WWE Celebrity Integration & Sponsorship

[westlondonmist]

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I'm not necessarily against advertising in wrestling - I love seeing old Lucha matches with the massive Corona logo in the middle of the ring:

 

 

I just think the WWE stuff looks terrible, it's not well integrated, it's visually appalling. 

 

In that UFC photo, at least the octagon design around the Monster logo provides some separation between that and the other logos, there's some symmetry, some sense of colour coordination in there. The WWE ring just looks like they've plastered an ad wherever one will fit, with no rhyme or reason to it. It obviously doesn't help when half of their advertisers are Logan Paul's shit drink, Hulk Hogan's shit racist beer, the literal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the video game company they own, and a product for men who need to be told to wipe their shitty arses, but the aesthetics are the main thing.

It definitely is very messy. I can't actually take in what any of the sponsors are apart from SNK. I could see all the sponsors with the UFC ring mat. The UFC one is also obviously UFC, the game is sponsored, it mentions them, the venue etc. The WWE one just looks like a church pin board. 

[Devon Malcolm]

3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

I just think the WWE stuff looks terrible, it's not well integrated, it's visually appalling. 

 

Well, it is upside-down.

[palana]

i really don't understand the "oh my god it makes wrestling look REAL" thing. constant in-your-face ads in real sports are annoying as well - and i doubt the people who say that even watch sports. i have never been to a football match and heard anyone say "y'know, those advertising boards really complete the atmosphere - without massive signs for pepsi, this match wouldn't seem authentic". people were up in arms over netflix adding an ad-supported subscription, people hate seeing ads in video games, people download adblock because of annoying ads on youtube etc, the proliferation of aggressive advertising is even seen as downright dystopian by some people... but now people are practically coming themselves over wwe adding sponsors to the ring. i don't get it.

[SuperBacon]

2 minutes ago, palana said:

but now people are practically coming themselves over wwe adding sponsors to the ring

Are they?

[The Gaffer]

5 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Are they?

I mean I have been going through Dude Wipes much faster since they implemented the changes. 

[FLips]

A folding table with Slim Jim on it is maybe the most perfect wrestling idea they could have came up with. 100% approve.

[tiger_rick]

8 minutes ago, FLips said:

A folding table with Slim Jim on it is maybe the most perfect wrestling idea they could have came up with. 100% approve.

It'd be better if anyone had ever once said a table had snapped. A Slim Jim kendo stick might be more appropriate.

[Cannibal Man]

It's fucking stupid, shit and ugly is the best i've got for how I feel about the adverts. In 100% of circumstances anything with an advert is shitter, stupider and uglier than it would be without one because it's an advert, and i've thought long and hard about that because it means having to give up the beautiful AJPW Sega Saturn ring and the Pancrase Billy-The-Fish style Lucky Strike 'SMOKE TABS' canvas and everything. Body bag for the lot of it.

Edited June 3, 2025 by Cannibal Man

[wordsfromlee]

I was always a big fan of the WCW ring mats having the massive PPV or TV show logos on them, but not as much of a fan of the ads. I think it's more because it's a bunch of little ones rather than one big one like that Corona ring mat.

 

[Your Fight Site]

It doesn’t really bother me to be honest. Premier League football matches are chock-full of advertising: from player kits, the ball, pitch side boards, in-arena advertising, interview walls tiled in sponsor logos, etc. 

[WyattSheepMask]

It’s just the hypocrisy/tribalism of it all that does my nut in. WWE are sellouts for taking ad money and sticking dome logos on the mat, but when AEW, who’ve had Draft Kings plastered all over the place for the last 3 or 4 years, take (a reported) $300,000 to do a match unconnected to anything else on the show for a Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game that was forgotten about almost as soon as it was released, that’s “smart business”. Not to mention tin that New Japan has had sponsor logos all over the mat, ring and everywhere else for decades.

Clearly the people giving out about it now weren’t watching during the days of the Stridex Airship flying around the arena in the New Generation 

Edited June 3, 2025 by WyattSheepMask

[The Gaffer]

It's the aesthetics of it, though, as people have suggested. It's like Kevin Dunn's snuck back in to have a go at it. 

It's definitely borderline but even AEW branding a whole match usually doesn't stand out too much because from what I recall they'll generally just have a way of branding something gimmick heavy on something already gimmick heavy so it's just a bit of self contained madness for one ten minute segment. 

I don't think this discussion would be happening if people weren't genuinely annoyed by something that simply wasn't there before. Comparing it to the airship flying around is nuts. 

[LaGoosh]

9 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

It’s just the hypocrisy/tribalism of it all that does my nut in. WWE are sellouts for taking ad money and sticking dome logos on the mat, but when AEW, who’ve had Draft Kings plastered all over the place for the last 3 or 4 years, take (a reported) $300,000 to do a match unconnected to anything else on the show for a Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game that was forgotten about almost as soon as it was released, that’s “smart business”.

I don't think there's any need to bring "tribalism" into it and I don't think your comparisons are fair at all. There's a significant difference in the level of advertising between the two companies and that's clear to anyone with eyes. A couple of Draft Kings logos on ringside barricades and 3 or 4 fun comedy gimmick matches on TV over six years is not the same as a giant bottle of Prime being in the corner of the screen every week and you know that. 

You have to take into account that people have been watching WWF/WWE for years and have gotten used to the way it looks. Any significant change to that in a short period of time is going to annoy people. But I imagine that if you are invested in what they are putting on you probably don't notice or are unbothered by it. Wrestling is a visual medium though so I can understand why it bothers people to have loads of clutter on the screen. 

The only one I am completely against is the Slim Jim tables which I think is insanely fucking stupid and completely illogical. From a kayfabe (yes, I know it's dead) perspective how do you even explain why a table has a sponsor? These things matter!

[wordsfromlee]

11 hours ago, Your Fight Site said:

It doesn’t really bother me to be honest. Premier League football matches are chock-full of advertising: from player kits, the ball, pitch side boards, in-arena advertising, interview walls tiled in sponsor logos, etc. 

Football doesn’t have the advertising printed all over the grass though like with the ring canvas. All the other advertising is in the periphery. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

10 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

Football doesn’t have the advertising printed all over the grass though like with the ring canvas. All the other advertising is in the periphery. 

That's coming WordyLee. For a lot of rugby games in the southern hemisphere they digitally project adverts onto the pitch as you watch it. Obviously people find it annoying but if the egg chasers are at it Football will want that money as well.