What makes a Smark?

[Guest papacita]

Hi, this is Papacita. You may know me from such critically acclaimed posts as "Thongs: What's the Deal", "If you could attack any WWE Superstar, who would it be", "WORLD'S WORST ANGLE" and "SEX WITH BEAVERS: WOOD IS GOOD"...no wait, that last one wasn't mine. Scratch that.

 

Anyway...I've been thinking about this for a while, and I pretty much wanted to get someone else's opinion on this.

 

What makes a wrestling fan a "Smark"?

 

For the longest time I never really considered myself a smark, and to tell you the truth, I still don't to a certain extent. I mean, yeah I know a lot of the terms, I have my own opinions on who's ready to be pushed and who's not, who should be champion, I'll complain about Steph clogging up TV time, bitch about bad writing etc. Typical smark stuff, but I think that I differ from most smarks in a lot of ways. For example...if I asked someone on the board "Why do you hate Hogan", I'd get "Because he's old and can't move", or "Because he holds people don't" or something like that. For me, I've hated Hogan since Royal Rumble 92 when he pulled Sid out of the ring. And I, like a lot of you, hate HHH, but whereas most of you would say you hate him because he keeps Jericho and Angle down, my main reason for hating him goes back to that Raw where HBK got thrown through the car windshield (I'm not even gonna mention that woman in my sig pic who's name escapes me right now). Like I don't pay attention to backstage happenings as much as other smarks...a lot of times I'm aware of them, but a lot of times it's like if it doesn't happen on TV, it doesn't matter. And I really don't get into workrate and all the other stuff, and sometimes, posting in the Raw and Smackdown threads, I feel more like a mark than anything else.

 

But when I actually talk to marks, it's a different story. Like...and I'll use a Chyna mark for example (yes, I'm not the only one)...I'll say that I'm an Eddie Guerrerro fan, and they'll give me "but how can you like Eddie after he cheated on Chyna?" Or they'll look at me like I'm crazy when I say that Jericho should be the World Champion, mention something about face or heel, or anything like that.

 

And then there are those fans who aren't "smart" but think they are! You know. 2 guys are talking the day after Judgment Day, and one of them says "Man! I can't believe Undertaker beat Hogan last night!" And the other says some off the wall shit like "Triple H caught Hogan and Steph making out in the shower and now he's being buried because of it", or one of my favorites, I got in an argument with some girl a few weeks back who argued me down that Bret wasn't loyal and turned his back on the WWF in 97, citing Wrestling With Shadows as proof. Then there are the blatantly stupid wanna be smarks, who will say something like "Gee, Kurt Angle's really going places these days. I really hope the WWE gives him a blade job sometime soon!" (meaning "push")

 

But anyway, back to the original question: What, in your mind, makes a wrestling fan a smark? What distinguishes between a full-blown Angle-loving, HHHating Smart Mark, a Jaded mark (which is really where I consider myself right now), a wannabe smark, and just a flat out Mark?

 

This whole thread could just turn out to be pointless, but I'd really like to hear some of your thoughts.

[Guest Respect The 'Taker]

Hi, this is Papacita. You may know me from such critically acclaimed posts as "Thongs: What's the Deal", "If you could attack any WWE Superstar, who would it be", "WORLD'S WORST ANGLE" and "SEX WITH BEAVERS: WOOD IS GOOD"...no wait, that last one wasn't mine. Scratch that.

 

Anyway...I've been thinking about this for a while, and I pretty much wanted to get someone else's opinion on this.

 

What makes a wrestling fan a "Smark"?

 

For the longest time I never really considered myself a smark, and to tell you the truth, I still don't to a certain extent. I mean, yeah I know a lot of the terms, I have my own opinions on who's ready to be pushed and who's not, who should be champion, I'll complain about Steph clogging up TV time, bitch about bad writing etc. Typical smark stuff, but I think that I differ from most smarks in a lot of ways. For example...if I asked someone on the board "Why do you hate Hogan", I'd get "Because he's old and can't move", or "Because he holds people don't" or something like that. For me, I've hated Hogan since Royal Rumble 92 when he pulled Sid out of the ring. And I, like a lot of you, hate HHH, but whereas most of you would say you hate him because he keeps Jericho and Angle down, my main reason for hating him goes back to that Raw where HBK got thrown through the car windshield (I'm not even gonna mention that woman in my sig pic who's name escapes me right now). Like I don't pay attention to backstage happenings as much as other smarks...a lot of times I'm aware of them, but a lot of times it's like if it doesn't happen on TV, it doesn't matter. And I really don't get into workrate and all the other stuff, and sometimes, posting in the Raw and Smackdown threads, I feel more like a mark than anything else.

 

But when I actually talk to marks, it's a different story. Like...and I'll use a Chyna mark for example (yes, I'm not the only one)...I'll say that I'm an Eddie Guerrerro fan, and they'll give me "but how can you like Eddie after he cheated on Chyna?" Or they'll look at me like I'm crazy when I say that Jericho should be the World Champion, mention something about face or heel, or anything like that.

 

And then there are those fans who aren't "smart" but think they are! You know. 2 guys are talking the day after Judgment Day, and one of them says "Man! I can't believe Undertaker beat Hogan last night!" And the other says some off the wall shit like "Triple H caught Hogan and Steph making out in the shower and now he's being buried because of it", or one of my favorites, I got in an argument with some girl a few weeks back who argued me down that Bret wasn't loyal and turned his back on the WWF in 97, citing Wrestling With Shadows as proof. Then there are the blatantly stupid wanna be smarks, who will say something like "Gee, Kurt Angle's really going places these days. I really hope the WWE gives him a blade job sometime soon!" (meaning "push")

 

But anyway, back to the original question: What, in your mind, makes a wrestling fan a smark? What distinguishes between a full-blown Angle-loving, HHHating Smart Mark, a Jaded mark (which is really where I consider myself right now), a wannabe smark, and just a flat out Mark?

 

This whole thread could just turn out to be pointless, but I'd really like to hear some of your thoughts.

I personally think that to be a smark, all you really need is the same 'sickness' that the wrestlers possess for the business and the atmosphere of wrestling. Its been documented in 1Wrestling as well as some other places that wrestlers such as Ric Flair, Hogan ,Randy Savage, The Rock, The Undertaker etc. all have the 'sickness'. That being a love for wrestling and not being able to ever stay away from it. I think in order to be a smark you must hold some part of this within yourself.

 

I'm also gonna take this oppurtunity to do something that has never been done before here in the Smarks.com...

 

You rule, Papacita

 

This has been the Taker Mark

[Guest papacita]

I'm also gonna take this oppurtunity to do something that has never been done before here in the Smarks.com...

 

You rule, Papacita

 

Thank you...that's very insulting you!

 

Wait...*Pulls out a dictionary* I meant "nice"! That's very NICE of you! (I'm smrt)

 

Any other opinions?

[Guest dreamer420]

i don't consider myself a smark. i consider myself to me a wresling fan. now granted i know a hell of a lot more than the average fan, but i don't look the business in such a cynical way as a lot of people do. i like to give everyone a chance to prove themselves as well.

[Guest PlatypusFool]

I'm gonna post something massive now - an article I wrote for my own fun and my girlfriend about why people enjoy wrestling. I deal with the elements of pro wrestling and then with marks and smarks, and why they seperately enjoy the product. Feel free to skip most of this ...

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Why Do People Like Wrestling? - an investigation by Jake Metcalfe

 

Origins

 

Taking the product that has been produced by wrestling promotions as a whole from 1984 to the present day as a whole, I have formulated the following theory about where the origins of modern wrestling stem from. Like a lot new inventions, modern wrestling has been born from a combination of two already excepted forms of entertainment: soap operas and traditional wrestling. To understand why we enjoy modern wrestling, we must first examine why humans in general enjoy those two very different aspects of it.

 

Soap Operas

 

A soap opera (and when I use that term I mean dramatic television serials such as ER, The Waltons and Dallas) features a group of many different characters living and/or working in the same area as one another. The writers create storylines for them, more often than not based around their relationships or problems with one another. You might have a young girl who is pregnant and needs help from her friends, a business man in a lot of trouble with some loan-sharks, or a teacher being sexually attracted to one of their pupils. In the case of every single storyline featured in soap operas, the writers build up the problem in question until it is at breaking point, before ending the storyline in what we will call the ‘big blow-off’. This is one reason why people watch and enjoy soap operas; they want to see what will happen to the characters they feel they know personally next, and what the conclusion to their storylines will be.

 

Also, a particular type of storyline exists in soap operas that is especially relevant when comparing them to modern wrestling; the use of a ‘bad guy’, or in wrestling, a heel. The writers on a soap opera might introduce an evil character into proceedings to interact with their ‘good’, or in wrestling, face, characters, and cause the problems that make the shows interesting for viewers. Using the same examples as above, you could introduce the man who made the young girl pregnant, or the loan-shark the business man owes his money to. People keep watch these storylines especially as they want to see the faces get revenge on the heels for the wrongdoings they have been committing. As long as the heels continue to get away with it, people will watch in the hope that their favourite characters will finally get their own back for the baddies cheating ways. This is why writers hope to stretch these types of storylines out even further before the blow-off, and then advertise the it to high heaven in order to garner as many viewers as possible.

 

Traditional Wrestling

 

In the beginning, long before the time of Hulk Hogan, wrestling was real. It was a sport in every sense of the word, on the same plateau as boxing, football, baseball and a million other competitive sports. Wrestling was about two men getting into a ring, and doing anything within the rules to defeat his opponent. The wrestlers were true athletes with strength, speed and stamina coursing through their veins. What set them apart from other types of athletes was the mental strength needed to memorise all the different holds and counters to holds that you needed to use to win any particular battle. This added consideration made wrestling the thinking man’s choice for a sport to follow, a more considered competition than boxing and yet more physical than other non-contact sports. The enjoyment for the fans of traditional wrestling was appreciating the athletic ability of the competitors, and seeing who was that little bit stronger and faster of the two men in the ring, the question of ‘who will win’ being all important.

 

Adding these two aspects together, at least in my theory, will equal the wrestling we know today…

 

Modern Wrestling

 

Describing this form of entertainment as modern is, perhaps, incorrect. The origins of this marriage between soap operas and traditional wrestling date back to the early 20th century, and was only popularised by Vince McMahon Jr. and Hulk Hogan in 1984, but you get the point. The bare bones of modern wrestling can be created by taking the intelligent sport of traditional wrestling and adding the characters, storylines and, most importantly, the heel / face dynamic of soap operas. The enjoyment of modern wrestling can be clearly understood by taking what entertains in each of its components and adding them together, just like the components themselves. But, to fully explain what makes people watch modern wrestling, I am going to have to break down the fanbase into two halves; the marks and the smarks.

 

Why Marks Enjoy Modern Wrestling

 

A ‘mark’ is, put simply, a person who buys into the storylines, characters and heel / face dynamic of modern wrestling. These are people that should make up the majority of the audience, and therefore their demand for different wrestlers and styles governs what we see on TV. In order to discover why they enjoy wrestling, I will first have to explain how the wrestling business works: a wrestling company, lets say for the sake of having a popular example, the WWF, has a roster of about 30 - 40 wrestlers. The writers, or bookers, of the WWF decide the characters of each of their wrestlers and which of their wrestlers would play a better heel or a better face role, and then set about establishing that character and that role. The people defined as heel will start cheating to get the advantage and win matches against the faces, who will not cheat and only win through legal methods. The WWF will also start broadcasting promotional speeches, or promos, as spoken by their wrestlers which will either help the audience hate them as a heel, or love them as a face. A typical heel promo might feature the wrestler in question insulting the town he is in or the fans in the audience, or even a popular face wrestler. A typical face promo will give the fans what they want, like a popular catchphrase, or the announcement of some long awaited match up. All through these antics, wrestlers will be getting across their characters to the audience. For example, an arrogant character will refuse to have help to win a match, or a cowardly character will start trying to run away from more powerful enemies. The WWF will also run storylines featuring the wrestlers which will help to define characters and their alignments.

 

Once the characters and the heel / face roles have been defined in the minds of the audience, and they hate the heels and love the faces, as well as liking certain characters above others, then we can start seeing where their enjoyment of the product comes from. In the same way as soap operas, the audience will get involved in the storylines, start caring for their favourite characters, and keep watching in order to see what will happen to them next while they resolve their problems. Also, in the same way as soap operas, the heels will add to this as the audience will see them creating problems for the faces and will want to see their favourite characters get revenge on them.

 

The involvement of traditional wrestling in the marks enjoyment of the modern variant is slightly more difficult to picture. Your average mark does not care about the conditioning of wrestlers as athletes or the cognitive elements connected with memorising thousands of holds as well as the individual counters for those holds that I mentioned earlier. Indeed, in today’s wrestling climate, elements of traditional wrestling such as the mat-work, a blanket term used for wrestlers applying holds to each other and countering those holds to try and gain the advantage, have been toned down to cope with the demands of the marks. However, I can theorise the following; that the inclusion of a wrestling element in the soap opera storylines creates clear beginnings, middles and ends of feuds between heels and faces, as well as providing marks with opportunities to get excited about the face taking revenge on the heel.

 

So, for example, the WWF might sign a tag team match for the main event of a show which features two of the companies most hated heels against two of the companies most popular faces. At the start of this tag match one of the faces will take control of one of the heels to a good reception from the crowd. The heel in question might then gain the advantage over the face with some element of cheating, perhaps an illegal weapon shot while the referee is being distracted by the other heel. For the main body of the match the heels will take control of the face in the ring, using heelish tactics to keep him from tagging in the fresh man. This is part of the heels defining their ‘bad guy’ roles, beating on one of the faces and stopping him from tagging with illegal tactics will make the audience hate them because they are being unfair to their favoured wrestlers. Eventually, the face that the heels have been beating on will make a small comeback, laying out the heel long enough for him to make a tag to his partner. The marks will pop, or get excited, for this because finally the faces have a chance of beating the heels. The newly tagged face will run into the ring and sharply deliver his trademark moves to the heel team, finally hitting his finisher, the move that will hurt someone enough for the wrestler to be able to cover him for the pinfall and the victory. The hitting of this finisher will make the marks pop hugely because they know that the heels will finally be beaten by the faces after all the pain they have given them during this match. But say, for example, that the heel no being pinned runs in and breaks the cover with an illegal weapon. The referee then sees this and disqualifies the heel team from the match for illegal behaviour, inadvertently denying the face team the win and their revenge. After the match the heel team beat down on the faces, and one heel particularly injures one of the faces. In subsequent shows the face might cut a promo about what the heel did to him during the tag match, and how he wants revenge. The tag match, has, therefore, provided the beginnings of a feud, and a storyline, between the heel and the face. The middle of this feud might be told in more variations on the tag match, featuring different partners and different numbers of partners for the heel and the face to team with. During these matches the face might consistently hit the heel with his finisher, but the heel will always find ways to avoid actually being pinned, or might cheap to pin the face himself. The heel will also consistently work on the injury he created in the original tag match. In short, all through the middle of the storyline, the heel will be stacking the odds against the face, making it more and more unlikely that the face will defeat him. The marks will constantly keep watching as they always want the face to take revenge on the heel, and never know when it will comes. Eventually, usually at a bigger show then a normal one, the big one-on-one match will be scheduled between the heel and the face. The marks will watch in massive numbers because they know that this is the most likely time the face has to finally pin the heel and blow-off the feud. This is the end of the storyline. We can clearly see that by using the heel / face dynamic along with a storyline centring around the injury of the face the WWF has created a feud which people will enjoy to watch in the hope that the face will finally take revenge on the much hated heel.

 

Why Smarks Enjoy Modern Wrestling

 

The word ‘smark’ is obviously derived from the words smart and mark, or a mark who is wise to the ways of wrestling companies, knows it’s fake, but still enjoys it. It’s this enjoyment that non-wrestling fans usually understand the least, my girlfriend being no exception to this rule. This is what this article is really all about, so why couldn’t I just explain this rather than going through two and a half pages of other analysis beforehand? Well, because of what being a smark is, you can’t understand that without first understanding the minds of marks. You see, I theorise that being a smark means being a mark who can step backwards and look at marks from the outside, and be able to analyse the wrestling in terms of their behaviour. Once you become a smark, you will no longer pop for a face hitting his finishing move on a heel. You will no longer become excited about the prospect of a face finally beating a heel after a long period of the heel avoiding being beaten. You will no longer hate heels for playing unfair, and like faces for doing everything by the book. But, you will appreciate these things in a different light. You can appreciate that a face hitting his finisher on a hated heel will excite the marks. You can appreciate that the blow-off match between a face and a heel is a big deal for marks. You can appreciate the heels for playing unfair because you can appreciate that the illegal actions they are performing makes the marks hate them, and you can appreciate the faces for playing their role well too. All these things that make marks behave the ways that they do are known under the blanket term of match psychology.

 

So, using the above example of the face having an injury inflicted by the heel, we can apply these theories to a possible real life situation. Lets say the injury is to the legs of the face. The WWF will establish the injury by having the heel apply many holds that work on the legs during their matches against each other, and have the face sell the injury, or make it look and seem like his legs really hurt. In the big storyline ending match, the heel works on the legs just as he has been doing for the entire feud, finally locking in the submission move that has been established as powerful enough to make the face give up. The marks erupt, showing their disapproval of the situation, as the possibility of the heel making the face give up and winning the feud becomes very real. The smarks sit back and appreciate the leg work followed by the application of the submission move because we can see that the marks are getting into the match more because of it, and we can say that it is good match psychology. After the application of the submission move, the face will sell the move like he might submit, or tap out, at any moment. The marks will get behind the face, chanting his name maybe to try and give him the power to get to the ring ropes and break the hold, as per the rules of wrestling. Smarks can appreciate that the face’s work in selling the hold is very good, because the marks are getting behind him, we are to assume that they think it is a possibility that he will submit to the hold, and we can assume they think this because of the way the face is selling his pain.

 

However, perhaps I have been overusing the wrong word over the last paragraph; ‘appreciate’ is a word that conjures up images of mature and sedate chin-stroking from the smarks when watching wrestling, and although this is true in some cases, I’m pretty sure it’s false in most. Although smarks will not pop blindly for a face over a heel, they will pop for things that will improve the company as a whole. Recently, when smarks favourite, Chris Jericho, a strong heel, finally won the world undisputed championship, smarks around the world popped for the victory. Firstly, many smarks have believed that Jericho was long overdue a title reign, and secondly, it was widely believed that a Jericho title reign is a great thing for the freshness of the companies product, and therefore, the smarks popped for the win.

 

The final thing we need to understand that contributes to a smarks enjoyment of wrestling is the community that has built up around them. Thanks in a large part to Dave Meltzer and the now infamous Scott Keith, the world of wrestling has been opened up on the internet for all to see, turning massive numbers of marks into smarks and creating the community spirit that now exists. Now a smark can log on to huge amounts of message boards and discuss wrestling with all the other smarks on the board, as well as meet likeminded people and make friends with them. The community spirit is not only enjoyable for smarks, but encourages them to watch the programs as well so as to keep up with what the other smarks are discussing.

 

And now, just to attempt to prove my theories, I shall apply them to two real life examples of very successful storylines in modern wrestling history…

 

Examples

 

Firstly, I have to mention the massive and popular feud pitting Stone Cold Steve Austin against the owner of the WWF, Vince McMahon Jr. This feud ran through most of 1998 and into 1999, spanning a year in total, and drew massive amounts of money for the company throughout this time. The basis of the feud was that Steve Austin was a maverick, a man who refused to obey authority figures, Vince McMahon is the ultimate authority figure in the WWF, the man who possesses ultimate power over all his wrestlers, including Austin, and Vince didn’t want Austin to have the world title around his waist. We can see here that the WWF created a storyline based on the characters and the alignments of the wrestlers, like a soap opera would. Throughout the feud, Vince used bigger, stronger, more powerful wrestlers than Steve Austin to deny him the world title, and screwing Austin over more times than anyone would care to count. This is an example of the heel always getting the better of the face until the big blow-off, making the fans despise him, and love the face. The feud drew massive money because the fans always wanted to see Austin finally defeat Vince and win the feud. The big blow-off match occurred at the St. Valentines Day Massacre where Austin beat the living daylights out of Vince McMahon, and drew a massive fan response as well as a great buy-rate for the show.

 

The other feud that serves as a fantastic example for my purposes is the now legendary one between Raven and Tommy Dreamer in ECW. I really couldn’t tell you exactly how the feud began but I do know that it ran for almost four whole years throughout the history of ECW, and was based around the fact that Dreamer had never, ever, pinned Raven. This was a feud that was carried out a lot more during matches than in promos, as Raven threw everything he has at Dreamer to avoid being pinned during the different matches they had against each other. This was a feud that kept fans interested for four years, always drawing good crowds because the audience always wanted to see Dreamer finally pin Raven. They built the middle of the feud directly towards the end of the feud, creating one event in the blow-off match that would make the marks pop hugely; Dreamer successfully pinning Raven.

 

Conclusion

 

So, in conclusion, marks enjoy wrestling because they are entertained by the faces, and want to see them defeat the heels in well crafted feuds which build carefully from the beginning, through the middle, to a definable end. Marks also watch in order to pop for the big events in the feud, and to be entertained by their favourite wrestlers during matches. Smarks enjoy wrestling because they can stand back and analyse the product, spotting obscure psychology points and discussing these points with each other. They will also pop for things that will improve the wrestling business, and things which they think should happen. This is only the basics of wrestling though, a lot more needs to be explained, and a lot of the things I have investigated today have recently been negated by the strange occurrence of heels becoming faces without doing anything different to their act. But, I feel I have provided a good beginning to understanding the bizarre world of modern wrestling.

 

Jake Metcalfe

[email protected]

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I wrote this a while ago and it seems a little simple now, as there are many people that blur the line I've drawn between marks and smarks, like Papacita. But nevermind, hope you enjoyed that and thanks if you read it all

[Guest caboose]

That last post was cool

[Guest Nezbyte]

I'm gonna post something massive now - an article I wrote for my own fun and my girlfriend about why people enjoy wrestling. I deal with the elements of pro wrestling and then with marks and smarks, and why they seperately enjoy the product. Feel free to skip most of this ...

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Why Do People Like Wrestling? - an investigation by Jake Metcalfe

 

Origins

 

Taking the product that has been produced by wrestling promotions as a whole from 1984 to the present day as a whole, I have formulated the following theory about where the origins of modern wrestling stem from. Like a lot new inventions, modern wrestling has been born from a combination of two already excepted forms of entertainment: soap operas and traditional wrestling. To understand why we enjoy modern wrestling, we must first examine why humans in general enjoy those two very different aspects of it.

 

Soap Operas

 

A soap opera (and when I use that term I mean dramatic television serials such as ER, The Waltons and Dallas) features a group of many different characters living and/or working in the same area as one another. The writers create storylines for them, more often than not based around their relationships or problems with one another. You might have a young girl who is pregnant and needs help from her friends, a business man in a lot of trouble with some loan-sharks, or a teacher being sexually attracted to one of their pupils. In the case of every single storyline featured in soap operas, the writers build up the problem in question until it is at breaking point, before ending the storyline in what we will call the ‘big blow-off’. This is one reason why people watch and enjoy soap operas; they want to see what will happen to the characters they feel they know personally next, and what the conclusion to their storylines will be.

 

Also, a particular type of storyline exists in soap operas that is especially relevant when comparing them to modern wrestling; the use of a ‘bad guy’, or in wrestling, a heel. The writers on a soap opera might introduce an evil character into proceedings to interact with their ‘good’, or in wrestling, face, characters, and cause the problems that make the shows interesting for viewers. Using the same examples as above, you could introduce the man who made the young girl pregnant, or the loan-shark the business man owes his money to. People keep watch these storylines especially as they want to see the faces get revenge on the heels for the wrongdoings they have been committing. As long as the heels continue to get away with it, people will watch in the hope that their favourite characters will finally get their own back for the baddies cheating ways. This is why writers hope to stretch these types of storylines out even further before the blow-off, and then advertise the it to high heaven in order to garner as many viewers as possible.

 

Traditional Wrestling

 

In the beginning, long before the time of Hulk Hogan, wrestling was real. It was a sport in every sense of the word, on the same plateau as boxing, football, baseball and a million other competitive sports. Wrestling was about two men getting into a ring, and doing anything within the rules to defeat his opponent. The wrestlers were true athletes with strength, speed and stamina coursing through their veins. What set them apart from other types of athletes was the mental strength needed to memorise all the different holds and counters to holds that you needed to use to win any particular battle. This added consideration made wrestling the thinking man’s choice for a sport to follow, a more considered competition than boxing and yet more physical than other non-contact sports. The enjoyment for the fans of traditional wrestling was appreciating the athletic ability of the competitors, and seeing who was that little bit stronger and faster of the two men in the ring, the question of ‘who will win’ being all important.

 

Adding these two aspects together, at least in my theory, will equal the wrestling we know today…

 

Modern Wrestling

 

Describing this form of entertainment as modern is, perhaps, incorrect. The origins of this marriage between soap operas and traditional wrestling date back to the early 20th century, and was only popularised by Vince McMahon Jr. and Hulk Hogan in 1984, but you get the point. The bare bones of modern wrestling can be created by taking the intelligent sport of traditional wrestling and adding the characters, storylines and, most importantly, the heel / face dynamic of soap operas. The enjoyment of modern wrestling can be clearly understood by taking what entertains in each of its components and adding them together, just like the components themselves. But, to fully explain what makes people watch modern wrestling, I am going to have to break down the fanbase into two halves; the marks and the smarks.

 

Why Marks Enjoy Modern Wrestling

 

A ‘mark’ is, put simply, a person who buys into the storylines, characters and heel / face dynamic of modern wrestling. These are people that should make up the majority of the audience, and therefore their demand for different wrestlers and styles governs what we see on TV. In order to discover why they enjoy wrestling, I will first have to explain how the wrestling business works: a wrestling company, lets say for the sake of having a popular example, the WWF, has a roster of about 30 - 40 wrestlers. The writers, or bookers, of the WWF decide the characters of each of their wrestlers and which of their wrestlers would play a better heel or a better face role, and then set about establishing that character and that role. The people defined as heel will start cheating to get the advantage and win matches against the faces, who will not cheat and only win through legal methods. The WWF will also start broadcasting promotional speeches, or promos, as spoken by their wrestlers which will either help the audience hate them as a heel, or love them as a face. A typical heel promo might feature the wrestler in question insulting the town he is in or the fans in the audience, or even a popular face wrestler. A typical face promo will give the fans what they want, like a popular catchphrase, or the announcement of some long awaited match up. All through these antics, wrestlers will be getting across their characters to the audience. For example, an arrogant character will refuse to have help to win a match, or a cowardly character will start trying to run away from more powerful enemies. The WWF will also run storylines featuring the wrestlers which will help to define characters and their alignments.

 

Once the characters and the heel / face roles have been defined in the minds of the audience, and they hate the heels and love the faces, as well as liking certain characters above others, then we can start seeing where their enjoyment of the product comes from. In the same way as soap operas, the audience will get involved in the storylines, start caring for their favourite characters, and keep watching in order to see what will happen to them next while they resolve their problems. Also, in the same way as soap operas, the heels will add to this as the audience will see them creating problems for the faces and will want to see their favourite characters get revenge on them.

 

The involvement of traditional wrestling in the marks enjoyment of the modern variant is slightly more difficult to picture. Your average mark does not care about the conditioning of wrestlers as athletes or the cognitive elements connected with memorising thousands of holds as well as the individual counters for those holds that I mentioned earlier. Indeed, in today’s wrestling climate, elements of traditional wrestling such as the mat-work, a blanket term used for wrestlers applying holds to each other and countering those holds to try and gain the advantage, have been toned down to cope with the demands of the marks. However, I can theorise the following; that the inclusion of a wrestling element in the soap opera storylines creates clear beginnings, middles and ends of feuds between heels and faces, as well as providing marks with opportunities to get excited about the face taking revenge on the heel.

 

So, for example, the WWF might sign a tag team match for the main event of a show which features two of the companies most hated heels against two of the companies most popular faces. At the start of this tag match one of the faces will take control of one of the heels to a good reception from the crowd. The heel in question might then gain the advantage over the face with some element of cheating, perhaps an illegal weapon shot while the referee is being distracted by the other heel. For the main body of the match the heels will take control of the face in the ring, using heelish tactics to keep him from tagging in the fresh man. This is part of the heels defining their ‘bad guy’ roles, beating on one of the faces and stopping him from tagging with illegal tactics will make the audience hate them because they are being unfair to their favoured wrestlers. Eventually, the face that the heels have been beating on will make a small comeback, laying out the heel long enough for him to make a tag to his partner. The marks will pop, or get excited, for this because finally the faces have a chance of beating the heels. The newly tagged face will run into the ring and sharply deliver his trademark moves to the heel team, finally hitting his finisher, the move that will hurt someone enough for the wrestler to be able to cover him for the pinfall and the victory. The hitting of this finisher will make the marks pop hugely because they know that the heels will finally be beaten by the faces after all the pain they have given them during this match. But say, for example, that the heel no being pinned runs in and breaks the cover with an illegal weapon. The referee then sees this and disqualifies the heel team from the match for illegal behaviour, inadvertently denying the face team the win and their revenge. After the match the heel team beat down on the faces, and one heel particularly injures one of the faces. In subsequent shows the face might cut a promo about what the heel did to him during the tag match, and how he wants revenge. The tag match, has, therefore, provided the beginnings of a feud, and a storyline, between the heel and the face. The middle of this feud might be told in more variations on the tag match, featuring different partners and different numbers of partners for the heel and the face to team with. During these matches the face might consistently hit the heel with his finisher, but the heel will always find ways to avoid actually being pinned, or might cheap to pin the face himself. The heel will also consistently work on the injury he created in the original tag match. In short, all through the middle of the storyline, the heel will be stacking the odds against the face, making it more and more unlikely that the face will defeat him. The marks will constantly keep watching as they always want the face to take revenge on the heel, and never know when it will comes. Eventually, usually at a bigger show then a normal one, the big one-on-one match will be scheduled between the heel and the face. The marks will watch in massive numbers because they know that this is the most likely time the face has to finally pin the heel and blow-off the feud. This is the end of the storyline. We can clearly see that by using the heel / face dynamic along with a storyline centring around the injury of the face the WWF has created a feud which people will enjoy to watch in the hope that the face will finally take revenge on the much hated heel.

 

Why Smarks Enjoy Modern Wrestling

 

The word ‘smark’ is obviously derived from the words smart and mark, or a mark who is wise to the ways of wrestling companies, knows it’s fake, but still enjoys it. It’s this enjoyment that non-wrestling fans usually understand the least, my girlfriend being no exception to this rule. This is what this article is really all about, so why couldn’t I just explain this rather than going through two and a half pages of other analysis beforehand? Well, because of what being a smark is, you can’t understand that without first understanding the minds of marks. You see, I theorise that being a smark means being a mark who can step backwards and look at marks from the outside, and be able to analyse the wrestling in terms of their behaviour. Once you become a smark, you will no longer pop for a face hitting his finishing move on a heel. You will no longer become excited about the prospect of a face finally beating a heel after a long period of the heel avoiding being beaten. You will no longer hate heels for playing unfair, and like faces for doing everything by the book. But, you will appreciate these things in a different light. You can appreciate that a face hitting his finisher on a hated heel will excite the marks. You can appreciate that the blow-off match between a face and a heel is a big deal for marks. You can appreciate the heels for playing unfair because you can appreciate that the illegal actions they are performing makes the marks hate them, and you can appreciate the faces for playing their role well too. All these things that make marks behave the ways that they do are known under the blanket term of match psychology.

 

So, using the above example of the face having an injury inflicted by the heel, we can apply these theories to a possible real life situation. Lets say the injury is to the legs of the face. The WWF will establish the injury by having the heel apply many holds that work on the legs during their matches against each other, and have the face sell the injury, or make it look and seem like his legs really hurt. In the big storyline ending match, the heel works on the legs just as he has been doing for the entire feud, finally locking in the submission move that has been established as powerful enough to make the face give up. The marks erupt, showing their disapproval of the situation, as the possibility of the heel making the face give up and winning the feud becomes very real. The smarks sit back and appreciate the leg work followed by the application of the submission move because we can see that the marks are getting into the match more because of it, and we can say that it is good match psychology. After the application of the submission move, the face will sell the move like he might submit, or tap out, at any moment. The marks will get behind the face, chanting his name maybe to try and give him the power to get to the ring ropes and break the hold, as per the rules of wrestling. Smarks can appreciate that the face’s work in selling the hold is very good, because the marks are getting behind him, we are to assume that they think it is a possibility that he will submit to the hold, and we can assume they think this because of the way the face is selling his pain.

 

However, perhaps I have been overusing the wrong word over the last paragraph; ‘appreciate’ is a word that conjures up images of mature and sedate chin-stroking from the smarks when watching wrestling, and although this is true in some cases, I’m pretty sure it’s false in most. Although smarks will not pop blindly for a face over a heel, they will pop for things that will improve the company as a whole. Recently, when smarks favourite, Chris Jericho, a strong heel, finally won the world undisputed championship, smarks around the world popped for the victory. Firstly, many smarks have believed that Jericho was long overdue a title reign, and secondly, it was widely believed that a Jericho title reign is a great thing for the freshness of the companies product, and therefore, the smarks popped for the win.

 

The final thing we need to understand that contributes to a smarks enjoyment of wrestling is the community that has built up around them. Thanks in a large part to Dave Meltzer and the now infamous Scott Keith, the world of wrestling has been opened up on the internet for all to see, turning massive numbers of marks into smarks and creating the community spirit that now exists. Now a smark can log on to huge amounts of message boards and discuss wrestling with all the other smarks on the board, as well as meet likeminded people and make friends with them. The community spirit is not only enjoyable for smarks, but encourages them to watch the programs as well so as to keep up with what the other smarks are discussing.

 

And now, just to attempt to prove my theories, I shall apply them to two real life examples of very successful storylines in modern wrestling history…

 

Examples

 

Firstly, I have to mention the massive and popular feud pitting Stone Cold Steve Austin against the owner of the WWF, Vince McMahon Jr. This feud ran through most of 1998 and into 1999, spanning a year in total, and drew massive amounts of money for the company throughout this time. The basis of the feud was that Steve Austin was a maverick, a man who refused to obey authority figures, Vince McMahon is the ultimate authority figure in the WWF, the man who possesses ultimate power over all his wrestlers, including Austin, and Vince didn’t want Austin to have the world title around his waist. We can see here that the WWF created a storyline based on the characters and the alignments of the wrestlers, like a soap opera would. Throughout the feud, Vince used bigger, stronger, more powerful wrestlers than Steve Austin to deny him the world title, and screwing Austin over more times than anyone would care to count. This is an example of the heel always getting the better of the face until the big blow-off, making the fans despise him, and love the face. The feud drew massive money because the fans always wanted to see Austin finally defeat Vince and win the feud. The big blow-off match occurred at the St. Valentines Day Massacre where Austin beat the living daylights out of Vince McMahon, and drew a massive fan response as well as a great buy-rate for the show.

 

The other feud that serves as a fantastic example for my purposes is the now legendary one between Raven and Tommy Dreamer in ECW. I really couldn’t tell you exactly how the feud began but I do know that it ran for almost four whole years throughout the history of ECW, and was based around the fact that Dreamer had never, ever, pinned Raven. This was a feud that was carried out a lot more during matches than in promos, as Raven threw everything he has at Dreamer to avoid being pinned during the different matches they had against each other. This was a feud that kept fans interested for four years, always drawing good crowds because the audience always wanted to see Dreamer finally pin Raven. They built the middle of the feud directly towards the end of the feud, creating one event in the blow-off match that would make the marks pop hugely; Dreamer successfully pinning Raven.

 

Conclusion

 

So, in conclusion, marks enjoy wrestling because they are entertained by the faces, and want to see them defeat the heels in well crafted feuds which build carefully from the beginning, through the middle, to a definable end. Marks also watch in order to pop for the big events in the feud, and to be entertained by their favourite wrestlers during matches. Smarks enjoy wrestling because they can stand back and analyse the product, spotting obscure psychology points and discussing these points with each other. They will also pop for things that will improve the wrestling business, and things which they think should happen. This is only the basics of wrestling though, a lot more needs to be explained, and a lot of the things I have investigated today have recently been negated by the strange occurrence of heels becoming faces without doing anything different to their act. But, I feel I have provided a good beginning to understanding the bizarre world of modern wrestling.

 

Jake Metcalfe

[email protected]

 

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I wrote this a while ago and it seems a little simple now, as there are many people that blur the line I've drawn between marks and smarks, like Papacita. But nevermind, hope you enjoyed that and thanks if you read it all

... Yeah, what he said.

[Guest Austin3164life]

To me, there are two kinds of smarks. There's the old smark, the original smark if you will, that complains about every little detail in wrestling, never looks on the bright side of things, and uses his/her intelligence in the wrong senses. The new kind of smark (as I'm seeing with some guys here) is a smarter wrestling fan that doesn't flaunt his knowledge of wrestling to casual fans. The new kind of smark is more open-minded, more patient, and is willing to give the benefit of the doubt, whereas the old smark degrades wrestling for all its mistakes. Best example of what i'm blabbing about?

 

Old Smark: Anglesault

New Smark: Downhome

[Guest Some Guy]

To me the defintition of what a Smark is changes with teh business. In 2000 the avg. Smark was very happy up until the Steph/HHH/Angle thing got screwed up and then they started to become more and more jaded as the product declined. Now you're avg. Smark tends to be a HHHating, Angle, Jericho, Eddy, and Benoit lover. They underlying cynicism is always there, but it gets less pronounced when the product is good or when one of their favorites gets a big push (however, "he's still going to get buried by HHH, is still there to some degree). Also to be a Smark now a days it seems that one has to be "Mr. Know It All" when it comes to star ratings, backstage shit, and you must state your opinion and speculation as fact. You also must blame Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, or Vince Russo for every bad thing that has ever been done in the business. IE, "Nash killed WCW" or "Hogan killed WCW" or "Russo killed WCW", you rarely ever hear all three blamed at the same time, rather they each get full credit for the destruction of WCW, which is impossible. Has anyone else noticed that?

[Guest TheHulkster]

i don't consider myself a smark. i consider myself to me a wresling fan. now granted i know a hell of a lot more than the average fan, but i don't look the business in such a cynical way as a lot of people do. i like to give everyone a chance to prove themselves as well.

I'm pretty much the exact same way.

[Guest welshjerichomark]

i don't consider myself a smark.  i consider myself to me a wresling fan.  now granted i know a hell of a lot more than the average fan, but i don't look the business in such a cynical way as a lot of people do.  i like to give everyone a chance to prove themselves as well.

I'm pretty much the exact same way.

same here, i think with a lot of people (not just on this board) they see a particular wrestler do something bad and from then on refuse to see their good points. for example lita

 

what everyone seems to notice- sloppy ring work, bad mic skills

 

what everyone forgets- hugely over, unique look, nice little gimmick.

[Guest BigTim2002]

Remember where the term "smark" comes from. The combination of the words "Smart" and "Mark": A person who still knows that there are certain aspects of wrestling that aren't fake, but a person who still knows that it's a show and that you are supposed to enjoy it. Now, you see guys like Meltzer and Keith. Those guys are more smart than mark. They analyze the details instead of going on our gut instincts like a mark would do. People mark out for certain things. Like for instance, at KOR 2001, I marked out when Shane McMahon missed the Shooting Shane Press on the trash can, or when Chris Benoit hit the Headbutt from the top of the cage on RAW against Kurt Angle, or when Rob Van Dam hits the Five Star Frog Splash. We all have our dislikes and our likes, but it's just like people go out of their way to make others seem stupid. That's why we have these discussions, so people can voice their perspectives and their opinions. I'm personally greatful that stuff like this exists. For now, realize that the writing crew now has more options, with HHH in the nWo, Booker T getting more time, RVD as champ, and the gods and saviors of all smarks, the canadians, are finally getting their shot to shine. Guys, it's turning around. You just have to watch for it...

[Guest dreamer420]

Old Smark: Anglesault

New Smark: Downhome

Old Smark: Anglesault - takes wrestling too seriously and takes it personally when their wresters don't perform in matches they like.

 

New Smark: Downhome - takes wrestling seriously, but nor overly. enjoys watching the best in the biz perform but doesn't discriminate against against all other wrestlers who aren't flair, guerrero, benoit, or angle.

[Guest DawnBTVS]

Then consider me a New Smark Dreamer:)

[Guest dreamer420]

good for you man.