By John Boccacino '03
Think of your favorite movie, television show, or Broadway musical. Odds are one of the reasons why that show resonates is because of strongly developed characters who make you experience a wide-range of emotions. We root for the likeable underdog and curse the slick antagonist who stands in his or her way.
That same formula has been a key ingredient in the enduring success of World Wrestling Entertainment. Because it can devise plot twists and matches catered specifically to its fan base, and with complete control over its content, WWE thrives on producing characters you love, and characters you love to hate.
At the heart of WWE — a creative multimedia outlet with a net worth of nearly $3 billion, including $801 million in revenue last year, and one of the most popular YouTube channels in the world (nearly 40 million subscribers) — are three passionate Syracuse University alumni.
Chris Chambers ’80 serves as senior vice president of production strategy and original programming for WWE Network, the company’s streaming platform that brings matches, documentaries, feature films, and reality shows to more than 1.8 million subscribers. It is the second most popular among professional sports, behind only MLB.tv. Streaming video views increased by nearly 33 percent to 20 billion in 2018.
Jordan Mendal ’88 is vice president of special projects. Every time one of the WWE’s current superstars, like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, or Roman Reigns, has a celebrity appearance, Mendal coordinates the shoot, schedules the production crew, works on the logistics and coordination of the WWE's celebrity appearances, and more. This includes the upcoming Sundance Film Festival in Utah, where a WWE Network feature-length film, “Fighting with my Family,” — featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson among other wrestling stars — will debut.
Adam Pennucci ’94 serves as senior vice president of domestic and international production, leading a team of more than 50 employees to produce shows in 24 languages that are viewed in more than 100 countries around the world. Among the shows Pennucci oversees are Raw, the longest-running weekly episodic television program (according to number of episodes) in the country, and SmackDown, the second-longest running weekly program in the U.S.
Chambers (26 years), Pennucci (24 years), and Mendal (22 years) have been key contributors for WWE, which performed more than 500 live shows in 2017. The Orange connections don’t stop there. Sean Coulthard ’88 — better known by his WWE stage name of Michael Cole — is the WWE’s primary announcer who earned a broadcast journalism degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
“Everyone is getting involved in content creation, but for the most part we generate our own content, produce our own shows with our own music, graphics, and talent. We develop characters and license our merchandise. We create every step of the process,” says Chambers, who also earned a broadcast journalism degree from Newhouse.
One of the most infamous moments in SU sports history might have served as inspiration for Chambers appreciation for character development—when John Thompson, the legendary head coach of the Georgetown University men’s basketball team, famously declared “Manley Field House is officially closed” after his Hoyas upset SU 52-50 in the last game played at Manley, Feb. 13, 1980. Chambers, then a senior, compared Thompson’s actions to that of a wrestling antagonist.
“Great storylines need those characters you love to hate, and Thompson knew what he was doing. He created the SU/Georgetown rivalry that lives on to this day, and he created his own little wrestling character as the evil coach of Georgetown,” says Chambers, who served as one of the cooks for the 1977 SU football team.
Mendal decided to study broadcast journalism at SU when he received the March 12, 1984 issue of Sports Illustrated, which included an article detailing how SU was “the incubator of sports announcers.”
“Syracuse was my dream school. The minute I arrived on campus, toured WAER, and visited the Carrier Dome, I fell in love with SU,” says Mendal, who worked for the Daily Orange, WAER, and WJPZ and covered the undefeated 1987 football team and the 1987 men’s basketball team that lost to Indiana in the national championship.
Mendal and his wife, Aimee Skier ’95, attended SU, as did Aimee’s brother, Jeffrey ’93, her parents Henry ’62 and Eve ’64, and other cousins and uncles. It was only natural that Mendal would cross paths with two other passionate Orange alumni at WWE.
“I often find myself wondering how I got so lucky to get paid to do this kind of work. I knew I wanted to get involved with sports or entertainment, and this job was a dream for me,” Mendal says. “Adam and Chris are so talented and so good at what they do; they’re my work brothers and they inspire me.”
Pennucci studied speech communication in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at SU, and credits Chambers and Mendal — his two Orange mentors at the WWE — with teaching him everything he knows about TV production.
“To have three SU guys who have played instrumental roles at the WWE TV studio is incredible. We’re on 52 weeks a year and we never repeat an episode. Our production values are incredible. We give our fans a live soap opera performance with music, graphics, pyrotechnics, great storylines, and larger-than-life characters. It’s like a variety show,” says Pennucci, who produced Raw for 16 years, and who used hype videos to make big matches feel even bigger.
While he didn’t grow up a wrestling fan, Pennucci has come to respect the passion these athletes have for their craft.
“Just because the outcomes are determined, doesn’t make the physicality any less real. If you throw a guy from the top of a cage onto a table, or if you hit someone with a steel chair, their body is going to hurt whether the outcome is scripted or not. Our performers put themselves through so much for their fans,” Pennucci says.
We love telling the stories of Syracuse University’s outstanding alumni. If you have a great story you’d like us to share, email John Boccacino ’03.