Dirt Sheets in the WWE

[Burrows94]

Dirt sheets are known as the spoiler posts/threads and interviews etc of the WWE, Whilst the company was PG -14, they could cause alot of results to be leaked to alot of fans. My question is the following:

Do you feel Dirt sheets are less harmful to WWE in the current day due to the PG Rating and the target for a younger audience? purely because most youngsters would not search for sites like these although its very easy to get to them.

 

[Devlin]

I think it is just as harmful. While the WWE are aiming towards a younger audience, it doesn't mean that older people do not watch it. If anything, from what I've read about the ratings and key demographics, the 18-34 male demographic is still their biggest audience. So it is still quite relevant.

And in the age of technology we live in, with kids as young as 6 being able to surf the internet knowingly, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that alot of the younger WWE audience view wrestling news sites frequently.

 

[brighamosity]

I doubt little kids even come to wrestling websites. They might go to wwe.com but I doubt they would think "I wonder if I can find any secrets that WWE doesn't want me to know about." I'm pretty sure the IWC is a very small portion of WWE viewers. There's a guy at my work who watches Raw every week. I told him about wrestling websites and how you could find out insider info. He told me I had no life and wasn't even interested. I think that's probably how most fans are. They watch wrestling, but not enough to spend their time browsing dirt sheets. Now that I think about it, wrestlezone.com is the website I visit most. The majority of wrestling fans? Probably facebook or another mainstream website. Only the most hardcore fans care enough to actually read about wrestling.

Even in the late 90's, when everyone at school was walking around with nWo shirts and quoting The Rock, I was the only one I knew that read dirt sheets. All of my friends played video games and did other things that kids tend to do. But they weren't reading dirt sheets. That's not to say that there are no little kids who read dirt sheets, because I'm sure there are. But I don't see too much harm in that.

Like with these rumors about Kevin Nash being at the Rumble. If it actually happens, I'm sure 95% of people watching will be completely shocked. And the 5% that do know would be assholes if they went around trying to spoil it for anyone else.

 

[johnseamann]

I think the problem is not with the actual dirt sheets, but with the ease of difussion nowadays. Internet access has grown a lot, and more people can get access to info than back then. Still, as said before, most people don't know or care for spoilers, and many of those that read them still get "pumped up" for the shows.

 

[TUFFY54]

It's a double edged sword. On one hand you get to find out backstage information, on the other hand, there are no surprises anymore. Like other people have said, I think we vastly overestimate the number of people that read this stuff. I don't know how many people visit this site, but lets say its 100 thousand a day. That sounds like a lot of people, but that is only about 1/30 of the people that would watch Raw on a Monday night. As others have said, I know a lot of people who watch wrestling that have never gone to a wrestling site in their life.

 

[The Black Album]

Tuffy54 answered it right on the money. It sure is a double edged sword. I, for one, like reading spoilers and backstage info on WWE, TNA, ROH, ect. as it has me pumped for the show or otherwise not pumped up for a lackluster show. Hell, one of those spoilers would say "HUGE NAME RETURNING TONIGHT" and I'd click it. Watch the show later in the week/night and be like "damn, they were right." I'd mark a little bit if it were someone I really like but it wouldn't be a big shocker to me. Sorta like the Christian returning deal. Already knew about it and it wasn't shocking. Oh well, that's my personal choice to read spoilers and info.

While others personal choices are to find out themselves by actually watching the product without the dirt shirts being shocked. Even I know a great deal of guys who've never even heard of sites such as this, Lordsofpain.com and whatnot.

 

[justinept]

Dirt sheets aren't harmful for one very important reason: If you don't want to know what is going to happen, THEN YOU DONT HAVE TO READ WHAT ABOUT WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!

I've heard thid dirt sheet argument 1,000 times, and for some reasons, you guys always forget to mention that just because these things exist, it doesn't mean you have to read them. You wanna be surprised? Then maybe stay off the site for a little while...

 

[H33LTurn]

I dont think the dirt sheets are harmfull to WWE at all. Like its been said already, If you dont want to know whats going to happen then dont read the spoilers. Its that simple. I made the mistake of reading the spoilers for Smackdown a lot in the past years and it ruined the viewing experience for me so I stopped. If WWE wants to keep something a secret, then belive me they will. They leak certain information to have a secure viewing audience for certain event (i.e- The Montreal Screwjob was leaked, Bret Hart said so in the documentary). But I think its as simple as reading or not reading certain ariticles. Some people like to know whats going to happen, and other like the suspense. The "others" should be fair to their counterparts and stay away from the dirt sheets instead of blaming them for ruining the sport. I've experimented with and without spoilers so I know how easy it is to ignore all the extra information that could jeapordise my viewing pleasure.