INDIANAPOLIS — William Skiler rose at the crack of dawn Saturday morning to a rooster crowing, fed the pigs then made an off-the-cuff, last-minute decision to drive from the land of peaches to his 10th Royal Rumble, buying nosebleed seats in Lucas Oil Stadium on the way.
Skiler is a hard-working farmer outside of Atlanta, Ga., who grew up loving the raucous and rowdy WWE. He was not only at his 10th Royal Rumble Saturday, but he’s been to multiple Smackdowns, Raws and one WrestleMania.
To say he is a diehard fan would be an understatement. He has a cluttered room in his house stuffed to the brim with all the figures, T-shirts, championship belts and autographs he’s gotten of wrestlers through the years.
As he waited in line to buy merchandise inside Lucas Oil before the matches began, he wore a Rey Mysterio mask and a Triple H shirt. There, with more than 300 others waiting in his line and more than 70,000 in the stadium, Skiler said he felt like he could truly be himself.
After all, Skiler said, he sometimes feels judged when he tells people he is a WWE fan.
“We know what they think. We know. I hear it all the time, people making fun of us WWE fans, making fun of the sport,” said Skiler, 45. “I hear it, and you know what? To be honest, I don’t give a damn.
“They’re the ones missing out on greatness.”
What is WWE? That’s the burning question from the naysayers. Is it a sport or not? Is it fake? Is it scripted? Skiler said he often feels as if those naysayers look down on WWE fans, and he doesn’t understand why.
“I’ve never played a day of golf in my life, but there are guys obsessed with it like I am with WWE,” he said. “I don’t make fun of those guys.”
Even if choreographed, these wrestlers are athletes and they have to be in shape to do what they do, said Josef Aguilar, who lives in Indy and was attending his first Royal Rumble.
“Just look at their muscles. They perform just like an NFL player performs,” he said. “People want to say the outcome is written up before but so what. The NFL wrote the Chiefs winning last week and the refs made that happen.”
As Josie Marlin sat in the hallway of the Indiana Convention Center next to her boyfriend, who had two championship belts beside him, waiting for the doors to Lucas Oil to open for the Royal Rumble, she told him to cover his ears.
“It’s so silly,” she said laughing. “I don’t even like it or get the appeal. I’m here because I love him, and he loves it.”
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The WWE is definitely a product with little middle ground. “You are either a fanatic about it,” said Claire Sawyer-Mills, of Illinois, “or you hardly have any idea what it even is.”
Per the crowd at Lucas Oil, there are a lot of fanatics. The more than 70,000 fans who descended on the stadium Saturday night shattered the Royal Rumble’s all-time record. It was the largest attendance for any non-WresteMania pro wrestling event in history. Approximately 70% of the fans were expected to be from outside the Indianapolis area.
They watched Jey Uso win the men’s event, eliminating John Cena in his final Royal Rumble, and watched Charlotte Flair as victor in the women’s match.
The crowd also proved there is no one “type” of WWE fan.
A real-life hero John Cena will wrestle his final Royal Rumble in Indy having no idea what he’s meant to me
WWE fans: Loud and proud
From the world’s most popular streamer Kai Cenat to Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton to 73-year-old musician John Mellencamp to actor O’Shea Jackson, Jr., who is Ice Cube’s son, to women, little boys, teenage girls, grandparents, young parents, middle-aged couples, there was diversity all around.
According to Wrestlenomics.com, about 25% of WWE’s audiences are Black with 12% of viewers Hispanic. Women make up 36% of the fans and the biggest fan base is males 30-44 years old.
While its popularity is unmatched in the United States, the WWE says India is one of its largest international markets. The latest numbers show Raw and SmackDown events in India had an average of 50 million viewers weekly.
The franchise is also popular in Japan, Australia, the Philippines and has held events in Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. For Royal Rumbles, those bring the second largest international crowd of all WWE events. And that crowd is loud and proud.
Outside of Lucas Oil hours before the Royal Rumble began, the golden championship belts glistened in the chilly sunshine, mostly grown men wearing them slung over their shoulders or wrapped around their waists.
Little kids held poster signs, handcrafted tributes to their favorite wrestlers. Women were dressed in fishnet stockings, glittery skirts, emulating the WWE divas they admire. Other fans went full force, wearing wrestling singlets and black boots, the temps barely 40 degrees.
It was not quite the outrageous attire GenCon brings to Indy but, out of context and having no idea one of the WWE’s three main events was in town, some of the fans packing the streets would have seemed completely over the top.
Indy went all out for those fans, dressing the city with its own attire. Twenty-five streets were named for the WWE, including Cody Rd., Bianca Belair Blvd., KO Ave. and Seth “Freakin’” Rd. Indianapolis International Airport went all-in on Royal Rumble and restaurants crafted special menu items.
Indianapolis International Airport welcomes WWE fans for Royal Rumble
Indianapolis International Airport is ready to welcome the more than 50,000 fans arriving for WWE Royal Rumble this weekend.
More than $40 million in economic impact is expected from the Rumble in Indy on Saturday night. It is part of a three-event deal between the city and WWE to also bring Summer Slam and WrestleMania to Indy. Dates for those events are yet to be determined, but all three combined will infuse $350 million into the city, according to Indiana Sports Corp.
Settling the debate over what WWE is and hopefully putting an end to its mocking, Lauren Sparkman, a diehard WWE fan, describes it this way.
“I always say WWE is 100% sport and 100% entertainment,” said Sparkman, who co-hosted the local organizing committee that brought the Royal Rumble to Indy. “It’s absolutely world-class athleticism. It is more cinematic than a soap opera, but a lot more spectacle than a football game. It’s the intimacy of live theater, but it’s also completely electric, like an arena tour. It’s just, it’s completely unique.”
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.
