How to promote a wrestling show?

Why do wrestling promoters use billed height and weight to promote their wrestlers?

• When did it start for the first time and is it really a necessity? At what stage in wrestler's career this billed phenomenon enters? (E.g. at NCAA) or is it limited to Pro wrestling/ Wrestling Entertainment world (excluding international events)? Does it suggest that people only want to see bigger and stronger wrestlers? (Even in wrestling entertainment world?) If you say that small wrestlers are also equally popular, even their heights and weights are billed by an inch or by few pounds for that matter!

• Answer:

  I believe that this practice comes from wrestling (the sport) where the athletes are segregated in different weight categories. It has been carried forward in WWE to aid the suspension of disbelief and to get people to think that it's all true. That's the reason why WWE had a cruiser weight division running for a long time. Are bigger guys preferred? Vince McMahon apparently seems to have a liking for bigger guys (purely from business perspective), which explains the push for guys like Ryback over others. The height and weight also play a vital role in marketing a few athletes (Big Show, Khali, Kane, etc.) but the relevance of billing height and weight ends there and it takes a lot more than just the perfect physique to become popular or the face of the company.