Wrestling Fans 2.0- Killing the business?

[Planty]

Nowadays, there are so many posts about people complaining about every single detail in wrestling. These fans, often influenced by what they hear on the internet (like a lot of us here), are a lot different than the 80's and 90's generation of wrestling fans for example.

In the past, Hulk Hogan for example preached his values as a role model and got cheered for it immensely. CM Punk has been doing the same and has been collecting a lot of jeers.

In the past, a lot of people craved high over-the-top action wrestling. Now?.. there's more and more parents sitting on the edge of their couch disgusted and what their child next to them has been watching.

It seems after a lot of high-profile matches there's been in the past involving Hulk Hogan who had a fairly limited moveset, a lot of people called certain matches classic. Nowadays, with great athletic wrestling such as the recent Jeff Hardy vs John Morrison match on Smackdown- people still find something to complain about (e.g. Morrison's promo beforehand, the crowd reaction to Morrison in the arena, how Jeff shouldn't be champion). It seems that no matter what result these days, there is a lot of conflict.

What I'm asking is- is the modern fan good for the business? Or are they bad? A lot of modern fans are smarks who critique the product based on information they've heard off the internet but is there too much criticism?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Spaceman Spif]

I think there is way to much critism, even by me to some extent. I'm a hypocrite myself, I still want the magic of the attitude era and even earlier, I still want to believe that Orton really broke Batista's arm because he wanted him out of the picture, not because they needed to write Batista out of the storyline because of a previous injury. I want to believe that Stone Cold and Vince really truly hated eachother, but Vince wouldn't fire Stone Cole because he knew he drew money, not just because it was a work. I want to believe that Undertaker really can bring up the lights. I want to believe in the mystic and magic again.

Yet I turn to the one source that has throughly killed any belief in what we see on tv, that has killed any belief that what is being witnessed in the ring is real, the internet. The Internet and the fans that came with it or a different breed that the fan I was, I used to be, I changed and I hate myself for that, that it was also neccessary to do so or was it? Would it be bad to not go online anymore to see what's really going on or just to simply believe it's real? It would, because I've been tainted, as have so many fans. we can't turn back now, this 2.0 fan is here to stay. So instead of believing, we criticise anything and everything, put it under a microscope and pick it a part instead of accepting it as face value.

We are not killing wrestling, we are changing it, we control the content, we control what we want to see, no matter how hard Vince tries to do what he wants, ultimately he gives in. The ratings go down, Vince changes, they go back up for a while. We get bored again, want another change, it doesn't come soon enough, ratings drop. Vince gives in, they go back up. So know we aren't killing it, but we are not allowing it to grow as fast as we want. Our vanity that we know what's best and what's better for us, than someone who has does this for 40 years, is what is not allowing things to change to our ultimate liking. The magic is gone forever, it's not coming back, yet we still want it, but can't have it. This business will never die, but it'll cling to life support, until we finally give in to Vince fully and let him entertain us, just simply entertain us, instead of breaking out the microscopes.