Piaras Kelly PR – Public Relations in Ireland

The Internet is the death of everything secret. If one person knows it the rest of the world will soon follow. – Lance Storm

Blogging has grabbed the fact that the Internet is the death of everything secret and driven the point home to the extreme. Anyone can now set up their own website and let an unknown secret lose on the unsuspecting world.

Of course that can be twisted to create a viral story like the Christopher Walken for President hoax. The fact that the Internet is the death of everything secret has realized by organisations, but unfortunately those that try to exploit that are treading a fine line. For example, the BBC suffered a recent backlash because of a recent marketing ploy on Wikipedia that backfired (apparently it turned out to be the work of an overzealous fan.)

However there is one profession that is profiting off abusing the Internet in this case I think that it benefits from it. The occupation in question is professional wrestling.

Before the moans and groans ensue, let me make my point. For years wrestlers would pretend that the profession is legit, but the Internet blew that out of the water and a period ensued where the wrestling community celebrated that it was more of a soap opera than a twelve round bruiser.

However the world of sports entertainment has evolved to the stage where wrestling organisations are now starting to incorporate the Internet in order to restore a bit of the mystery and intrigue into the profession again.

While critics may bemoan the fact that companies like the WWE are breaking the trust of their fans, I think this is one case where there is legitimate reason for taking advantage of the Internet. Professional wrestling is built upon surprising the fans, but who wants to tune in if you know what’s going to happen. So by throwing the fans a few swerveballs organisations like the WWE can legitimately surprise fans again, and make a few bucks in the process as well.

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