Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith
Stone Cold Steve Austin's whole gimmick was about being antisocial.
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Maybe the antisocial wrestlers being the most over in the 1990s and early 2000s was a sign of the times: even the smiling, hand-slapping pre-Rock Dwayne Johnson had to begin spouting juvenile insults at opponents to get cheered. Perhaps the fans cheered those wrestlers so much because they saw such wrestlers as personal avatars due to identifying in their own lives as antiheroes who don't get along with everyone but are "cheered" by their own friends.
The longer I think about it, the more such cheering of antiheroes is an indictment of society (or at least of the majority of pro wrestling fans). But such a line of thought is what got Kurt Angle boo'ed during his "Three I's: Intensity, Integrity, Intelligence" gimmick. I'll stop now before I'm boo'ed out of the thread. ; )