Throughout its history, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has used its platform to champion worthy humanitarian causes. For instance, the WWE has been a longtime partner to non-profit organizations, such as Make-a-Wish, Special Olympics, and V Foundation. Internally, the WWE also has its own activations that hold regular fund-raising and awareness-building efforts, like the WWE Season of Giving and Community Champions. To date, these programs have helped support millions of honorees and more than 150 organizations.
WWE superstars themselves are also often directly involved in charity initiatives. For instance, icon John Cena is the world’s leading celebrity wish granter for Make-a-Wish, having granted over 650 wishes. Similarly, late last year, Braun Strowman participated as a special guest referee for the GLCW Blizzard Brawl. Proceeds from this event go to several charities, which is why the WWE and Triple H were all too happy to allow their talent, Strowman, to sign on.
Unsurprisingly, the WWE has also made an effort to think up more unorthodox ways to support charities. Aside from comedy shows and softball games, one of the more creative ways that the WWE has supported its charitable advocacies is through poker. But why does this work, and how does the WWE execute it?
Why is poker effective for charity initiatives?
For starters, poker has a massive player base, with over 100 million actively playing online. Such a massive demographic can be highly advantageous for any charity because it increases the chances of receiving donations. In line with this, because the classic card game also counts big-name celebs among its fans, it’s relatively easier to entice these famous faces to participate. Having them on board naturally adds credibility and organic interest to any charity.
This clever approach to using poker for good is very common among some of the biggest poker websites in the world. Americas Cardroom, also known as ACR Poker – which was established in 2001 – is the country’s number one online poker site and regularly holds charity poker tournaments, like the Breast Cancer Awareness Tourney held last October. It was organized to raise money for the United Breast Cancer Foundation (UBCF), and the event was hosted by ACR Pros Katie Lindsay and Ebony Kenney and livestreamed on Twitch.
Another example from the online world is PokerStars, when in 2023, the company worked with the BillyChip charity to produce a poker tournament where the proceeds went to supporting the homeless and vulnerable individuals.
How the WWE has championed charities with poker
Much like its other humanitarian forays, the WWE has approached charity poker by leveraging its roster’s star power. As such, rather than just slapping their name and logo on any old poker event, they’ve invited well-known wrestlers to join these games. This is easy enough to do, given that many WWE wrestlers themselves have experience in other poker and charity poker games. For example, Mike “The Miz” Mizanin once said that he joined a charity poker event for firefighters and made the effort to bring his WWE Tag Team Title to highlight his achievements.
In 2022, retired wrestler JBL began hosting poker tournaments. These were held in time with the celebrity’s then-returning poker segment on WWE Raw. According to Wrestling Attitude, these invitationals supported several charities, including the World Food Program and the Las Vegas Children’s Hospital. Of course, being that this is a WWE production, the poker matches were also laden with campy dramatic bits. For instance, at one game, Akira Tozawa lost his patience with Dominik Mysterio until the former ultimately challenged the latter to a match in the ring. In another instance, an axe was even added to the pot. With these antics, it’s clear that the WWE’s poker games are also about the acting and adding to the storylines as much as they are about the card game itself. Nevertheless, given how naturally engaging poker is, it’s an effective medium for the WWE’s storytelling and its charitable efforts.
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