Truer words were never spoken
 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...n/050331&num=3



Whether smart fans even like wrestling any more remains unclear. They only seem to derive pleasure from dissecting every program and talking how they could run a show much better than the current crop of nincompoops. They're cranky, insufferable, and too informed for their own good. (I, of course, am a smart.) If a smart and a mark were in a wrestling match, the smart would be the bad guy. The smart is oh-so-superior to the mark, finds him childish and ignorant. The smart hates the mark. He would also do anything to be one

I try to watch it for fun nowadays, but its hard to watch it without picking it apart. I guess thats what happens after a while. No-one just goes along with what they see on the TV anymore. For example :

Edge wins the money in the bank match. Everyone instantly picks up on the fact that he didnt do much in the match and that they feel Christian should have won to boost his overness.

It just can't be helped I guess

I actually thought it was a good idea for Edge to win the ladder match seeing as how he's been pushed as the 2nd biggest heel on RAW for the past 6 months. Whether or not he was the best wrestler in the match, it'd be counter-productive to have him job.

Of course I TOO would have loved to see Xtian win it.

I was just going with the general thought on the match. I thought Edge should win too.

I can't even begin to count how many times I've seen somethin like that. There was and will always be two brands of fans. Live with it.

nah i'm a hybrid, i watch as a mark, and then think about it afterwards as a smark while i'm on tpww.. but off of tpww i never think that way

^Same here,well i try my best to do that anyway.

same here.

I like what I like, and I dislike what I dislike.

I like some shit the WWE does, and I dislike other shit.

I think that's fair enough.

marcyo i see u on tpww during all of mondays doing it. so shhhh u

but who cares about that, that article been done over and over again its old.

Might've hit caps lock and size=7. Ah well.

So what is this guy, the guy that wrote this article? A 'smarker' perhaps?

Shut up.

Pure idiocy and total crap.

nobody was hurt by it. :D

Ruien was.

:rofl:

What's wrong with Shelton?

:wtf:

Two out of three of those guys are actually talented.

its not exactly a well thought out name like stone cold or the rock. its just someones normal name.

if WWE or TNA for that matter, puts across a storyline that i think is complete crap, then you're damn straight im going to complain and whine about it. However i was marking the fuck out at certain points in WM, mainly screaming at HBK to 'tap bitch, tap!!'

:lol:


This guy Can kiss my ass and if he visits TPWW...





SHUT UP YOU IGNORANT ASS!




Edit: I hate it when people talk about "the wrestling internet" and its evils. I have actually become more of a fan due to the "evil" internet. If I wouldn't have found wrestling forums and stuff, I'd probably be the guy who watched it in 1999 and calls people who watch it now "losers". So thank you internet. THANK YOU FOR KEEPING ME A FAN! :y:

And Rocky Maivia didn't sound pretty normal? Steve Austin was always "Stone Cold?"

What about Kurt Freakin' Angle?

Who gives a fuck about the names, I wanna know CAN THEY WRESTLE AND CAN THEY CUT A MOTHER FUCKING PROMO.........DAMN YOU SON OF A BITCHES AT ESPN......*remembers his pressure points* "Wusah, Wusah" *calms down*

I agree, redoneja. WTF is up with bashing the "plain" names. So I guess Brock Lesnar, Mick Foley, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Dave Batista are no-draws too, right? Pff, idiot. In this day and age of wrestling, real names are becoming more and more commonplace. Gimmicks are slowly going away (save for good ones like Eugene and Hulk Hogan).

(Pretending it's 2003 again...)
Are we supposed to get behind somebody named BROCK? Are you serious? BROCK? I yell more pleasant-sounding words whilst taking a crap!

So true, so true.

And if you don't like someone who can't wrestle or cut a promo, you're a smart and hate wrestling. :nono:

I agree with some of that article. The writer was right on when he said that Hogan was a 3 as a wrestler but a 33 as an entertainer. And he seemed to be placing a lot of the blame on the current state of the business on Vince's shoulders. He took a jab at how the Hall of Fame is a joke, and how it's pretty much determined by whether or not you pissed off Vince or not.

He was wrong about the names. How is "Paul London" not a good wrestling name?

"Shelton" may sound a bit weak, but it's original and memorable. "Shelton" was the name I remembered from the Team Angle days. Besides, all he needs is a cool nickname to go along with his real name. "Jake Roberts" is not a very exciting name; but "Jake the Snake Roberts" is.

Howabout SHelton "The token negro" benjamin?

Shelton "Pudding Pop" Benjamin


:shifty:

Overplayed. How about Shelton "Sky Diving" Benjamin. Just through something out of my ass here.

Howabout you think before you post?

I thought his nickname was Mr. Benjamin. :shifty:

There ain't no stopping him now, nigga!

Shelton "WWE's POwell" Benjamin.

No, that's OJ.

Shelton "the Urban Assault" Benjamin.

Shelton Dudley.

Maybe he needs some "street cred."

Change his name to Black and Blue

(and stop him from ever wearing red)

Shelton "Ahmed 2.0" Benjamin

He can download some Mattitude.

Edge should have went over benoit.

The internet takes away from wrestling. I don't know what category you fall into but I try very hard to not overanalyse stuff. I like being as markish as possible. Isn't it more fun? Or do people prefer to analyse stuff. Don't get me wrong there's nothing bad about it and it can be enjoyable too. But I think the 'net has hurt the business.

As has Vince, Haitch, etc. Not just the 'net's fault.

Bollocks.

Seriously, I swear this has to be one of the top internet myths.

I think #1 would have to be "Downloading music hurts the artists."
#2 is "This is what I look like," and just behind that is "#3: the internet takes away from wrestling."

I think the effect of the internet on wrestling cant really be generalized into helping or not helping.

I think the internet helps wrestling associates like ROH or TNA because it helps get their name spread to people who would otherwise not find it. Likewise, as with music downloading, I think that helps get some music out there most people would not neccessarily download or listen to.

I think the internet while helping smaller programming, hurts the WWE more than it helps it. Over the past 10 years lets say, through the internet we have been privy to backstage news, spoilers, etc. that we would normally not know. It does take away some of the mystique away I feel, maybe becomes too personal with everything we know. For instance, had we not known what Vince McMahon was like sometimes backstage, we might not see the HOF as people who didnt piss off Vince type thing.

That being said, the internet shouldnt be the only blame for the sometimes crappy pgramming and poor planning put out.

we are such a small part of the demographic though, what we do has such little influence on the product.

So what this guy is saying is that we should feel shame because we don't want to cheer for a guy who ruined the careers of countless other men who had twice the tallent he did? We should get stupid and enjoy the countless "Hulk still rules" segments that they forced down our throats? I don't know about you guys, but I'd watch and enjoy a million Face Orton monologues than watch another Hulk Still Rules segment.

I don't see an author's name on this article... I bet it was written by either Hogan or Cool King.

The link starts the article on page 2 or 3, if you go back to the beginning, you will see it was written by a friend of the Sports Guy Bill Simmons from ESPN.com

Pretty much.

<font color=goldenrod>It's true....looking at things from a smart perspective has made wrestling less enjoyable to me, I've been trying my hardest to re-enter the days of markdom.</font>

I dont know if you can really say that as much anymore. Its easy just to say, oh we dont matter, but the internet is an evergrowing fan base. Everyone has a computer or internet in their house nowadays.

Well, to be fair, the WWE has decided we don't matter for a long time. We're a scapegoat.

Growing or not, the reason we're a larger aspect of the fanbase isn't because of greater access to the internet. IT's because they can't manage to attract any other fans than the ones they complain "hate wrestling" and are "ruining the business."

Me? I don't care about "mark" or "smark" or "smart" or any other stupid label. I don't need to try and find my enjoyment in the form of going back to "being a mark," because I love pro wrestling.

The biggest problem is that nobody wants to accredit anything positive to smarts. However, many of them have collosal praise for various aspects. Really, is complaining about what you don't like and praising that which you do like really detrimental?

Yeah but our influence is still small. Just because a wrestling fan has the internet doesn't mean he is an internet fan.

He probably gets all of his information off of WWE.com because Vince told him to.

Without the internet I sure as heck wouldn't appreciate wrestling as much as I do. Instead of enjoying nice technical matches I would probably be going "booooring".

I mean, I distinctly remember way back in the day when I didn't like Bentoit and kept making cracks about how he's a robot. Now because of the internet I've learned to appreciate the finer things in wrestling and he has become one of my favourites.

But you see, you shouldn't appreciate Benoit. If you don't like what Vince does, you're ruining the business. You should laugh at poopy jokes, get a hardon from necrophillia, and think HHH and the Undertaker are the most dominant forces evar...Or you're a bad fan.

Exactly the same here. A guy who isn't a fan with internet hates Benoit, Jericho, Angle, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. I thought there matches were boring until i actually paid attention.

And to think my favorite wrestler was goldberg back in 2003. :|

I didn't need the internet to like heel Jericho in WCW, or to dig Benoit (Though I made jokes about his personality too). I didn't need the net to like Eddie, Angle (Though I still booed him :D), etc. I've always liked Michaels, though I think he should step aside soon.

I refuse to call myself a smart or a smark. I've always watched pro wrestling for the compbination of entertainment and physical prowess. Once Bret was champ, and then when WCW started relaly pushing the CW divisiion, I saw this amazing work and never wanted to go back.

In short, what really changed my opinions was the doing of the WWE and WCW. They gave us great athleticism, and they got me hooked on it. Now I want more.

Bottom line: It's your own fucking fault, guys. You gave me what I wanted, when I didn't even know I eanted it, then you took it away. Of course I'ma be disappointed in a half ass product.

Couldn't have said that any better! It's like people just expect the fans to accept the half assed shit they're putting out today. During the Attitude Era and Rock's first title reign, I was a smart fan. I knew what was going to go on, and holy shit months before Rajah posted the WM 15 card! Yet I still marked out and went nuts when it came to a taped Raw. It was because the product was INTERESTING and had EFFORT into it. The same goes for WCW (except they never planned shit out months before). It's out of this lack of delivering a good product that makes Vince frustrated and he attacks net fans for no reason. Someone should tell him, NEWSFLASH, there were probably more smart fans then, and your ratings/business was going up!

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Kane Knight again.