Dumb Smarks & *Spoilers*

[darqknyt]

I blame the WWE more than I blame the net. They are the ones that kept hyping Bret's return.

If Bret had just appeared at the end of a show after the Hart Dynasty cleared the ring and screamed he was back to kick Vince's ass and then the show ended with Vince looking shocked or HBK standing at the top of the ramp, I guarantee you the next week the rating would have been a LOT higher.

They spoiled his comeback, just as they spoiled Jericho's. The WWE could easily keep signings under wrap, but they are concerned with TV ratings and they think by telling people what will happen next week - more people will tune in. You can do that by shocking people at the end of the show with a teaser like when Vince supposedly died.

People were talking.

You do have a point.Bret's return was one of the most botched in WWE, in fact, in wrestling history.But I don't think it would have changed the rating at all.People were always going to tune in to see Bret regardless.What the did do was screw us(pun intended) out of a classic RAW moment the week prior.

 

[TheAnimal]

I could live without spoilers. I dont watch Smackdown a lot because Friday nights arent a good time for me, maybe i would more without them because i read it and think its a good show, and live i have more fun than at RAW. I read RAW results before i watch it though but it could be more to do with being the flagship show.
If you think though, the IWC is small compared to the whole audience, we are the minority so when it comes to spoiler reading it may not have too big an impact on ratings.

 

[WWE Manster03]

as a few posters have said, I can definately see both sides of the arguement.
I'm gonna try and be as completely objective as I can just to make it fair, but I can tell you right now I actually like to avoid spoilers if at all possible.

Pro Spoilers:
for fans from the UK/Boliva/any other place that has been mentioned here that doesn't recieve the shows at the same time that we do in the states, or if they don't get it at all(as half the country doesn't get with MyNetworkTV for Smackdown) I have no problem with the spoilers. If they like what they read, they will probably try and find a stream or look them up on Youtube, or catch the airing on their local networks.
Also, they definately can be used strategically to enhance a return/build anticipation for a certain date(the Y2J return in 07 is a good example of this).. Even though we may know WHO is coming back and WHEN they are coming, alot of times we don't know WHY they chose that time to return or WHAT their plans are.
Impact is a show that I rely on spoilers very heavily for. If I like what I read, then I tell my DVR to record it and I'll watch it when I get home. If I don't, I don't waste my time because for the 1 moment I would like I have to fast forward through 2 hours of crap. Spoilers give me that ability to chose.

Against Spoilers:
As I said above, not all are bad. Most however are handled TERRIBLY. The main page of Rajah.com/Wrestlezone.com and a few other random wrestling websites didn't have the line "shocking moment at Smackdown" or something very grey in terms of a headline. They had "Swagger new world champ" or "New champ cashes in" as their main page lines. Kind of hard to avoid those spoilers when you don't want to. I always avoid the Smackdown spoilers, because I honestly find it to be a superior show to Raw and I like to be suprised about some matches like I am at Raw(ala Miz/Danielson this past week or Evan Bourne in the Main Event).
I do personally believe that Christian was supposed to be the man that attacked Jeff Hardy. I believe that it was leaked by someone in the company and Vince had to call an audible. While the audible made sense, as they were brothers and 1 was much more successful then the other, I feel we would of gotten Christian/Hardy and it would of been phenominal. And as bad as the illegitimate son angle was, the whole IWC knew that Kennedy was going to be named. But when he got injured they had to change and everyone was pissed. If nobody would of known Kennedy was supposed to do it, then they wouldn't of been so pissed about everything.

I honestly blame Eric Bischoff for making spoilers as commonplace as they are today. He put it out there on live television that this is what their competition was going to air tonight, and people (myself included) processed that and decided whether to tune in or not. And it is my belief that 1 spoiler in particular, which was mentioned earlier, tied the brick around the ankles of WCW and pushed them to the edge of the boat. The finger poke of doom "poked" them over the edge, and the continuous bad booking in need of a lifesaver killed them( which is ironic if you look at the way I just described that). So spoilers can be good or bad, I just think they need to use a bit more tact when posting them. Just say Spoiler Alert for smackdown/TNA and leave it at that. Makes everything easier.