Is Twitter the worst thing that could have happened to the industry?

[Coco]

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Not 140 characters short. But short.

I know us nosey marks always want to get ourself as far behind the curtain as possible. It's in our nature, yada yada. That said, is the availability of Twitter exposing things about a worker's character or backstage goings on that we have no business knowing and, in the long run, hurts out enjoyment of said worker?

A couple examples: I used to have nothing but love for Matt Hardy. But when you see him come online every day to act self important (with frequent reminders that nobody who's never been in the business can possibly grasp the nature of it) and moody, that really hurts his reputation. It also exposes and ugly attitude that most in the business have towards those in the seats, something we shouldn't see.

In addition, I've recently seen Rob Van Dam expose himself again as the cocky fellow I've always known him to be only to set himself up for the kill by Mr. Kevin Nash. Is that sort of backstage strife the sort of thing that should be drunkenly posted on Twitter? Is someone (be it Nash or Van Dam himself) hurting the reputation of a guy whose return to the business has been as highly anticipated as Van Dam's really in anyone's best interest?

Is getting to see what should be private thoughts such as the one's of these men harmful to the industry? I know it's an ugly side I have no interest in seeing.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I think if a wrestler is talking to their fans using Twitter, it should be in character. Twitter could be used in a good way for building feuds without TV.

E.G

Sheamus could tweet about his training for the 6 pack challenge

or

an injured wrestler could post something about how badly they are dying to get back in the ring and kick *enter name here*'s ass for putting them on the shelf

 

[I_Am_Electro_Boy]

I agree with the post above, if a wrester uses Twitter then it should be in character. If a wrestler doesn't use Twitter in their character then it can really change someone's view on them, let's take Jericho he seems to be a top guy on Twitter and that makes you start to like him so you're going to want to cheer for him which will be bad for the company because it will be harder to get him over as a heel.

 

[Furyof5]

I really can not stand wrestlers twitters, of course I follow them, but they destroy ever bit of Kayfabe left in the industry. Take Chris Jericho for example. He acts like a self important Heel on TV that hates the fans, yet when hes on twitter he talks to them and talks about how many followers he has and about all of the cool fun stuff he does outside of the ring and even posts picture. I directly challenged him and other wrestlers on this in the past even going as far as to say "Why dont you people care about kayfabe any more?".

Of course no one answered. But it does piss me off. Twitter ruins characters and it makes wrestler seem very annoying. Even John Cena's recent tweets have been somewhat annoying.

On another note I actually like Matt Hardy's videos and tweets, it works for someone like him, same with Hogan. I dont mind seeing how they live and everything because theyre just playing themselves anyway.

But is it bad for the wrestling business? In most cases yes, but not in every case.

 

[DirtyJosé]

I think you are focusing only on a pair of high profile failures, one of whom has always been a high profile failure (the other's been a high profile moderate success at best). Twitter in this instance made both situations ugly, but if not for twitter they would have merely ended up on a blog somewhere. Look at the shit Mick Foley stirred up recently with his shitting on Dave Metzler over some fair criticism.

I will say that most high profile, main event performers probably don't need to use Twitter. It is useful, however, to the undercard. It is also beneficial to those on the indy scene, or in-between companies. It allows them to talk with fans in a non-creepy-MySpace-site environment, and it allows them to spread information quickly; info on appearances, upcoming events, merch sales/specials, and all kinds of other shit.

Twitter isn't the worst thing to happen to wrestling, or at least isn't much worse than any other aspect of the internet has been to the industry.

 

[nightmare]

i agree that twitter does work in small doses but ultimately pisses alot of fans off when abused or used to be misleading. ahem, dixie....

it can be used both 'in character' and out. building a story or talking about interaction w\ fans, etc. thats good stuff most of us like to hear\see. but using twitter to 'sound off' about ur problems with the company or whine about this guy or saying ur better than so & so is ******ed. it shows that some of the guys are pricks & breaks the character the companies build for the program. matt\rvd kinda showed us that recently.

look at it this way. what if the undertaker ran around twitter talking shit about vince, or saying he was the 'rockstar'? or if he was posting pics of him on vacation, drinking margaritas on the beach? it would blow back the curtian a little too far. taker is one of the few guys left who hold as true to his character.

 

[Whatsinaname696]

twitter isn't just the worst thing that could have happened to this industry, it may very well be the worst thing in the world.... I mean it... fuck twitter...

I guess if they stayed in character and in small doses and relevant to upcoming events, yeah it could be used as a good hype tool and give the fans a lil more personal connection with their fav. Wrestlers. Kane jus tweeted he's gonna chokeslam The Rock to hell tonight, yeah well The Rock jus tweeted for his big red monkey ass to bri.... anyways, yeah, I guess it could be useful, but I think that ship has already sailed, what with failed or delayed for god knows how long surprise promises (you know who you are, stop it!) and what with matt n nash and all doing their uhh thing, but who knows maybe they can start using it positively (won't happen)

 

[LitasRevenge79]

I think twitter can be a double edged sword. If used appropriately it can be good for stars to send out certain messages to their fans. Then sometimes, it can go WAY overboard ::cough:: Matt Hardy ::Cough:: I mean if someone wants to talk about "Hey check out the funniest thing I saw on the side of the road while driving" or "Look at my new pet" etc. That can be fine in small doses like many are saying. I think if used correctly, its a great way to make people more accessible to fans and give them a better sense that "Yes, these people are like us and have likes, dislikes, and gripes with things in life." and some that have a sense of humor, like (Y2J, Hurricane Helms, Zack Ryder, and Christian...lol) However, on the same token, there are those that can just live with the twitter-diarrhea, and seem to never shut up, and then when the going doesn't go their way, they take to their 'tweets' and vent and have relied on similar means in the past, and don't realize that can be more harm than good. I think there's a fine line and you have to know when NOT to cross it. Each person's gonna be different on whether or not they think its good or bad. I think there will never be a clear cut line, everyone's going to be different. everyone is human, and when someone slips up and has that verbal diarrhea and goes in drunken rants (Nash) or has these temper tantrums and rants (Hardy) you often wonder if its the electronic ego that they feel protected behind, and then will use an excuse to try to cover their behinds. Its simple, just use practical judgement when typing.

 

[klunderbunker]

I don't really think much of it. I've read maybe a total of four tweets from any wrestler ever and I don't care about it in the slightest. I know I'm in the minority on this but I could care less about what the wrestlers say. They're performers at the end of the day and have real ideas and thoughts about things too. I could care less about what they say really as long as what they do in front of the camera is fine. I don't htink it's a problem really.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I guess it all depends on whether or not you are a fan that still bothers to suspend your disbelief. I personally don't buy into the storylines, but i do follow them and criticise them when they don't play out logically, but do i honestly think Kane and Taker are brothers? Or Edge and Christian? Or Khali and Ramjin for that matter? Do i really believe that Santino is as shit as he actually portrays himself to be in the ring? No, so i realise that these guys do have their own lives, do have their own thoughts, and do have their own feelings, and shouldn't have to hide themselves away from new methods of interaction with their fans just because they're a pretend athlete.

However, ranting about your wrestling career is simply stupid. "They don't push me!" "I want out of my contract!" etc etc, i've never really liked Fat Hardy, but now i actually DO want to see him get fired just so i don't have to hear anymore about how petty he's being.

Nash didn't like Van Dam's comments? Don't rant on the internet about it you douchebag, just go slap the prick! You're the one who helped build that company from the ground up, he's the one who's strolled in and been has run his mouth about nothing, confront him on it in person and put him in his place. Kevin Nash reduced his status from 'Legendary 7 foot monster' to 'another whiny internet geek' with that rant.

And as for Van Dam, actions speak louder than words, and i notice Impact ratings still circling around the 1.5 mark, so how are you a rock star again? If i were to walk up to someone in the street and asked them 'Do you know who Rob Van Dam is?' am i likely to get any other answer than 'Jean-Claude's brother?' I highgly doubt it.

I'd never bother following a wrestler on the internet through bullshit sites like Twitter, but based on the shit i read during reports on the main site, all it does is reveal the true nature of that person, which may seriously disappoint someone, if their favourite wrestler turns out to be a self-centered twat, when there's not a camera on them.

 

[Tougie]

I find twitter pathetic, and the fact WWE, TNA, and even ROH are using it to kinda hype things up is even more pathetic. Yes its a new age in pro wrestling. But you have Television to hype matches and storylines. And all the posts are in character anyway so its basically like reading a script of Raw. Hate Twitter, hate wrestling companies using twitter.

 

[HBKevin]

They're just trying to keep up with the times, with a presence on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But Twitter isn't smart because these guys are tempted to go on and post something real quick, possibly drunk, out of character, which hurts any semblance left of kayfabe.

Of course that's been dying anyway since the Internet was invented, but Twitter doesn't help it. But how can WWE control what their wrestlers write in tweets, which are just public texts? They can't. The problem is that every person in society these days has his own personal TV station/newspaper, it's called YouTube and Twitter. And it's just not that important to write what you're doing every second of the day.