I’ve been catching-up on Wrestlemania and taking it all in. Didn’t think much of it until I had to get up around 4am to settle the dog. At this point my mind is racing as I try to get back to sleep.
Then the thought hit me “hang on, WWE and Fortnite are basically the same thing”. Now, at first glance, it’s a bit of a stretch, I get that. Bearing in mind one is a video game and one is a neckbeard soap opera.
But hear me out. Also, I’m a fan of both Fortnite and WWE so don’t take this as some kind of slight to either one. I just saw some parallels and thought it worth discussing.
Characters and storylines
Easy start here. Take away all the skins and battle passes. Fortnite delivers a loose, but serviceable story each season. Weekly missions to update the story and keep it going until a climax at the end of the season. It’s not going to win awards for writing or storytelling, but it provides context to everything happening in the world.
Sound familiar? In Wrestling, and WWE in this instance. You have RAW and Smackdown, weekly shows with story updates. Providing context for the action on-screen. Building up to a climax at the next main event. Particularly Wrestlemania, which could easily be viewed as the end of a season, and the start of new story threads.
This is the big one, or the one with the most substance to my case. But keep going.
Cross-promotion brand deals
The thing that triggered this entire thought process was watching the World Tag Team Championship match. The New Day vs The War Raiders.
Now, The New Day have historically been very video game inspired, so you could see them being a link here. But not today!
The War Raiders came down dressed as Clash of Clans characters, whilst the announcers talked about the game, the characters and their stats. It was a really Fortnite moment, if I’ve ever witnessed one.
Initially I cringed and thought that WWE had gone to shit. But then, look at the ad breaks, look at the ring mat and the advertising banners around the apron. This isn’t new, it’s a means to bring in money and as Fortnite has shown, cross-brand integration (I sound like Jack Donaghy!) is incredibly lucrative.
Battle Royales
Easy one. What is the Royal Rumble if not a Battle Royale? Everyone gradually drops-in and then it’s a case of the last man standing.
Granted, there are Battle Royale matches, and Fortnite didn’t invent the genre or anything. But…..both WWE and Fortnite have another strong parallel, and I’m standing by it as an argument for my case.
Pop culture fan base
Let me be a prime example. I’m a fan of both WWE and Fortnite and regularly engage with some of the cultural cross-over.
Moreover, I don’t think it’s a giant leap to suggest that a lot of wrestling fans are likely to be gamers, too. The storytelling and references to days gone in WWE are the same crack that we seek in games.
Beyond Fortnite, even. Who doesn’t love Halo and look for history in the latest releases? Who doesn’t dive into CoD and look for their old favourite maps?
Nostalgia is such a massive factor in both WWE and Gaming. It makes sense that the fan cross-over would be significant.
Beyond that, we have streamers and YouTubers now taking part in the WWE. We have wrestlers as skins in Fortnite, and both gaming and wrestling have massive online subcultures, supported by streaming, reaction videos etc etc.
