I’ve been a life-long wrestling fan, staring with the AWA from as far back as I can remember and then switching to WWF when Vince took over the Winnipeg territory in 1986. Since then, I’ve seen every Wrestlemania either live or almost live and every Royal Rumble since it’s been available here. From the time of the SummerSlam in England, which was the first time PPV was available in my part of Canada until No Mercy 2005, I ordered every WWF PPV with a good friend. That was of course the night Eddie Guerrero died and that kind of soured me on the product for a while. Life kind of took over, my friend started a family and we’ve maybe seen four PPVs together since then. I still watched RAW every week and SD most weeks but couldn’t bring myself to pay for the PPVs, except the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania, which I would usually pay for and watch by myself. My point here is that I have always been a fan and always will be a fan so there’s not a lot that the WWE can do to turn me away and I would imagine there are about 2.5 million people like myself, given the ratings.

The key for WWE in growing their audience is to convert the casual fans, which on any given week would be between 1 and 3 million people into either “permanent” fans or at least get them to put out money for PPVs. I have 2 sons, one of whom is 18 and one of whom is 11 and I’ve noticed something with each of them that I think WWE could learn from. My 18 year old son watched wrestling at times with me at the tail end of the attitude era but the age at which he could’ve became a lifelong fan would’ve been just after the Invasion when WWE got really stale and he lost interest fast. He’ll sometimes stop and watch for a few minutes if he’s walking through the room and it’s on but he’s definitely not a fan and would not spend any of his money on a PPV.

Now my 11year old is a different story. He started watching about six months ago and is in my opinion exactly the type of new fan that WWE should be (and probably is) targeting. He watches RAW with me most weeks, and definitely has his favorites and other than Sheamus, who is his  #1 favorite, he likes exactly who the WWE wants him to like and he’ll actually contribute $10 out of his $20 allowance to the price of a PPV if I order it. For the first time in 5 years, I ordered the PPV between Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania and the main reason was because my son wanted to watch it, and quite frankly, I’d rather watch it with him than by myself.

Also interesting to note, and this might be a better barometer of what’s working and what’s not than a poll on your website of hardcore pro wrestling fans, is that when I asked him what match he’s looking forward to most, he said John Cena vs Batista. When I asked him why, he said it’s because he hates Batista, that he’s a real jerk. Now, I was shocked when he added this……”I also really want to see Bret Hart kick Vince McMahon’s butt. I think as soon as the match starts, he’s gonna rip off his cast and beat Vince up with it”. He doesn’t read wrestling observer or go on any wrestling websites, he’s figured this out on his own and knows what he wants and I hope WWE gives it to him. He also has no idea of the backstory of Montreal or anything so they’ve done a good job educating someone who has no idea and despite what you or I might think, they’ve managed to convince at least one person (and I would suspect more) that Vince vs Bret is worth paying for.

Paul Fontaine