The Sports-Entertainment Icon Finding a New Generation of Fans (HBBIP #138)

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Hello and welcome to How to Build Brands and Influence People, your People’s Elbow for the creator economy. My name is Alex Rawitz, Director of Research & Insights at CreatorIQ, and yes, that is the sound of shattering glass you’re hearing. That is the distant peal of a funeral bell. And if I’m not mistaken, are those the opening chords of Motörhead’s “The Game?”

What I’m saying is that 138 editions into this newsletter, I could use an entrance gimmick that isn’t just saying “your X for the creator economy.” Rest assured that everyone back at HBBIP Laboratories is working on it.

For those of you who are very puzzled as to what’s happening right now, or the things I mentioned in the first paragraph, you weren’t a child between 1985 and 2005, and it shows. As a means of explanation, suffice it to say that in this week’s newsletter we’re going to analyze the creator marketing program of a true cultural behemoth. We’re diving deep into a pop phenomenon that’s shaped the zeitgeist, launched careers, and continues to drive the discourse forward.

We’ve done three-letter sports leagues. We’ve done three-letter entertainment conglomerates. Now, we’re doing a bit of both.

Can you smell what HBBIP is cooking? If so, cut a promo, break kayfabe, turn heel, and tune in right here right now as we jump straight into…

The Top Brand of All Time (of the Week): the WWE

Heck yeah, brother (this is a family newsletter). This week we’re talking about the bruising, cruising, smash-hit World Wrestling Entertainment LLC, better known as the WWE.

Ready to learn how some extremely beefy, theatrical people changed history, and how creators are keeping the legacy of pro wrestling alive?

What Is the WWE?

Though it has roots in regional wrestling organizations that date back to the 1950s, the WWE that we know and love today really came onto the scene back in the 1980s. Through outlandish ups and downs both inside and outside of the ring, professional wrestling has shaped American culture, and launched careers for mainstream stars from Hulk Hogan to The Rock to John Cena and beyond. (And for the record, while he might not be as famous as those other guys, my GOAT is Roddy Piper.)

The WWE came of age in a different media era, and has already adapted to several rapidly changing landscapes. Now, let’s take a look at how professional wrestling has continued to thrive in the era of creator marketing.

How Is the WWE Performing on Social Media?

Over the past six years, the WWE has transformed its global creator footprint into one of the fastest-growing engines in sports entertainment, which is already a pretty fast-growing space.

WWE Creator Count, 2020 – 2025

The WWE’s creator base expanded from 3.1k creators in 2020 to 19.4k creators in 2025, a 6.3x growth. While this growth was steady from 2020 through 2023, we saw an inflection point between 2024 (10.6k creators) and 2025 (19.4k creators).

WWE Post Count, 2020 – 2025

The WWE’s annual content volume grew from 27.7k posts in 2020 to 369.8k posts in 2025, representing more than a 13x expansion. This surge indicates not only stronger creator relationships, but also accelerating cultural velocity, with WWE-related content being produced and circulated across global audiences.

Plus, because post count growth trends ahead of creator count growth, it’s further proof that WWE creators are becoming more prolific year after year.

WWE EMV, 2020 – 2025

The WWE’s Earned Media Value (EMV) rose from $151.9M in 2020 to $2.3B in 2025, a 15.3x increase. Crossing the billion threshold in 2024 marked a structural shift in WWE’s social influence, and a similar inflection point as other metrics. By 2025, the WWE’s EMV nearly doubled again, signaling that the organization continues to inspire high-value, high-impact content.
                                                                                                       WWE Impressions, 2020 – 2025

The numbers just keep getting bigger, folks. In this case, we have a 17.8x improvement: from 1.8B in 2020 to 32.7B in 2025. Once again, the shift between 2024 and 2025 is key, with the WWE more than doubling its global impressions between 2024 and 2025 alone.

WWE Engagements, 2020 – 2025

Finally, the WWE’s engagements grew from 123.4M in 2020 to 1.2B in 2025, representing a 9.7x increase. Unlike other metrics, including impressions, the WWE didn’t see a huge spike between 2024 and 2025, which is in keeping with the generally lower engagements growth I’ve observed for most brands. Still, surpassing 1 billion engagements annually is no small feat. Clearly WWE content still resonates.

And where is that content resonating most deeply?

WWE Share of Impressions by Platform, April 2025 – March 2026

YouTube drives the largest share of impressions, accounting for nearly half of the WWE’s total. However, things flip around when you look at engagements:

WWE Share of Engagements by Platform, April 2025 – March 2026

Here, Instagram leads, with TikTok also outperforms YouTube. It’s a complete inversion of what we saw for impressions—a rare feat, given that most brands tend to be fairly consistent between platform metrics.

To boil it down:

• YouTube = scale engine
• Instagram = engagement engine
• TikTok = hybrid growth engine

And who are the creators fueling these various engines?

Who Are the WWE’s Top Creators?

1. The Youth Still Love Wrestling

Setting aside platforms like Peacock, which drive a lot of residual but non-specific EMV for the WWE, there’s still a healthy amount of non-WWE affiliated creators who make the WWE a core component of their content. For example, the Haroon Twins, a pair of brothers known for viral wrestling move recreations, drove $6.6M EMV across 32 posts from May 2025 to April 2026. In general, this format—family members re-enacting WWE moves in everyday settings—is one of the most viral and shareable content types among the broader wrestler community, spreading organically across Facebook and Instagram.

2. You Can’t See Him

Over the last year in the WWE, John Cena’s retirement has been the single biggest narrative, spanning multiple creator and content types, from tribute posts to cultural crossovers. Even John Cena himself got in on the action, hyping up his return in classic ‘one last ride’ style. The narrative was also an instructive example of how WWE is leaning on new-school creators to broadcast its message: for example, Logan Paul’s IMPAULSIVE podcast ran a segment where Tony Hinchcliffe told Cena and Joe Rogan a story about The Undertaker sneaking out of a luxury suite (you had to be there), generating WWE-adjacent impressions from a non-wrestling audience.

3. iShowSpeed Shows Out

Beyond the Cena storyline, another narrative confirmed WWE’s successful inroads with Gen Z audiences: the rise of the iShowSpeed x WWE crossover. With 48 posts across multiple creators, the creator’s involvement with the WWE—attending events, interacting with Logan Paul and Randy Orton, appearing at WrestleMania—was a multi-month saga in its own right. Paul himself sits at the center of this crossover zone as both a WWE superstar and a mega-creator, bridging his IMPAULSIVE podcast audience and traditional WWE audiences via his in-ring storytelling.

And then there’s the fact that in this day and age, both the wrestlers themselves and the events at which they compete are doubling as creators. Roman Reigns, The Rock, Rhea Ripley, and Liv Morgan all drove significant social media buzz for the WWE, while WrestleMania and WWE Netflix rounded out the media picture.

To put it another way: woooooo! The WWE has continued to roll with the punches (etc.), future-proofing itself to win over another generation of fans. With old-school icons and new-school stars united, there’s no telling how far creators can continue to take the WWE.

And that’s the bottom line, because HBBIP said so.

*All data, unless otherwise specified, stems from CreatorIQ’s public-facing brand leaderboards. We will never share performance metrics from a customer’s CreatorIQ profile, or any brand’s private information.

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