Internet Sports-Entertainment Community?!

[Prince Vee]

In my opinion, Whoever talks, debates, argues or fights over internet about the Wrestling defaultly becomes a member of Internet Wrestling Community!!

Some WWE fans complain that IWC is pessimistic but that isn't completely true. Anyhow it doesn't matter whether we are pessimist or not.

The night after Raw, the WWE website, in the review about the match between Dolph Ziggler and (Adrian) Neville, quoted about the match as even the Internet Sports-Entertainment Community would've never expected this soon!

We aren't just a Sports-Entertainment fans! We love Professional Wrestling that's why we are in this Site and giving our suggestions on various threads!

Is Sports-Entertainment our Horizon? Are we really Internet Sports-Entertainment Community ?

 

[Good Golly It's Ollie]

I agree with the sentiment behind the first line of your OP, Prince Vee, but IWC is a silly term either way. I can't believe WWE is even acknowledging it now (albeit with their own special terminology).

The real word that most people use is "fanbase" and I see quite a few posters of the more edgy/tryhard contignency accuse people of "being IWC". When you accuse someone of belonging to the IWC, you are being a Boomerang Bigot because all you are doing is accusing them of being a wrestling fan. Which they are, same as the accuser is.

Literally no other fandom that I've seen online does this. You don't hear bronies going "you fucking brony". It's so stupid. Why would you criticise someone for belonging to the same fanbase you do and for loving the same thing you do? Asinine.

I believe it was a poster on here once said something about "a bunch of wrestling fans trying to prove how IWC they aren't" which sums it up in a nutshell for me. We came up with a special snowflake word for ourselves because we're so enlightened and up our own arses and superior to filthy casuals. Then it went full circle and minority influence kicked in and certain people no longer wanted to be associated with the term because of what it had come to represent: the faux-alternative fan who hates Cena, cheers only for Bryan, Wyatt and Ziggler, and hates WWE yet tunes in every week. This is a thing that exists in many online fandoms, the "we're truer fans than you" fallacy. Still bullshit but IWC takes it a step beyond.

tl;dr I hate that freaking acronym.

 

[Seosa]

Internet Sports-Entertainment Community? Is that legitimately what the E's website called the IWC? Fucking Vince & his demented state...

 

[rbv13]

I couldn’t help but laugh when I read this story. My first thought was that bastard Vince is sending us to NXT for rebranding. Maybe we will get a bit more respect and a better push as the SEWC. We should also be happy they didn’t go the Cessaro, Neville and Rusev rout calling us just Community.

It is also funny when the E tries to troll the online fan base.

 

[MoxViolence]

This strikes me as another way Vince is trying to take ownership of something. "They aren't the IWC....they're the ISEC!" Shut up Vince. I come on this website everyday of my life. For years now. Why? Because I love wrestling! TNA doesn't call their brand sports entertainment. Neither does ROH, NJPW, PWG etc etc. The IWC doesn't just consist of WWE fans.

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

The WWE is mocking you.

Fuck. The WWE is mocking me too.

 

[ABMorales787]

I hate the term, but that's just self parody on WWE's part. There's far worse things to complain about in this company than how its spellchecker works. Which seems to work better than the search engine on the Network.

 

[Navi]

Is Sports-Entertainment our Horizon? Are we really Internet Sports-Entertainment Community ?

No we are the "Internet Community That Puts Up With 5 Hours Of Shit, On A Weekly Basis". Now let's see Vince try to shorten that, the bastard. Mocking us indeed.

They really should take out the word Entertainment. It's been awhile since they've been entertaining.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

It is a joke. Pretty clever if you ask me. "We" are whatever people say we are. It is all each individual's perception. Generally people use IWC as an insulting generalization.

This comment was just a clever joke and Vince had nothing to do with it. He has better shit to do.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

I've always been fine with the term just based on the fact that it's simple and accurate. We're a group of diverse opinionated individuals who congregate online via the Internet to discuss pro wrestling. WWE can call it sports entertainment, as they desperately do, but a rose by any other name.

There's always been this cognitive disconnect that the IWC is one body with a unified opinion, and that body is this hipster douchebag that hates everything main stream wrestling because they can. There's this recurring opinion where an individual climbs the IWC soapbox and decries the so-called IWC for being, "the same people that once said this, are now saying that," without ever providing specific examples of certain individuals doing so. The IWC isn't this amorphous blob of Daniel Bryan fans torrenting New Japan shows and hating on everything WWE does from their parents basement. No, those are hasty generalizations of the community with little to no basis in reality.

The moment Raw ends and you go online to read more about wrestling, or you go online to rave or roar about it, congratulations, you just joined the IWC. WWE is buying into the stereotype that every person online is a troll who will show up to a live event and chant the wrong thing just for the sake of crapping on the product.

WWE thinks the IWC is something distinguishable from the rest of its fanbase. I'm of the opinion you're IWC as soon as you click on a wrestling site the first time. The part of the IWC they're attacking is the vocal minority, and pushing this ISEC thing just serves to push against the part of the fanbase that they've alienated the most. Oh well, I'll forever remain vigilant that WWE will fall face first into a new Renaissance sooner or later.

 

[Rayne]

As far as the ISEC is concerned, a content editor on the WWE website decided to fuck with people. I'd like to meet them and shake their hand.

Literally no other fandom that I've seen online does this. You don't hear bronies going "you fucking brony". It's so stupid. Why would you criticise someone for belonging to the same fanbase you do and for loving the same thing you do? Asinine.

If you actually want to understand the whole "IWC as insult" thing, you have to bear in mind that there is no consistent definition of what the IWC actually is. (Beyond "professional wrestling fans who use the Internet to discuss professional wrestling", but the acronym never gets used that way anyhow.)

People only use the term "IWC" when they don't have a specific person or group that they can point to for advocating an argument, but wish to yell about the superiority of their own opinions anyways. This is why most mentions of IWC come in the form "this is what the IWC believes, look at how silly it is, and how my opinion is the opposite of the IWC opinion, therefore, me smart". It's merely an extension of the typical professional wrestling fans' desire to be 'in the know', and also conveniently serves as a big caps-locked acronym that lets me know I can stop reading a post, as no useful information will be following.

Ironically, posts like this almost always result in a "the IWC is real, and they believe in all the things I think are stupid" rebuttal.

 

[Uncle Sam]

People only use the term "IWC" when they don't have a specific person or group that they can point to for advocating an argument, but wish to yell about the superiority of their own opinions anyways. This is why most mentions of IWC come in the form "this is what the IWC believes, look at how silly it is, and how my opinion is the opposite of the IWC opinion, therefore, me smart".

To be fair, this phenomenon is hardly exclusive to the IWC. Sorry, I mean: this phenomenon is hardly exclusive to wrestling fans-- or internet users-- or whatever. Using a straw man to prove a point is the last refuge of tons of unspecified hypothetical ********s who aren't as smart as me.

Sure as I am that Rayne knows what a straw man argument is, others might find this interesting reading:

A straw man is a common reference argument and is an informal fallacy based on false representation of an opponent's argument. To be successful, a straw man argument requires that the audience be ignorant or uninformed of the original argument.

The so-called typical "attacking a straw man" argument creates the illusion of having completely refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition by covertly replacing it with a different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man") and then to refute or defeat that false argument ("knock down a straw man") instead of the original proposition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

In this instance, the IWC is the imaginary opponent with an imaginary argument.

 

[FromGlasgow]

The way I see it is the IWC is part of their own community, Otherwise is everyone who ever looked up anything wrestling related on the internet technically also all part of this IWC which possibly most of the country could be a part of the IWC if they happened to click on anything wrestling related whilst browsing the internet at some point in their life,
Wether someone elses view is different my personal view is the IWC are a bunch of saddo whiny fans with no mind of their own and can only decide when a wrestler or match is good or bad if the rest of the IWC tells them so, Generally they only appear to like wrestlers under 30 and its like how dare anyone wrestle over this age, If 12 or 13 year olds where wrestling in the WWE that would be ideal for them which is also kind of creepy the fascination of age they appear to have.