2003/WWEStudy.pdf

Also other Wrestle Crap forum members are welcome to read it too and any critiques, advice, opinions and suggestions would be appreciated so I can write a better study in the future.

Thanks

[fuzzywarble, squat cobbler]

Is this for a thesis? If so, it was very well-done! I don't recall this kind of topic ever being covered in a thesis.

My only complaint was the small sample size...10 people? This makes the reliability suffer a bit. The standard error increases big time when the sample size is this small.

I think it could have been improved by having at least 100 respondents.

I dont' want you to think that I"m being a smart-ass. I got my master's degree in Psych, and I had a strong concentration in Research Methodology.

Once again, though, I think you did a great job.

[AJ]

Vote said:

Is this for a thesis? If so, it was very well-done! I don't recall this kind of topic ever being covered in a thesis.

My only complaint was the small sample size...10 people? This makes the reliability suffer a bit. The standard error increases big time when the sample size is this small.

I think it could have been improved by having at least 100 respondents.

I dont' want you to think that I"m being a smart-ass. I got my master's degree in Psych, and I had a strong concentration in Research Methodology.

Once again, though, I think you did a great job.

Thank You. It was Dissertation for my BA(Hons) Business Management with Marketing degree.

As for respondent's, I basically had to re-write my dissertation in 2 months as the original was going no where really, so I used the information I collected and I chose another topic which was looking at the marketing of WWE towards children and teenagers. Therefore the respondent level was smaller.

I hope to write another study in the future so will ask a larger amount of people next time. Thanks again for your positive comments.

[Earthquake-GEAUX LSU TIGERS]

That's funny, it looks an awful lot like a report I wrote in high school! Just kidding!I just took a glimpse and it looks very impressive, but I'll have to take a look when I have more time.
'Quake

[MolotovMocktail]

Interesting, but I have to question what constitutes "inappropriate" content (ie how is an Austin shirt that just has the skull and rattlesnake inappropriate? Or considers the Dudleyz shirt as blasphemous because it says "Thou shalt" without making any other actual reference to God).

Which 2 employees were accused of sexual misconduct in 1992?

[romafan87]

A guess but Pat Patterson is probably one and my other guess is Terry Garvin...

I could be wrong though.

-Ian

[AJ]

That's funny, it looks an awful lot like a report I wrote in high school! Just kidding!

;D

I just took a glimpse and it looks very impressive, but I'll have to take a look when I have more time.
'Quake

Many thanks for reading John.

[AJ]

Interesting, but I have to question what constitutes "inappropriate" content (ie how is an Austin shirt that just has the skull and rattlesnake inappropriate? Or considers the Dudleyz shirt as blasphemous because it says "Thou shalt" without making any other actual reference to God).

Because the Austin character is an anti-social, anti-authority character and also the imagery on the shirt can be deemed inappropriate.

The Dudleyz shirt is a very difficult topic to analyse, I believe they did a blasphemous promo in ECW (if I remember correctly) and the 'Thou Shalt...' is an in-direct reference to the 10 commandments, so in that sense it's blasphemous.

Again it was difficult to be un-biased as I'm a huge wrestling fan but looked at all the content I analysed from a different perspective which gave me a greater understanding of what I was investigating.

Which 2 employees were accused of sexual misconduct in 1992?

Pat Patterson and Terry Garvin.

[MolotovMocktail]

Also, for inappropriate characters, I'm surprised nobody mentioned Eddie Guerrero, a face whose entire gimmick is based on lying, cheating, and stealing (unless this was done before he came back).

As a psychology major myself, I do find several problems with Gantz's study. First, his survey was only 10 people, and only 6 responded. As someone pointed out before, that is not a representative sample. Also, he uses a lot of correlational examples and seems to confuse it with wrestling causing violent behavior. He and the PTC also neglected to mention or incorrectly denied that while wrestling was very popular, the youth crime rate was decreasing every year.

Another aspect you can later look at in future studies is whether WWE actually causes violent behavior. You did point out that it's an individual judgment call for parents to let their kids watch, but if we can prove that wrestling doesn't actually induce anti-social behavior, there should be no reason to worry.

[Mad Johnny Maxx]

Oh man...let's not get started on the PTC.

I was a big supporter of this anti-PTC movement that I was involved in several years ago that was online.

It was run by a fellow named Bob Magee, and a bunch of us worked our butts off to try to convince the advertisers that were pulling their money off of Smackdown and/or Raw that what they were doing and telling them just what exactly this L. Brent Bozell guy was like.

This guy was just using ANY sort of information, no matter how miniscule or rediculous it was, to lambaste the WWE and make them look bad...and further entice the advertisers to yank their ads off of WWE programming.

They were taking the case of that boy who powerbombed that little Tiffany girl into a wooden table and killed her...and they used that story against the WWE on several different occasions...and actually had the F***ING AUDACITY to tell these advertisers that if they continued to advertise with the WWE, that they would PERSONALLY HOLD THEM RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MORE DEATHS OF CHILDREN THAT OCCURED DUE TO WRESTLING MOVES!![/i] Nice foul odor of pseudo-McCarthyism...right?

(Edit note: I wasn't able to view this thing until after I sent this post the first time, but it appears that said case is mentioned in the report)

So yeah, that was a fun run while that lasted...my first taste of any kind of activism...but man that Bozell guy was a few cans shy of a six pack...I wonder if he still is to this day.

[Schemer]

I had thought about writing a comprehensive book about the WWF from 1985-1993, but I lacked time to do it.

The paper was very well done... Who knows, maybe when I have more time, I'll go back to writing my analysis.

[MolotovMocktail]

I visit the PTC site on occasion to see what they're up to...mostly whining about the FCC not doing their jobs and letting too much indecency slide.

[AJ]

Thanks everyone for reading.

Also, for inappropriate characters, I'm surprised nobody mentioned Eddie Guerrero, a face whose entire gimmick is based on lying, cheating, and stealing (unless this was done before he came back).

As a psychology major myself, I do find several problems with Gantz's study. First, his survey was only 10 people, and only 6 responded. As someone pointed out before, that is not a representative sample. Also, he uses a lot of correlational examples and seems to confuse it with wrestling causing violent behavior. He and the PTC also neglected to mention or incorrectly denied that while wrestling was very popular, the youth crime rate was decreasing every year.

Another aspect you can later look at in future studies is whether WWE actually causes violent behavior. You did point out that it's an individual judgment call for parents to let their kids watch, but if we can prove that wrestling doesn't actually induce anti-social behavior, there should be no reason to worry.

Some interesting points noted here and when I decide to write another study in the future I will try and look at all aspects of WWE's product and whether WWE does in fact cause violent behavior. Does this depend on the individual is another question but if a child, even a teenager see's wrestlers hitting each other with chairs etc. does it make them want to hurt their friends/family members, espically younger siblings?. Personally I think children shouldn't watch alone, and should be monitored not only watching wrestling but other content which can be classified as 'questionable'.

[AJ]

MadJohnnyMaxx said:

Oh man...let's not get started on the PTC.

I was a big supporter of this anti-PTC movement that I was involved in several years ago that was online.

It was run by a fellow named Bob Magee, and a bunch of us worked our butts off to try to convince the advertisers that were pulling their money off of Smackdown and/or Raw that what they were doing and telling them just what exactly this L. Brent Bozell guy was like.

This guy was just using ANY sort of information, no matter how miniscule or rediculous it was, to lambaste the WWE and make them look bad...and further entice the advertisers to yank their ads off of WWE programming.

They were taking the case of that boy who powerbombed that little Tiffany girl into a wooden table and killed her...and they used that story against the WWE on several different occasions...and actually had the F***ING AUDACITY to tell these advertisers that if they continued to advertise with the WWE, that they would PERSONALLY HOLD THEM RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MORE DEATHS OF CHILDREN THAT OCCURED DUE TO WRESTLING MOVES!!

[/i] Nice foul odor of pseudo-McCarthyism...right?

(Edit note: I wasn't able to view this thing until after I sent this post the first time, but it appears that said case is mentioned in the report)

So yeah, that was a fun run while that lasted...my first taste of any kind of activism...but man that Bozell guy was a few cans shy of a six pack...I wonder if he still is to this day.[/quote]

I remember a website which was a wrestling fans against censorship/PTC etc. site not sure if it's still online, I think it's listed in the bibliography of my study.

The same question always is asked I believe when wrestling is ever questioned by the media and lobbyist groups like the PTC...should children watch wrestling?, should wrestlers view wrestlers as role models, in some cases wrestlers are great role models, wrestlers like Hulk Hogan in the 80's for example who stood for very moralistic values and wrestlers who work hard to achieve their goals despite facing personal problems such as Eddie Guerrero, however his 'lie, cheat, steal' gimmick is not something any parent would want their child to emulate.

So it's questionable what wrestlers parents should let children view as role models. Wrestlers like Stone Cold despite being hugely popular amongst the 18-34 male demographic isn't really a suitable role model due to his anti-authority, anti-social nature etc.

A very interesting study would be on ECW, however, to my knowledge they didn't really have an audience which consisted of children or younger teenagers and was mostly for adults.

[AJ]

ECWFan said:

Some interesting points noted here and when I decide to write another study in the future I will try and look at all aspects of WWE's product and whether WWE does in fact cause violent behavior. Does this depend on the individual is another question but if a child, even a teenager see's wrestlers hitting each other with chairs etc. does it make them want to hurt their friends/family members, espically younger siblings?. Personally I think children shouldn't watch alone, and should be monitored not only watching wrestling but other content which can be classified as 'questionable'.

[AJ]

mrcynic said:

I had thought about writing a comprehensive book about the WWF from 1985-1993, but I lacked time to do it.

The paper was very well done... Who knows, maybe when I have more time, I'll go back to writing my analysis.

I'd like to read a detailed book on the WWF, I would find it very interesting and would have been of great use whilst writing my study. I'm sure alot of WWF fans such as myself would find a book on WWF very interesting, perhaps you could post an excerpt of your writing so far.

[AJ]

MolotovMocktail said:

I visit the PTC site on occasion to see what they're up to...mostly whining about the FCC not doing their jobs and letting too much indecency slide.

I did visit the PTC site quite alot whilst writing my study, couldn't find their study on 'Smackdown' though which was interesting as they used that as one of their main sources of criticism towards WWE, perhaps someone has a link for it?.

[AJ]

Apologies everyone for the number of posts but I wanted to answer everyone individually.

Again, many thanks to everyone for reading my study, it's very appreciated and I am very pleased with everyone's positive comments.

As I said I hope to write a much more detailed study in future so your comments have been very helpful in terms of what topic(s) to look into with more detail.

[Mad Johnny Maxx]

Yeah, I just did some looking and I found the website you were talking about, ECWFan.

That's pretty much where we ended up after ptcsucks.com and ptcsucks.org all went belly up.

For those of you who have quite some time to kill and wish to read up on what all went down during this time, give the site a look over.

wfac2002.tripod.com/

I don't remember this being around, but I guess it has pretty much all the same things the board I remember had. That and the original link doesn't work anymore, so this is about the best I could do.

[MolotovMocktail]

The PTC took down the anti-wrestling stuff when the WWE slapped the lawsuit on them.

You do make some good points. Still, I started watching wrestling when I was about 7, quit when I was about 11, and picked up again when I was about 16. Wrestling was different as far as there was no sexual content or profanity, but the violence was every bit the same, as your study pointed out (Jake being blinded, Marty going through the window, Boss Man being brutalized with the nightstick and being electrocuted by the Mountie, etc). Still, we didn't really emulate what we saw on TV, except for light roughhousing, and when kids would make fun of me, the words of Piper and Flair did equip me with some great comebacks. Hinting that kids would want to seriously injure each other after watching wrestling is taking it a little too far, at worst they may play-fight, which is entirely different and for the most part harmless.

One source you may want to check out is the book Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super-Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence by Gerard Jones. He argues why violent, anti-social entertainment like WWE may actually be good for kids:

We've found that every aspect of even the trashiest pop-culture story can have its own developmental function. Pretending to have superhuman powers helps children conquer the feelings of powerlessness that inevitably come with being so young and small. The dual-identity concept at the heart of many superhero stories helps kids negotiate the conflicts between the inner self and the public self as they work through the early stages of socialization. Identification with a rebellious, even destructive, hero helps children learn to push back against a modern culture that cultivates fear and teaches dependency.