Heading into WrestleMania 35 in what might be one of the most anticipated main event in years, Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey have been going at it non-stop on Twitter and Instagram. Taking shots at each other, and going at it in character. Ronda Rousey herself took it a step too far, seemingly even breaking character a bit (all while Charlotte Flair enjoyed a nice trip to Mexico).
However, feuds continuing on Twitter is no new concept. It’s been around for a while, and most likely, WWE very much encourages it as well. WWE will always be the first to tell you of the social media reach that they have. And to their credit, they’ve been extremely dominant on that front, getting even more subscribers and followers than a lot of major sports leagues and sports teams.
They had an eye out for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and realized that this is the platform where the younger generation interact, and it’s the best way to promote the product as well. How often do you see two characters of a movie or TV shows going at it on Twitter in-character? The answer is never, because being in-character outside is something very specific to pro wrestling.
Even in the age where kayfabe is seemingly dead, wrestlers and WWE in particular still value it very highly. Sure, there are programs on the Network which are completely out of character, but even so, the fact that rivalries are able to expand on Twitter is pretty cool, depending on what perspective you look at it.
While there are naturally critics of social media feuds, the fact of the matter is that it’s a very good way of promoting a feud and superstars as well. We understand that it’s hard to ever imagine legends like ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and The Rock feuding over social media back in their day, but chances are that if it had been as hot as it is now, that very well may have been an approach they would take.
After all, WWE has been about changing with the times. Sure, some things are better left untouched, but it’s hard to blame WWE for adapting to the modern methods of reaching the younger generation. Given that their target demographic is the generation that’s dominant on social media, it only makes sense for them to do so.
This is not necessarily exclusive to WWE, however. A few years ago after Will Ospreay and Ricochet had that polarizing match at NJPW Best of Super Juniors, the entire wrestling world was split in two over whether that was an acrobatic display or an actual match. One detractor happened to be none other than the late, great Big Van Vader.
Vader, old and past his prime, picked a twitter feud with Ospreay which at first seemed real, but it turned out that it was just a work to set up a match in an indie show. Ospreay later said that Vader had stiffed him hard during the match, which Ospreay ended up losing anyway. So it’s no surprise that we’re increasingly seeing “beef” and “heat” between wrestlers in worked shoots or just in-character banters.
With the coming years, the fact of the matter is that social media feuds are only going to increase. We’ve seen many occasions in the last few years where Twitter banter led to a match. Naomi and Mandy Rose‘s feud was intense on television, but it was mostly on social media, with the superstars not exactly mincing their words.
Even Ronda Rousey had taken it a tad bit too far, in the eyes of many fans. The reason for this is that she “exposed” the feud by calling Becky Lynch’s armbar fake and even referred to her as “Rebecca Quinn” and “going off-script”. Either they’re going into worked shoot mode, or WWE won’t exactly be happy with her tweets.
The company will obviously encourage the feud to go on via social media, but they may not always be happy with the word-to-word content of the tweets and posts fired back. However, knowing the company, they may be on top to inform a superstar if they went too far.
Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see how superstars and WWE push the envelope when it comes to social media feuds. It’s a good way to always keep the feud on the fans’ minds, so it’s only going to increase over the years.
What do you think about social media feuds in WWE? Voice your opinions in the comments below!
