Has The IWC Lost The Ability To Suspend Disbelief?

[Ferbian]

The IWC is constantly exposed to backstage rumors, news stories, spoilers as well as their own opinions about a product. There's constant discussion all over the internet about professional wrestling in all of it's forms. And there is always gonna be at least one person that steps forth and complains because of his (or her) backstage knowledge.

The IWC has gone on to become a rather analyzing bunch of people. We more or less analyze everything we can get our hands on, in every thinkable way. We constantly see people trying to figure out how to turn John Cena heel, how something doesn't make any sense. Or how someone doesn't deserve / does deserve a specific championship.

However, it's a rare case that we see someone step forth and for once in a while believe in what he's saying. To stop analyzing every thinkable part of wrestling's weekly programs. Someone who just goes with the stream, and accepts the way it is. Someone who blocks out the news, the backstage knowledge etc. - More specifically, a smark gone mark if you will.

And it makes me wonder. Have the IWC lost the ability to believe in what they see as real? Have we lost the ability to be marks again. For some of the older guys, to go back to the person who watched wrestling in the 80's and early 90's without any knowledge about what was going on. Any knowledge of anything being real or not?

Or do we still have that ability hidden somewhere? Yet we've become too used to the knowledge, too hungering for the knowledge if you will to throw it all away and become once again.. A mark? Can we still watch a single episode of RAW without thinking about how John Cena sucks and needs a heel turn. A single episode of TNA without us complaining about a segment making zero sense?

Well? Have we?

 

[La Parka]

Why should we? If the product sucks, it isn't our fault for voicing it. Not really saying WWE or TNA sucks to me, to me they are kind of "meh". Like, I'd rather listen to "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" by Bob Dylan, and in fact, I just did. That song freaking rules.

Where was I? Oh yeah. If someone dislikes the product, the fault usually lies with the product, for being faulty in some way. Now, sometimes the viewer can have unrealistic expectations. For example, I hate everything they've done with Kane so far, and I won't be satisfied until they 'roid him back up and put the mask back on him, but it's plain to see that they won't be doing that any time soon. Why is that? I've suspended belief too much, to the point where I demand something that won't happen. I know I won't see Great Muta hitting 'Taker with a mist at Wrestlemania, I accept that.

I accept that, because I have a knowledge of how the WWE works. I won't say I'm any kind of "expert", that would be absurd. But I've been watching for many many years now, and I have a rudimentary understanding of how they operate. And this knowledge doesn't hinder in any way my enjoyment of matches. Knowing it's fake, doesn't hinder me. I'm able to enjoy it, for what it is. However, I'm also able to notice when I'm about to get gipped, I know that even though Lita PROMISES to strip Trish nude, the RTC is going to come in and cover her up before that happens. I know that Kane PROMISES to set Shane on fire, but it will be Kane himself who gets it. And I'm also able to tell when the writers or athletes are just plain being lazy. There's nothing wrong with having knowledge. And it certainly isn't our fault for knowing we're being ripped off.

The fault lies with them, man.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

The IWC has always been a group of pricks who think they are smarter than the man who is booking the show. The IWC has not "lost" the ability to suspend disbelief because they never had it. It is always the marks that have the ability to suspend disbelief. It is when we were smarks did we have the ability to suspend disbelief. I do feel sometimes that marks enjoy wrestling more than us.

Ask yourself Ferb how many times you have suspended disbelief as a smark? Sometimes sure things happen that shock even smarks. A recent example would be John Cena losing to Nexus. That caught the whole IWC napping.

So on an average Raw I believe it would be very difficult for a smark to suspend disbelief. Maybe smarks can when they see a really great feuds but otherwise it is difficult for them to sit through a show without nitpicking.

Another thing that contributes to this behaviour of the smarks is that wrestling is a kayfabe heavy industry. That is why smarks always look to prove that they know more than the rest of the lot. Its this ego of theirs that prevents them from enjoying wrestling like marks.