I talked to a mark today....

[Guest]

I think Crash would have to be best HC champion.

[Guest]

HAHAHAHA Hulk Hogan better than Chris Beniot. Good Damn lets compare the to. Yes hogan was a big influence in wrestling in the 80's and early 90's but c'mon he got like to moves. Chros Beniot Prehaps the Greatest Technical Wrestler in the World today and in my oppoion he is. Beniot a guy that can carry TEST to good matches if he wants to.

 

Now thats comedy. I do agree that when Blackman was Hardcore champ he was pretty funny But he isn't the Best Harcore Champ i will give that To RVD.

[Guest]

Okay, for the record, I was not bashing the mark. I am actually pretty decent friends with him, but I just strongly disagree with his views and wanted to get it off my chest with people who also disagree. What better place than a smarks board? Jeez, people take things offensively too easily.

 

As for Blackman, I think he's okay, but he's not the best. And as far as the HC title goes, he was good if you're looking at the comic belt. In that sense, though, I'd say Crash was the best. The comic HC belt is good, but it gets old when done too much. I prefer the serious HC belt and in that sense the best were RVD, Rhino, and Raven, in my opinion.

[Guest]

...If you like the brewers and I were lets say a yankees fan, which I am not, but lets just say I am, should I make fun of you for liking a sub par team in my opinion, no...Think for yourselves guys.

Fans of inferior teams get mocked all the time. You honestly think that Bengal fans don't get mocked? Hell the owners, players, coaches and fans are mocked by sportscasters during the entire season.

 

Oh please we all know that if you were discussing baseball with a Yankees fan and told him you disliked the Yankees then after he asks, you say your favorite team are the Brewers or Expos they would mock the hell out of you. None those arrogant pricks will let you cheer an "inferior team" over their beloved Yankees.

 

Everyone has opinions and when two people have different ones then someone is going to be mocked on some level.

Okay, I do not appreciate generalizations. I am die-hard Yankee fan. And a true one, before they won in 96. I've been a Yankee fan for about 10 years(more than half my life). I will say that many are pricks as you say, but saying that NONE of us will let you have your own opinion is very untrue. I let people cheer whoever they want. The only time I insult someone or their team is if they strike first.

[Guest swan]

I don’t get why people dump on marks. We are all marks in some way. Whats wrong for somebody cheering or booing according to the way the storylines are being played out? I have been a fan for 19 years and I remember how fun it was. Before everybody had a reason why so and so sucked and how so and so has never put on a match better than 3 stars. I didn’t get into the internet wrestling sites until 1997, and I remember how fun the NWO angle was. Nothing like those early holy shit moments when Hall came out one week, and then Nash followed later. Seems some people take this thing called pro wrestling wayyyyyyyyyy to serious. If you don’t like the fact that the guy next to you is marking out for Hogan just for being Hogan, too bad, he is enjoying wrestling a whole lot more than you are.  

 

Continue on.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Okay, I do not appreciate generalizations. I am die-hard Yankee fan. And a true one, before they won in 96. I've been a Yankee fan for about 10 years(more than half my life). I will say that many are pricks as you say, but saying that NONE of us will let you have your own opinion is very untrue. I let people cheer whoever they want. The only time I insult someone or their team is if they strike first.

 

He was probably referring to the bandwagon fans.  They ARE like that.  Real fans respect the opinions of other real fans.  But it gets really annoying when someone says about how they are such a big Yankees fan, and then can't tell you who Don Mattingly is.

[Guest]

Here's my fav.

-Blackman is better than Angle(jeez, a Blackman mark...do those exist?)

 

Look at my name.

 

 

CAUSE ITS PARTY TIME

*Waits for Pop*

[Guest JHawk]

Goddamn, I love a good debate.  

 

Anyway, let's be honest here.  Many of us are in our early 20s and grew up as marks in the mid-80s.  We remember Hogan's first title reign.  We remember what a thrill it was to be allowed to stay up every six weeks or so for Saturday Night's Main Event.  We remember being spoonfed who we were supposed to like and who we were supposed to hate.

 

But then think about the people we cheered for.  Maybe we all cheered for Hogan because we were programmed to.  But he was the superhero that we were all daydreaming we could be.  But I can also remember watching WrestleMania III on closed circuit TV at Youngstown Ohio's Beeghly Center as an 8 year old mark and thinking Steamboat vs. Savage was the most mind-blowing thing I'd ever seen.  I still remember what everybody was talking about at the end of the night, and it wasn't Hogan.

 

So basically, treat the marks like your bandwagon sports fan.  The fan who on Monday morning were singing the praises of the Cleveland Indians because they were on a 10-game winning streak, then this morning said they suck because they've had two bad games in a row.  Treat them like that bandwagon Yankee fan who can't understand how the Cubs can damn near sell out Wrigley Field despite rarely having a winner the last 96 years.  Are they right?  We'll never stop debating that.  But part of the fun is listening to people who think they know it all and trying to prove them wrong.

 

Time to get off the soapbox and await the flaming.

[Guest]

He was right about Blackman destroying Haku in a real fight. Blackman would kill Haku. He is a legitimate badass. When he came into the WWF Bradshaw tried to do some of that hazing stuff he was known for on him and Blackman just punched Bradshaw right in the face and told him to never fuck with him again.

[Guest]

I'm not saying he isn't, but Haku is like insane. It's not insulting to say that someone would be wrecked by him.

[Guest]

Okay, I do not appreciate generalizations. I am die-hard Yankee fan. And a true one, before they won in 96. I've been a Yankee fan for about 10 years(more than half my life). I will say that many are pricks as you say, but saying that NONE of us will let you have your own opinion is very untrue. I let people cheer whoever they want. The only time I insult someone or their team is if they strike first.

 

He was probably referring to the bandwagon fans.  They ARE like that.  Real fans respect the opinions of other real fans.  But it gets really annoying when someone says about how they are such a big Yankees fan, and then can't tell you who Don Mattingly is.

Okay, I'll definitely give you that.

[Guest]

I don’t get why people dump on marks. We are all marks in some way. Whats wrong for somebody cheering or booing according to the way the storylines are being played out? I have been a fan for 19 years and I remember how fun it was. Before everybody had a reason why so and so sucked and how so and so has never put on a match better than 3 stars. I didn’t get into the internet wrestling sites until 1997, and I remember how fun the NWO angle was. Nothing like those early holy shit moments when Hall came out one week, and then Nash followed later. Seems some people take this thing called pro wrestling wayyyyyyyyyy to serious. If you don’t like the fact that the guy next to you is marking out for Hogan just for being Hogan, too bad, he is enjoying wrestling a whole lot more than you are.  

 

Continue on.

Yeah, I'm a mark in some ways. I'll be the first to admit that Benoit is a much better wrestler than Tajiri, yet I like Tajiri much more. That posting was more of my personal gripes than anything else. I wasn't trying to start a war on marks or anything. Some of them can be really annoying, though, and will often bash a smark before vice versa.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Anyway, let's be honest here.  Many of us are in our early 20s and grew up as marks in the mid-80s.

 

Shiiiiit. There's a lot of high school guys in this sumbitch. Actually, I have a question to pose to the teenagers in here. While a lot of us 20 something guys grew up during the Hulkamania era, what was it that turned you guys into wrestling fans? My earliest memories of being a big time wrestling fan are mostly Wrestlemania 3 related. I believe I was in first grade at the time. What about you guys?

[Guest]

Anyway, let's be honest here.  Many of us are in our early 20s and grew up as marks in the mid-80s.

 

Shiiiiit. There's a lot of high school guys in this sumbitch. Actually, I have a question to pose to the teenagers in here. While a lot of us 20 something guys grew up during the Hulkamania era, what was it that turned you guys into wrestling fans? My earliest memories of being a big time wrestling fan are mostly Wrestlemania 3 related. I believe I was in first grade at the time. What about you guys?

I'm 15, i got into wrestling in 2nd grade (7/8, i think).

 

It was Jericho (shit he was funny), Malinko, Benoit, the badass nWo, wCw cruisers, Foley, UT, Raven, and D-X.

 

But, that's just me. I was brought into the sport by a life long wrestling fan.

[Guest What?!]

Well to be fair, I think Steve Blackman could make a case for best Hardcore Champion.

What is that Triple H pic in your sig from?

I got it on the "What WWF Wrestler Are You?" at:

 

http://home.austarnet.com.au/potman/wrestling/quiz.html

 

I ended up being The Rock, if any of you cared. But you don't.

 

???

[Guest TheHulkster]

I took that test and ended up being HHH. Oh well, he's the champ, so I guess it isn't too bad.

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

That was a funny quiz. I wish they had added a couple of more people like Jericho, Kane, or Hogan, though.

 

I got Steve Austin, btw...

[Guest toggle]

I watched wrestling as a kid because Hulk Hogan was my hero. He always did the right thing and beat up the bad guy. As I got older, I watched wrestling because its over the top characters and stories were a break from my every day worries. It really wasn't until SummerSlam last year that I realized what work rate and 4 star matches were all about. We take wrestling much more seriously than most people, so we pay attention to work rate and we appreciate guys like Benoit and Angle. But most people expect the champion to be the biggest guy there is, and they don't even notice if he can't execute anything more complicated than a choke.  That's why you see people cheering so loudly for Sid at Wrestlemania 13. At that's my guess as to why someone would think Nash was the best WCW champ ever.

Actually, someone who thinks that has never seen Flair-Steamboat or whatever other great match. Why? Because they don't care. It's about entertainment, not scholarship. The bottom line is that marks and smarks are not only different kinds of wrestling fans, they're different kinds of people. We judge the product by totally different standards and never the twain shall meet.

I think arguing about it is fine, but dang. ???

[Guest muzanisa]

I'm a mark.

My Dad told me first time I watched it that it was fake. But I still mark for everyone. When it's on I switch off and just get into it. I don't sit there and think he's getting a push because he's friendly with Shane or whatever I just mark for my favourites and ignore the rest.

Show over back to reality. It's really fun you should try it.

[Guest]

I remember a short moment of disbelief when I started watching wrestling about people beating the hell out of each other legally and on the telly... then becoming a total mark at wrestlemania 3... then when I was a little older, wishing just once a jobber would win... then getting totally disillusioned till about last year when I got back into it.

 

I guess I can't understand how someone can mark out so much beyond the age of 12.

[Guest ArkhamGlobe]

I don't know if I ever really was a mark in the classical sense, because the first thing the announcers in Sweden did on the first broadcast was that everything was booked, that wrestlers were booked as good guys and bad guys and so forth. Plus, they would always cheer for who they thought were the best WRESTLERS (I believe their favorites in 1993, which is when I started watching, were Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Mr Perfect), and not the guy with the most elaborate entrance or the most colorful costume and so forth. And they would bash the hell out of whomever they thought was a poor worker (meaning they cheered for Flair against Hogan after they had switched over to WCW in early 1994). Therefor my favorites were probably a bit different from those of the regular marks. They cheered (in WCW) for Hogan (who I hated), I cheered for Ric Flair and Steve Austin (he was my third favorite after Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels).

 

And I was a staunch Benoit fan long before I got on the internet, as EuroSport showed New Japan Pro Wrestling for a couple of months in 1995 so I got to see the greatness of Benoit, Malenko and Liger and so forth way back then and I loved it all.

 

As a kid (I was 11 when I started watching) I watched wrestling because it entertained and intrigued me. It intrigued me first from the aspect of "WOW! How do they do that without seriously hurting themselves?". But as time moved on I grew fascinated with the in-ring story telling and how the great wrestlers like Flair and et al would go about telling their stories. That is what made me a lifelong wrestling fan.

[Guest hardyz1]

My earliest memory of wrestling was back in 1988 or so.  I was 5 or 6 then.  We didn't have cable, but Saturday Night's Main Event hooked me in.  And, yes, I was a typical sheep fan.

 

I didn't see anything from WCW until around 1991, I think.  But my earliest WCW memory was Vader powerbombing Cactus Jack on the concrete.

 

On the subject of marks:  I was at an indy show 3 years ago waiting in line to get in.  I heard a little kid in front of me (he couldn't have been over 6) say "They wouldn't put it on TV if it wasn't real."  Gave me a good chuckle.

 

Also at that show were a bunch of older dumb marks that kept yelling out Rock catchphrases.

[Guest]

Shiiiiit. There's a lot of high school guys in this sumbitch. Actually, I have a question to pose to the teenagers in here. While a lot of us 20 something guys grew up during the Hulkamania era, what was it that turned you guys into wrestling fans?

 

I was born in '85, and the night I started watching was when Hulkamania "Died" at KOTR 93 against Yokozuna.

[Guest]

This thread made me think of something, and well because I'm bored and have nothing else to do I will share and you will read.

 

We were waiting in line for autographs at Axxess, and there was this 12/13 year old boy in front of us with his friend. We talk about our favorites, and this boy starts rambling on about how if Jeff Hardy showed up, he would piss his pants. Followed with Jeff Hardy is so awesome, he is the best wrestler ever, how he takes risks, and more rambling on how if Jeff was signing for the other autograph line he'd run out of line and go to that one. I had to listen to him for an hour talking about Jeff, and how he's so cool. He also said that if Kurt was signing autographs for our line, he would punch him, or walk out of line, because according to him "Kurt sucks, he's annoying, and a bad wrestler."

 

It was scary... keep in mind, this was a teenage boy.

[Guest papacita]

This thread made me think of something, and well because I'm bored and have nothing else to do I will share and you will read.

 

We were waiting in line for autographs at Axxess, and there was this 12/13 year old boy in front of us with his friend. We talk about our favorites, and this boy starts rambling on about how if Jeff Hardy showed up, he would piss his pants. Followed with Jeff Hardy is so awesome, he is the best wrestler ever, how he takes risks, and more rambling on how if Jeff was signing for the other autograph line he'd run out of line and go to that one. I had to listen to him for an hour talking about Jeff, and how he's so cool. He also said that if Kurt was signing autographs for our line, he would punch him, or walk out of line, because according to him "Kurt sucks, he's annoying, and a bad wrestler."

 

It was scary... keep in mind, this was a teenage boy.

lol. Reminds me of the time I said I was gonna slap Kevin Kelly and he walked right up to me after a Raw.

 

Anyway, I agree with people who say that you shouldn't look down on or make fun of marks, because most of us were like that at some point in our lives. I mean I was scared of the Undertaker when I was little (SHUT UP!), that's about as markish as you can get. Still, marks can be pretty damn funny sometimes, especially those who still think it's real. I'll never forget how my friend almost cried the night the Giant fell off the roof @ Halloween Havok 95. I laughed my ass off that night. Just because a mark likes Blackman over Benoit or Angle doesn't make them any less of a person. Oh well...

[Guest]

I still try to just enjoy wrestling for what it is and I do a pretty good job about it... while I am watching it I don't really think about the backstage stuff...  If your only concerns are bitching about so and so's power, so and so's low workrate etc.... then wrestling becomes more of a chore instead of entertainment.

[Guest Cataclysm911]

Anyway, let's be honest here.  Many of us are in our early 20s and grew up as marks in the mid-80s.

 

Shiiiiit. There's a lot of high school guys in this sumbitch. Actually, I have a question to pose to the teenagers in here. While a lot of us 20 something guys grew up during the Hulkamania era, what was it that turned you guys into wrestling fans? My earliest memories of being a big time wrestling fan are mostly Wrestlemania 3 related. I believe I was in first grade at the time. What about you guys?

I think it was Hulk Hogan, The Honky Tonk Man, Jake Roberts, Randy Savage & Rick Rude. Hogan more than the rest.

[Guest]

I met Jake 'The Snake' Roberts yesterday and I'm still marking now. Took my number and he's such a wicked guy! Had to tell someone...

[Guest]

Anyway, let's be honest here.  Many of us are in our early 20s and grew up as marks in the mid-80s.

 

Shiiiiit. There's a lot of high school guys in this sumbitch. Actually, I have a question to pose to the teenagers in here. While a lot of us 20 something guys grew up during the Hulkamania era, what was it that turned you guys into wrestling fans? My earliest memories of being a big time wrestling fan are mostly Wrestlemania 3 related. I believe I was in first grade at the time. What about you guys?

My biggest reasons for getting into wrestling were the Ultimate Warrior and Undertaker. They were just "wow". Yes, in the Hogan era, I got into wrestling through wrestlers other than Hulk.

 

And I just want to say once more. I hold nothing against marks. I just strongly disagreed with what a lot of them think. And the marks who like wrestling and accept other opinions are perfectly fine with me. It's the marks who insist that guys like Angle, Jericho, and Lance Storm suck and that Goldberg is the best. They're worse than us when it comes to tolerance of opinions.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I started watching because of Savage/Dibiase in March 1988.