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Two Subcultures, A Bit Of Testosterone And A Mass Of Rowdy Followers
By Tom Robinette
Sunday nights are not typical for Kent State students to spend their time and money inside bars. But on one November night at BW-3's in downtown Kent, there wasn't an empty seat in the place. Not at the bar. Not in the dining area. Not anywhere. But there were plenty of hard-core professional wrestling fans. The crowd included men and women. Some were decked out in wrestling gear, and some not. Some were yelling and cheering, and some not. But all had gathered to watch World Championship Wrestling's World War 3 Pay Per View event broadcast on BW-3's big-screen televisions.
Monday night at Kent State is when loyal wrestling fans gather in bars, dorm rooms and apartments to watch the body slams and drop kicks delivered by their favorite wrestlers. Not only are students supporting wrestling, they are also flaunting it. James Hamilton, a junior zoology major, remembers having a mural of wrestlers painted on the wall of his dorm. "When I lived in Clark Hall, the guys down the hall from me painted three wrestlers on the wall outside their room," Hamilton says. "They were big fans, I guess." Undeclared freshman Erik Allen hasn't painted his dorm but is a fan of that caliber. And he's proud of it. A proud wrestling fan was hard to find about five years ago when the sport experienced a popularity slump. But now, wrestling's ratings are consistently at the top of the cable charts, and the fans are coming out of hiding like a wrestler leaping from the top ropes. SCOOPS, the popular authority on professional wrestling on the Internet at www.scoopscentral.com, reported that Showtime Event Television Pay Per View has figures validating wrestling's popularity surge. SET Pay Per View shows that wrestling climbed from $140 million in 1997 to an estimated $178 million in Pay Per View revenue in 1998, a 27 percent increase. This boost in viewership has lots of fans excitedly declaring their allegiance to wrestling. "I like wrestling, and I'm not ashamed to say it," Allen says. "People will say, 'Why do you watch that stuff? It's all fake.' But they don't understand the entertainment part. If you ask them what they like, they'll say they watch a certain sitcom. But that's basically fake, too. Wrestling's just entertainment in its own sense." Allen is right about one thing. There are still plenty of wrestling doubters. Cathy Zgrabik, a freshman education major, questions wrestling's legitimacy as a sport but admits to watching occasionally.
"It's pretty much like a soap opera type thing," Sutton says. "They always have things change. People hate each other. People like each other. People gang up on each other. And there's always something like backstabbing going on." A one-time Hulkamaniac, Sutton is discovering the growing popularity of the sport and has found a new favorite. "My all-time favorite wrestler used to be Hulk Hogan," Sutton says. "Now I like 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin because he breaks all the rules. He's ruthless. He doesn't care about anything. If someone tells him no, and he doesn't like it, then he'll just do what he wants." But those are the least of Austin's bad habits. "He flicks people off," Sutton says. "He drinks beer on TV. I think he's a strong wrestler, too. He manhandles people." What happened to the days of wrestling when the most offensive thing the wrestlers did was try to act? The competition between the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling, the sport's two heavyweights, has forced the organizations to push the envelope of cable TV standards, resulting in lots of bleeped-out foul language and gestures. Allen has a simple theory to explain wrestling's reach toward an older audience. "It's part of the evolution of wrestling," Allen says. "It used to be just people wrestling, and who's the champion next, but now it's kind of rated 'R' almost. I'd recommend WCW for younger viewers, but for WWF, you'd have to watch it with them." Sutton believes wrestling's attitude adjustment is a result of the sport growing with its fans. Sutton says people who were big fans of wrestling during its last popularity surge in the early '80s are now at the college level and demand something more extreme. "It has to do with that age of the fans and how they're growing up," Sutton says. "They just can't let go of it."
To be more precise, the sport is being bear hugged with popularity. It's even become a top fashion trend on campus. Wrestling's college-culture impact is so wide that students can be seen sporting T-shirts, bandannas and hats displaying wrestling logos and phrases as they walk to class looking like wrestlers approaching the ring. Downtown businesses such as Tela Ropa II sell T-shirts, and even the Student Center Bookstore sells wrestling magazines and magnets. Sutton acknowledges wrestling's push for mass marketability with countless merchandise items as a competitive tactic between the two main organizations. But he says fans display their favorite wrestlers' iconic clothing to show support. "They're showing who they like, and what their interests are in wrestling," Sutton says. "It's basically for show." Sutton says the fashion inspiration comes from the wrestlers themselves. "A lot of it has to do with what the wrestlers wear on TV," Sutton says. "I've seen 'Stone Cold' wear some 'Wanna raise some hell?' and 'Hell, yeah' T-shirts. Hell, everybody and their mother has got one of those T-shirts. Everybody's got the Wolfpack T-shirt with the red wolf on it." Hamilton admits to having dressed up as Konnan, a wrestler formerly of the New World Order - a group of wrestlers within WCW - for Halloween. "I went as Konnan for the hell of it," Hamilton says. "It was fun, and I think my costume looked pretty good. I saw some other people downtown dressed like wrestlers, too." Wrestling fans express themselves verbally, too. Several wrestlers have catch phrases that have been embedded into the vocabularies of many wrestling fans. A commonly heard phrase around campus is "Suck it," a taunt popularized by the WWF's Degeneration X. Another favorite phrase that belongs to the WWF's "Stone Cold" Steve Austin is "Can I get a 'hell, yeah?'" Some of the WCW's catch phrases include "2 sweet," a boast of the New World Order, and "You're gonna get bang," "Diamond" Dallas Page's threat. Not to be left out is the wrestlers' sign language. Members of Degeneration X raise their arms crossed in an "X" shape and thrust them down to their waists to emphasize the "Suck it!" phrase. "Degeneration X has got the 'Suck it!' where they take their arms and whip them down by their crotch area," Sutton says while demonstrating. "That really puts a symbol on what they stand for." Austin has a few gestures of his own. "'Stone Cold' has got the finger, and he's got the little beer-drinking symbol," Sutton says, tilting an imaginary beer can to his lips. "That stirs up the crowd a little bit." And NWO members can commonly be seen giving each other the "2 sweet" version of the high five. Perhaps the king of wrestling signals is the WCW's "Diamond" Dallas Page, according to Allen, who demonstrates the gesture by placing his palms outward, forming a diamond shape with both thumbs and fore fingers while holding his hands above his head. "'Diamond' Dallas Page has this little sign, and he holds it above his head," Allen says as he then throws his arms apart and downward. "He goes like that, and you hear a synchronized bang. That fires me up for some reason." The fans themselves are symbolic of the sport. Their enthusiasm is addictive, and their numbers are growing, which is partly why Sutton returned to the world of head locks and elbow smashes. "I like the fans that get into it," Sutton says. "You can see people in the background, and they get all busted out. We need more people like that in the world because I think deep down they're good people, but on the outside they're just buck-wild fans." NEXT --> |
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Packed arenas, screaming fans, plenty of costumes and frequently spewing blood. These are just a few of the similarities between the two heavyweight subcultures dominating Kent State University and beyond. Fans of both high-flying, heavy-hitting professional wrestling and the hard-rocking, leather-clad band KISS are currently lurking all over campus waiting to get wacky. But the popularity of these two loyal groups of radicals is not something to be taken lightly. In the dorms or the bars, on campus or off, no place is safe from the blasts of enthusiastic energy from a fanatic frenzy. Prepare to take a glimpse into the ritualistic and occasionally ridiculous realm of the hard-core fans. Readers, let's get ready to rumble.
