College Football’s 5th Quarter: Comparing pro wrestling to college football

The year 2018 marks the 25th anniversary of Monday Night RAW and 30th anniversary of the WWE Royal Rumble. Here are five comparisons between pro wrestling and college football.

There are few fan bases in the world as obsessive and dedicated as the fan bases of pro wrestling and college football. The only other fanbase I can put in that upper echelon would be Star Wars aficionados. The comparisons are evident: loyalty to a promotion or conference, the pomp and circumstance of WrestleMania as compared to the Rose Bowl, and both have Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

College football teams, much like pro wrestlers, come out to entrance videos and theme songs. Some programs even come out to smoke and pyrotechnics. The Virginia Tech Hokies theme song being Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” while the Miami Hurricanes run out of the smoke to “Air of the Night” by Phil Collins and the Wisconsin Badgers hype music is “Jump Around” by House of Pain. The video boards feature intro videos with music, highlights, and even celebrity cameos (Stanford has a fun video).

There are also the promos that we remember forever. Mike Gundy is a man, he’s 40, Dusty Rhodes talked about the hard times Ric Flair gave him, while Tim Tebow guaranteed a championship after losing to Ole Miss, Shawn Michaels promised us a show we would never forget.