Modern Wrestling Fans Are INSANELY Impatient

[X]

I've been noticing a theme over the past few weeks on the forum here---and that is that modern wrestling fans are the most impatient I've ever seen in my 13+ years of following the business. The biggest example of this is the thread in the WWE section right now entitled "Why have they stopped pushing Kofi?", which I just laugh at every time I see it. Good LORD people, the man just dropped the US title a few months ago and has only JUST gotten out of his first mini feud with a main eventer, and everyone is jumping up and down screaming about how now he's being buried and they aren't pushing him because he didn't win the Royal Rumble or some shit. It amazes me how impatient some of you are, they haven't stopped pushing Kofi, they just had a different plan with Orton. They aren't punishing Kofi, he's not going to be sent to FCW, and the world isn't going to end, I promise you.

I thought the same thing when I saw the (very well written) thread that Blade started about Edge's return and his mixed reaction. Edge hasn't been seen on WWE TV for 8 months and was arguably the top heel in the company for the past 6 years, and now people are calling him a failure because he didn't get a Hogan-esque pop in his return at the Rumble. SO impatient, it's astounding. You don't just immediately turn face and have the entire world on your side, it takes time people. When the Rock first started showing signs of a face turn in the fall of 1998 it took him atleast a month before the cheers in the crowd started outweighing the boos.

Does anyone get what I'm saying here? It just makes me laugh how insanely impatient most modern fans are, if someone isn't gigantically over within 2 weeks of debuting they're a giant flop. Part of it is the internet and how it's led to modern fans being able to analyze and criticize every tiny detail in the business, but that can't explain it all to me.

I don't know, maybe I'm just ranting, but does this irk anyone else? I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and just let the show unfold for a bit before jumping up and down screaming "FIRE! FIRE!" after less than a week of a returned Edge.

 

[Lee]

My thoughts exactly on both of those threads among others. There's also the tendancy to say someone is jobbing if they lose one or two matches, or saying Brets return is a failure after two appearances.

If Edge still has mixed reaction come Mania then yeah something needs done, if Kofi's not on the card at SummerSlam then yeah his push is over, Bret we can judge after Mania. What is also funny is at the same time people are saying Kofi's not getting pushed, people are complaining about Sheamus being pushed too quickly.

It's the Jeff Hardy way of doing it, he was huge yet it took him quite some time to finally win it, back in the day it would take months and months and months and years to win the belt. So yeah guys really need patience in wrestling.

 

[Dan E. Inferno]

Yeah, I completely agree with you about wrestling fans being impatient. It's just crazy how quickly some fans want midcard talents to be pushed. There's lots of people complaining, for example, about the legacy situation. It seems everyone wanted Ted to turn on Randy two months ago and now each week that goes by without them breaking up, someones got something bad to say about it. This isn't just on these forums but the internet in general.

Another example is the constant threads about Bret Hart's return. These threads say how it's been completely screwed up and how no one cares anymore. What?! Bret first returned about four weeks ago and this storyline, that is obviously building towards Wrestlemania, still has about seven weeks to go. Not everything has to happen now. I'd rather the storyline climaxed in seven weeks rather than now.

Anyway, rant over. I'll just end by saying that I prefer lenghtly storylines that leave you with anticipation and thought out, planned out pushes rather than things just happening in a rush.

 

[RKOChamp]

I completely agree with you! For one, how can someone say Kofi is no longer being pushed. He is in the EC for the championship. Granted he probably wont win, but you dont have to win the belt to get pushed. Like you said, Edge has been a top heel for a long time, and has only been back on TV twice. At the RR, I saw no signs of a face turn. I only saw that some on Raw after Sheamus came out. So people have to give him some time to show the face turn before they start freakin out that people arent cheering. (Not everyone gets on here and knows he turning face).

Another example is Bret/Vince angle. Bret has been back twice and Ive seen people saying WWE has dropped the ball with the angle. Still two months til WM- plenty of time for buildup and personally, I like the slow build to this.

I havent posted a whole lot since Im new, but its amazing how many times I have already put at the end of my post to just calm down and WAIT to see where it goes. Just because something isnt happening in the exact way and exact time YOU want it to go, doesnt mean they have dropped the ball or whatever.

 

[Via Armbar]

There's been only few guys who were pushed very hard at the start of their careers and still had a lengthy one. Undertaker never won a midcard title first,and he wons his first world title within like a year of debuting. On the otherside, you have Lesnar who won a world title within 4 months of debuting, and he was only around for 2 years. I think there has to be a happy medium somewhere.

As far as impatient fans go, the live crowds are different from city to city. I also think thers alot more younger kids at live events now then there ever has been. Kids are going to have the least sophistaced memories and be more impatient then anyone. I dont think they can understand that someone can leave a heel and come back a face. They remember him attacking Hardy and Taker.

Some here on wrestlezone get impatient often. Anytime it seems as if someone is going to go to the next level, if it doesn't happen right away and if your top stars aren't puttin them over everytime its just not fast enough. You would never had Rocky Maivia go over Undertaker in early 97, or you wouldn't have Randy Orton go over Trips in early 03.

I think another problem is the development of a good midcard. This allows fans to actually care what happens to their favorite wrestlers who arent yet main eventers. If nobody gives a shit about the midcard, then the people arent going to want future stars swimming around there for two long. If you have a good midcard, it doesnt seem like you have guys like Kofi doing nothing and not making any progress.

 

[Miko]

Only on the internet, unless thats what you meant, I find most ordinary fans to be pretty loyal and patient, as in, they'll still cheer for Jeff Hardy and still think he's the best even after 3 consecutive losses to CM Punk or HHH.

On the net however, that constitutes as burial, if I was the kind of person that got irked by anything on here, I'd have probably headbutted through my monitor. Which would be easy as it's a flatscreen, arent I the show-off.

Anyway, yeah, I do scratch my head and wonder, when people say things like "Ted Jr. is underused and he should be Main Eventing Mania" What? He's only been here like 6 months, he's bland as fuck and just isnt there yet. Or calling the Bret Hart return a failure because he hasnt beaten the shit out of Vince yet, people never heard of a slow burner?

I blame it on todays instant gratification society

 

[ABMorales787]

This is true. The Legacy came together September '08 and as soon as Orton kicked DiBiase everyone was screaming for an Orton/DiBiase feud. Now they're literally pleading and begging for it now and thats just gonna end up screwing both Ted and Cody up. Another example would be when Christian jumped back to WWE. Everyone was screaming for a Christian/Jeff feud and an E&C reunion. When it didn't happen they started saying WWE changed it to swerve us. Really?


The fans have become ridiculously impatient, wanting everything at once. Batista did an ankle lock. BS cries the fan. Swagger isn't pushes. More BS. MVP wen't nowhere... Well you get the point.

"A slow and steadily constructed house can endure even the most unpredictable of weathers"

-Robert Morales

 

[klunderbunker]

Yeah it's rather ridiculous. The problem is that today with SO much television on, it's much different than it was back in the day. A feud back in say 1986 would go on for a year, but you would only see about 5 national shows with the feud being progressed. Everything else was at house shows and a lot of the time it would be the same house show each night but in a different city, as most people had no way of knowing what happened in say Boston the night after they saw a show in New York for example. You run 5-6 shows with the same stuff going on for a week or two and then you would go to the same cities and do the next stage.

Today that's out the window. You have two hours a week of a new show, assuming there's not a cross promotional angle. That's ignoring Superstars and PPVs also. Today with a three week build to a PPV, 9 hours of television to run a program. Back in the day, that would take about a year as at times there was a single PPV a year and 3-4 SNMEs mixed in with syndicated stuff. Look at Hogan vs. Andre. That feud started in December 86/January of 87. Their first major match was March 29, 1987 and the official rematch was 22 years ago today: February 5, 1988. Think about that. Nearly 10 months between major matches and the rematch drew a fifteen in the ratings. The fans back then were willing to wait for a showdown like this. If you tried that today, the reaction would be abysmal, and if you don't believe me, look at Orton/HHH.

 

[Cookie]

Modern fans are very impatient. Not to heap more blame on the PG rating, but I think a lot of the newer fans really don't have a frame of reference to go back to and they expect things to happen a lot quicker than they do because they don't really know any better. With everything being dumbed down it seems to come with the territory.

It's not just them, though. I notice happening a bit on these boards from some people who seem to know what they're talking about. It especially happens on these other boards I read. I remember specifically seeing threads titled: "PUNK LOSES UNIFIED TITLE SHOT, HE'S BEING BURIED" and things like that after they didn't go ahead with the promised title match on Smackdown. Like... seriously? All it took was the next episode of RAW (not even a week) for them to schedule another title match. People need to realize that there's no payoff when things happen right away.

On the bright side, at least people appear to be interested in the product and are invested in some of the midcard guys moving up. If they're that concerned/disappointed about what's going on with these guys they must care, even if it's only a little bit.

 

[proofinlife]

Had to laugh because OP is right. But I think it's not just our grouping of wrestling fans that are short sighted on most things (such as required care and patience being put into building a character PROPERLY, such as Kofi who is still yet a blank slate as a character IMO); the problem started back when wrestling became televised.

The hordes of people back then constantly switched their attention between different wrestlers, affecting the ratings, and forcing a belt change to a guy that wasn't ready yet. The same thing happened back then, when the belt was taken off of said wrestler, the people watching TV got pissed and expected to see another title chase, and some of those times the chase wouldn't happen, and another feud would start not involving them, and these people got angry at the product. Now, back then they didn't have the internet to go google up why wrestlers get pushed or belts taken off of them, so to them this was real.

Back to my point, after years of TV audiences swaying bookers to crown a champ one month, and another champ another month, people got used to it, and when someone was given a LEGIT long reign, people got bored because they wanted to see that RIVETING action of a champ being chased for his belt, losing, chasing, and regaining. A 10 year reign like the classic days bored people, and had them walking out of arenas or not attending at all.

Unfortunately, because those old audiences were spoiled with this treatment, it is what they came to expect, and that style was passed down through watcher generations, until it became understood as the way the wrestling world worked.

Now here we are, with the internet, with a medium to debate, understand, and learn why the wrestling business is the way it is; with services like Youtube giving us access to classic matches you could never otherwise see unless you had a family member who used to tape old NWA, AWA, GCW, or local shows, and now wikipedia to learn to wrestling facts you could never learn unless you talked to your father or even grandfather that used to be a fan in those eras; and we question it. Rightfully so, but unfortunately, like I stated, the way the fans shaped wrestling when it became televised is unfortunately what killed it for our generation.

However, now that we DO have the internet, and a lot of people are starting to understand the ways of the wrestling jedi, people know that a long term reign builds a character in long strides, and some promotions are starting to listen to the internet. However, a lot of those promotions are smaller, not-so-easily recognizable names, but nonetheless, they listen, and hopefully down the line start a trend that even Vince McMahon will have to become privvy too (although the TV only fans will still drive his product, anyways, because internet fans make up a VERY SMALL fraction of the overall fanbase that drives his marketing and booking decisions).

 

[Billie Jean]

I've been noticing a theme over the past few weeks on the forum here---and that is that modern wrestling fans are the most impatient I've ever seen in my 13+ years of following the business. The biggest example of this is the thread in the WWE section right now entitled "Why have they stopped pushing Kofi?", which I just laugh at every time I see it. Good LORD people, the man just dropped the US title a few months ago and has only JUST gotten out of his first mini feud with a main eventer, and everyone is jumping up and down screaming about how now he's being buried and they aren't pushing him because he didn't win the Royal Rumble or some shit. It amazes me how impatient some of you are, they haven't stopped pushing Kofi, they just had a different plan with Orton. They aren't punishing Kofi, he's not going to be sent to FCW, and the world isn't going to end, I promise you.

I thought the same thing when I saw the (very well written) thread that Blade started about Edge's return and his mixed reaction. Edge hasn't been seen on WWE TV for 8 months and was arguably the top heel in the company for the past 6 years, and now people are calling him a failure because he didn't get a Hogan-esque pop in his return at the Rumble. SO impatient, it's astounding. You don't just immediately turn face and have the entire world on your side, it takes time people. When the Rock first started showing signs of a face turn in the fall of 1998 it took him atleast a month before the cheers in the crowd started outweighing the boos.

Does anyone get what I'm saying here? It just makes me laugh how insanely impatient most modern fans are, if someone isn't gigantically over within 2 weeks of debuting they're a giant flop. Part of it is the internet and how it's led to modern fans being able to analyze and criticize every tiny detail in the business, but that can't explain it all to me.

I don't know, maybe I'm just ranting, but does this irk anyone else? I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and just let the show unfold for a bit before jumping up and down screaming "FIRE! FIRE!" after less than a week of a returned Edge.

Yeah I can't argue with you here. You are right. But it is being that impatient that drives us on I suppose, but I agree entirely.

I can't remember who brought it up but when Legacy formed in September 08 people were screaming for an Orton Ted feud, without relay seeing who had more potential between him and Cody. It is ridiculous to be honest. But sometimes they may have an excuse. If they do not like the product they can complain, which is sad because it could relay put pressure on young guns like Ted, Cody, Kofi and to an extent guys like Miz. People should just let things grow. If Miz is going to be a world champion then that is great, but let him do it when he is ready.

However, from another perspective you can say it is this impatience that drives us. That drives us to watch to see if they listened, to come on and discuss, weather that be good or bad, it is a driving force behind our viewing.

I feel that is can be looked at as a good or bad thing.

 

[Schizophrenic]

I have to agree with everyone in saying that most of the fans on the net are very impatient. And I'm gonna add something here. Everyone is speaking of WWE and I will make mention of TNA. Hulk and Eric came in and are taking over and it's been a bit over a month and people are laready claiming they are killing TNA and it's all over. For god's sake people it's been just over a month. Feuds are still starting and things are beggining to take shape. Fans need instant gratification, then again that's society in general. It just annoys me to the point that I can't come to the forums as much because of the total morons that inhabbit it sometimes.

 

[Lancer]

I think a lot of the impatience has to do with the underwhelming results, in what could have been some of the biggest moments in recent memory: Christian's return last year, Hogan and Hart's debuts, Edge's return....the list goes on.

These things were hyped like nothing else for months on the 'net, and when they actually happened, WWE and TNA dropped the ball in providing a "wow" factor, something that could have kept everyone watching and talking about the moments for a long time.

I think a lot of it has to do with the internet, and keeping things under wraps. And also with the fact that things are hyped to the fucking moon (i.e. Hogan), that when it finally happens you're so sick of it and can't wait for it to get over with.

As far as pushes go, they can only push so many people at a certain time. Not everyone can debut and win the fucking WWE title from Cena. As X pointed out, things take time. And when your favorite performer finally gets his due, the satisfaction will taste so much sweeter.

 

[NSL]

I'll admit I'm impatient. But, with the amount of wrestling we're exposed to, both on TV and the internet, things move faster. I've also said many times that 6 months from now, I'll probably be the biggest supporter of everything Hogan and Bischoff have done.

But, for right now, I'm buying into the ploy, and hating both of them, blaming them both for the shit that's happening. It's what they want you to do. They want you to love and hate everything all at once. Hindsight is always 20/20, and it's no different with wrestling.

 

[Trill Co$by]

And yet I get blasted on for not liking the old ECW >_>

Anyway... I agree, fans today on the internet are just too impatient. They always want someone to lose the belt the next PPV or have some superstar pushed through the ranks. And when that stuff does finally happen, they complain (a la Sheamus).

It's actually kind of ******ed how the IWC gets upset about the dumbest things. And seriously if they knew half the stuff the think the do, they would at least be booking for a local indy promotion. However, they're not because their ideas suck and wouldn't sell any tickets.