5 ways to cut through the noise like a wrestler

With it being a new decade, I feel now is the time I shared a secret I’ve carried around with me for years… I’m a massive wrestling fan.

I know many of you will be thinking: “Why would you watch that?! It’s fake! It’s not real!” Well, yes, but it’s no more staged than Game of Thrones or Killing Eve, yet when was the last time you saw Jon Snow or Villanelle leap off a 20 foot steel cage through a table whilst battling a supernatural undertaker?

There are many elements that lure someone into becoming a fan of professional wrestling. There's larger than life characters, athleticism, drama, glitz, glamour and comedy.

The industry isn’t where it was during the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) glory days in the 1980s with Hulk Hogan and ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage, or the second golden age at the end of the 20th century with ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and The Rock. Yet today, millions of fans around the world still tune in for the latest instalments of the pumped up, over the top soap opera.

And despite the reservations you may have, the industry leading World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), as it’s now known, is a billion-dollar media and merchandise machine, and that doesn’t happen by chance.

So, what lessons can we learn from these greased up grapplers to help us better communicate with our audiences?

1: Catchphrases work

“To this day, if you say ‘Ric Flair’ on a stage and hold the microphone out, the whole audience will go ‘WOOOOO!’… it’s an amazing, weird occurrence that happens every now and then when a guy just nails something and becomes part of pop culture forever.” Joe Rogan

Catchphrases are a cornerstone of wrestling. Whether ‘Hulkamania is runnin’ wild’ or ‘The Rock is layin’ the smackdown’, there are hundreds of iconic lines that crystallise a wrestler’s character and gives the audience a chance to join in and make their voices heard. And the fans buy into it, literally. For instance, Stone Cold’s ‘Austin 3:16’ t-shirts, at around $20 a pop, accounted for nearly half of WWF's $500 million merchandise sales in 1998 alone.

Top tip: A great tagline can reinforce an entire concept. Whether used in speeches, product launches or internal campaigns, a catchphrase that is short, simple and memorable will have it looping in people’s heads for days, weeks and even years after they’ve first heard it. So, try taking the essential words that sum up your message, including variations of them, and experiment with repetition, rhyme, alliteration or starting separate phrases with the same word, such as Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart’s: "I’m the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be." Once you have something, continue to refine and get it down to its simplest, punchy form.

2. Tell a story

“If Shakespeare was alive today he would be writing wrestling shows.” Chris Jericho

Pro-wrestling is the most basic form of storytelling. Everything a wrestler says and does, inside and outside of the ring, whether they’re good (the babyface) or bad (the heel), is part of the wider narrative. They establish a character with their clothes, words, gestures and moves… this is all part of letting the audience know who they are and why they should care about them. The best characters are loved or hated, but are never boring. Whether a fan wants to see the everyman ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin win, or evil boss and WWE kingpin Vince McMahon get his comeuppance, they still buy a ticket to see how the story plays out.

Top tip: As I've previously written about, stories are the glue that stick lessons to the brain, giving facts, figures and strategies an emotional context. So, think about the character of your brand and what emotions you want to evoke – then decide how you’ll tell your story. The aim is to get your internal and external audiences emotionally invested in a journey to the point they become promoters of the key messages. Paint a powerful, authentic vision of your business, where it’s going, how success will be achieved and most importantly, why people should care.

3: Put others first

“It's hard to explain, but it's a beautiful thing to watch in wrestling when someone loses in the exact perfect way.” Bret Hart

The legendary 16-time world champion ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair wasn’t the biggest, strongest or fastest wrestler, but is arguably the greatest. Up to the 1980s, wrestling in the USA was split into a litany of different territories, with each region having their own promotion and a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) champion travelling the country giving local heroes a shot at glory – and no one did this job better than Naitch. The NWA Champion was a special attraction, so it was the regional stars who needed to carry the territory for 99% of the time. Flair knew they had to look good, so when he was champ he’d build himself up in his pre-match promo, push his challenger as a genuine threat, then go out and be beaten for the entire match before employing a dirty trick to keep hold of his title. By making those around him look good, everyone benefitted.

Top tip: Share the projects you’re working on with teammates as they could clash with other campaigns being prepared. Don’t be too proud to shelve your own labour of love if it ensures the most beneficial message lands with the audience. It’s not about individual wins, it’s about doing what’s best for business, which is often helping others shine. A shared cross-team communications calendar, coupled with regular catch-ups, is a great way to stop silo projects getting too far down the line before having to be postponed or even cancelled.

4. Be authentic

“It's so important just to be true to yourself and to own your own character and take responsibility for it, and speak up and say, ‘this isn't right; this isn't me’.” Becky Lynch

Many people say the best characters are an extension of the real person, with their personalities ‘turned up to 11’. You don’t want a wrestler that feels contrived. Becky Lynch became a star after she broke away from her original Irish stereotype – including clover green costume and a cringe-worthy dancing gimmick – and embraced her true personality, someone who's edgy, hungry to succeed and won't let the system hold her down. This is what truly endeared her to the fans.

Top tip: Communications need to be authentic. If you’re writing something on behalf of someone else, don’t just fill it with information you think people want to hear or terminology you know is common in that industry. Find a voice that’s grounded in what’s unique about you, your business or the individual you’re supporting. For instance, if you’re working on an internal message for a leader, and it isn’t sounding like them, sit down and record a conversation, or better still, turn the recording into a podcast that’s packed full of genuine personality.

5. Listen to your audience

“If we’d done what we had practiced, they’d have booed us out of the f*****g building!” Hulk Hogan

At Wrestlemania 18, The Rock took on ‘Hollywood’ Hulk Hogan, in what was dubbed ‘Icon vs. Icon’. 68,237 fans packed out Toronto’s SkyDome to see this dream match. The pair had planned their entire battle on the basis that the fans would cheer the perceived ‘good guy’ (The Rock) and boo the supposed ‘bad guy’ (Hogan). However, when they came face-to-face in the ring, it became clear the majority of people, fuelled by childhood nostalgia, were behind the 48-year-old Hulkster. The pair quickly decided to change the storyline ‘on the fly’ to best suit the characters the crowd wanted them to play. As a result, they put on one of the most loved matches of all time.

Top tip: Take every opportunity to listen to your audience. Don’t just wait for an annual communications audit, but constantly ask questions, send out short pulse surveys, organise lunch and learns, read comments under online stories… we have more opportunities than ever to listen to what people are saying about what’s important to them, so use them to create content and build strategies that will have the biggest impact.

So, in conclusion

Now, if there are any hardcore wrestling fans reading this, they may be offended by what I’m about to say, but as we know, wrestling isn’t ‘real'.

However, the brilliant way in which wrestlers communicate with their audiences, delivering a simple story to take viewers on an extraordinary journey, is undeniable.

Yes, it’s not as hard as powerslamming a seven-foot-tall monster in front of a packed stadium, but getting your communications to land with your audience can be really tough.

But by taking a few pages out of the wrestling playbook, getting your key messages to cut through the noise can be as easy as 1, 2, 3.