While some legitimate research has shown WWE programming skews towards lower-income and less-educated viewers, the fact is that often doesn't even get taken account by people who don't think the fans think it's real have low opinions of wrestling fans. The rates for advertising on pro wrestling shows are about half that of shows with comparable viewership. For years, TV networks have tried to find the right lead-out for wrestling shows to retain the audience and get ad rates in line with what they're actually worth. Meaning that pro wrestling fans are only low rent when they're watching wrestling. Yes, they try to get the same people to watch the other shows. Not only does that mean that their reasoning is kind of BS, but they also try to win fans over with portrayals of wrestling fans as idiots, like The Mullets. This show featured a bunch of dumb, backwoods wrestling fans, but was meant to appeal to wrestling fans and launched after an abbreviated episode of SmackDown. It was a clearly negative appeal to wrestling fans.
Formerly the site manager of Cageside Seats and the WWE Team Leader at Bleacher Report, David Bixenspan has been writing professionally about WWE, UFC, and other pop culture since 2009. He's currently WhatCulture's U.S. Editor and also serves as the lead writer of Figure Four Weekly and a monthly contributor to Fighting Spirit Magazine.
