Hulk Hogan's Brother
Stop asking me what I'm gonna do!!!
Many a time I have come across debates on this forum wherein one poster has tried to justify the superiority of one wrestler over another on the basis of mainstream popularity. Now mainstream popularity is something that I believe is tremendously overrated. Most people believe that if you have a wrestler who is popular in the mainstream, it means that more people will tune into your show. Also mainstream popularity implies that the wrestler who is popular in the mainstream has more fans. Now what I believe is that both of these facts are quite untrue.
Myth #1: Most people believe that if you have a wrestler who is popular in the mainstream, it means that more people will tune into your show.
This fact is easily disprovable. Few people would question that John Cena is more of a public figure and has more mainstream popularity than a certain Stone Cold Steve Austin. Yet Cena can hardly pull the ratings that Austin used to pull. Nor can he sell as much merch than Austin.
Now before you start arguing that the times are different, the business is not in a boom period and all that shit, remember that you are just proving my point. Mainstream popularity of just one wrestler does not mean that more people will be drawn to your show. People are going to be drawn to your product if the product itself is mainstream but the mainstream popularity of just one particular wrestler does not affect it in any manner.
Myth #2: Mainstream popularity implies that the wrestler who is popular in the mainstream has more fans
This is another fact that is untrue. Sure it leads to more people knowing you but does it mean that that your mainstream fans will tune into your wrestling show or will truly recognize the contribution that you have made to wrestling.
The Rock is an established movie star today but do you think that the fans of his movies who have never ever seen wrestling truly recognize how good of a pro wrestler he was? To them he is just some guy who used to wrestle before making it to the movies. It is not as if him amking it to movies shows wrestling in a positive light. If anything, his wrestling background only showed him in a somewhat negative light as he was mostly offered action based roles at the start of his film career.
Same is the case of Chris Jericho? Do you think that him being in Fozzy will force every Fozzy fan to tune into wrestling? The Fozzy fans who do not watch wrestling will continue to be indifferent towards it regardless of whether a pro wrestler is a part of their favorite band or not.
So the point that I want to make is this. It is very hard to convert non wrestling fans into wrestling fans unless and until there is a wrestling boom. No one person's mainstream popularity is going to make more people tune into a wrestling show because people just do not care that much for wrestling. Pro Wrestling has been around for so long that people undertand very well what its all about and their opinion on it is not going to change just on the basis of the popularity of a few pro wrestlers.
So, I do not think that mainstream popularity should be used as a tool to judge between two wrestlers as it does not amount to much at all.
Myth #1: Most people believe that if you have a wrestler who is popular in the mainstream, it means that more people will tune into your show.
This fact is easily disprovable. Few people would question that John Cena is more of a public figure and has more mainstream popularity than a certain Stone Cold Steve Austin. Yet Cena can hardly pull the ratings that Austin used to pull. Nor can he sell as much merch than Austin.
Now before you start arguing that the times are different, the business is not in a boom period and all that shit, remember that you are just proving my point. Mainstream popularity of just one wrestler does not mean that more people will be drawn to your show. People are going to be drawn to your product if the product itself is mainstream but the mainstream popularity of just one particular wrestler does not affect it in any manner.
Myth #2: Mainstream popularity implies that the wrestler who is popular in the mainstream has more fans
This is another fact that is untrue. Sure it leads to more people knowing you but does it mean that that your mainstream fans will tune into your wrestling show or will truly recognize the contribution that you have made to wrestling.
The Rock is an established movie star today but do you think that the fans of his movies who have never ever seen wrestling truly recognize how good of a pro wrestler he was? To them he is just some guy who used to wrestle before making it to the movies. It is not as if him amking it to movies shows wrestling in a positive light. If anything, his wrestling background only showed him in a somewhat negative light as he was mostly offered action based roles at the start of his film career.
Same is the case of Chris Jericho? Do you think that him being in Fozzy will force every Fozzy fan to tune into wrestling? The Fozzy fans who do not watch wrestling will continue to be indifferent towards it regardless of whether a pro wrestler is a part of their favorite band or not.
So the point that I want to make is this. It is very hard to convert non wrestling fans into wrestling fans unless and until there is a wrestling boom. No one person's mainstream popularity is going to make more people tune into a wrestling show because people just do not care that much for wrestling. Pro Wrestling has been around for so long that people undertand very well what its all about and their opinion on it is not going to change just on the basis of the popularity of a few pro wrestlers.
So, I do not think that mainstream popularity should be used as a tool to judge between two wrestlers as it does not amount to much at all.