@smarkmouth
Friendly Neighborhood
Complaining about wrestling is nothing new. There are times when I believe that we as fans are allergic to common consensus. So rarely are we satisfied with results, bookings or overall product. Maybe it's just me, or is this dissatisfaction at an all time high? Over the past year-ish, while there's indeed been some good product peppered throughout the WWE year, we're still subjected to weeks of The Bunny, appearances by Larry the Cable Guy, and the feather in the cap, a poor ending to the Rumble. Despite my own disinterest in much of what I listed, I do understand that WWE is a business and their product is a numbers game. Yes, even Kathy Lee and Hoda were there to bring in the female demo. It's about moving that needle, however damn well you need to do it.
But is wrestling dodging one of their best assets? Like I said above, we complain a lot, but that's because we're vocal! Or more accurately, we write online, but I'll bet we'd be more vocal if the product wasn't embarrassing.
I have a buddy who watched wrestling in the Attitude era, much like I did. The difference between us is that I continued watching while he lost interest. One afternoon last year, I twisted his arm into watching a match with me; Goldust & Cody Rhodes vs The Shield, Battleground '13. I picked it because I knew he'd at least be familiar with Goldust. The next time he was over, he asked me what was up with "those Shield dudes". Luckily, I had Elimination Chamber '14 in my collection as well...
Now, ask me if I'd ever suggest he comes over to watch Raw. I know that having a DVD gives me the historical vantage point of knowing what's good while ignoring the crap, but I shouldn't have that kind of apprehension if I'm about to share a live show with a friend. I don't want to risk Kevin Hart show up and do an embarrassing sketch with a wrestler to promote the Wedding Ringer.
We are loyal to a fault to the wrestling product, but if the product was good, we'd remain loyal and be vocal. We'd be more excited to share wrestling with friends, even if it is "taboo" pop culture. World of mouth is only getting more powerful in this social media-centric world. Ring of Honor knows this, but they've only scratched the surface with a #WatchROH hashtag. WWE's idea of getting wrestling fans to talk is to put cherry picked tweets on a ticker below the screen, but fails to do so in a way that makes people who are wrestling fans want to talk to people who aren't.
I'm not naive, nor am I some bratty fan who wants to get what he wants. I get that WWE is a business, and I don't have to like every result. I'm asking wrestling at large to quit talking down to me, and not drown me in insulting content. Give us something that we, the smarks can say "Hey, this is something we're fans of, and this is what's really fucking cool about it."
Word of mouth man. It's not everything, but it's important.
But is wrestling dodging one of their best assets? Like I said above, we complain a lot, but that's because we're vocal! Or more accurately, we write online, but I'll bet we'd be more vocal if the product wasn't embarrassing.
I have a buddy who watched wrestling in the Attitude era, much like I did. The difference between us is that I continued watching while he lost interest. One afternoon last year, I twisted his arm into watching a match with me; Goldust & Cody Rhodes vs The Shield, Battleground '13. I picked it because I knew he'd at least be familiar with Goldust. The next time he was over, he asked me what was up with "those Shield dudes". Luckily, I had Elimination Chamber '14 in my collection as well...
Now, ask me if I'd ever suggest he comes over to watch Raw. I know that having a DVD gives me the historical vantage point of knowing what's good while ignoring the crap, but I shouldn't have that kind of apprehension if I'm about to share a live show with a friend. I don't want to risk Kevin Hart show up and do an embarrassing sketch with a wrestler to promote the Wedding Ringer.
We are loyal to a fault to the wrestling product, but if the product was good, we'd remain loyal and be vocal. We'd be more excited to share wrestling with friends, even if it is "taboo" pop culture. World of mouth is only getting more powerful in this social media-centric world. Ring of Honor knows this, but they've only scratched the surface with a #WatchROH hashtag. WWE's idea of getting wrestling fans to talk is to put cherry picked tweets on a ticker below the screen, but fails to do so in a way that makes people who are wrestling fans want to talk to people who aren't.
I'm not naive, nor am I some bratty fan who wants to get what he wants. I get that WWE is a business, and I don't have to like every result. I'm asking wrestling at large to quit talking down to me, and not drown me in insulting content. Give us something that we, the smarks can say "Hey, this is something we're fans of, and this is what's really fucking cool about it."
Word of mouth man. It's not everything, but it's important.