What Has Happened to the Wrestling Fans?

[dwith]

This thread is not to bash any particular wrestling company.

I apologize for the length also.

It is to find out why the casual wrestling fan has lost sight of what being a wrestling fan is.

Back in the hay day when wrestling was cool, I used to watch wwf, ecw (when i could) and wcw, and loved watching all of them with not having any favorite at the time. I just enjoyed watching all that pro wrestling had to offer me.

As time went on WWE got bigger, and WCW grew enormously, and the war had begun, and I still loved watching ECW until they closed.

The monday night war's had begun, and I loved it. Wrestling at it's best.

I made sure I was off of work every monday especially and I would anxiously flip back and forth between RAW, and NITRO, I ate it up, and was loving it.

Well back in the late 90's I got connected to the internet, and found wrestling websites that talked about wrestling in forums. Before I knew it I was rooting for WCW over the WWE in the monday night wars. I still loved wrestling, but the internet and steered me in a different direction. At the end of he monday night wars my favorite had collapsed after the AOL merger, and the company I had grew to dislike was the only one standing tall. So I went back to watching WWE, and realized the attitude era kicked ass, and was still a whole lot like WCW.

For years I was content with WWE product, and wrestling internet sites, and I would just catch some of the news of what's happening, and shit like that.

Then TNA came along onto spike tv after WWE left. I started watching TNA and it gave me that little feeling of loving pro wrestling again. So I was watching IMPACT & RAW and surfing the wrestling internet forums as usual which were displaying tons of negativity between the wrestling organizations.

So overall WWE was going to child oriented, and TNA was still adult oriented, and I ended up sticking with TNA, but still watch WWE on occasion.

There have been so many times I can't even count that wrestling forums have strayed my pro wrestling love and steered it in way's I would not normally have or wanted to go.

The wrestling forums like this one could be used for so much more than a way to bash each other, wrestling organizations, and wrestlers alike, but we as a whole don't. We could help promote matches, and wrestlers, and organizations, and we tend to want to do the opposite. Yet I still continue to surf pro wrestling sites everyday and get involved with wrestling arguments about who's better and who's not, and who's bigger, and who's not, and I wonder anymore if I even know what a true wrestling fan is anymore.

Has anyone else felt that the internet wrestling as a whole has changed their ideals of wrestling, and just seemed to have lost their way as a true wrestling fan?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As far as your average fan goes, and the same goes with some internet fans, their tastes have changed as they've gotten older. Their taste in music, favorite tv programs, movies, etc. have gone through substantial changes.

For instance, guys who might've been rabid fans of 70s style blood & gore horror flicks 10 years ago are sitting beside their girlfriends or wives watching the latest Twilight movie or other "chick flicks" like The Vow. Guys who were headbanging to Metallica & Guns N' Roses in their teens are now singing along to the latest releases of Taylor Swift or Kelly Clarkson.

As far as wrestling goes, generally speaking, not all that much has changed in terms of how things are generally run. What's really changed are the fans themselves. It's not just that we've gotten older, it's that the mystique of wrestling is no longer around thanks to the internet. We're in the loop now and have much more if an idea how things are run and what goes on now than we did during the Attitude Era & before. Because of that, in the minds of some fans, wrestling no longer has the magic it used to have.

Some fans have decided that it's not really them, that it's the product. The problem with that thought is that history just doesn't back up that train of thought. The way you hear some guys rant & rave, you'd think that everything that took place during the 80s and through the Attitude Era was this wrestling paradise in which every wrestler was a star, every promo had you pumping your fist & every match had you sitting on the edge of your seat. That's not how it actually was, not at all.

For instance, you had your share of stars during those years but you also had your guys who were overall duds as well. For every Hulk Hogan & Ric Flair, you had your Tito Santana & Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. For every Macho Man Randy Savage & Sting, you had guys like Don Muracco & Greg Gagne. Not that those guys didn't have talent or ability, but if you put a Greg Valentine or Tito Santana at 30 years of age in front of today's modern audience, they'd get every bit as much criticism as guys like CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes & numerous others get from internet fans, if not more. For instance, neither Valentine or Santana were very much to speak of as far as personality & charisma goes, yet they're still viewed & respected as legends by some fans, in part, because they grew up watching them with eyes & minds that weren't as educated about the ins & outs of wrestling as they are now.

Generally speaking, the bigges problem with a lot of today's fans, particularly internet fans as they seem to be the ones doing most of the bitching, is that they're too smart for their own good or that think that they're smarter than they truly are. We all know that wrestling is staged and that angles are created by a writing team. We know that. Pandora's Box has been opened and there's no closing it. However, it doesn't negate the fact that you can still enjoy pro wrestling as much as you ever did if you just allow yourself to. A lot of fans won't do that, however. They want to watch in the hopes of finding something to complain about and posting about their dislike online. I'm not saying that nobody's wrong not to dislike something because there's always going to be something that's put on that doesn't please someone. You can't please everybody after all, but you can't even remotely start to enjoy watching pro wrestling if you're in a mind set of not allowing yourself to watch it. Take WM for instance. Weeks before the event even aired, there were fans posting in various threads in which they sounded as though they'd already made their minds up that the show was going to suck. They'd already decided, for one reason or another, that they weren't going to enjoy the show with some of the lamest excuses ever such as the order in which certain matches were in. Yet, how many of those same fans still forked over $55 to watch the show?

Pro wrestling will never give us the same sort of magical wonderment we had when we were wide eyed kids but, in many ways, it's still better to me now than it used to be. For example, I wouldn't take 50 Lex Luger's for 1 CM Punk.

 

[Larry]

Has anyone else felt that the internet wrestling as a whole has changed their ideals of wrestling, and just seemed to have lost their way as a true wrestling fan?

I would say that the IWC has in some ways changed some of my ideals on wrestling, but never in a way that made me feel like I was less of a fan of wrestling as a result or that I lost my way. If anything I am grateful for the IWC because it has educated me quite a great deal. Guys like Jack-Hammer and whole list of other guys who have been carrying the WZF banner for years have all helped to give me a better insight to wrestling and form a better mind towards judging the products I watch.

In other IWC circles they've really opened me up to sources of wrestling I never really heard of and wasn't open to previously like Dragon Gate USA, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, EVOLVE, Chikara, Shimmer, ROH, AAA, NJPW, Pro Wrestling NOAH, etc.... and I still don't see much acknowledgment or coverage of those wrestling companies here on WZ, so parts of the IWC still have some catching up to do on that front to help some of these other outlets gain some notoriety. I am thankful all the time that I have so many options for wrestling entertainment, and that's all because I became part of the IWC, so I wouldn't say it's all that bad.

I think the problems you are talking about were addressed very well by Jack-Hammer, as is everything addressed by Jack-Hammer. Tastes change, people change, we get smarter, more knowledgeable about the inner workings of the business, and the more we know and learn the less magic there is in it to us. It's just like a magic trick. You could see it and be mystified a million times trying to figure it out, then once you do it's just another magic trick. I think another big problem is that the fans, especially at live shows, are more worried about getting themselves over than the wrestlers. The smart fan has become a bigger part of the audience and wants to show the people running the business that they are just as smart to the business as those running it.

 

[HBsam31]

This is something I have been thinking about for a while now, and I have to agree with a poster above in that our tastes change, and when I was a kid wrestling was almost magical. I do think there is something to the internet changing ideals though. I used to get so excited to be spoiled when I first found these websites, and don't even know why. I have stayed away from the spoilers a bit now, and just from that I enjoy the product more. There also seems to be a lot of negativity on these websites, and I have to agree with a poster above that said some fans are to smart for their own good. Some people go onto a website and read something and then act like they just had lunch with Vince and the rest of creative. Its a bit strange actually lol. I have said in other threads that it is fun to debate wrestling, but at the end we should just sit back and be fans. We should try not to trash the products so much, and give all wrestling companies a chance because if a little company like ROH is successful it only makes wrestling as a whole better.

 

[Peoples_Champ]

What defines a "true" wrestling fan any more? I would argue that those obsessive 10 year olds are more "true fans" than most internet fans. Just check out the comment thread on any WWE post. It's filled with kids who are crazy about the product.

Times change and people change. The generation has changed and so too must WWE change with it. I think its very telling that someone like Damien Sandow is being positioned as a heel for similar things that Lord Alfred Hayes used to talk about. But that's the evolution of the product.

I do agree with Jack-Hammer, this generation *loves* to bitch endlessly about anything and everything. Usually its knee-jerk reactions to short-term decisions. It's like reading War & Peace and being mad about the second chapter. That is something that isn't going away, but it is upsetting to deal with.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

I don't agree with theseyassumptions at all but I can seeo why certain sections are overreacting.u

But people are not just shelling out big money to buy
PPVsc and tickets because they have always done it. Wrestling has kept us entertained for the longest period and I do laud all their worku, especially these 2 years. With us fans it it is armchair pundits but it is good to see that the new fans still aren't smartasses dipsheetn lovers but enthusiastic fans who still get thrilled by a return or the style of a brawler and stuff. Neither is every high-flier a spot monkeyt. Takes away the fun all this overanalysis of psychology blah blah.