1. Headlines indicating intriguing articles or interviews are the most likely to draw readers to buy a wrestling magazine. 2. Readers expect to see news, interviews, profiles and opinion pieces about both current and former wrestlers. 3. A babyface wrestler would be positively portrayed in kayfabe to build sympathy, while an out-of-kayfabe analysis could discuss their effectiveness as a good guy character.

1. Research
Kieran Johnson

2. WWE Magazine – February 2009
Image:
WWE Wrestler Jeff Hardy appears at the centre of the
image, doing his signature pose as he leaves a trail of
burnt ground through the canyon behind him, symbolising
his character trait of being quick. This was clearly done in
a studio with a green screen behind him and the
background of the canyon was done in post-production.
Style:
Colours appear to be vibrant, a mixture of warm colours
like orange, red and yellow – seemingly representative of
Jeff Hardy’s colourful character as was seen on TV at the
time.
The typical masthead doesn’t exist in WWE magazine,
although the WWE logo does appear in the top left hand
corner of the cover, fractionally covered by Hardy’s right
shoulder.
The rest of the layout of the cover appears to be very standard to conventional magazine covers.
Audience:
Jeff Hardy on the cover would have been the biggest sell to the audience as he was a fan favourite
on TV at the time, and recently came off of a WWE Champion between December 2008-January
2009.

3. FourFourTwo – May 2019
Image:
Man United manager and former player Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer appearing at the centre of the frame, with a
direct address and his hands folded – seemingly a
physical connotation of him being the manager. Most
likely to have been done in a studio, with a green screen
and replaced with the red background in post.
Style:
The combination of the red and yellow colours used
throughout the cover embody the identity of
Manchester United, which makes sense as Solskjaer is
the manager of the team.
The masthead is clear this time as it is nearer the top of
the magazine, just below the header. Ole’s figure also
appears on the top layer, in front of the masthead which
is a usual magazine tecnnique.
There also appears to be more use of the header and footer in this magazine cover compared to the
WWE magazine.
Audience:
Man United fans will have been given added priority for this issue due to the interview with Solskjaer.

4. Power Slam – January 2004
Image:
The main star in this image is clearly Brock Lesnar, who appears
as the central figure from a photo taken at a slight angle at what
appears to have been a live event. Whilst a natural photo is a
first from this research, Power Slam (until their circulation ended
in 2014) had a habit of using more natural photos for their
magazine covers from live events, instead of using green screens
or a studio.
Style:
Brock Lesnar’s presence appears to be towering over the other
wrestlers in this cover, notably Raven (holding a microphone on
the right), Kurt Angle (smiling on the top left) and Chris Benoit
(whom we wrestling fans don’t talk about, on the bottom left).
This, along with the headline PS 50 (the annual ranking of the
best wrestlers over the year) indicates that they’re top
contenders for the number 1 position.
The cover also has a consistent colour scheme, particularly for the copy (or text), with white and pink
being constant throughout the cover – with pink outlines bordering the separate images too.
Audience:
The PS 50 would have been the biggest draw for the audience. Also having Lesnar on the cover in 2004
would have drawn a large audience too, due to him being rumoured to be leaving WWE around the time.

5. World Soccer – November 2019
Image:
Barcelona’s Frenkie De Jong is the central figure in this cover of
World Soccer magazine. Compared to other images, Frenkie’s
face appears to be much closer up. Also in this instance it appears
that the photo was taken from an on-field position, then his
outline was cut out in the editing to appear on the typical white
cover of World Soccer.
Style:
The cover of World Soccer quite often follows the same,
structured cover style. Consequently the colours don’t focus
themselves towards Frenkie De Jong, but moreso stick to the
typical colour scheme of World Soccer of white, black and red.
The multitude of headlines are accompanied by additional photos
depending on the topic – such as the interviews with Lionel Messi
and Angel Di Maria, compared to the FourFourTwo magazine
which was just one central photo and no separate ones.
Audience:
This is definitely geared towards a much more general football audience. Obviously the hook to a
particular club, in Barcelona, is still there, but there is a lot more here for a general football fan to
digest and share interest with.

6. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products
have?
– A focus on one particular cover star
– Plenty of headlines/cover lines
– Power Slam and World Soccer use additional images
• What aspects of the research will you include within
your on work?
– Headline and cover lines indicating what is to come in the
magazines
– A key cover star who will be the focus on the magazine as a
whole

7. Questionnaire Analysis

8. Answers

9. Answers

10. Answers

11. Answers

12. Answers

13. Audience research
• Observation:
13 of the 21 responses I got stated that they never read magazines – 12 of which
were from the 17-20 age bracket. Additionally, the 5 people who responded with
a 4 or 5 rating regarding their interest in wrestling (they are heavily interested in
it) have a range of both age brackets and interest in sports magazines in general.
• What this says about my audience:
It suggests that it is likely to take a lot of convincing to draw the 17-20 age bracket
towards my magazine – most likely needing to use a really attractive cover figure
as well as plenty of headlines to draw as much of that age bracket.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
Wrestling nowadays tries to focus its product towards an audience of between 17-
30 (AEW wrestler Chris Jericho often shamelessly refers to this as the “key demo”
on Twitter when it comes to TV ratings by audience age). A good idea is to try and
research what about wrestling caters to that particular audience and apply it into
the project.

14. Audience research
• Observation:
There’s almost an even split on what the responders think is the biggest
contributing factor to buying and reading magazines – 9/21 chose a famous
cover star, 10/21 chose intriguing headlines.
• What this says about my audience:
Most of the responders were most likely wanting to pick both of them, so it
would most likely be that both factors are equally the biggest contributing
factors towards drawing the audience to a particular magazine.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
I will be aiming to use and apply both of the techniques in order to create as
big an audience as I can draw towards my magazine. The cover star will be
portrayed as much of a big name as possible, with the headlines reinforcing
that the character should be treated seriously and with as much support as
possible.

15. Audience research
• Observation:
Most of the responses thought that interviews and show results were the
most likely insert pages that would appear inside of a wrestling magazine – 8
for interviews, 9 for show results.
• What this says about my audience:
They clearly understand how WWE operate their pay-per-view (PPV) events.
WWE are one of the few promotions that organise themselves to have
monthly PPVs, and as such it would make sense for a monthly magazine to
review the results of the previous month’s headline show, as well as an
overview of key events that had occurred over the previous month of weekly
shows.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
I didn’t have a particular show review page in mind when thinking of my
product, choosing instead to focus on an interview section. However I may
include the results and reviews as a headline on the front cover, as a way to
entice the audience towards it.

16. Audience research
• Observation:
Most of the responses regarding how they perceive the stereotypical wrestler
are under the impression that they are built with a big body size, quick speed
and being athletic – some using examples such as 14-time World Champion
Triple H.
• What this says about my audience:
They mostly have a good idea regarding how the stereotypical wrestler is
perceived and presented. However it may also greet them with
disappointment to see that wrestlers nowadays are generally smaller in size
than they were during the 80s and 90s – mostly due to the higher intolerance
to steroids and other related drugs, thus wrestlers tend to have higher
longevity with their careers these days.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
In relation to how they perceive wrestlers, I may mention some kind of
workout routine headline on the cover to get fit and look like a particular
wrestler, such as Triple H.

17. Audience research
• Observation:
Regarding what the responders believed would be the most likely to appear in
the merch pages of a wrestling magazine, wrestler’s t-shirts and action figures
appeared to be the two most popular answers.
• What this says about my audience:
The audience seems to understand the fact that wrestlers always seem to
have t-shirts available for sale and is a common marketing practice for
wrestling – ever since the 1980s, with some of the most famous being the red
and yellow Hulkamania t-shirt (for Hulk Hogan) and the white and red Hot-
Rod t-shirt (for Roddy Piper), both of which still sell to this day.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
As an avid wrestling merch collector, I have plenty of t-shirts and action
figures that I’d be able to take photos of and apply into a potential
merchandise page for my magazine. I’d also happily be able to buy more for it
too.

18. Audience research
• Observation:
The majority of the responses towards what attracts the audience to the
February 2009 WWE Magazine cover related to the cover star, Jeff Hardy –
who at the time was a very popular wrestler, and had just come off of a WWE
Championship reign. Other responses mentioned the “Wrestlemania
Predictions” headline.
• What this says about my audience:
This takes into consideration the earlier observation I had, that most of the
audience do get attracted to the cover star and the most intriguing headline.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
As I mentioned before, I will be aiming to use and apply both of the
techniques in order to create as big an audience as I can draw towards my
magazine, portraying the cover star like a big name as possible and make the
headlines reinforcing that the character should be treated seriously.

19. Interviews

20. Interview 1 – with a friend of mine
What features of a magazine cover would be the most likely to draw you
into buying it? Explain why.
“Features that would draw me to buying it would be exciting news advertised on the
front, such as “exclusive interviews inside”, and a popular wrestler doing their pose;
”rankings for this week/month” from best to worst and why. Also predictions for
upcoming events by the editors would be a cool feature because it is fun to hear other
people’s ideas.”
What initially sparked your interest in wrestling?
“My dad watched it many years before I was born and I have been watching it for as
long as I can remember. The first match I remember seeing on TV was The Undertaker
vs Mankind in Hell in a Cell. Undertaker in particular was the one who made me fall in
love with wrestling.”
What kind of pages would you personally expect to see in a wrestling
magazine?
“I would expect to see a merchandise page, predictions page, information page,
upcoming events page and perhaps a competition page.”

21. Interview 1 (continued)
How do you think a babyface (good guy) wrestler would be portrayed in a
wrestling magazine? Refer to examples if you can.
“I think a babyface wrestler would be surrounded by bright colour on the page, such
as a sky blue or yellow because that would appeal more to the younger ages, who
would presumably like the good guys more. I think they would also be surrounded by
some of their positive/uplifting quotes and acts they have done after wrestling
matches, such as shaking hands with their opponents or saluting a veteran/legend
wrestler.”
How do you think a heel (bad guy) wrestler would be portrayed in a
wrestling magazine? Refer to examples if you can.
“I think that a heel wrestler would be portrayed as a really evil person with dark
colours like black, dark purple or even red – often known as the colour of violence and
blood. This could also include threatening symbols, such as skulls or flames, and show
small pictures of their evil acts during a match, such as using weapons in a match that
has disqualification rules, or cheating to win. Additionally, they should add some evil
quotes that they have said throughout their career to boost the fans’ hatred of them.”

22. Interview 1 observations
• Observation:
The connection to the wrestlers with certain magazine codes and colours
depending on their character traits (whether they’re face or heel).
• What this says about my audience:
My suspicion regarding the cover star with certain colours and cover codes was
true. The audience seem to gain a better understanding of wrestlers and their
characteristics depending on the colour of the background of their magazine
cover. In my opinion, there may be some instances where the colours of the
background may subvert expectations, depending on specific circumstances – for
example, Apollo Crews is currently playing a heel (bad guy) role in WWE, however
because his character is that of a Nigerian Prince, a potential magazine cover may
be coloured green on the background instead of a dark or warm colour.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
Because the lines in wrestling are particularly blurred currently, due to social
media and certain fans starting to grow out of traditional conventions of
wrestling, I may be more inclined to subvert expectations instead of going ahead
with the norm, doing this may also create a more personal and realistic character
that the audience would be able to relate to. The headlines and pull quotes will
also help reinforce that.

23. Interview 2 – with another friend of mine
What features of a magazine cover would be the most likely to draw you into buying
it? Explain why.
“I think more than good cover art or a picture of a wrestler I know what’s more likely to draw me
into buying a wrestling magazine is probably a line or headline that can indicate me that there is
going to be an article worth reading. Buying a magazine in general is not something that I do
regularly so it would have to contain something that I think it’s truly worth the buy. I would
always rather listen to the opinion of someone who knows about what he is talking about so if
the cover of the magazine has a headline where it says that I can read about someone in the
industry talking about it and maybe doing an analysis on something I think that’s always more
interesting than anything else cause I like learning about it. Either someone who has been in the
industry or is still in it. I would never buy a magazine without knowing what type of articles are in
it, so I think that’d be the most likely thing to draw me in, headlines of the most important
articles and who is writing them.”
What initially sparked your interest in wrestling?
“I’ve liked wrestling since I was really young, if I’m not mistaken I started watching when I was
about 8 years old and I got introduced to it because of a friend. I think what sparked my initial
interest in it were all the different personalities, but that was also when I watched it more
casually. I stopped watching it for a while and got interested in it again around 2014. I think what
really caught my interest was the fact that there’s nothing else like it. It’s a combination of a sport
and an art and it’s not entirely one or the other. Everything involving the making of it caught my
interest, since I couldn’t really figure out why I still really enjoyed it even if I knew it was “fake”. I
think ever since I learned about everything that goes into it, my respect for wrestling grew.”

24. Interview 2
What kind of pages would you personally expect to see in a wrestling magazine?
“I would probably expect a variety of news stories, either results or just news of the people
involved in general, since there’s always so much stuff happening around the world of pro
wrestling, interviews from both either active industry personalities or retired ones and also either
in or out of kayfabe*, opinion pieces from either someone who is or was in the industry or
someone who has a vast knowledge of it, and perhaps maybe profiles of some of the active
wrestlers too, so that you can learn about them and get invested more into what they do in the
ring.”
How do you think a babyface (good guy) wrestler would be portrayed in a wrestling
magazine? Refer to examples if you can.
“I think it really depends on the intent of the magazine. If it’s a type of in kayfabe magazine, then
it should probably make the babyface look as good as it possibly can so that he looks as
sympathetic to the people as possible. They should also try not to make him look bad unless a
major real life news story has broken out. They should help build the babyface as a
complementary piece. If it’s an out of kayfabe type of magazine then I’d be interested to read
about why such wrestlers is/isn’t a good babyface, what are the qualities that support these
claims and such, It’s always interesting to read about that.”
*Kayfabe = portraying a staged performance as legitimate or genuine, often used in wrestling
terminology – contrastingly, to say something is performed “out of kayfabe” means the
performance is not in character and more of a humanised version of self.

25. Interview 2
How do you think a heel (bad guy) wrestler would be portrayed in a
wrestling magazine? Refer to examples if you can.
“Basically the same that I said for the babyface would apply to the heels. In a kayfabe type of
deal, they should make the heel stand out as hateful as they possibly can, maybe pinpoint the
hateful stuff that person has done to see why he is hated or maybe have an interview where he
gets to say some stuff to make people’s blood boil. In a out of kayfabe magazine, it would be
interesting to read about what makes a certain wrestler such a good/bad heel, identifying little
things he does in and out of the ring too.”

26. Interview 2
• Observation:
The style of wrestling magazine can be understood whether or not the
wrestler has responded to the interview with their character, or not.
• What this says about my audience:
An in-the-know wrestling-based audience tend to understand if a
performance has been done in kayfabe or not (definition of kayfabe on slide
24). Some modern audience members may even prefer to see character
performances done out of kayfabe, or at the very least prefer to see a
character portrayed with an authentic outlook on wrestling that the audience
themselves are able to relate with. It can be argued that wrestling audiences
now are more interested in finding some form of synthetic personalisation
and passion for the industry from the talent themselves.
• How will your product appeal to this audience:
My intention is to create a character that feels authentic with the words they
say, in regards for the respect they have for the wrestling business, past and
present, and expressing their aims to go to the top of the industry. As a result,
this may cause the character to be portrayed in the form of a babyface (good
guy) that is aiming to get their audience on his side.

27. Bibliography

28. Bibliography
1. WWE. (2009). WWE Magazine Vol 28.2. USA: p1.
2. Andrew, J. (2019). FourFourTwo Magazine Issue 299. UK: P1
3. Martin, F. (2004). Power Slam Magazine Issue 114. UK: P1
4. Fishlock, S. (2019). World Soccer Magazine November Issue.
Hampshire, UK: P1
5. Johnson, K. (2021). Wrestling Magazine Survey (conducted
02/03/21)
6. Robinson, L (2021). Wrestling Magazine Interviews
(14/03/21)
7. Virgilio. (2021). Wrestling Magazine Interviews (25/03/21)