Feedback, corrections, and media inquiries can be sent to Brandon at brandon@wrestlenomics.com.
Wrestlenomics is an independent outlet covering the business of professional wrestling.
We report on television ratings, live event attendance, financial performance, and legal and other matters involving major wrestling companies.
A close look at this unique billion-dollar industry often serves as a revealing window into how economics, corporate power, the law, and new forms of media function in the industry in particular and in the world more generally.
Our coverage attempts to break new, meaningful information and insights. To do so we frequently rely on large datasets, SEC and court filings, public records, and other primary documents. We translate that material for a wide non-expert audience into accurate, factual stories. We hope our work sheds light on an industry that often prefers to operate in darkness.
A few examples of our most in-depth pieces:
Our reporting and research have been cited by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, Variety, Bloomberg, The Associated Press, and many others. Our reporting is also frequently relied on throughout wrestling-focused media.
Wrestlenomics runs entirely on reader support, largely from subscriptions through Patreon or Substack. Subscriptions fund the real costs of independent reporting, from fees related to obtaining public records, to PACER access to obtain court filings, all of which lets us obtain public documents no one else pursues. Every dollar helps cover those expenses, along with essential tools for analysis and publication that make this work possible.
Wrestlenomics is independently operated and solely owned by me, Brandon Thurston.
The name “Wrestlenomics” was coined by Chris Harrington in 2013, building on his earlier work with the Indeed Wrestling podcast and blog, which began in 2005.
Chris started the Wrestlenomics Radio podcast around 2014, and from 2017 to 2018 we co-hosted it together.
With Chris, I contributed to business planning research in 2018 for the project that became All Elite Wrestling. I have not been involved with any similar AEW-related work since the company launched in 2019.
As a policy to avoid conflicts of interest, I respectfully decline to provide consulting services or any other work for wrestling companies, wrestling talent, or talent agents.
Chris transitioned to a full-time executive role with AEW in early 2019, upon which he left Wrestlenomics.
In 2020, during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, I relaunched the Wrestlenomics website and its Patreon.
Since late 2021, Wrestlenomics has worked closely with POST Wrestling. I co-host the weekly podcast Pollock & Thurston with John Pollock of POST Wrestling. Some of my reporting on legal topics and other stories is published with POST.
I previously worked as a professional wrestling trainer (2015-2020) and an independent wrestler (2003-2021).