the internet

[Guest EdBootyManTheDiscipleLeslie]

Before internet, I remember actually being surprised by segments and not knowing about them weeks in advance. Perhaps we'd enjoy wrestling more were it not for the spoilers.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

eh don't likie the spoilers don't read them, you've got a choice you know.

[Guest EdBootyManTheDiscipleLeslie]

But there's so much temptation! It's like avoiding the doughnuts in the fridge.

[Guest Slapnuts00]

Yes and No. Before I got on the net in 97, everything was cool and suprising and seemed more real, immidiately after it was cool knowing what was rumored, what is going on backstage, etc. and gives you a whole 'nother level of perpective on what you're watching. But in the last year or 2 I find myself wanting to be suprised and thinking how much cooler it'd be if things like Flair or the nWo's return were not know before hand. Its a double edged sword.

[Guest goodhelmet]

No, I enjoy wrestling more that I'm more aware. Before the net, I didn't have a forum to vent my frustrations and now I can view comments, columns, reviews, history that I didn't have access to before. It makes me appreciate better wrestlers even more. I love to be educated and aware and the net has helped me do that.

[Guest Some Guy]

I agree with you Slapnuts00.  Especially on the Flair return and the last Nitro, I wish I was surprised by those rather than knowing they were going to happen.

[Guest Big McLargeHuge]

I agree with everything Goodhelmet said.

[Guest Tony149]

I'm sure some wrestlers aren't thrilled with the internet. I like knowing what's going on in wrestling. When I first got access to the internet...I found out a lot of what I liked (WWF '99 & Russo's writing) was hated. Goodhelmet's post is pretty much what I think.

[Guest goodhelmet]

I forgot. The net also helped me develop my wrestling "vocabulary". I knew ever since Savage-Steamboat (and even prior to that) that Steamboat was just better than almost everyone in the ring. The net made me realize that other people felt the same way and that fans shouldn't accept some of the mediocrity that the feds (esp. old WCW) were feeding us. I never used the words "workrate" or "psychology" or transitions" but I knew the matches were just better when these things applied.

 

Sidenote- It's good to see people agreeing with me

[Guest X-Factor Corperation]

As I didn't watch wrestling before using the internet I really can't give you an answer. I do know however that once I liked reading spoilers because I couldn't wait until Smackdown. One week I couldn't and I found I liked Smackdown better. There really isn't a reason to read spoilers unless you're running news so the majority of people should just enjoy the show.

 

Of course that's just my feelings. There are actually many valid reasons to read them, I just feel that I prefer it without them.

 

In my opinion reading spoilers is like getting wrestlemania built up in one day. It seems like a fun idea at the time but once you've finished you've got a lot more time until you can be suprised again.

[Guest Steve J. Rogers]

Just to add a bit,

 

I think it's a double edged sword

 

On the one hand the internet gives fans access to stuff other than what they can see on WWF/WCW programming.  You could get tuned into ECW or whatever indy promotion is running a broadcast on a local access station without catching it accidentally while channel surfing (without internet its "Hey whats this shit" and "Wheres JYD?  Wheres Hogan?" with internet its "Hey this is ECW" or "Hey thats that local promotion that ran a show at the local community center not too long ago")

 

Also the internet has been a treasure trove for history of the sport which is SEVERLY lacking in other mediums.  Wheiter its actual blow-by-blow or in depth reviews you can probably find a record of EVERY major show in televised history over the last 7 years, granted from before 96 its barron and basically all you have is PPVs and CRZ's Raws but you can find some grea sites that give you stories of the territories and promotions before the 90's boom.

 

And on the other hand, like TV show spoilers, when you know what will happen it tends to diminish the surprise element, and I'm sure those inside the community are too protective of the "carnie code" and that probably is the root of many of the wrestlers vs internet marks/smarks/smarts/ect fueds.  I mean thats the only logic behind why they use the "Well you don't know because you've never worked in a ring" card when sports journalists like Howard Cosell, Red Smith, Jimmy Cannon, Red Barber, Mike Lupica, Peter Gammons, Dave Anderson, Robert Lipsite (who actually coined the phrase that sports journalism WAS being taken over by a jococracy when the athlete-commentator boom was happening in the 60's) ect have been respected by players and fans alike and never had the "YOU NEVER PLAYED SO HOW CAN YOU COMMENT" card thrown in their place (hell Howard made a career out of "I've never played the game" which was the title of his autobiography)

 

But I think thats the price you pay sometimes.  I mean it was bound to happen one way or another.  I mean there have been smarks since the Georgous George days (once you see the theatrics of the heel and the fact that the matches are always good guy-bad guy you have to figure, hey, this ain't on the up-and-up) the internet is a haven for any fraction of society and culture being able to have their global place in the world were the rest of society isn't frowning on them, and that is what brought out the internet wrestling scene.

 

Steve

[Guest El Satanico]

Well when i originally stopped watching wrestling which was from 91-96 give or take the Internet was just getting started. Since i was a young kid watching wrestling before Internet and i was older when i was watching wrestling with the Internet so it's kinda hard to compare it. Everything is bigger and better when you're young so it's hard to tell if the internet or getting older is what lessens your "amazement".

 

Yes it would be nice to be surprised from time to time still. Surprises do slip under the internet radar from time to time but not very often. However knowing about things before they happen doesn't make me enjoy it less.

[Guest JMTapes]

No, I like being a cynical asshole. -Jim

[Guest Cataclysm911]

"Was wrestling better before the internet?"

 

By leaps & bounds, yes. The internet just adds negativity. No one ever has anything positive to say anymore. Backstage antics shouldn't matter, because we, as fans, can't witness them.

[Guest Kinetic]

Yes and no.  It's definitely a little disconcerting to see a segment like the nWo/Rock thing on Raw and to really like it, only to find that other people completely despise it.  You start to over-analyze things, and most stuff on a wrestling show does not stand up well under a microscope like that.  Times like that make me rethink the benefits of being a smart fan.  But, then again, it gives you a better appreciation of what goes on.  You see what the wrestlers are doing in a different light, and you understand it all better.  Plus, you get all of the insider comments.  I don't think I could settle for being in the 70% of fans that didn't understand the nWo promo at No Way Out.  I'm probably too far gone, anyway.

[Guest Invader3K]

The thing I like about having access to the Internet is that it allows me to find out what's going on with my favorite wrestlers. I remember back in the old days when I was a young mark, a wrestler I liked would suddenly be gone from the WWF, and I'd have no clue what happened to them. It was frustrating. Now we don't need to deal with that.

[Guest Repo Man jr]

I've never been on the internet so it doesn't affect me!

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Well, I say the internet has increased my love for wrestling, rather than destroyed it.  Now I can focus my thought processes and discuss it among intelligent (and often not so intelligent) fans which is something that I had always wanted when I was really into it.

 

Goodhelmut hit it right on the head..both posts.

 

Plus, the internet gave me my puro tapes, kenta kobashi, the surly stan hansen and shinjiro oh-fn-tani... How the HELL could I hate it!?

 

Plus, I can turn off the 'smark' mode when watching the Wwf and just slip into rube mode... Which is to say I can just sit back and not think when watching it.  That always helps....

[Guest AM The Kid]

Yes, absolutly...

[Guest Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye]

ditto what Googhelmet said.

My big point on this(and i was gonna start a thread on this). What other major television show caters to its fans the same way? we, as smarks, are in the position that we do sometimes become a part of the show/story. knowledge is power and with the net we have the power to somewhat control the thing that many of hold as a major part of life and activity. maybe i'm wrong on this but i love the idea of it.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

It's funny. I always used to wonder why people read the spoilers when they were still planning on watching Smackdown, Heat, etc. Well, when I finally got UPN I found myself reading spoilers! The reason? It was a preview, or, in some cases a warning, of what I was going to be spending 2 hours of my life on Thursday night.

 

I'm now warned of an UT match in advance and can plan my schedule accordingly. Thank you Internet!

[Guest Hit Squad]

The internet opened me up to more wrestling, indy and japan.

[Guest RickyB]

Yes & No:

 

I like the internet Wrestling Community because I can discuss Wrestling with other people, but in real life almost everyone I know hates Wrestling and I kind of have to pretend that i'm not really into it.  It give me somewhere to post my fantasy booking stuff.  It was good to know that Hogan was coming back before he did too.  It was also good to find some of the old nWo commercial things on the internet that I would never have been able to see again otherwise.  And being in the UK I can plan to only watch parts of Raw when stuff I want to see happens (nWo stuff this week).

 

But I don't like the fact that I don't get suprises anymore, I know everything that's going to happen even if I don't read spoilers since being in the UK I have to wait until Friday to see it and that means that if I come on any message board then i'll see most of what will happen on the show.  Some of the stupid comments people make piss me off too (e.g. "If you like Hulk Hogan then you're not a real Wrestling fan"), and I hate seeing the fact that Backstage stuff (that has nothing to do with you) is something that people use as an argument about why so and so doesn't deserve to be in the WWF.

[Guest imajackoff?]

The internet has given me a better appreciation of what these guys do.  Before the 'net, I had no idea how many injuries were sustained by almost everyone involved.

[Guest saturnmark4life]

i think that whilst the net fucked up everything that was kayfabe, it forced wrestling to accept that if they tried to cover it up they would NEVER be taken seriously in any capacity.

[Guest DrEvil]

eh don't likie the spoilers don't read them, you've got a choice you know.

You don't always have a choice.  Every big surprise that they've got coming is advertised well in advance because they know they can't keep it out of the internet community.  While this may make up a small percentage of their audience, it does make you look foolish when you have some huge "surprise" event and a million or so people simultaneously say "told you so".  Before the internet, you'd never know when a big return or new signee would be happening.

[Guest The Shockmaster!]

The worst thing the internet did was all ow fan to start using terms like "workrate", "shoot" and all the other insider lingo that annoys me.