WWE如何將美式職業(yè)摔角“秀”給中國(guó)？

SHANGHAI — Wang Bin looked down. A man wearing a blue skintight unitard writhed at his feet. Mr. Wang grinned. This was the moment he had been waiting for.

上海——王彬朝身下看去。一名穿著藍(lán)色彈力緊身衣的男子在他的腳邊翻滾。王彬咧開(kāi)嘴笑了。這是他期待已久的時(shí)刻。

So, too, had Cheng Shi. When Mr. Wang lifted the writhing man and slammed him to the floor for a three-count, it completed Mr. Cheng’s dream of watching a professional wrestler — battling in that most American of fake spectacles — who hailed from China.

這也是程石一直期待的時(shí)刻。當(dāng)王彬把蜷縮在自己腳下的人拉起來(lái)，然后把他猛勁摔在地板上，再數(shù)到三時(shí)，程石的夢(mèng)想實(shí)現(xiàn)了，他觀看了一名來(lái)自中國(guó)的職業(yè)摔角手參加這種最美國(guó)式的假打表演。

“I feel very proud and excited to see him onstage tonight, and so do all the fans,” Mr. Cheng, a 21-year-old student who makes fan videos for a Chinese audience, said before the match. He pointed at the screen of his smartphone to indicate the thousands of people watching him on his live broadcast. “We are very, very excited.”

程石是一名為中國(guó)觀眾制作摔角粉絲視頻的學(xué)生，今年21歲。他在比賽前說(shuō)，“今晚能在擂臺(tái)上看到他，我感到非常自豪和激動(dòng)，所有的粉絲也有同感。”他指著他的智能手機(jī)屏幕，屏幕上可以看出有數(shù)千人在觀看他的現(xiàn)場(chǎng)直播。“我們非常、非常激動(dòng)。”

Looking for eyeballs and new money sources, World Wrestling Entertainment — the company that brought Hulk Hogan and Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson into American living rooms — has grand ambitions for a bigger but much more difficult market. It has started a new service live-streaming Chinese-language matches and commentary. It is also combing China’s provinces for more beefy talent like Mr. Wang.

為了尋找眼球和新的資金來(lái)源，曾把霍克·霍肯(Hulk Hogan)和綽號(hào)“巨石”的道恩·強(qiáng)森[Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson]帶入美國(guó)客廳的世界摔角娛樂(lè)公司(World Wrestling Entertainment，簡(jiǎn)稱(chēng)WWE)，對(duì)一個(gè)更大但困難更多的市場(chǎng)野心勃勃。該公司已開(kāi)始了一項(xiàng)新服務(wù)，播放配有中文評(píng)論的賽事直播，也正在中國(guó)各省尋找像王彬這樣的壯碩人才。

China presents formidable challenges. Entertainment names like Netflix and Rupert Murdoch have taken aim at China’s population of 1.4 billion only to run afoul of the country’s tight controls over media. Wrestling’s cartoon violence and sometimes salacious story lines could attract unwanted attention from the government. And while it has its fans, American-style wrestling-as-scripted-entertainment is largely unheard-of among mainland Chinese.

中國(guó)市場(chǎng)對(duì)該公司來(lái)說(shuō)是一個(gè)巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。像Netflix和魯伯特·默多克(Rupert Murdoch)這樣的娛樂(lè)公司都已看準(zhǔn)了中國(guó)14億的人口，但它們也與中國(guó)對(duì)媒體的嚴(yán)格控制發(fā)生著沖突。摔角的卡通暴力和有時(shí)帶有色情色彩的故事情節(jié)可能會(huì)吸引來(lái)自政府不必要的關(guān)注。雖然摔角有自己的粉絲，但是，作為按照劇本編排的娛樂(lè)，這種美式摔角在中國(guó)大陸還基本上沒(méi)有什么觀眾。

“There is no presence of product over here,” said John Cena, the square-jawed wrestler and action movie star who has learned to speak some Chinese as part of the push. By tackling the language, he added, “I’m kind of a vehicle to leverage what we’ve done.” “在這里還沒(méi)有以產(chǎn)品的形式存在，”

約翰·塞納(John Cena)說(shuō)，作為市場(chǎng)開(kāi)拓努力的一部分，這位方下巴的摔角手兼動(dòng)作電影明星已經(jīng)學(xué)會(huì)說(shuō)一些中文了。他補(bǔ)充說(shuō)，通過(guò)解決語(yǔ)言問(wèn)題，“我可以說(shuō)是一個(gè)工具，為我們所做的事情起到杠桿作用。”

Wrestling’s answer is to go local — and digital. Bypassing state-controlled broadcast television, it has teamed with a video-streaming company to reach fans though computers and mobile devices.

摔角的中國(guó)市場(chǎng)解決方案是本地化，以及數(shù)字化。繞過(guò)國(guó)家控制的廣播電視，公司已與一家視頻流媒體公司合作，通過(guò)計(jì)算機(jī)和移動(dòng)設(shè)備直接觸及粉絲。

It has also geared up efforts to introduce a new audience to the suplex, the body slam and the drop-kick. W.W.E. has hired four full-time social media directors in Shanghai to maintain local-language social media accounts for its wrestlers and executives. It is also hosting viewing parties, like one this month in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, in which locals devoured pizza and cream sodas while watching a pay-per-view wrestling match and playing the W.W.E.’s latest Xbox video game.

公司也在努力把背摔、抱舉對(duì)手重摔，以及飛身踢介紹給新的觀眾。WWE已在上海聘請(qǐng)了四名全職社交媒體總監(jiān)，為其摔角手和高管們維護(hù)本地語(yǔ)言的社交媒體帳戶(hù)。公司還主辦了觀看聚會(huì)，例如本月在中國(guó)城市廣州舉辦的那場(chǎng)，應(yīng)邀前來(lái)的當(dāng)?shù)赜^眾吃著披薩餅、喝著汽水，同時(shí)觀看著按次付費(fèi)的摔角比賽，玩著WWE最新版的Xbox視頻游戲。

Success requires exposing Chinese audiences to a new type of entertainment — a choreographed drama in which the outcome is known, though its dangers and injuries are sometimes shockingly real.

要想成功，就需要讓中國(guó)觀眾接觸到一種新型的娛樂(lè)，一種結(jié)果事先就定下來(lái)、精心編排的打斗劇，雖然這種表演的危險(xiǎn)和傷害有時(shí)真實(shí)地令人震驚。

“They’ve never really seen anything like us,” said Paul Levesque, W.W.E.’s executive in charge of talent and live events, who is also a partly retired wrestler better known as Triple H. “The athleticism is very real. The story lines and the theater part of it is where they had a hard time with the blurred line of that.”

“他們從未看到過(guò)我們這樣的東西，”WWE負(fù)責(zé)人才和直播活動(dòng)的執(zhí)行官保羅·萊維斯克(Paul Levesque)說(shuō)，他也是以Triple H而聞名、半退休的摔角手。“這里面的運(yùn)動(dòng)能力是非常真實(shí)的。他們難以接受的是其中的故事情節(jié)和戲劇部分，那是讓表演和比賽的界限模糊的地方。”

To friends unfamiliar with wrestling, “I find that the shortest way to tell them is to say it’s an American version — a global version — of the kung fu novel,” said Jay Li, a longtime executive at multinational companies in China who in April joined W.W.E. as its general manager for greater China. “They get it immediately, because they immediately have a cultural connection and a mental image of what this is about.”

對(duì)于不熟悉摔角的朋友來(lái)說(shuō)，“我發(fā)現(xiàn)，向他們解釋的最簡(jiǎn)單的方法是說(shuō)那是一個(gè)美國(guó)版的、一個(gè)全球版的功夫小說(shuō)，”長(zhǎng)期擔(dān)任跨國(guó)公司中國(guó)區(qū)執(zhí)行官的李杰(Jay Li)說(shuō)，他已于今年4月作為大中華區(qū)總經(jīng)理加入了WWE。“他們馬上就明白了，因?yàn)樗麄凂R上就產(chǎn)生了一種文化聯(lián)系，腦海中就有了這是怎么一回事的概念。”

While a lot of attention has been placed in recent years on the expansion into Hollywood of Chinese companies like Dalian Wanda, most foreign entertainment firms struggle to make comparable inroads in China. For some, like Disney, penetrating China has meant giving the Communist Party greater say over its business on the mainland.

雖然近年來(lái)，像大連萬(wàn)達(dá)這樣的中國(guó)公司進(jìn)軍好萊塢的擴(kuò)張相當(dāng)引人注目，但大多數(shù)外國(guó)娛樂(lè)公司在中國(guó)的類(lèi)似努力卻困難重重。對(duì)于一些公司，比如迪士尼來(lái)說(shuō)，進(jìn)入中國(guó)市場(chǎng)意味著讓共產(chǎn)黨對(duì)其大陸業(yè)務(wù)有更大的話語(yǔ)權(quán)。

Sports — or something that looks like a sport — might be different. Sports enjoys thematic support from the government, which is big on hosting international events like the Olympics and promoting sports like soccer. China’s push to get soccer into schools and make the country a power in the sport has led companies to pay big sums for broadcast rights.

體育運(yùn)動(dòng)，或者看上去像體育運(yùn)動(dòng)的東西可能會(huì)有所不同。體育運(yùn)動(dòng)享受政府的專(zhuān)項(xiàng)支持，政府對(duì)舉辦如奧運(yùn)會(huì)這樣的國(guó)際比賽，以及促進(jìn)諸如足球這樣的運(yùn)動(dòng)高度重視。中國(guó)在學(xué)校推廣足球、把中國(guó)變成足球強(qiáng)國(guó)方面的努力，已導(dǎo)致不少公司為爭(zhēng)奪轉(zhuǎn)播權(quán)投入大筆資金。

“Sports has historically been underdeveloped in China and online, and a lot of players are looking for ways to monetize that,” said Vivek Couto, a founder and a director at Media Partners Asia, an industry research consultant.

“體育運(yùn)動(dòng)在中國(guó)歷史上一直不發(fā)達(dá)，在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上也一樣，很多人都在尋找在這方面賺錢(qián)的方法，”維韋克·庫(kù)托(Vivek Couto)說(shuō)，他是行業(yè)研究機(jī)構(gòu)“亞洲傳媒伙伴”(Media Partners Asia)的創(chuàng)始人和董事。

Professional wrestling could use the eyeballs. Like other media companies, W.W.E. is grappling with the new world of cord-cutting, in which viewers drop their cable subscriptions and order shows, à la carte, via the internet.

職業(yè)摔角需要更多的眼球。像其他媒體公司一樣，WWE正在努力應(yīng)對(duì)有線電視需求劇減的新世界，人們正在退掉他們訂購(gòu)的有線電視服務(wù)，通過(guò)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)來(lái)點(diǎn)播想看的節(jié)目。

International viewers offer one potential growth area. They make up only about a quarter of the paid subscribers on W.W.E.’s digital subscription service, which is one of the biggest contributors to the company’s bottom line.

國(guó)際觀眾為媒體公司提供了一個(gè)潛在的增長(zhǎng)領(lǐng)域。國(guó)際觀眾只占WWE數(shù)字化服務(wù)付費(fèi)訂戶(hù)的四分之一，而數(shù)字化服務(wù)是對(duì)公司收入貢獻(xiàn)最大的服務(wù)之一。

As China shows, international growth isn’t always easy. In October, W.W.E. told investors it was still waiting to offer subscriptions directly to Chinese viewers.

正如中國(guó)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)所示，公司想在國(guó)際上增長(zhǎng)并不總是容易的。今年10月，WWE對(duì)其投資者說(shuō)，公司仍在等待能讓中國(guó)觀眾直接成為其訂戶(hù)。

For now it works with a Chinese video company service called PPTV, which streams the company’s weekly flagship shows, called “SmackDown” and “RAW,” with real-time Mandarin commentary. (Suplex, in case you were wondering, translates as deshi beishuai, or “German-style back throw.”) PPTV subscriptions start at less than $3 per month, roughly a third of what W.W.E.’s own subscription service costs outside China, and include movies and other shows.

目前，WWE在與一家名為PPTV的中國(guó)視頻公司合作，通過(guò)PPTV來(lái)播出公司每周一期、名為SmackDown和RAW的主打節(jié)目，并實(shí)時(shí)配有普通話評(píng)論。(如果你想知道suplex怎么翻譯，它被譯為“德式背摔”。)PPTV訂戶(hù)每月最低收費(fèi)為20元(不到三美元)，大約是WWE自己為中國(guó)以外訂戶(hù)提供服務(wù)收費(fèi)的三分之一，其服務(wù)也包括電影和其他節(jié)目。

Much rides on Mr. Wang, W.W.E.’s first mainland wrestler. The company’s social media team works to make him a star — his verified account on the Weibo social media service recently featured videos of him training at W.W.E.’s huge facility in Orlando, Fla. Seven other mainlanders, six men and one woman, will relocate to Orlando in January.

很多期望都寄托在WWE的首位大陸職業(yè)摔角手王彬的身上。公司的社交媒體團(tuán)隊(duì)正在努力把他打造成一名明星，他在社交媒體微博上的認(rèn)證帳戶(hù)最近推出了他在WWE佛羅里達(dá)州奧蘭多的巨大場(chǎng)地進(jìn)行培訓(xùn)的視頻。其他七名大陸人，六男一女，也將在明年1月到奧蘭多去。

Mr. Wang, a 22-year-old native of eastern Anhui Province, was an athlete after middle school, a member of the provincial rowing team. He later moved to Shanghai and took up sparring, and caught the attention of representatives from Inoki Genome Federation, a big Japanese wrestling and mixed martial arts promotion.

22歲的王彬來(lái)自東部的安徽省，中學(xué)畢業(yè)后當(dāng)了運(yùn)動(dòng)員，曾是省賽艇隊(duì)隊(duì)員。他后來(lái)到上海去練散打搏擊，引起了Inoki Genome Federation代表的注意，那是推廣摔角和混合式武術(shù)的一家日本大型團(tuán)體。

Mr. Wang spent three years in Japan before he was noticed by W.W.E. He signed a three-year development deal with the American company and started training in Orlando over the summer in preparation for his China debut.

在受到WWE的注意之前，王彬在日本待了三年。他與這家美國(guó)公司簽訂了為期三年的發(fā)展協(xié)議，今年夏天在奧蘭多開(kāi)始受訓(xùn)，為他在中國(guó)的首次登臺(tái)做準(zhǔn)備。

When the moment finally arrived in Shanghai in September, Mr. Wang entered the arena to modern Chinese music. He gave the crowd a traditional Chinese, kung fu-style greeting, pressing his right fist into his left palm.

今年9月，當(dāng)那個(gè)時(shí)刻終于在上海到來(lái)時(shí)，王彬在中國(guó)現(xiàn)代音樂(lè)聲中登上擂臺(tái)。他把左掌合到右拳上，對(duì)人群報(bào)以中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)的功夫式問(wèn)候。

His opponent, a wrestler named Bo Dallas, was booed by the Shanghai crowd before Mr. Wang tossed him to the mat, pinning him in a three-count on the second try.

他的對(duì)手是一個(gè)名叫博·達(dá)拉斯的摔角手(Bo Dallas)，上海觀眾對(duì)他報(bào)以噓聲。之后，王彬把對(duì)手摔在了墊子上，并在第二次摔倒對(duì)手后將其壓住了，直到數(shù)到三。

Mr. Wang doesn’t yet have a defined act or character, or even a flashy name. One of the oldest such personas in W.W.E.-style wrestling is the foreign heel, or bad guy; those include personas like Mr. Fuji, a Japanese villain played by Harry Fujiwara.

王彬還沒(méi)有一個(gè)明確的戲碼或角色要演，甚至也沒(méi)有一個(gè)花哨的名字。WWE式摔角中最古老這類(lèi)角色之一是外國(guó)渾蛋或壞人，包括比如像佐藤哈利(Harry Fujiwara)扮演的富士先生這種角色。

In an interview, Mr. Wang said he wasn’t a big believer in appealing to such nationalistic tropes.

在一次采訪中，王彬說(shuō)，他不大相信用這種民族主義老調(diào)來(lái)吸引人。

“People shouldn’t see you for your nationality or ethnic group,” he said. “It’s less about that and more about what you can do, personally, as a warrior and a figure in the ring.”

“人們不應(yīng)該只看你的國(guó)籍或民族，”他說(shuō)。“那不重要，重要的是你能做什么，你個(gè)人作為一個(gè)斗士、一個(gè)人物在擂臺(tái)上能做什么。”