WWE: 5 Ways Sports Entertainment Has Influenced Sports & TV

2. Crossovers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SI6CibgbxM Almost every broadcast, at one point or another the cameras will pan to the throng of fans in attendance and invariably, usually near the front rows, there will be sitting one if not several celebrities or professional athletes taking in the night's festivities. Celebrity appearances and involvement have long been a hallmark of wrestling. How often while watching a football or basketball game do we hear the commentators say something about another player "bodyslamming" an opponent "like in the WWE," and sometimes still referred to as the WWF? Even on ESPN and Sports Center, the guys will make a connection. Jonathan Coachman and Todd Grisham, now ESPN anchors, were both long time backstage reporters/commentators for WWE. Professional athletes have made the jump from their sport to professional wrestling. In WCW NFL stars Steve 'Mongo' McMichael, Kevin Greene and Bill Goldberg. From the NBA came Dennis Rodman (as noted above) and Karl Malone. Rodman and Malone even took it onto the court with them during the NBA Finals between the Bulls and Jazz. UFC fighters including Shamrock, Tank Abbott and Dan "The Beast" Severn made the jump into the professional wrestling world. When Mike Tyson made his WWE debut in early 1998, it was one of the most talked about and watched moments in cable television history and on seemingly ever major news broadcast almost immediately after Tyson and Steve Austin tangled. The professional wrestling industry would further push the envelope when the same attention was paid to Jay Leno when he took part in WCW's affairs later that year in August.