I’ve had my twitter account based around wrestling for probably about a year and a quarter at this point and I started to notice something immediately just talking to people that what wrestling is, is such a subjective thing. Without thinking about it that sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? But, my idea of wrestling is completely different to someone who lives in Japan, and there idea of wrestling is polar opposites to the casual WWE fan who just loves looking at 2 big guys rough each other up. Anyway, what I’d like to point out in this article or blog is that everyone’s concept of this thing we love is different and I think that’s where the range of debates ultimately begin and end. I think I’ll probably go through a few different ideas of wrestling that I’ve come across over my time as a wrestling fan and share what my own concept of it is. Again, what is my concept isn’t necessarily yours and nobody is right in this argument and nobody is wrong.
First, I might as well point out the obvious, there is the fans who are probably 14 or under who just love John Cena and own all the merch and even a pair of his new sneaks. With this love of Cena and at such a young age brings around the argument that these types of fans are pretty ignorant to world wrestling as we know it. I mean ignorant in the literal sense, not in the passive aggressive insult way, I’ll probably reiterate throughout this blog that anyone’s perception of wrestling is there own and isn’t *below* anybody else’s. These fans are mostly the one’s who only follow WWE for the storyline value and their favourites are mostly based on who WWE is feeding them and pushing. This isn’t to devalue their importance because they are the key audiences who watch WWE. Whether or not you agree with where the company is currently, the business side wouldn’t be as good as it is without these kind of fans.
This segment of the fanbase is in direct relation to the ‘casual fans’. For the most part, the casual fans will just want to see big guy v big guy and no, I’m not talking about 2 Ryback’s wrestling despite how good that would be. And similarly to the kids, the casual fans will love the bigger guys who are at the top and are getting pushed like Cena. Unless, of course you’ve got someone who can directly relate to the working class like Steve Austin did in the Attitude Era. What you might find odd is that these casual fans share many similarities with the superfan kids and I think this is how the concept of wrestling becomes most interesting because too ideas of wrestling that appear to be polarising are quite distinctly similar in who that particular fan may relate too and why.
Both of these concepts of wrestling come from a world that revolves around WWE. As soon as you open that bubble up you’ve got the wrestling fan that watches TNA and WWE. Their idea of wrestling is probably more deep than the previous two I’ve discussed. This idea is seemed to be still based around the story arcs but their favourites tend to be developed by more characteristics, for example how good the wrestler is in general rather than what he’s doing in a storyline or if he is winning. This kind of attitude towards wrestling seems to identify what they think are the qualities of a good wrestler rather than where they are situated in the actual product. I think at this point people jump from being a casual fan or just a WWE watcher into being a ‘smarter’ fan. A fan who ONLY watches TNA and WWE would still appreciate the story but, especially if your a TNA fan would be able to identify and really appreciate a good wrestling match. A lot of this kind of fan can merge into what I’m next going to talk about but I thought it’d be good to identify that there is specific wrestling fans who don’t enjoy the match after match theme that PWG presents or what you would have watching NJPW without being able to understand the commentary.
To widen the concept again you’ve got the hardcore smart fans that will watch the indy’s and WWE and TNA. From what I’ve noticed online, just by talking to people, these people seem to appreciate the in-ring ability of wrestlers a lot more than other fans would, therefore, making it more enjoyable for them to sit through a NJPW show in Japanese commentary or a PWG show where the matches have very little story line development other than who is challenging for the belt that show. Of course, this also includes the guys who watch ROH. And, of course, these for the most part are the ones that rave about NXT in comparison to the main WWE product that is put out. My point here is that the ‘smarter’ you are as a fan the more questions you tend to ask and you begin to notice the smaller things that go into wrestling while also caring about the backstage side more. An example of this is the constant tweets of how WWE buries Dolph Ziggler. I’m not going to go into that but it’s just an example.
Of course throughout this blog I’ve been generalising to different segments of the wrestling ‘fandom’ (wow I hate that word) and this doesn’t mean just because you like TNA that you can’t like Cena or whatever. I’m not saying that, my point is, is that what my idea of wrestling is, is not necessarily your idea or your friends. Being on the internet for so long talking about wrestling would probably lead you to believe that the in-ring work was most important in wrestling. However, although I agree as far as, I pay much more attention to a good wrestler in WWE. Further, I have just recently signed up for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s online service, World. Which, of course, I will only be watching to enjoy, for the most part the in ring action. By saying this would mean that I can enjoy wrestling on a level where if it’s a good in ring product I will remain interested. However, when it comes to weekly episodic shows such as WWE and TNA I don’t think this constitutes as enough to keep my focus. I think mostly this goes back to the feud over a year ago between Sheamus and Del Rio. I feel like Sheamus is overrated but these two guys had good matches but because the feud was so unexciting and the characters that both played were really lacklustre to say the least, my interest used to slip in those segments. Whereas, to contrast this, there is Bray Wyatt who is good in the ring for his size but he’s not having 45 minute technical wrestling bouts each week. But, I’m always interested in his matches because of his character and how interesting it is. Regardless of your opinion on Bray Wyatt, most people who watch WWE have a person who they watch because of their character and that’s the essence of what WWE is, character based story telling and development.
The original point I was trying to make here was that everyone’s concept of wrestling was different and to recognise why you enjoy wrestling to be better than someone else’s is ridiculous because for the most part we all enjoy or not enjoy the same product. As far as what I identify as wrestling, I think there needs to be some character in there definitely, even my favourites on the indie scene and in NJPW have characters that are displayed throughout their match. But that doesn’t mean that I should disregard the opinions of others whose concept of wrestling is the opposite or different. I’d just like to leave it that the point is, is that no matter what your personal idea of wrestling is you are right and that there is no right and wrong when discussing what you enjoy about pro wrestling. It’s all just different opinions. Anyway, that’s my opinion on what is wrestling. Just enjoy it. Carl out.
@curbstxmp - Twitter.
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