Becoming "Smart" about the wrestling business and why I now regret doing so

[BringThePain834]

Okay, so I am not really sure what the direction of this post is going to be or even my reasoning for it. But after watching this past Monday Night RAW, I truly can say that I regret ever really watching shoot interviews or reading articles from websites like The Torch and The Wrestling Observer. It is very interesting and I love finding out as much as I can about the wrestling business, but I feel like it has taken that "kayfabe magic" away from me. I can just think of a guy like Roman Reigns. Had I not known about the wrestling business and the in/outs of it, I would've loved the guy. If a 10 year old me had been watching RAW and a guy like Roman Reigns would've came out, I would've been one of his biggest supporters. I mean what is there not to love about the guy? He has the size, the intensity, the look, his promos are cold yet entertaining, just a very larger than life personality and look. Every time he hits his spear, I can just imagine how I felt when I would see Goldberg hit his spear, it was just intense and very similar. But with everything now known about the business, I have more regard for guys like Daniel Bryan and Cesaro. I try to watch the show from an unbiased standpoint in the regards of trying not to predict what is going to happen, but I almost can't help it now. I knew exactly what was going to happen at Fast Lane. I knew for a fact that Roman was going to beat Bryan and go onto WrestleMania to face Lesnar. I basically predicted that entire show, and because I have an idea of how the wrestling business works in regards to their creative, it is hard for me to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the show and be shocked by the results. I remember watching back in even early 2000 when The Rock was going to face The Big Show to determine who went on to WM, and when Shane came out and hit The Rock in the head with the steel chair to help Show win, that was shocking to me. I could have never predicted anything like that back then as a 11 year old. But to watch the show now, even when I try not to predict in my head, I do. I love watching shoot interviews with the older guys about what was going on backstage, but it has kind of taken away my ability to be able to take the show for what it's worth now. Maybe I'm just overthinking this, but I wish that I could unlearn everything I have about the business, so I could just take the show for what it is and immerse myself into the storylines.

I guess my reason for posting this is to ask basically, does anyone else feel this way? Or is it just me?

 

[ABMorales787]

I don't regret it. Ive always levitated towards people with finesse or great character in most of the TV I watch. Something that has always been around TV even in most action oriented childrens programming. We're in an era of complex TV personalities like Walter White, Vic Grimes, Green Arrow and all that. Even in cartoons you see characters with layers of personality like Finn and Jake, Attack On Titan and TMNT.

These days people invest in the development of a person. And that's something WWE has neglected to the point of shoving off the only 2 people in 10 years with that development off the top of the card and even out of the company in favor of microwaved main event guys like Sheamus, The Miz and now Roman Reigns. You don't see it in TNA. And look how good Lashley has been. What Lesnar should've been, Lashley was. What Reigns should be, Lashley is.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Years before the IWC, etc figuring out wrestling wasn't tough. I was almost never surprised by the outcomes of big matches watching in the 80s & 90s....this is a soap opera based on good vs evil and when good wins the crowd cheers - not excactly a huge stretch here.

Watching really big shows back then I was almost never surprised - I will see I didn't think Jake Roberts would lost to Undertaker at WM 8 because Jake was so much bigger and more established than Taker and Jake had already put over Randy Savage several times in their feud. Now if I would have known about the Jake's impending WWE exit then I could have predicted his exit but this truly was one of the few times back then I didn't see the end result correctly.

This stuff isn't brain surgery. You don't need The Torch or anything else to "ruin" it for you, you just have to apply a few minutes of common sense and you'll figure almost everything out.

 

[marcuskayfabian]

sometimes i feel the same way as you do, but in my situation, i'm a retired wrestler having worked mainly in the small indies and having been in the business, i usually don't view matches as a fan would for instance i am harshly critique of matches that have no psychology what so ever. WWE booking IMO is horrible but here's how i feel about ppl that has never been in the business, being "smart" about it. Magic...you know ppl like chris angel and Penn and Teller are just doing illusions and not real magic, and if you go study magic, you can find out how to actually do the tricks, but they're still fun to watch. the same can be said of wrestling, you know it's a work but can still be fun to watch so long they do it right..which is why although i don't care for KO, i'm kind of hyped to see him work Cena at elimination chamber

 

[Radical]

It all depends on how you look at it, it's true.

As a kid growing up watching wrestling, before I really knew it was fake, I still had that feeling like it couldn't really be true because some stuff was so silly. I remember being maybe 10 or 11 and seeing those moves where they throw the guy into the turnbuckle and the other guy who threw him waits way too long to run at him and the guy in the turnbuckle STILL doesn't move. That was one of the biggest indicators to me that something was 'off'. I thought "c'mon, if this was real then that guy would have moved out of the way, there was way too much time to move and he still didn't!" But part of that is the entertaining part. It's funny and fun to see that stuff, most of the time.

I enjoyed the colourful characters, cool entrances and unique moves that pro wrestling offered. That's what got me as a kid but I will say I never became a SUPER fan. I never bought merchandise or PPVs or went to house shows. Part of that was probably because my parents didn't really like it so they wouldn't really approve of me doing much more than watching it on TV. But even if they allowed it, I don't think I would because I like it more as a TV show than something I buy into.

I also enjoy listening to shoot interviews because I like to hear about how a match gets called or characters get created.

But it's true, now that I know full well it's all a work, I can't help but critique it. I watch it to enjoy some fancy entrances, some cool characters and moves and athletic and entertaining matches but when 'swerve' stuff goes down I don't get emotionally invested in it, I just critique it for if I thought it was the right Creative decision or not.

That doesn't mean I can't enjoy the show. If I agree with or understand why they did what they did, I'll enjoy it more. If I don't understand or agree with it, I'll enjoy it less and be less interested in seeing what happens next.

So I'm kind of an odd 'wrestling fan' because I'm aware of what's going on in the business for the most part and I still enjoy seeing it (the good stuff) but the only business WWE is getting from me I that I have bought the Video Game many years (except this last year) so I guess I'm not really the fan WWE wants.

But this is why I reluctantly understand why WWE keeps doing silly humour stuff and makes decisions that seem very "kiddish" because they ARE marketing towards kids, mostly. However, they often make mistakes on what kids really like but, numbers don't like, they can't be making that many mistakes or their Network numbers and merchandise wouldn't still be going pretty strong.

Kids keep WWE going. Adults just allow their kids to buy stuff and some adults still watch and care about it but they are that niche group like adults who are really into Anime or RPG Board Games or Extreme Sports, etc! WWE just isn't really mainstream any more because there are so many choices but it's doing well maintaining a kid fan-base and some adults... but it's still at risk of losing adult fans MONEY if they focus so much on kid stuff that it only makes sense to kids.