Wrestlers Offers Free Tickets to Troops

By Carmen L. Gleason
American Forces Press Service

March 6, 2007 – Servicemembers can take advantage of the generosity of professional wrestlers by getting free admittance into World Wrestling Entertainment events worldwide. Members of the military can receive a free ticket to WWE events, based on availability and excluding WrestleMania events, when they provide valid identification to the box office on performance day.

"As a company, we feel that if it wasn't for troops laying their lives on the line we couldn't do what we do every day here in the states," said Sue Aitchison, senior manager for community relations.

WWE became a corporate partner with the Defense Department's America Supports You program in May 2005. America Supports You connects the nation's support of the troops directly to servicemembers and their families.

World Wrestling Entertainment has been a long-time supporter of the armed forces by visiting the wounded in military hospitals overseas and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here and the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md.

For the past three years, WWE superstars have traveled to Iraq to tape a televised holiday special that was broadcast to Americans and troops around the globe. They also have sent millions of dollars worth of T-shirts, videos, promotional items, magazines and compact discs to military personnel operating on the front lines.

"It is our philosophy that it doesn't matter what one's political preference is; we have to support these guys," Aitchison said.

This article was sponsored by criminal justice online leadership; and, police and military personnel who have written books.