"Complaining About Wrestling Is A Hobby"

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

First, I saw X-2: X-Men United last night, and I must say it was quite a good movie for fans of the genre! THOUGH my BIG complaint about the movie is what about Cyclops?!?! This guy is the leader of the X-men and has some wicked ass powers, but he’s BARELY in the movie!! Being a Cyclops fan myself, I was incredibly disappointed. I thought things were off to the right start when he had more lines in the first 10 minutes of this movie than he did in the entire first movie, but then he vanishes for ¾ of this one! Those aren’t spoilers, just a big pet peeve of mine. I like Hugh Jackman, and I like Wolverine, but they may as well call these movies Wolverine and the X-Men: But mostly just Wolverine

 

Ah well, what can ya do?

 

Anyway, without further ado, onto the column!

 

Complaining about wrestling online is a hobby

 

 

I’ve been an online wrestling fan for a few years now, and it’s always been a cynical place to be a fan. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone complains about everything. That’s just a fact.

 

RARELY do fans online ever find something positive to talk about in wrestling. That’s not that there isn’t anything positive to talk about, it’s just that negative topics get more of a response and that’s just a fact. Columnists can focus on positive things and will sometimes receive a solid response, but for the most part they’ll talk about things that will generate heat and have people write in to them with their own opinions on the topic. That’s how things work.

 

I’m not saying that I don’t complain about things. Just the other week I ripped into Triple H and I’ve said negative things in the past. I do tend to forgive things more than the average net fan, and look past things, but that’s just me. For the most part we’re all the same. We’re all here to complain and just enjoy it.

 

If you REALLY think about it, what are we complaining about? We’re complaining about RAW and things happening on it, and Smackdown! And things happening on it, and yet how do we get ammo to complain about the shows? Well, we watch them! If we TRULY hated these shows, and thought they were horrible, we’d stop watching. It’s that simple.

 

Fans just do this as a hobby. They come on and bitch and complain and vent. Nobody REALLY hates the product. We can dislike what’s going on, but everyone STILL tunes in to see if it gets better, and it doesn’t, and we complain…etc…

 

When it all comes down to it the only REAL thing a ‘downtime’ in the business means is that people don’t have wrestling as a TOP priority as of late. I watched Smackdown! For the first time in a while in full this past Thursday. It was alright, nothing GREAT. (Maybe I say this because Edge/Angle are gone and my man Matt Hardy is all of a sudden just ‘around’ with no place to go…but there I go complaining again.)

 

When there’s a ‘downtime’ in the business, people just do other things. If you miss a show, ah well what can you do? It’s not as vital anymore to tape a show so you don’t miss some amazing feud advances. It doesn’t matter. You could miss an entire month, come back and you’re already back in the thick of things.

 

But nobody is going to STOP watching entirely. If I had a dollar for every time someone said “If this continues, I’m not going to watch anymore” I’d have had enough money to buy WCW myself when it went out of business.

 

Nobody is going to stop watching entirely. If you do for a few weeks, good for you, go do other things. 99% of you will come back and the other 1% are those who can’t watch because they broke their TV after they saw that Triple H would be headlining the next PPV.

 

The internet is here for us to voice our opinions on. When it comes to wrestling, the opinions are negative. Why? Because what kind of a response would a pro-wrestling column get? A negative one, which proves my point.

 

 

Alrighty! With that section of the column out of the way and after a big response from the Triple H interview last week, I actually went through the WWE files and found an interview the WWE conducted with Nash a few weeks ago talking about his return and I found the REAL responses to it, which is as follows:

 

 

WWE Interview with Kevin Nash

 

 

WWE: How are you feeling?

 

Nash: Well, I had a rough night tonight. If you watched RAW you’ll have seen that I had to WALK all the way down the ramp to get at Triple H. Can you believe that with the WWE being a multi-billion dollar corporation that they can’t splurge and get me a scooter to come down to the ring in. I mean seriously, how else do they expect me to give chase to someone who can get away from me if he just speed walks?

 

WWE: Are you worried about the quad tightening up?

 

Nash: Worried? Well of course I am. I’m taking it easy now. When my music hits, there’s a reason you don’t see me come out for a few minutes, I’m backstage walking nice and slow to the ramp. When I finally do get to the ramp, I almost have to slow my pace! I mean that ramp is STEEP, I don’t want to stumble forward on my way down and tear my quad again! That would almost be as sad as how it happened in the first place!

 

WWE: Nervous?

 

Nash: Hell yeah I’m nervous! I’m so nervous that during our little Clique ‘Nash dropped the soap in the shower again’ routine before the show, nobody could take advantage of me when I ‘accidentally’ dropped the soap my ass was so tight!

 

WWE: How different is this from the last time you were in Milwaukee, making your long-awaited return to WWE with Hulk Hogan and Scott Hall?

 

Nash: Last time we came out as the Outsiders…that return was long awaited…the only thing that will be long about this return is how long it’s going to take my washed up arse from the top of the ramp to the ring!

 

WWE.: What are you looking to prove this time around?

 

Nash: This time around I’m looking to prove that once the bell sounds for my first match back, that I can actually last longer than 4 seconds in the ring without giving myself a career ending injury. I’m hoping to make it at least 32 seconds this time before I injure a disc in my back or neck and need to go out another year…but hey, some guys don’t even get to have a 30 second match in a WWE ring, especially when they’re fighting Triple H, so I’ll be happy if mine lasts at least that long.

 

WWE: What was the toughest thing about being away?

 

Nash: Not being able to sleep with Triple H…erm…hahaha, I’m kidding…*looks nervous*…anyway, naw, the thing that’s toughest about being away? Nothing, other than not having my clique friends around! I make money for sitting on my ass, which is good for me because whenever I get up to even take a piss nowadays it almost causes me to need a spinal fusion the next day.

 

WWE:So is being around your buddies the best thing about being back?

 

Nash: Damn straight! I mean look at it this way alright? I JUST got back into the WWE, and in my first ‘official’ match I injured myself just by walking…now I come back after months and months of rehab and I’m ALREADY fighting for the world title! Doesn’t being in the clique rule?!

 

WWE: There were some rumors that you were coming back as Diesel. Were they true?

 

Nash: They were true. The guys backstage figured that everyone in the audience were kinda, what’s the word I’m looking for? Ah right, gullible! And they’d think I was all of a sudden NOT Kevin Nash, the injury prone washed up bum, but instead, I’d be this body guard assassin once more…ah, that would have been nice.

 

WWE: How much longer do you want to wrestle?

 

Nash: As long as my HOMEY Triple H is banging Steph and letting me videotape it, I’ll be around. Not because of the free porn, but because if they break up, the WWE will probably figure out that we, and by we I mean the Clique, are really a group of sad has-beens…oh man, trust me, we’re doing EVERYTHING we can to keep those two together!

 

WWE: How healthy would you say you are now?

 

Nash: Well, in all honesty I had a talk with my doctor earlier this week and he said if I train REALLY hard, and I mean REALLY hard, that by Summerslam the fans MAY be able to look forward to seeing Kevin Nash jog down to the ring instead of walk…here’s to hoping!

[Guest The Grand Pubah of 1620]

Well, you're right about complaining being a hobby. It's alot of peoples hobby on this board.

 

And by the way, what was the meaning of that fake interview? Were you trying to be funny or something?

[Guest Sakura]

Nobody really hates the product? Nobody really stops watching?

 

Have you seen the ratings, buyrates and attendence figures???

[Guest Coffey]

Nobody really hates the product? Nobody really stops watching?

 

Have you seen the ratings, buyrates and attendence figures???

Have you or are you just going by something that someone else posted?

I mean, sure we might get told the RAW or Smackdown ratings or a PPV buyrate, but we don't get told everything.

[Guest Cover of Darkness]

 

Jubilee sucks.

 

Replace her with Colossus and your sig is perfect.

[Guest OnlyMe]

I mean, sure we might get told the RAW or Smackdown ratings or a PPV buyrate, but we don't get told everything.

 

What else do you need to know, to know that buyrates and ratings are down?

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Let me guess....

 

LOP guest column

 

EDIT: and of course, the "downtime in business" argument is used. Amusing.

[Guest Coffey]

Merchandies sales, attendance records, salaries, employess behind the scenes (tech, camera men, etc.) pay cuts etc.

[Guest Showstoppa Icon]

ok, i have a problem with cyclops coming off as such a prick. Hes one of my favorites and in these films hes been totally held down...so to speak. The column was good too

[Guest Sakura]

Uh...what do the saleries of a camera man have to do with anything?

 

Seriously, what are you going on about?

 

Are ratings down? Yes. Are buyrates down? Yes. Is attendence down? Yes.

 

So are less people watching? Obviously.

[Guest Coffey]

Yeah, and I was trying to point out that if merchandise was still around average, and some people took some pay cuts or if they did some lay-offs then they would be around the same level financially month to month. I know that they lost a lot of money last year, but we'll see what happens at the end of this year.

 

Less people are watching? Great. Don't mean that they are going fucking bankrupt. Besides, what are you comparing the numbers to? The wrestling BOOM period of D-X, Austin/McMahon & nWo? Or course they are going to be down. They will be down forever.

[Guest Sakura]

Who cares if there's layoffs? I didn't say anything about how much money they're making. All I am talking about is fans leaving.

 

The article tries to say nobody really leaves or dislikes the product and that's just wrong. Like half their audience has left! Wrestlemania bombed! Obviously tons and tons of people have left and are leaving.

 

 

Why is the boom period over? I don't know about the other millions of people that stopped watching, but for me it's because the product SUCKS.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

It's all the down cycle don't you know. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with what's being put on TV every week. Yup yup. That's what's really going on. La la la la la la la la la la.

[Guest Coffey]

Who cares

You said it.

[Guest the pinjockey]

Less people are watching? Great. Don't mean that they are going fucking bankrupt. Besides, what are you comparing the numbers to? The wrestling BOOM period of D-X, Austin/McMahon & nWo? Or course they are going to be down. They will be down forever.

Who said they were going bankrupt? And why should they be content to have less viewers than the wrestling boom. They have lost more than half the viewers than they had during their high period and have lost about 65% of the total wrestling viewers from that period are gone. That is not good. You shouldn't be touting the fact that the boom is over our ratings are going to go down but we don't mind. They had a chance to turn the viewers into hardcore fans as opposed to the casual fans.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

There are 4.4 million fans watching over the age of 30 that were regular viewers four years ago that don't watch today. I talk with them every day at the gym. They are wrestling fans who gave up on the product, but would still watch the product if they gave them something they wanted. That something is the product they liked their entire lives.

 

-Dave Meltzer

[Guest the pinjockey]

They are wrestling fans who gave up on the product, but would still watch the product if they gave them something they wanted.

Whoa whoa whoa, you mean there are people out there who want something other than what Vince tells them they want.

 

Damn all those smart marks.

 

Smart marks are the only ones fed up with the WWF right?

[Guest Coffey]

There are 4.4 million fans watching over the age of 30 that were regular viewers four years ago that don't watch today.  I talk with them every day at the gym.  They are wrestling fans who gave up on the product, but would still watch the product if they gave them something they wanted.  That something is the product they liked their entire lives.

 

-Dave Meltzer

Couldn't that "something" be more big men & ignorant women mud wrestling matches? Why must we assume that they something they want is the same something that other want?

[Guest Sakura]

Because the big men are not drawing them back?

[Guest the pinjockey]

Well they have been given plenty of big men and T&A and I still dont see them rushing for the stands and running to the remote to turn on Raw and SD.

[Guest Coffey]

Maybe the just aren't given the right T&A or big men? Maybe the want Victoria & Molly ass instead of Sable & Stacy ass. Maybe they want Mark Henry instead of Big Show or Albert.

 

Maybe they are fucking dumbshits any goddamn way and the wrestling world is better off without them?

[Guest Sakura]

Why would the wrestling world be better off without my money?

[Guest Coffey]

What makes you think that I was talking about YOU in particular? My posts don't revolve around your unknown ass. I was talking about the wrestling fans that left as a whole. If they are ignorant people to begin with, fuck em. They give wrestling a bad name to begin with. If we didn't have all those trailor park white trash bastards showing up at all the wrestling events with signs like "Will you Marry me?" & "Your Next" (as opposed to you're next) than maybe sports entertainment wouldn't be the laughing stock of the planet.

[Guest JHawk]

Maybe the want Victoria & Molly ass instead of Sable & Stacy ass

 

What I really want is to see wrestling on a wrestling show, but I'd also rather see Victoria and Molly ass instead of Sable ass...and I wanna see more of Stacy's ass while we're at it.

[Guest Sakura]

My "unknown ass" is part of the whole....

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Laughing stock?

 

You have a guy who can barely walk competing for a world title.

 

You have a guy whose only claim to fame is that he's a freak of nature due to a birth defect who is now competing for the other world title.

 

WWE does not exactly discourage the "wrestling is a freak show circus" generalization. If they did try to encourage athletic ability first instead of just size maybe I'd sympathize with them more.

[Guest Austin3164life]

Didn't Jim Cornette once say "Wrestling fans watch wrestling shows to see wrestlers wrestle"? This line is true. Even the most casual viewer gets hooked after a great match, rather than a mud-wrestling contest.

[Guest JHawk]

Didn't Jim Cornette once say "Wrestling fans watch wrestling shows to see wrestlers wrestle"? This line is true. Even the most casual viewer gets hooked after a great match, rather than a mud-wrestling contest.

Yep. Raw is War (12/29/1997). I use that in my sig a lot of the time. In fact, I'm going to put it back into my sig right now.

[Guest Coffey]

Laughing stock?

 

You have a guy who can barely walk competing for a world title.

 

You have a guy whose only claim to fame is that he's a freak of nature due to a birth defect who is now competing for the other world title.

 

WWE does not exactly discourage the "wrestling is a freak show circus" generalization. If they did try to encourage athletic ability first instead of just size maybe I'd sympathize with them more.

You see? This is a perfect example of someone disagreeing with my while bringing up valid points in the process. If more people did it like this, this board would be great. Instead we just have people disecting each sentence and trying to turn your own post against you until you give up trying to fight back.

 

I agree with you Heat. I never said that liked the current title situation though. I know that it was just a statement, and you weren't talking directly to me, however I thought I should say something about it. I wish wrestling was presented more as an athletic contest. How cool would it be to see RAW results on Sportscenter? Ok, maybe that wouldn't be cool, but it might get a lot of the mainstream naysayers off of pro wrestling back.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Thanks for the compliments. I actually didn't disagree with you, I just wanted to point out that the 'white trash' fans aren't the only reason why wrestling isn't respected.

 

Your last three sentences are right on. There is a REASON why I don't like certain wrestlers. It is NOT because Scott Keith told me so. It is because instead of making me proud that I'm watching (and supporting) them, I'm shamed. Too often I have been snickered at or given pitying looks for "watching that shit". I know that pretty much everyone else here has been there at one point or another. People like Nash and Show don't help the cause at all, and that is why I don't agree with their pushes when they come about.