Exposing The Biggest WWE Lie Ever Told
There are two primary reasons. One is cynical; the other is actually understandable. Firstly, WWE does this because it allows itself to feel like the biggest promotion ever in the mind of the public - which it is. There is no debating that. WWE is not the oldest promotion: that is CMLL. WWE may not have set the record for the largest paid attendance; 1933 might exceed 1987. In terms of televised audience, a 1977 tag match pitting Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta against Kim Duk and Kintaro Oki, held in South Korea, drew an 88.0 audience share. 31.7 million viewers watched in a nation with a then-population of 36.4 million. WWE has come nowhere near close to that incredible figure, not even for Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper or Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant’s biggest TV matches. On the subject of Hogan, WWE has never contracted the biggest mainstream name to have emerged from pro wrestling; that would be El Santo.
But on balance, factoring every metric over the long-term - certainly in terms of revenue - WWE is the dance, the grandest stage, the recognised global leader in sports entertainment. This messaging fuels everything.
This rhetoric is partly why, in recent years, several AEW wrestlers have traded critical acclaim and even comparable or higher annual salaries to make the jump to WWE. As Mariah May, Mariah Mead was the antagonist of what many critics and fans consider one of the very wrestling storylines of the 21st century: her obsession with and betrayal of Toni Storm, an incredible saga that culminated in the ultraviolent ‘Hollywood Ending’ of AEW Revolution 2025. As Blake Monroe, Mead has fared…less well in WWE. But she went there anyway, because WWE is WWE. Triple H does not care that he makes a fool of himself with this message to those with even shallow knowledge of wrestling history, because the messaging works. The second, understandable reason is that wrestling is considered a laughing stock by those who do not get it.
It doesn’t matter how many accurate analogies that you, as a wrestling fan, might use to defend your hobby of choice. You can point out that the plot of almost every Hollywood blockbuster is farcical and could not possibly be “real”. You can mention that entire genres of fiction are not real, like science fiction and fantasy. You can even say that actual athletes in football are playing a role, in a way, in that they’ll kiss the club badge and feign passion, but walk to Real Madrid barefoot if they could sign there. It doesn’t matter. There’s something about pro wrestling specifically that carries a stigma that the vast majority of people on this planet cannot look beyond.
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