I am rather busy wrapping things up here at work and preparing to move, but I wanted to make a nod in The Mission Paradox blog’s direction for a post he made about reinventing one’s organization.
Adam Thurman had been tweeting in advance of his post about how many times he attended Wrestlemania and how wrestling held lessons for arts and cultural organizations so I was curious to see what he had to say.
I had watched wrestling once upon a time, but drifted away for various reasons, including the fact the basic plot was pretty repetitive.
Yes, you could say that about arts organizations which revive the classics. Romeo and Juliet aren’t ever gonna get any less dead (though you never know…) But these days, there are probably more people for whom the classics are brand new than repeats.
But you have to admit, while the basic formula does repeat itself, there is a heck of a lot of drama that goes on before anyone ever enters the ring. Much of it harkens back to some basic archetypes with which people can identify: heroic journeys, villains, anti-heroes, talismans of power, ethical quandaries.
Thurman addresses some interesting facts I wasn’t aware of about how wrestling giant WWE reinvented itself twice in order to appeal to changing demographics and tastes.
This was intriguing. I noticed another parallel with classical concerts that the WWE people don’t seem to have cottoned onto yet, or fixed, and that’s the assumption that everyone knows who they are and what they do.
To a certain extent Adam’s post suffered from this too, but that’s to be expected in a short post that wants to get to the point. All the same, the references to “storylines” made me curious – bearing in mind that the world of WWE is totally foreign to me, a female Australian with no prior interest in wrestling of any kind. (Not their target market, let’s say.)
So I decided to visit the WWE website site, and its FAQ section where the question “What is WWE?” is answered with this corporate statement:
«WWE is a publicly traded media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. Our platforms include television programming, pay-per-view, digital media, magazines and films. WWE is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Istanbul and Tokyo.»
I was left as befogged as before. Had to turn to wikipedia to see it spelled out in plain English:
«Like other professional wrestling promotions, WWE’s shows do not feature legitimate sporting contests. Instead, its programs feature storyline-driven combat sport matches with predetermined outcomes and fighting maneuvers that are worked, all promoted as legitimate bouts.»
Ok. So *now* I understand what WWE is. Now the references to storylines and “sports entertainment” make sense to me.
But, of course, if I have this experience reading about WWE (from a writer who’s assumed that his readers have at least a minimal basic knowledge), then how many people have the same experience reading about classical music and concerts. How often are we assuming too much? Or rather, neglecting to (somewhere, where it counts) tell people in plain English exactly what it is we’re about and what we’re setting out to do and what the experience basically involves?
Yvonne-
You know, from the portion for their website that you cited, until you listed Stamford, CT I thought that maybe you were at the wrong website and visited another company with the same initials. That bit sounds more like an investors relations section of a website. (And in fact, you may have reached that site because I couldn’t find that FAQ page)
You are correct in noting that you need to be in the know to have any of that make sense.
You need to scroll to the very bottom of the main site’s front page to find the FAQ link, and yes, it does at that point send you off to a more corporate subsite. That said, these FAQs do include responses to questions fans might plausibly ask. It’s weird.