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Abstract

This study investigates the effects of professional wrestling on children. Elementary and middle school teachers (n = 370) were surveyed and asked to indicate 1) the popularity of professional wrestling among their students; 2) any “preconceived notions” they hold of students who are fans of professional wrestling; 3) their beliefs regarding the harmfulness of professional wrestling; and 4) the extent and specific nature of verbal and behavioral imitation attributable to professional wrestling observed in their students. Survey results combined with prior literature and research on marketing ethics raise questions about the appropriateness of professional wrestling as sport-entertainment for children.

The Effect of Professional Wrestling Viewership on Children
Introduction

In the last decade, professional wrestling, coined “sport-entertainment” by WWE owner Vince McMahon, has skyrocketed in popularity. It is broadcast to over 130 countries in twelve different languages, viewed by 34 million people in the United States, and industry revenues exceed $1 billion annually. Attendance for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) events, the industry leader in virtually every statistic (e.g., television ratings, live event attendance, licensing revenue), rose from 1.1 million people in 1997 to 2.5 million for the year 2000 (wweecorpbiz.com, 2001). While live event attendance has fallen a bit in the past two years, the WWE still drew 2.0 million attendees in 2002 (wwecorporate.com, 2003a). WWE’s flagship show, RAW on TNN is consistently the number one rated regularly scheduled cable television program, and the company’s other core show, SmackDown on UPN, is consistently one of the top rated sports programs (as categorized by Nielsen) on network television, both shows drawing combined weekly Nielsen ratings ranging from six to twelve over the last two years (tv.zap2it.com, 2003). Other more mainstream sports are losing coveted young viewers to the WWE. For example, 143% more males (and 73% of males and females combined) aged 12-17 watched the WWE’s Monday Night RAW compared to the 1999 NBA finals. Further, the WWE continually outperforms a large number of professional sporting events in key demographics, including the Major League Baseball playoffs, NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Monday Night Football (BW SportsWire, 1999).

Wrestling’s popularity has blossomed for two primary reasons. First, over a decade and a half ago, the WWE’s Vince McMahon liberated wrestling from the constrictions that came with being labeled a “legitimate” sport. Throughout much of the 20th century, professional wrestling was thought of as a legitimate sport contest, that being a contest in which the outcome is not predetermined. However, as the industry evolved, society began questioning the genuineness of match outcomes, feuds between wrestlers, and the like. The industry found itself performing a balancing act between desiring to be perceived as legitimate sport and desiring to entertain with involving and creative storylines. In essence, the quest to retain the perception of legitimacy necessarily restrained the ability of wrestling to present itself as creative “theatre”. McMahon, in a visionary move which angered many other promoters in the business who thought the move would destroy the industry, abandoned the presentation of wrestling as legitimate sport by publicly admitting that the outcome of pro wresting matches were predetermined. Rather than destroying the industry, however, it liberated it from the shackles of sport legitimacy. The WWE and other promoters were now free to entertain with wacky, funny, outrageous, entertaining camp. Fans did not care about the legitimacy, but rather, just wanted to be entertained. This newfound freedom allowed, quite simply, for increased entertainment, and the industry’s popularity grew.

The second reason behind pro wrestling’s growth is its successful target marketing. Pro wrestling, and in particular the WWE, actively and successfully targets the coveted male 18-34 year old demographic, a demographic with a large amount of disposable income. They do this by filling television programming and live events with ever-increasing amounts of sexual and violent content, content which is clearly attractive to a large number of young males. Recent WWE programming, for example, has included oral sex on a wrestler by a transvestite, attempted castration of a wrestler who is portrayed as a “porn star” wrestler, necrophilia by a wrestler named Triple H, baring of breasts in the ring by female “valets” (“divas” in WWE terminology) at live events, and use of sledgehammers, metal folding chairs, garbage cans, beds of thumbtacks spread over the ring, and even the proverbial kitchen sink during matches. Needless to say, blood is spilled liberally and regularly. WWE divas regularly wrestle in sexually-themed matches such as “bra and panties” matches (where the winner is the first to strip her opponent to her undergarments), and “paddle-on-a-pole” matches (where the winner is the diva who subdues her opponent long enough to climb a pole in the ring corner to retrieve a paddle placed on top, using it to then spank her opponent).

While the 18-34 year old male demographic is clearly targeted with and drawn to this programming content, the WWE also actively targets and attracts children. The WWE profits from licensing revenue stemming from wrestler-related toys and merchandise sold to children (total WWE licensing revenue was $101.5 million in 2002 (wwecorporate.com, 2003b)), advertising revenue from companies targeting children (including toy, video game, and food product companies such as Chef-Boy-R-Dee), and from children viewing and attending their live events. Indeed, the WWE promotes this fact to potential investors (the company is publicly traded on the NYSE) and advertisers on its web site, stating, for example, that WWE.com is the number one sport site and the number one entertainment site for males age 12-17. It also states that “our brand of entertainment appeals to a broad demographic audience, with WWE’s advertising focus being males 12 to 24” (wwecorporate.com, 2003b). WWE weekend morning programming has also targeted children and encourages children to tune in to the more violent and risqué Monday and Thursday night programs. In sum, the WWE intentionally and successfully targets two demographic segments, 18-34 year old males and children (primarily male children).

Purpose and Motivation

While some industry critics (such as the Parents Television Council, who, with partial success, encouraged an advertiser boycott of WWE programming) question the integrity of wrestling’s program content for any audience, this is not the intent of this work. This research seeks to examine the issues surrounding the fact that while the majority of pro wrestling’s audience is indeed the young male adult, a significant portion of its audience has been and remains children between the ages of two and 17. Wrestling indeed has ethical targeting issues which beg examination. By gearing content primarily toward attracting 18-34 year old males (i.e., significant violence and sexuality), yet also targeting and reaching children, is pro wrestling knowingly marketing a potentially harmful product toward children?

Sport and entertainment researchers have given relatively little attention to ethical questions such as those just described. Indeed, Laczniak, Burton, and Murphy (1999) note the dearth of attention given to ethical issues in sport marketing, and specifically, while significant attention has been given to ethical targeting issues in the general marketing literature (e.g., Rittenburg and Parthasarathy, 1997; Smith and Cooper-Martin, 1997), little research has addressed ethical targeting issues in sport. Rather, much sport marketing literature dealing with ethics tends to focus on ambush marketing (Meenaghan, 1996; O’Sullivan & Murphy, 1998; Sandler & Shani 1989). This is a gap that begs to be filled.

The specific purpose of the current study is to provide initial insight into the extent to which pro wrestling meets the generally accepted test for the extent to which a targeting strategy is deemed ethical. That is, to what extent are children a vulnerable target for professional wrestling, and to what extent does consumption of pro wrestling cause harm to children?

Prior literature suggests that pro wrestling, at least to some degree, meets the first criteria for unethical targeting, in that when the industry targets children, it targets a vulnerable segment. A vulnerable segment is defined as consumers who are more susceptible to economic, physical, or psychological harm because of characteristics that limit their ability to maximize their utility and well-being (Smith and Cooper-Martin, 1997). Related to the current issue, research has shown that because of limited life experience and cognitive abilities which are in the developmental stage, children are particularly vulnerable to learning from the messages of television (e.g., Dorr, 1986; Eron & Huesmann, 1987; Singer & Singer, 1988). Television teaches children cognitive scripts which influence their behavior, including their social interaction behavior. Cognitive scripts tend to be learned early in life, and serve as a guideline for future behavior (e.g., Huesmann, 1986). Regular consumption (viewing) of pro wrestling, then, has the power to teach children cognitive scripts such as how to handle conflict situations (violence is the norm in pro wrestling), and how to view the opposite sex (i.e., through watching wrestling, boys might learn to view girls primarily as sex objects). While children are particularly vulnerable to learning potentially harmful attitudinal and behavioral scripts from pro wrestling, we do not know the extent to which children act out these scripts. It is to this issue that the current data is addressed.

Method

Teacher ratings are commonly used to examine child behavior (e.g., Bates, Bayles, Bennet, Ridge, & Brown, 1991; Sawyer, Baghurst, & Mathias, 1992). As is the case in the current study, teacher ratings have been most often used in the assessment of externalizing disorders (e.g., outward aggression) as opposed to internalizing disorders (e.g., anxiety and depression), as these behaviors are relatively objective and lend themselves well to being observed and judged reliably by others (Epkins, 1993). Further, teacher ratings of aggression provide the most practical basis for any wide-scale screening, and have shown to be accurate. For example, teacher ratings of aggression in children in the same age group as the current study have been shown to accurately predict juvenile delinquency and violent offenses up to age 26 (Bates et al., 1991).

To explore the effects of pro wrestling viewership on aggression in children, a survey was mailed to 1,200 second through eighth grade teachers throughout a southeastern state. The sample was randomly drawn from a list of elementary and middle schools, both public and private, throughout the state. Teachers returned 370 usable surveys, for a response rate of 30.8%. Elementary teachers comprised 72.9% of the sample, 23.7% were middle school teachers, and 3.4% taught both elementary and middle school students. Females made up 84.8% of the sample, while 15.2% were male. The sample consisted of 22.8% of teachers in their 20’s, 26.5% in their 30’s, 32.1% in their 40’s, 18% in their 50’s, and 0.6% in their 60’s.

Teachers were asked four series of questions. The first series asked them indicate the popularity of pro wrestling among their students. The second series asked them to indicate any preconceived notions they might have about students whom they know to be fans of pro wrestling. The third series consisted of global questions asking teachers to indicate their attitude toward pro wrestling and their overall opinion regarding the extent of its harmfulness to children. The fourth series consisted of questions asking teachers to rate the extent to which their students imitate pro wrestling (wrestling moves, aggressive/vulgar language, aggressive/vulgar gestures, language or behaviors which carry sexual connotations). In order to avoid order effects on both the global attitude questions and the imitation items, the third and fourth series of questions were rotated, creating two versions of the survey which were pooled for analysis (n = 205 surveys with global items first; n = 165 surveys with global items last).

Results

Wrestling’s Popularity in the Schools

Just how popular is pro wrestling among children? The overwhelming majority of teachers (97%) indicated that they currently have or have had within the past four years students who watch pro wrestling on television. Further, teachers estimated that 45.08% of their current students are “fans of professional wrestling”, with middle school teachers giving a significantly higher estimate than elementary teachers (50.33% vs. 43.74%; t = 2.12; p = .035). Finally, teachers were asked if they have seen an increase, decrease, or no change in the number of their students who are fans of pro wrestling over the last four years. The past four years was used as this is essentially the time frame in which pro wrestling has exploded in popularity and significantly changed its program content to that described earlier. An overwhelming 80.8% of teachers responded that they have seen an increase in the number of students who are fans of pro wrestling, while 14.9% had seen no change. Only 4.2% of teachers have seen a decrease. These results clearly indicate that as the wrestling has ratcheted up the violent and sexual content over the last four years to attract and retain the male 18-34 year old demographic, increasing numbers of children are watching as well.

Preconceived Notions

In order to gain initial insight into both the attitudes of teachers toward pro wrestling and teacher observations of wrestling imitation by children, teachers were asked if they had any “preconceived notions” about what to expect out students whom they knew to be fans of pro wrestling. If such judgments existed, teachers were asked to describe them. QSR NUD·IST, a qualitative data analysis software package, was used to analyze these responses.

While the majority of teachers (75.3%) stated that they did not prejudge these students, nearly one-quarter (24.7%) of teachers stated that they did. Of those teachers who made such judgments, 54.8% used the term “violent” and/or “aggressive”. Example comments include:

• “It has been my experience with these students in the past that now causes me to expect more aggressive behavior and rougher play at recess. Students practice what they see at matches. The students also use inappropriate language that they have heard either while attending matches or watching them on TV.”
• “These students are more physically active and aggressive in the classroom and at recess.”
• “They generally get in trouble more. They are loud and somewhat aggressive. They are tired due to staying up too late watching wrestling (author’s note: WWE’s two main programs air 9-11 pm and 8-10 pm, both on weeknights). They are usually not at the top of the class grade-wise.”

Another prejudgment which repeatedly arose was that students who are fans of pro wrestling would be “rebellious” and/or “discipline problems” (mentioned by 22.6% of the teachers making judgments). For example:

• “I expect them to be more active and to have more difficulty following rules, especially where roughness is concerned.”
• “The students tend to misbehave, are very loud and boisterous, often times rebellious and want to play by hitting or acting out what the wrestlers do.”

While not as common as the aforementioned judgments, 14.3% of teachers making judgments had expectations for relatively poor academic performance, while 11.9% had expectations of inappropriate language.

Teacher Attitude Toward Pro Wrestling

Teacher attitude toward pro wrestling was directly assessed by asking them to indicate the extent of their agreement with the global statement “I like professional wrestling” on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). Overall, teachers indicated a strong dislike toward pro wrestling (M = 1.7). While this measure indicates a strong dislike, it does not necessarily indicate that teachers find pro wrestling harmful to children. Three additional questions were asked in order to assess this. After the global attitude question, teachers were asked to indicate the extent to which they believe that viewing television violence negatively affects the behavior of children (1 = not at all; 7 = a great amount). Teachers indicated a strong belief that viewing television violence has a negative behavioral effect (M = 5.99). Teachers were then asked to indicate how harmful they believe pro wrestling to be to the behavioral tendencies/development of the children who are fans (1 = not at all harmful; 7 = very harmful). Teachers indicated a general belief that pro wrestling is indeed harmful (M = 5.59). Comparing the mean to the midpoint of the scale indicates that it is significantly higher (t = 22.77; p < .000). The third global question asked teachers, “Compared to other forms of entertainment and television programming, how would you rank pro wrestling in terms of harmful effects on children’s development?” (1 = least harmful; 7 = most harmful). Teachers indicated that it was relatively harmful compared to other forms of entertainment and television programming, rating it significantly higher than the midpoint (M = 5.54; t = 22.88; p < .000). Strikingly, 8.8% of the sample responded that there were no forms of entertainment or television programming more harmful to a child’s development than pro wrestling. In sum, results indicate that in teachers’ experience, professional wrestling is a negative influence on the children who are fans of it.

Imitation of Pro Wrestling Programming Content

The fourth series of questions asked teachers to indicate the extent to which their students engaged in various forms of pro wrestling imitation. Teachers were asked to indicate the overall extent to which their students who are fans of pro wrestling imitate what they see and hear on pro wrestling (1 = not at all imitative; 7 = very imitative). The mean was significantly higher than the scale midpoint (M = 4.96; t = 10.80; p < .000), suggesting a considerable degree of imitative behavior is observed by teachers. Interestingly, in response to this item, elementary school teachers reported more imitation (5.07) than did middle school teachers (4.55) (t = 2.41; p = .016). Teachers were also asked to indicate whether they have seen an increase, decrease, or no change in the amount of wrestling imitation over the last four years. Over one-half (59.2%) of teachers saw an increase, 35.2% saw no change, and only 4.9% indicated a decrease. The specific type of imitation in which children engaged was then explored in more detail. On a five-point scale (1 = not at all, 2 = sometimes but not often, 3 = somewhat often, 4 = often, 5 = very often) teachers were asked to indicate the extent to which they observe each of the following:

• imitation of wrestling moves and/or other aggressive wrestling behaviors
• injuries as a result of the imitation of wrestling moves and/or other aggressive wrestling behaviors
• imitation of aggressive and/or vulgar language specifically attributable to wrestling viewership
• imitation of aggressive and/or vulgar gestures specifically attributable to wrestling viewership
• imitation of language, gestures, or other behaviors specifically attributable to wrestling that carry sexual connotations

After each of the above items, teachers were asked to describe, in open-ended format, the specific imitation observed. QSR NUD·IST was again used to analyze this data. In the analysis of these responses, it was important to recognize only those teacher accounts of imitation which are attributable to pro wrestling. In order to achieve this, the responses were separately coded by the principal researcher and an assistant, both of whom are familiar with wrestling programming content. Minimal differences in coding were resolved through discussion.

Imitation of Wrestling Moves and Resulting Injury

With respect to the imitation of wrestling moves and/or other aggressive wrestling behaviors, teachers indicated imitation between “somewhat often” and “often” (M = 3.41), with no significant difference between elementary and middle school. Over one-quarter of the teachers, 28.1%, mentioned observing some form of “body slams”, while nearly one quarter, 23.5%, mentioned hitting or kicking. Many wrestlers have been killed or paralyzed as the result of missed moves (moves which are not executed properly) involving the neck, such as the “clothesline” (where a wrestler slings another wrestler off of the ropes and hits them in the neck with his arm as the wrestler comes off of the ropes), or “piledriver” where a wrestler essentially drives the head of another wrestler, who is in a vertical position, straight into the mat. Indeed, there have been many cases of children killed imitating such moves, including several recent cases (e.g., Clary, 2001; Davis, 1999). Over one-fifth (20.9%) of teachers mentioned observing wrestling imitation involving the neck, these being direct mentions of the words regularly used in wrestling such as “clotheslines” or “chokeholds”, “pedigree”, or “piledriver”. Teachers’ use of industry-specific terms such as these suggests that their attributing this physical activity specifically to wrestling imitation has a significant degree of accuracy. Other significant mentions included headlocks (8.1% of teachers) and moves involving students jumping off of some raised apparatus (desks and jungle gyms often mentioned) onto other students (6.8% of teachers), another regular occurrence in wrestling matches.

Teachers were asked to indicate whether they have observed students involved in wrestling imitation suffer injury as the result of the imitation. While 57.9% of teachers indicated no injury resulting from observed imitation, the fact that 42.1% of teachers did indicate some injury suggests that physical harm as a result of such imitation is occasionally realized. Of those teachers who reported injuries, the most common were small injuries such as bruises, cuts/scrapes (74.4% of teachers), injuries to head or neck (24.1% of teachers), muscle injuries such as sprains/strains (10% of teachers), and broken bones (5.7% of teachers).

Imitation of Aggressive/Vulgar Language

With respect to the use of aggressive and/or vulgar language while imitating wrestling characters/programming, teachers indicated imitation between “sometimes but not often” and “somewhat often” (M = 2.64), with no significant difference between elementary and middle school. The most commonly imitated language included “suck it”, the catch-phrase of the (now defunct) group of wrestlers known as “Degeneration X”. One-quarter (25.1%) of teachers mentioned that students commonly use this “command”, often with the accompanying gesture (arms crossed to form an X and moved repeatedly toward the pelvis as one thrusts his hips). Regular use of the term “ass” was mentioned by 10.3% of teachers, including references to the wrestler “Bad Ass Billy Gunn”, and use of the wrestler “The Rock’s” phrase “I’m going to whip your candy ass”. Other phrases were used by students when imitating the wrestler “Stone Cold Steve Austin”, according to 7.3% of the teachers. Such phrases include calling other students “son-of-a bitch” and “give me a ‘hell yeah’”. Other responses to this question were discarded as they could not be linked with confidence directly to wrestling programming.

Imitation of Aggressive/Vulgar Gestures

Use of aggressive/vulgar gestures directly attributable to imitation of wrestling occurred between sometimes but not often and somewhat often, according to teachers (M = 2.53). The “Degeneration X” gesture described in the previous section was mentioned by 31.9% of the teachers. Stone Cold Steve Austin’s signature raised middle finger was mentioned by 27.8% of the teachers. It should be noted that some of WWE’s most popular merchandise revolves around Austin’s signature gesture, including a large foam hand with the middle finger raised and t-shirts bearing the gesture. No other gestures were given significant mention by the teachers.

Imitation of Language, Gestures, or Behavior Carrying Sexual Connotations

As described earlier, the sexual content of wrestling programming has increased dramatically in the last several years. Female characters are “scantily clad” and their use in the storylines often revolves around activities with sexual connotations (e.g., the diva matches described earlier). Television’s place in social learning and the formation of cognitive scripts suggests that children’s regular viewing of females in this setting could contribute to the formation of harmful gender stereotypes and sex roles (e.g., Honig, 1983). Teachers in the current study indicate that they observe imitation carrying sexual connotations “sometimes, but not often” (M = 1.94). When asked to describe such imitation, teachers primarily described how male students would use the Degeneration X “suck it” phrase and the accompanying gesture on female classmates (15.7% of teachers). To a smaller extent, teachers also indicated that male students would imitate the wrestler called “The Godfather” who’s character at the time of data collection was a pimp accompanied to the ring by scantily clad women referred to as the “’Ho Train”. In imitating this wrestler, male students would refer to a female student as his ‘Ho. Male students were also said to use one of The Godfather’s catch phrases, “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy”. Other imitative language/behaviors were mentioned, but not able to be attributed solely to wrestling programming and therefore not discussed. Results do indicate, however, that imitation carrying sexual connotations and perhaps contributing to negative cognitive scripts in these children (i.e., teaching them that this is the way men are supposed to act toward/view women) is occurring to some degree among children.

Likely Models: Which Wrestlers Are Most Attractive

Prior research has shown that the relationship between televised violence and viewer aggression is strengthened when those committing the violent acts on television are perceived as attractive (Huesmann & Eron, 1986; NTVS, 1997). Therefore, it is proposed that those wrestlers which children find attractive, “cool”, and/or identify with will be those on the programming most likely to contribute to their cognitive scripts. In order to gain insight into this, teachers were asked to indicate the names of all of the wrestlers that they had heard their students mention. Overwhelmingly, the most popular wrestler among children appears to be “Stone Cold Steve Austin” (mentioned by 61.4% of teachers). His character is one whose popularity stems from a take no prisoners, trust no one, rebel against authority (his main on-screen nemesis at the time of the study was Vince McMahon, the WWE owner) attitude. As previously mentioned, his language and gestures are coarse. Certainly, learning and imitation of his language and gestures by children go against injunctive societal norms. As one teacher states:

• “I think that wrestling emulates things that we work hard to remove from the school environment. I understand that usually the good guy prevails, but before he prevails, he has to be run into the ground. The bad guy seems to gain all of the popularity. Characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin are such. He shows no respect for authority, values, or trust. The attitude is ‘I will get what I want at your expense’. Where does this take us?”

The WWE, however, profits enormously from the sale of licensed merchandise to children bearing the name, likeness, gestures, and sayings (one top-seller is a t-shirt bearing the phrase “Austin 3:16 says I Just Whipped Your Ass”) of wrestlers like Austin. Other wrestlers receiving significant mention included “The Rock” (34%), “Goldberg” (24%), “The Undertaker” (20%), “Hulk Hogan” (14.3%), and the aforementioned “Degeneration X” (13.5%). While each character will not be discussed, results indicate that given the makeup of the characters (e.g., Austin, Degeneration X), many of those that children perceive as most attractive have potential to contribute negatively to the cognitive scripts of these children.

Discussion

This research has provided initial insight into the ethical implications of professional wrestling’s targeting of children. It has sought to examine the issue of whether wrestling, through increasing product attractiveness to and actively targeting the male 18-34 year old demographic, has put a potentially harmful product in the path of a vulnerable market segment, that being children. Social contract theory states that corporations exist only through the cooperation and commitment of society, and therefore there exists a social contract for business that provides corporate legitimacy on the basis of the consent of those affected by the business (Dunfee, Smith, & Ross, 1999). Relative to this ethical theory, pro wrestling and society hold each other responsible for the condition of their mutual existence. If this theory holds, and corporate legitimacy is provided by the consent of those affected by the business, society must critically examine the effect of professional wrestling and other forms of sport entertainment marketed to its children. Results of this initial exploration suggest that, according to elementary and middle school teacher accounts, professional wrestling does indeed have negative consequences in terms of physical, verbal, and attitudinal imitation by children who are regular viewers of its programming.

It should be noted that any discussion of ethics risks being perceived as normative or judgmental in tone. Indeed, the Code of Ethics of the American Marketing Association (AMA) provides what many would consider a purely normative directive by stating that marketers should not do harm knowingly, and should offer products and services that are safe and fit for their intended uses. Further, as much of the marketing literature that addresses ethical targeting issues deals primarily with assessing product harm and a target population’s vulnerability to the marketing message and product (Rittenburg and Parthasarathy, 1997; Smith and Cooper-Martin, 1997), assessing and commenting on product harm and consumer vulnerability most often contains at least some degree of perceived normative judgment. However, the importance of ethics from a non-normative, solely business standpoint cannot be ignored. As an example, consider Kotler’s (1997) “societal marketing concept”, which states that organizations should build social and ethical considerations into their marketing practices, acting in the best long-term interests of society. Since ethical judgments are made by consumers, Kotler claims, this in turn should have a long-run positive impact on the success of an organization as consumers will accept or reject an organization’s product(s) based in part on these ethical judgments. Indeed, this can be seen in several areas of sport, such as public rejection of athletes who are perceived to have engaged in unethical acts, or negative public reaction to perceived unethical acts by sporting good manufacturers (e.g., Nike labor practices). Sports marketers, including sport entertainment marketers such as the WWE, must not lose sight of the relationship between engaging in ethical practices and financial success, and, in terms of Laczniak, Burton, and Murphy (1999), they should begin to examine current practices in light of ethical considerations in order to justify, modify, or eliminate them where necessary. It is to this end that the examination of pro wrestling’s targeting of children was carried out.

Finally, Laczniak and Murphy (1993, 1999) suggests a series of tests to use in evaluating the ethics of marketing practices, including practices of firms in the sport and entertainment industry. Two of these tests directly apply to the current issue. The “consequences test” asks “Is it likely that any major damages to people or organizations will result from the contemplated action?” The “justice test” asks “Does the proposed action leave another person or group less well off?”, and “Is this person a group already a member of a relatively underprivileged class?” If the term underprivileged class is expanded to include “vulnerable class/market segment”, which is in the spirit and intent of the justice test, it could be argued that professional wrestling industry performs questionably on both tests.

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Contact Information:
Matthew J. Bernthal
Assistant Professor of Sport and Entertainment Management
Department of Sport and Entertainment Management
College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
Office Phone: (803) 777-4579
Home Phone: (803) 732-1405
Fax: (803) 777-8788
E-mail: bernthal@gwm.sc.edu