When Will They Stop Caring

[TUFFY54]

I don't care about Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, or Bob Backlund. I understand what they did and respect their contrabutions, but they have never been important to me. I started watching wrestling in 1990, and with the exception of Backlund's short comeback, they were all retired. The importance of a wrestlers career lessens with every passing generation. I want to know when the younger fans will stop caring about our heroes.

Like most of you, my wrestling heroes are mostly Hogan, Savage, Warrior, Flair, Piper, Rhodes, Austin, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, and The Rock. However, I believe that in a few years new fans won't care about these guys any more than I care about the stars of the 60's and 70's. To fans that didn't grow up watching them, these wrestlers just aren't that important.

Right now, with his TV PG show, Vince is targeting a new generation of fans under 14. I'm not knocking it, it's just a fact. Lets use an 11 year old as our average here. An 11 year old WWE fan would have been 3 when Austin wrestled his last WWE match, 4 when The Rock wrestled his last WWE match, and 6 when Hogan wrestled his last WWE match. Remember, that's their age during the last match. They wouldn't even of been alive when these guys were in their prime. They will have no memory at all of Savage, Piper, Rhodes, or Warrior. They will also probably think of Flair as a manager and Mick Foley as a commentator.

We might think it's crazy to say that in a few years people won't care about any of these guys, but it's bound to happen. And probably sooner than later. When Austin hosted RAW last year he still got a great pop from all the older fans, but it wasn't anything near what it was in the late 90's. If you looked into the crowd, the "new generation of fans" was just sitting their. To them, this old bald guy comming out was no different than when they introduce Harley Race or Dory Funk Jr. being in attendance. I'm not making fun of them, but they simpley don't know who these people are, so they don't care about them.

I was listening to a radio show the other day while the host was talking about going to RAW. He was in his early 30's and was saying he felt old because he knew almost none of the wrestlers. However, he said he totally freaked out when he heard the bagpipes and saw that Roddy Piper was comming out. We would all agree that Piper is an all time icon in this sport. He then said he was shocked because none of the kids in his section cared. Not one clap or cheer. He said that a few kids asked their parents who that guy in the dress was and they responded with "he's a guy that used to wrestle".

Again, I'm not complaining about PG or calling these kids stupid. I am aware of the fact that Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco were once great wrestlers. However, to me they will always be Vince's stooges. I wasn't born when they were wrestling, so I remember them as the old guys who always got beaten up by Austin. To these new fans Cody Rhodes is a superstar, and Dusty Rhodes is nothing more than Codys dad who is on TV sometimes. To a kid that was born after the Monday Night Wars were over, Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger are bigger stars than Hogan and The Rock. People on this site constantly debat who the biggest star in wrestling was, and almost no one brings up Bruno. The man held the title for 7 years straight, and we don't care because he was 20 years before out time.

How long do you think it will be before new fans stop caring about our heroes? When will these icons be looked at by most of the fans as just another old wrestler. I think it will happen within the next 5 years.

 

[DethMetal]

First Post!!

But, to answer this question, the kids will stop caring when we stoped caring. When they get old enough to realize that the man on the posters in their rooms who they want to be, are ordinary people, just like the rest of us. I'm an Attitude baby. My heroes were Rock, Austin, Taker, etc. And then when I realized that they are just people, even though they portray larger than life characters, I looked at them as my favorites more than my heroes.

But should it really matter? I mean, I'm not the biggest Cena fan in the world(was a fan when I was younger), but that doesn't mean I will chant "Cena sucks!" at Wrestlemania. Let the kids have their hero.

 

[brighamosity]

Great post dude! You make some awesome, awesome points, and I think you're spot on!

This is a taboo topic. To come on the IWC and say that you don't care about wrestlers who wrestled before you start watching is bold. But it's true. I started watching wrestling in 1992, and I couldn't care less about anyone who wasn't wrestling at that time. But even as a child, I would go to the video store and rent old wrestling DVD's like old Wrestlemanias, so I did know many of the wrestlers, although not in their prime.

But that only took me back about ten years. I've read stuff on wikipedia and in books, but for the most part, I don't know much about those older wrestlers. But then again, there's not a whole lot of access to pre-1980's wrestling.

But not that I'd care to see it if I could.

So with that being said, new generations will have more access to older generations of wrestling than I did. 20 years ago, even the most die-hard wrestling fan was pretty much limited to what was on tv and what he could find at the video store. Today's fans have youtube. And if that's not enough, I'm sure you can find just about anything you want on google. But in the end, as you said, there will eventually become a point where people don't care about the Hulk Hogan. My guess is about 5 years for him, because he's already pretty irrelevant now, judging by TNA's ratings. If he came back to WWE today, his pop wouldn't be any bigger than say, Roddy Piper, or any other past-generation wrestler who makes an appearance. Don't get me wrong, they'd try to make it bigger. They'd be advertising it for weeks, playing his entrance music really loud, but the pops would only be from the older generation. And let's face it. Even if you're 30, how much do you really care about Hulk Hogan today? If I really wanted to see Hogan, you can see him at any given time at a TNA taping. Bret Hart got pops when he came back because he'd been gone for over a decade. With Hogan, how can we miss him if he never left? But that's off-topic.

Also though, I think older wrestlers like Bruno Sammartino, I'm pretty sure they had it a lot easier than today's wrestlers. Today's wrestlers are more athletic, more charismatic, and overall more talented than wrestlers of the past. I've seen some old wrestling tapes from the 70's and 80's, and even in the heavyweight championship matches, they are slow, out of shape, and lazy. And their interviews are nothing special. I don't care if Bruno Sammartino held the belt for 100 years, there's no way he compares to The Rock, a Chris Jericho, or likely even a CM Punk. There, I said it. Old wrestlers are overrated.

But maybe in 20 years people will call our generation overrated. :-/

 

[Dzone]

Nice post and thread.

People will stop caring when they see/hear about a wrestler that they haven't actually witnessed or felt the rush of in the arena when a fan favourite or a hated son of a b**** comes out. Although I don't agree that people like Bruno Sammartino are overrated, we only think like that because we have never seen them do what they do best. We have never went to an arena in the 60s and got a rush from wrestling. Most of us including myself felt that rush in the 90s-00s.

I believe we will stop caring about people like Stone Cold a bit faster than someone like Hulk Hogan. But people are beginning to not give a shit about Hulk Hogan, so I'd say give it about 20 years before we care about Stone Cold. But for the next generation probably 15 years and so on. Like the length of the title reigns, the length of us giving a shit will shorten.

 

[Matisyahu]

Its a great point to bring up. I began watching wrestling in the 80's when I was around 5 years old and I remember guys that todays kids never even heard of and could give a crap less about.

How many kids out there remember The Ultimate Warrior, The Model Rick Martel, The Mountie, Big Bossman, Akeem the African Dream, Earthquake and Typhoon the Natural Disasters, Yokozuna, Randy Savage, Ted Dibiase, Mr. Perfect, The Genius Lanny Poffo, Brutus Beefcake, Ravishing Rick Rude, Jake The Snake, and so on and so forth? I to people of my generation at least some of those guys were big big stars!! Thats not even including the WCW guys

I dare say some of these guys will never be properly remembered for their contributions to the sport and its just the way it goes.

Its the same with sports like baseball and football as well

I mean who here knows who Warren Moon was or Reggie White or for that matter Joe Montana for christ sakes!

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I don't care about Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, or Bob Backlund. I understand what they did and respect their contrabutions, but they have never been important to me

You gave the answer to your question in the first two lines that you wrote. Just like you do not care for Bruno, Pedro or Backlund the younger wrestling fans don't care for Rock or Stone Cold. Yes WWE will bring up their record their achievements time and again but that will only earn respect at the most, not hero worship.

As you have put it yourself the new fans have not seen Austin or Rock wrestle. It does not matter how charismatic or funny they are they have not seen them wrestle. As a kid you are attracted to that guy who is champion. That means, in the eyes of a kid, that the guy is great at his job. A marky kid cannot understand the inticacies of a great promo. To him( or her) its all about the action. He might laugh at a joke or two but that will always be a sideshow to him.

So because they have not seen them wrestle, these greats no matter how charismatic they are will not hold the place in their heart that a Cena or an Orton does. Its nothing really to feel disappointed about, its just the way the business works.

So coming back top your question, when will these superstars be forgotten. I'd say not till the guys that have seen them in action stop coming to wrestling shows. The young guys may not care a lot for them but the old ones do, they do care a lot. There will always be some older fan in the audience who will mark out at the sight of his hero. The pop for Rock or Stone Cold might decrease over the years but I do not think it will ever cease.

The amount of media and exposure also plays a part. We have almost no footage of Sammaritino and very little of the stars before Hogan. But all that changed when WWF went global. We have tons of footage of Austin, Hogan and Rock. Whenever WWE airs these footages, it might not evoke the same emotion in the hearts of these young fans as it does in ours, but WWE will ensure that you never forget these guys. They will keep promoting and remembering these guys till the day they go out of business and that is what will ensure that they are not forgotten.

So I'd say the younger fans have never cared much for the legends but yet these legends will never be forgotten.

 

[The Brain]

It’s already begun. Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Bret Hart are criticized all the time here. Younger fans couldn’t care less that Hogan is the biggest name in wrestling history. They just see someone who could work a crowd but supposedly couldn’t work a match. Younger fans don’t recognize Flair’s accomplishments. They see an old man who has hung on for too long and should have retired 15 years ago. Younger fans don’t appreciate how Hart was able to tell a great story during his matches. They just see someone who didn’t have a lot of charisma on the mic. How about Ultimate Warrior? He’s far better known for his backstage antics than for how over he got in the late 80s. Rock? He’s a traitor. He left us for Hollywood. HBK and Taker are safe for now because they still have a major role in WWE, or at least have until very recently. Give it a few years and they’ll be underappreciated too.

 

[TUFFY54]

It’s already begun. Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Bret Hart are criticized all the time here. Younger fans couldn’t care less that Hogan is the biggest name in wrestling history. They just see someone who could work a crowd but supposedly couldn’t work a match. Younger fans don’t recognize Flair’s accomplishments. They see an old man who has hung on for too long and should have retired 15 years ago. Younger fans don’t appreciate how Hart was able to tell a great story during his matches. They just see someone who didn’t have a lot of charisma on the mic. How about Ultimate Warrior? He’s far better known for his backstage antics than for how over he got in the late 80s. Rock? He’s a traitor. He left us for Hollywood. HBK and Taker are safe for now because they still have a major role in WWE, or at least have until very recently. Give it a few years and they’ll be underappreciated too.

The Brain makes a good point about HBK and Taker. As great as HBK is, a kid that starts watching wrestling tomarrow wont care about him at all. It's weird to think about it, but we were the same way. A lot of us bash Miz, Cena, and all the other new guys because we don't think they are as great as the Hogans, Austins, and Rocks. Imagine have we would of laughed if, during the 90's, some old guy told us that Austin and Rock were terrible compared to Ernie Lad and Wahoo McDanial.

 

[H33LTurn]

I think the youngster fans have already stopped caring about those guys. Their legends are Hogan, Flair, HBK, Undertaker, Triple H, and Bret Hart. The first two and the last one might only be there because they're still involved in the wrestling business and are still referenced to quite often in todays wrestling world. I mean I'm not a youngster and I barely care about the guys you mentioned in your post. Its not disrespect, or at least not in my eyes, but its moving foward and appreciating the veterans and new superstars we have in the present. Those characters are very hard to relate to today, and even though they've paved the way for some of the superstars today, only a handful of them have made such an impact that generations from now will be talking about.

 

[Rckstrtmmy]

Like most of you, my wrestling heroes are mostly Hogan, Savage, Warrior, Flair, Piper, Rhodes, Austin, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, and The Rock.

The thing is these are the guys that made wrestling what it is TODAY. Without these guys wrestling might still be two ugly sweaty guys in the ring beating on each other, without much spectacle behind it. These people put the entertainment in sports entertainment and took it to the next level...and mainstream. I feel these guys will be cared about forever because if youre fans of them, you know what they did for wrestling and fans of wrestling. And since wrestling is still similiar to how they made it, they will still be relevant figures. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

[johnbragg]

I'm 37, I started tuning in in 1999 when I started substitute teaching, and wanted to check if Kane (after I nonchalantly blocked and no-sold a 7-year old's karate moves while explaining the lesson, the boys started whispering to each other that I was Kane. I am not tall or remotely buff.) was Goldust/Gorgeous George or something. I flipped channels from CBS to ABC to USA to TBS on Monday Nights, slowly staying on Raw more and more and Nitro less and less.

So to me, when I started being a fan, Hogan was a has-been megastar, the Brett Favre of wrestling. I remembered when he and Mr T were the biggest things ever, even if Hulkamania didn't do anything for me as a kid. I knew Savage and Warrior's and Piper's acts from coming across 1980's WWF TV once or twice a year, and liked them in the 1990s as old-timer special guests. Flair, Rhodes, Bret Hart, Sting--I found out about them through the internet, I acknowledge what they did, but I can't say I really cared. I saw Flair once or twice on WCW, and just found him a ridiculous buffoon who couldn't get through--WHOO!--a sentence without saying "Whoo." Sting and Flair's flabby chop-fest on the last Nitro, for me, summed up WCW and why it died.

From your list, I only watched Austin, Foley and the Rock when they were still stars. Everyone else is a part of wrestling history, or was a guy living off his past. That's from a fan who checked in in 1999.

Even Undertaker, to me, was never as big a deal as people made of him, I think because I didn't see his mid-1990s run as the dominant evil force in WWF. When he was making his big comeback, I was excited to see this vampire guy, and he came out as a biker, and I never really got over that.

If you don't see what made someone a huge star, to you, I don't think they ever feel like a huge star.

That doesn't mean that to a kid today, Cody Rhodes is a bigger deal than Dusty Rhodes, because Cody Rhodes is a midcard not-much and Dusty Rhodes is a hall-of-famer you never saw. The 1980's comparison would be maybe Cowboy Bob Orton vs Bruno Sammartino.

 

[Kaeden]

The Brain makes a good point about HBK and Taker. As great as HBK is, a kid that starts watching wrestling tomarrow wont care about him at all.

I think that's a little premature, but on the right track. I started watching wrestling right after HBK went down, the first time. But his fingerprints were all over HHH and DX, so he was never fully forgotten. When he made his return, i knew him, and i cared. And, obviously, as he had his 'second coming' i grew to love him. Won't lie, i cried a bit when it was all over.

I think they'll stop caring, when the WWE stops caring. Stone Cold still gets a pop, Punk duped us at Old School Raw with it (or some such event). The Rock would still put puts in seats, even 'live via satellite' to call Umaga a monkey penis. But when the WWE stops promoting these guys, THEN they'll start to be forgotten.

And even then, some will linger. Sheamus' first big rub, was putting Haitch out. So, even when (if) Hunter hangs up the boots and leaves TV, he'll be relevant through Sheaums. And just like we looked up classics we may have missed, like The birth of Austin 3:16, or Hogan slamming Andre, the 'new fans' will look back and say, "Who is this HHH guy?" They'll look up the feud, and he'll be born again.

Our generation never cared for guys like Bruno, or Pedro, because not only did we miss their era...we missed the era of the guys they put over.

 

[Twiztid Rodimus]

Let use some examples of many different avenues of entertainment and you'll see how this is the progression of things as years pass and the younger ones are the intended audience.

Music:
Elivis, a man who was controversial, and changed the landscape of music. But if you have a kid who grew up with say, Marilyn Manson, Elvis is NO where NEAR as controversial or as entertaining to them.

Nirvana, Explain to a kid who is a avid Avenged Sevenfold fan, or a Paramore fan, how important Nirvana and Kurt's legacy is, They will scoff at it, as they didnt come up with them, so the personal connection isnt there.

Video Games:
Doom/Wolfenstein to a kid who is obsessed with Halo/Call of Duty, they will say this is horrible, instead of respecting the blueprints of the over graphical games they love now.

Movies:
Show a kid Fern gully, after they watched Avatar, and they will laugh at the comparison.

My point is, Kids/Teens who have NOT grown up with the legends,classics and blueprints that made the things and shaped entertainment nowadays, will never understand and have the personal connection to those who did.

 

[caleb89]

I agree with u in a sence i think in ways though its for the wrestlers to remember why there is a wrestling buisness and its another angle for heels that are suposed to be young and cocky that sort of thing but i agree that this generation will not care about the monday night wars and attitude era and theres nothing wrong with that cause thats how it works

 

[Stink Foot]

Kids who have never seen the rock wrestle will know him from his movies so that could keep the new generation of fans interested in his wrestling career. Other legends who are featured in WWE video games will also have the potential to get a good reaction if they show up on raw.

With you tube and wwe on demand and all the other ways to see wrestling history - kids can learn if they want. Even at my advanced age I scroll through WWE on demand and watch wrestlers I've never really seen.

If WWE ever starts their own network - Kids will be alot more exposed to history.

 

[wrestlingfan]

As a 12 year old wrestling fan myself I respect the past in all genres such as wrestling,music etc. I've researched the old guys so i know their contribution to the business. sometimes i even wish some of the new guys were like the old guys.

 

[Twiztid Rodimus]

As a 12 year old wrestling fan myself I respect the past in all genres such as wrestling,music etc. I've researched the old guys so i know their contribution to the business. sometimes i even wish some of the new guys were like the old guys.

Thats the thing though, I respect your opinion, and Im glad you know of the past wrestlers. But its not the same as experiencing them as they happened.

Not to discredit your opinion in the very least, but most arent able to appreciate those times through youtube, it isn't the same.

Its like listening to music from Woodstock and claiming to feel nostalgia from said songs, Its impossible.