What match do you credit with making you a smark?

[Guest Lord of The Curry]

So, is there any matches out there that you can recall watching and thinking, "Goddamn, maybe Undertaker isn't that good of a wrestler" or something to that effect? Basically, what matches took your virginity as a mark and turned you into a smark?

 

Note: I'm aware that we're all marks in a certain way. You know what I mean.

[Guest MaxPower27]

When Diesel v. Mabel happened during that horrific summer of 1995, I kind of smartened up.

[Guest y2jailbait]

Undertaker Vs Undertaker or Undertaker Vs Yoko at Rumble 94'. Pure shite that made me smarten up big time.

[Guest Lord of The Curry]

Yeah, but did those matches turn you into a smark or just make you realize who sucks? I knew Undertaker sucked very early in my wrestling life but didn't really become a smark until a few years ago.

[Guest Retro Rob]

When I got the internet...

[Guest bob_barron]

There wasn't really a match to me- I also got on the net

[Guest snuffbox]

Some lil thing that happened in November 1997 in Canada.

 

And Im not bullshitting, I got the 'facts' (hotline/sheets) on that and was on the net shortly after.

 

But I was good at ignoring it for awhile to watch ppv/tv...but when WWE went to shit in 2002, I went allout smark. And still am.

[Guest y2jailbait]

Yeah, but did those matches turn you into a smark or just make you realize who sucks? I knew Undertaker sucked very early in my wrestling life but didn't really become a smark until a few years ago.

Well, the possibility of two wrestling Undertakers or that same Undertaker being rasied to the heavens in some kind of chessy ceremony didn't tell me The Undertaker sucked, but that wrestling might have been a tad bit fake, this making me a smark who that he knew it all.

 

THE END!

[The Dames 0]

See...and then people wonder why the Internet is blamed! You guys didn't become cynical til you GOT the net!

 

Well, for me, I started reading the Torch in about 95 or so. There wasn't one definitive match that made me a smark, but I do remember watching the Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs and thinking that any of those guys were better than Hogan because they could actually do moves. I loved DiBiase as a kid...

 

Dames

[Guest MaxPower27]

What made me appreciate workrate was Bret v. Bulldog @ Summerslam 1992 and Bret v. Owen @ WMX and SS94. That kind of got me appreciating more of the smarky guys.

 

I didn't get into wrestling on the 'net until about 2000.

[Guest Respect The 'Taker]

I read ALOT of wrestling books, most of them 'smart' ones, such as the British 'Power Slam'.

 

However, the Montreal incident made it all too real for me.

[Guest JHawk]

It was kind of gradual for me. Hell, even when I got the internet and knew everything was preplanned, I still found a way to defend wrestling as "real" in a term paper and get an A on it. Go me! Go me!

[Guest PlatypusFool]

I always knew wrestling was fake, but didn't know the ins and outs until, I too, got the internet in 2000.

 

I was a smark.

 

Then I learned about the way you can tell storylines in the ring from Austin vs. Rock WM X-7. Followed by how you can use selling to better a match from Kawada and Lyger after I started watching japs. Followed by how to add emotion to a match and how to tell a story that is rich in morals from Hokutu vs. Kandori, and Jubuki's review of that match.

 

Then I was smart.

 

I'm still learning, and I always will be.

[Guest Jubuki]

I've known for a long time it was fake. That's no big thing. What made me start voicing my opinions on it was the WrestleWar Flair/Steamboat...

 

"Wait a minute. This match sucks~! This can't be the best match ever - that Keith guy's a dumbass! I've gotta find more stuff to watch. Whatta tool!"

 

And the world hasn't been the same since...

[Guest Retro Rob]

Now that you guys mention the dirtsheets, I guess it was once I started getting magazines and all that. Honestly, I can't even remember EXACTLY when it was.

[Guest goodhelmet]

In 1987, when Steamboat vs. Savage took place, I KNEW that was the best match on the card and Hogan-Andre was a pile of shit. At that moment, I knew the difference between good and bad wrestling. I also got fed up with the Dusty finish around this time and stopped watching NWA.

 

When the net came around, it gave me a vocabulary to express my feelings, that is all.

[Guest razazteca]

Brett vs Yokozuna and Hogan vs Slaughter come to mind.

[Guest Plushy Al Logan]

The nWo's shitty WWF return.

[cawthon777 0]

I had been hardcore into guys like Bret, Owen, Benoit, Perfect, Flair, Guerrero for years but - again - I didn't become a "smart" until January 98 when I got the net. I just HAD to get all the news on Montreal from every perspective imaginable. That REALLY smartened me up.

[Guest ShamRock]

The match that made me slowly turn into a smark was the Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit Cage Match on that June RAW. I really started appreciating wrestling then.

 

I had the 'net before but went to mark sites so I didn't know until this dude on AIM told me about the Smarks.

[Guest Choken One]

I guess It had to be Early 1997 on the WWF Board and then I found RS at Delphi and then it become a evoultion from there...

[Guest BorneAgain]

I had always been pretty smarkish, but the one match that really got me noticing good workrate was Austin-Bret Survivor Series. I had stopped watching in early 96 and when I saw this in the summer of 97, I noticed how good this was, and decided to watch WWF again to see more matches like it.

[Guest godthedog]

after a looooooooong hiatus, my new college roommate had gotten me into watching it again. i'd always been a huge bret hart fan, so i bought a bret hart/hbk feud tape from ebay. the one match that stuck out for me was the iron man match. i'd come home from class every afternoon & watch it. first match i ever really studied, & whenever i watch it i notice something different about it (sometimes something that enhances the match, sometimes flaws).

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I knew it was fake long before I started watching. I just happened to catch SNME while flipping channels in 1988 and I found Savage/Dibiase to actually be quite entertaining despite being little more than a glorified cartoon.

 

I started getting into the dirt sheets pretty much right away, following that event.

 

As for when I started becoming the bitter smark I am today, definitely the ending to Wrestlemania IX. That pissed me off immensly.

[Guest papacita]

I never really considered myself a smark until last summer, when during an Edge or RVD match I just blurted out "SELL THE LEG, YOU IDIOT!"

 

As far as becoming cynical...I'd say that started with Vince McMahon Vs HHH at Armageddon 99. Not only the build for the match was IMO the most boring I've ever seen, but it also ate up about 90% of the airtime as they seemed to stall just about every other storyline and put all of their energy into this bullshit ass match. And the match itself was horrible. The entire match was Vince slamming Hunter's head into a guardrail/plain/wall and vice versa. My interest in the product has steadily been declining since then.

[Adam 0]

Im sure it was when I saw Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn at Hardcore Heaven 2000. It was those first couple of spots that made me realise how much I was a smark. I even wrote a 5000wd assignment on the history of wrestling and linked it to a literary background to get myself an A!

[Guest the 1inch punch]

Three words...

 

Wrestling

With

Shadows

 

and Powerslam Magazine

 

and the Net

[Guest wwF1587]

When I got the internet...

same here

[Guest Human Fly]

Probably when I got into ECW in '95-'96. I had always been a huge WWF fan but ECW made me realize that stuff is out there besides WWF and it can be better. ECW focused on the internet alot too, and when Joey would rip on WCW or WWF many things he was saying made sense. During the first Rey Jr. and Psicosis match: "I don't know what you call that, if you fans have any suggestions leave them for me on the hotline. Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff don't bother calling. 'Whatta Maneuver' ain't gonna cut it!"

 

I had a friend who was into the internet in '95 and he smartened me up and then I got the net soon after that.

[HurriShane 0]

For me it was at Bash at the Beach 2000 with the whole Russo/Hogan deal. I couldn't tell if it was real or not so I went online to look for news on it and my entire perspective on wrestling hasn't been the same since.