The brainchild of David McLane, WOW is what his vision for GLOW was, and has existed across two distinct periods, starting in 2000. Its commitment to athleticism, larger-than-life characters, and a standalone women’s product created blueprints that are now standard operating procedure for the industry today.
Here are the three ways WOW has been ahead of the curve in the American wrestling world.
1. Placing High Value on the Recruitment of Athletes From Other Backgrounds
From the beginning, WOW made a conscious choice to recruit athletes from other athletic backgrounds, homegrown talent that it could train from the ground up. This method is a way to control the development process, molding them into the exact style the company envisioned.
WOW Superheroes like Terri Gold (gymnast & cheerleader), The Beast (bodybuilder), Genesis (martial artist), Keta Rush (trackstar), Kandi Krush (boxer & swimmer), and Scout Parker (Division I diver & weightlifter) have backgrounds that provided a foundation for in-ring capability.
Today, many wrestling companies have formalized structures for developing and signing talent from other athletic backgrounds. A philosophy that WOW adopted from the start is now a universal pathway to notable professional wrestling organizations.
2. Family-Friendly Characters & Nostalgic Tone Over Adult-Oriented Content
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the American pro-wrestling industry generally had a big focus on family-friendly characters. Its focus began to transition to edgy content in the mid-1990s, with the late-1990s being the period where this style became predominant in the industry. Meanwhile, WOW committed to featuring family-friendly comic book-style characters from day one in 2000. Every woman who has been in WOW is a Superhero with an individual personality, motivation, and backstory. This type of presentation worked in the 1980s when wrestling became a household name, and it still works today, as evidenced by the fact that WOW has attracted a viewership of over 300,000, with the most notable amount of regional traffic going to WOW's official website coming from the United States, India, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Being a family-focused brand has been creatively effective as well as a highly successful business model in the modern media landscape.
Before WOW went on hiatus in 2001, it stayed true to its values. It's common for a company to change in order to compete with companies that have adapted to a changing industry, but WOW resisted that change. By the time the company re-emerged, the industry had changed again, focusing more on the wrestlers and their personas as opposed to the previous trend of shock value. The change was made to attract lucrative sponsors and present a family-friendly image- the same type of image that WOW has always had. Confirming that this model can succeed, with its major multi-year deal with Paramount Global Content Distribution, its groundbreaking residency in the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas, and high-profile ownership, WOW has become an integrated media company, simultaneously proving that it's possible to be successful while also staying true to your values and your mission.
3. The Power of a Standalone All-Female Product
Ever since 2000, WOW was proving what others later realized- a women's wrestling match was not something to change the channel or leave your seat during, it was a match capable of being in the main event of a show and the match fans are talking about the next day. Although the sports entertainment industry began to evolve in the 2010s, and women's wrestling began to increase in popularity and demand, it was still difficult for all of the women on a roster to be showcased, with many of them becoming lost in the shuffle of a large roster that included both women and men. However, in WOW's all-female roster dedicated to showcasing individual Superheroes, new additions tend to step into prominent roles immediately. A perfect example is Santana Garrett, who despite the fact that she had been successful in Japan wrestling for Stardom (2015 to 2016), where she became the seventh Wonder Of Stardom Champion in history, has often been overlooked in large combined rosters of major American companies with around 200 members, not given much opportunity to show her technical skills and ability to connect with diverse audiences. Yet in WOW, Garrett and Amber O'Neal won the WOW Tag Team Championship shortly after joining the company, and became the longest holders of the championship in history. Later, Garrett became the third-longest-reigning WOW Champion in history.
This consistent visibility and the highly successful viewership that it has gained helped prove that an all-female card/show is a major draw. WOW’s maintained presence across different eras validates the core market belief that women’s wrestling is a strong, profitable product that can stand on its own. Drawing an enthusiastic and diverse fanbase contributed to television networks taking notice and recognizing the huge potential. I've learned firsthand that networks are actively looking for engaging and high-quality female-focused content to captivate their viewers that will deliver viewership & excitement- and recent data shows a clear upward trend in audience engagement for it. WOW's success paved the way for an entire show or event being dedicated to a promotion's female roster.
WOW’s history of being ahead of the curve in the American wrestling industry is very noteworthy. By highly valuing the recruitment of athletes from other backgrounds, staying committed to presenting family-friendly characters and a nostalgic style, and proving the commercial potential of an all-female show, WOW showed that its style of promotion could be successful. Not only has the company survived, but it has also contributed to the evolution of the industry.
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