Clearing up some confusion about Wrestling Fans

[Eumersian]

ULTRASNIP


Thanks for clearing that up, guys. Did you organise that?

Coincidence, believe me. I was baffled when I got your quote post in my inbox.

 

[SadakoMoose]

Well, let's answer these one by one!
1: I have no idea what a flannie is, sadly.
2: Separately, when used responsibly and with caution, they aren't a problem.
When used together, nothing good can possibly happen.
3: Yes, yes I do. I inherited it from my father, and mainly use it to take large bags of garbage and recyclables to the waste management center every month or so.
4: A lot of Hardy's fans are young girls with poor taste in idols, most of whom were under the impression that he was retiring (he wasn't). You know how young girls can be, right? It explains why Twilight is so popular. So no, most of us didn't cry then.

Oh OK, so not not all wrestling fans are rednecks? myth busted.

On a more I guess serious note, whats the appeal of watch to big muscle men, dance around in a choreographed "fight"? I never got it. I don't see any point when its all staged, every single move is scripted and the acting and for lack of a better word "story" are generally pretty bad.

Ah, here's where the FUN part of my job starts!
Wrestling isn't supposed to be too staged, or scripted, or choreographed, or acted in.
The way Vince McMahon does things is aberrant, un-natural, and makes wrestling look bad.
Truth is, 90% of pro wrestling (everything other than Vince) isn't scripted.
Rather, it's booked.
A man, usually an industry veteran, creates matches and simple angles to go with them.
"X beats Y, pin, 15 minutes or so, Jr. Heavyweight title fued."
He then discusses the angle with the wrestlers involved, who then put in their ideas to work out how things are going to work. Unless it's a fairly important or hyped match, then will be done backstage just before an event.
Then, based on the overall experience level of the talent, a match is worked out.
If it's just another live event, or tv taping, then not much is planned out in advance.
They agree on some of the big spots and a finish. The rest, they work out as they go along.
Some wrestlers like to plan things out more than others, and the more matches you work with someone, the more an idea you have about what you can do with them.
Either way, angles (storylines) should be simple too.
Involving, but not contrived.
Here's what Vince does wrong:
He tries to sell a STORY, rather than a match.
Why should I pay to see how the STORY plays out?
I can read about what happened next week.
Have you ever heard anyone say:
"Did you see the STORYLINES on that wrestling show last night?"
Would you buy a STORYTELLING pay per view?
No one would.
Wrestling SHOULD be about the matches.
To illustrate what I mean a little better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8nuc_MVnZU
Pro Wrestling NOAH: Great Voyage (Misawa Memorial Show)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o79i2FokZcQ
New Japan Pro Wrestling, Super J Cup 1994
These are both some music videos giving highlights from the events listed.
Anything on Billzeroism's youtube channel can better illustrate my points.

 

[SadakoMoose]

Ask me anything:

I will take advantage of this "anything"?

Do you smoke heavily, like, enough to make your voice really raspy like the announcers on the commercials?

Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler are just old is all.
They don't smoke, anymore, probably.
But, yeah...I sound like a 30 year old anyway...

 

[zen5887]

Snip

Settle down on the ol' Enter key champ..

Anyways.

This is what I dislike about Pro Wrestling nowadays. There needs to be about 100% more focus on the matches. I used to watch invasion era Smackdown religiously, then I watched it less frequently, then I kinda stopped around 2006. Once they started airing TNA in Australia I jumped straight on that. It was great! Exciting matches, cheesy but simple and minimal storylines and some pretty decent names. But then a little thing called Hulk Hogan came along, changed some shit up and everything died.

Sometimes I still flick on Smackdown or whatever and see a few good matches, but mostly its drama bullshit and squash matches. God damn I hate squash matches...

 

[TheComedown]

Wrestling isn't supposed to be too staged, or scripted, or choreographed, or acted in.

To much enter.
Anyway it isn't supposed to be, but everything I've seen always comes across as incredibly fake. I don't know if that Vince guy was behind it, I don't think he was, but its fake, and it always looks fake, we all know its fake, whats the point in watching a fake fight? If you want fighting try UFC or the boxing or something. This is what i've never gotten.

 

[SadakoMoose]

Wrestling isn't supposed to be too staged, or scripted, or choreographed, or acted in.

To much enter.
Anyway it isn't supposed to be, but everything I've seen always comes across as incredibly fake. I don't know if that Vince guy was behind it, I don't think he was, but its fake, and it always looks fake, we all know its fake, whats the point in watching a fake fight? If you want fighting try UFC or the boxing or something. This is what i've never gotten.

It's not supposed to be a fight.
It's a wrestling match.
Pro wrestling prides itself on being very unique...

 

[zen5887]

Wrestling isn't supposed to be too staged, or scripted, or choreographed, or acted in.

To much enter.
Anyway it isn't supposed to be, but everything I've seen always comes across as incredibly fake. I don't know if that Vince guy was behind it, I don't think he was, but its fake, and it always looks fake, we all know its fake, whats the point in watching a fake fight? If you want fighting try UFC or the boxing or something. This is what i've never gotten.

Its a different type of entertainment. Some people enjoy watching dudes double backflip off a 12 foot ladder onto another dude sitting across a table. Other people enjoy watching people get kicked in the head and choked out.

 

[TheComedown]

Wrestling isn't supposed to be too staged, or scripted, or choreographed, or acted in.

To much enter.
Anyway it isn't supposed to be, but everything I've seen always comes across as incredibly fake. I don't know if that Vince guy was behind it, I don't think he was, but its fake, and it always looks fake, we all know its fake, whats the point in watching a fake fight? If you want fighting try UFC or the boxing or something. This is what i've never gotten.

It's not supposed to be a fight.
It's a wrestling match.
Pro wrestling prides itself on being very unique...

Wrestle, Fight, doesn't matter, its fake. anyway I'd hardly call guys bouncing of ropes and jumping off ladders wrestling. I just really don't understand the appeal of something so obviously fake, except for the really thick, everybody knows they don't really hit each other(really some of the crap they do, if it were real there should be blood or bruising or something if not broken limbs and spines.)and after a match they go off stage and all sit around shake hands and have a cup of tea with each other.

 

[Distazo]

Who would you say are your favorite modern WWE wrestlers? The ones that work the best matches in your mind.

 

[Antitonic]

What's your opinion on TNA, and on CHIKARA?

 

[Crapster]

Do you like classic wrestlers? Particularly guys like the Macho Man Randy Savage, or "The Genius" Lanny Poffo? Those guys are my favorite. I'd like the Ultimate Warrior more if he wasn't such a dick.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I'm always confused with wrestling, which one are we talking about here?
The soap opera type?

If that is the case my question is, why can't wrestling fans admit they like soap operas?

 

[UltraParanoia]

and do you own a Ute(they're called trucks in America aren't they?)

Depends on what you mean by Ute, if you mean something along the lines of a Hilux, yeah, we have shit like that.

If you mean the cars with beds attached, no, we don't get those here for some reason.

 

[omega 616]

I used to watch it all the time, paying for pay per views and recording them etc.

I stopped when I realized only a very few "matches" actually finished without interference and blatant rule breaking with no consequences.

I think it might be better with no "script" but then it might just turn into a cluster fuck.

I stopped with WWE and went to UFC and couldn't be happier.

 

[Abengoshis]

Ooh I've got one.
What exactly is it that you find so interesting about some huge, muscular, sweating men yelling and being violent to each other?

 

[Something Amyss]

Do you like John Cena?

That is the important question.

Wrestling fans are fairly divided about John.
On one hand:
He works hard, he loves "the business", and (based on early years) we know that he can wrestle when he wants to.
On the other hand:
He's popular, and therefore sucks.
Truth is, Cena tries his best with the material he's given.
If he were given some more challenging angles or "story lines" to work with, he'd really shine.
Either way, he's good business, and a good guy IRL to boot.
He's also a fan of Fist of the North Star.

Cena is certainly talented. The reason he is hated is not so much his popularity as it is the way he was used. Bad storylines, a couple years of "always overcoming the odds," etc. It also doesn't hurt that he's the figurehead for what is quickly becoming known as the "WWE PG" era. Now, I know he's neither the reason nor the force behind it, but a lot of wrestling fans seem to believe correlation proves causation.

I WANT to like him, but some of the things they do with him suck.

Popularity is a tricky beast, but I don't remember this kind of backlash against the Rock or Steve Austin, or more recent but less extreme cases like Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, or even Batista. Granted, the last of the three did get a lot of detractors eventually, but after the fanfare had died down, not because of it.

 

[theevilsanta]

Wrestle, Fight, doesn't matter, its fake. anyway I'd hardly call guys bouncing of ropes and jumping off ladders wrestling. I just really don't understand the appeal of something so obviously fake, except for the really thick, everybody knows they don't really hit each other(really some of the crap they do, if it were real there should be blood or bruising or something if not broken limbs and spines.)and after a match they go off stage and all sit around shake hands and have a cup of tea with each other.

Why would you go to an action movie? It's all fake. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't really a robot from the future you know. And he didn't really melt in molten steel to save John Connor.

It's the spectacle of the thing. More specifically, the spectacle of 1 on 1 combat between two warriors. There needs to be some suspension of disbelief for it to work. And these guys are doing some pretty impressive choreography that must take an incredible toll on the body. I have huge respect for pro wrestling. Well, at least the pro wrestling of the early nineties when I watched and it really was more about the excitement of a match. Interference was rare and when it happened it almost always resulted in a DQ, or a more heroic win for the offended.

From my days of watching wrestling I don't remember a single storyline about soap opera "relationships" except for a few about brothers. And that wasn't why I watched, it was for the excitement of the fight.

 

[feeback06]

Wrestling isn't supposed to be too staged, or scripted, or choreographed, or acted in.

To much enter.
Anyway it isn't supposed to be, but everything I've seen always comes across as incredibly fake. I don't know if that Vince guy was behind it, I don't think he was, but its fake, and it always looks fake, we all know its fake, whats the point in watching a fake fight? If you want fighting try UFC or the boxing or something. This is what i've never gotten.

I can try to answer this one. Yes, wrestling is scripted and UFC isn't. I get it. But wrestlers (the good ones anyway) go out there with the intention of entertaining us. The ones in the arena's and the one's watching at home. Now does Frank Mir care about going out there and giving us 25 minutes? No of course not, he wants to win no matter what. And if he does it in one round? Well tough luck to the guy who spent $60 on a PPV for a 33 second fight.

 

[mjc0961]

Who is the douchebag in the USA commercials who puts his hand to his face and waves it back and forth over his face a few times while trying to look tough, and where can I find that douchebag to tell him that he's such a colossal douchebag?! Seriously, they show that right before the show I was watching comes back on and I always miss part of it because that fucking douchebag's "look at how tough I am waving my hand in front of my face" routine makes me facepalm so hard.

Also I don't care that he could probably ruin my shit without even breaking a sweat, I want to punch him in the face.