Professional wrestling
Sports entertainment

The term sports entertainment was coined by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) chairman Vince McMahon during the 1980s as a marketing term to describe the industry of professional wrestling, primarily to potential advertisers, although precursors date back to February 1935, when Toronto Star sports editor Lou Marsh described professional wrestling as "sportive entertainment". In 1989, the WWF used the phrase in a case it made to the New Jersey Senate for classifying professional wrestling as "sports entertainment" and thus not subject to regulation like a directly competitive sport.

In subsequent years, WWE began to insist that its talent use "sports entertainment", and not "pro wrestling", to describe its business, to the point that the term was sometimes used in other promotions to generate heat. WWE moved away from this insistence in 2024 after Vince McMahon's departure from the company, but still uses "sports entertainment" in some contexts.

Despite its association with WWE, the term "sports entertainment" is not inherently limited to pro wrestling, and can also encompass other forms of sports-based events. Many represent variants of actual sports, such as exhibition basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters. Others modify sport for entertainment purposes, such as many of the various mascot races held at numerous Major League Baseball games in-between innings. Roller derby was presented as a popular form of sports entertainment in the 1970s, though modern versions are legitimate competition.
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