The Elite, The The Elite…
Social capital is a network of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with social capital. Social capital helps bring people together. Social capital brings people together. Whether it is through social media or even real life, people come together to be part of something bigger because they feel as though they helped make a change which in turn lets them feel good about it. As for those social capital “leaders”, they feel good to help start or create something new that can stand the test of time. This is what one wresting group sought out to do. Using their networks they bring people together that share similar interests and goals. This group is a great example of using social capital to their advantage…
The Elite is a wrestling group (yes, once again I go to wrestling for a blog post) made up of the Young Bucks, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Marty Scrull, & Cody. Each by themselves has a lot of social capital that could have skyrocketed them to stardom but as a combined unit they became the most coveted and sought outgroup in all of professional wrestling. They used their social capital in the form of the Being the Elite web series on YouTube. It first started out as a blog that followed Kenny and the Bucks around the US and Japan. It quickly grew with the addition of Cody, Page, & Scrull as each member found their way into the group via the Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling promotions. As each one began to show up on the show a connection was made across their social media platforms. Each time they brought together fans of wrestling not just because of their wrestling styles but also because they used the Being the Elite platform and their gathered social capital to band fans together to make a change to wrestling. After this, they became free agents from both Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. And they created the All Elite Wrestling brand and together brought their social capital together to create a new brand of wrestling for those following their social capital to come together and watch a new form of wrestling the can compare and even compete with the WWE.
