Shining a Spotlight 1.14.10: Too Much Fandom

In the past week, there’s been a lot of talk about the TNA/WWE Monday Night Showdown. The opinions, needless to say, have run the gamut. A lot of folks say WWE won, some say TNA won and other say both companies put on crummy shows. A lot are positive while Jim Cornette’s pod cast rant is a wonder to behold in how he trashes both companies and declares last Monday will live in history as the night “the wrestling business went down the toilet and the fans said enough.”

The debates have raged among many in the IWC and my own column showcased a selection of opinions. A few that have gotten to me have been rants in the various columns and forums on how TNA has “proven” they’re on a an equal level as WWE. It’s a comment I’ve heard plenty of times in my own column and has always amazed me as to how delusional some folks can be. It’s the same attitude sometimes with ROH fans, that they elevate that company to a bigger level than it truly is either. I get that folks are fans, I don’t want to step on that but their level of near-obsession can often delude them to how things really are.

So what do I really think of the three big companies and their fandoms? Well, I figure I might as well put my feelings in the clear to try and let readers see where I’m coming from and hopefully put their own feelings in perspective.
　

Accepting WWE

I admit it, I was always partial to WWE when I was growing up as a young fan. Oh, I loved NWA stuff too when Flair was tearing down the house in battles but WWE always seemed more accessible to me. I’ve been with it through various low periods as well as incredible highs and it’s in my blood. I recognize its problems but I still enjoy watching the company.

I guess my issue is that I don’t see Vince McMahon as the demon so many others in the IWC do. The man can be cold-hearted and intent on business but he’s not a sociopath who doesn’t give one damn about any of his workers. The man has shown surprising heart over the years and does care for the people in his company. But he has to be tough because he’s the boss in a dirty business. Maybe he doesn’t always do the right thing but keep in mind, a lot of the time, “doing the right thing” isn’t good for the business.

A complaint of a lot in the IWC is on how Vince doesn’t listen to the fans and their ideas, which so many are convinced will be successful. But I point out what James Guttman wrote in one of his books, that he was convinced he knew how to do things in 2005 but after a few years of doing interviews with wrestlers, realized he didn’t know half about the business. Maybe Vince can be independent in his thinking but that’s what helped him become the powerhouse in the business so hard to argue with success.

So Vince changed things to “sports entertainment.” So what? Wrestling has always been entertainment, it stopped being sport when the first promoter decided the first match. All Vince did was openly recognize it. The territory system was always going to fall, if it wasn’t Vince, it would be someone else. He may have had to use harsh tactics but not like he was dealing with saints in the business either. The man’s drive has always been noted and admired by even his harshest critics, how he refuses to back down and plows straight on with his ideas, even if they don’t work out right. You have to admire a man who can work day in and day out for over thirty years trying to control a company full of egotists without losing his mind and/or suffering a complete nervous breakdown.

Yes, there are times when WWE will make me tear out my hair and scream to the heavens with some stupid angles and skits (see the RAW guest host concept). I’ll yell about some of the stuff they do and while I readily accept I’m no booking expert, I’ll think of a dozen things to do differently that could work out. This company can be so damn frustrating with how they’ll do knee-jerk reactions and sudden shifts, it makes you angry.

But then…Then we’ll get some great skit or character arc or sensational match that reminds you why you like wrestling. The fact is that WWE is still the dominant force in wrestling with three major TV show brands, house shows, merchandise and the best DVDs on the wrestling market. They’ve accepted how the tastes of fans have changed, that in this age of Twitter, texts and short attention spans, the majority of their viewers don’t care much about long matches or psychology. Oh, they’ll still do great matches as well but they recognize the times change and wrestling has to change with them.

Fans will always hate Vince and WWE for “ruing the purity” of the wrestling business but the fact is, its approach works. My eight-year old nephew is a total wrestling freak now, buying WWE figures and DVDs and enjoying their shows. The big complaint is that we need to hook the next generation of fans and WWE is doing that. Just because it’s not the “pure” experience a lot of fans want doesn’t mean it’s totally wrong. WWE still delivers great action (maybe not on RAW all the time) and fans respond to that.

Yet again, the IWC has to get it through their heads that they are not the vast majority of the fan base. The ones you see on TV who respond so well, they’re the key audience WWE goes for and they go wild for what they see but will also boo what they don‘t like. The WWE fans aren’t mindless sheep, they’ll react badly but they’re not as instantly venomous as the IWC can be.

You can’t say Vince McMahon is on his way down because they’ve said that a half dozen times over the years and he’s come back stronger than ever. WWE gets in your blood, it’s hard to totally shake. They still lead the wrestling world, maybe not always for the better but they’re the one new fans look to first and they know that responsibility. They’re not perfect but they’re still more hit than miss most of the time and lead the way, better or worse, for the rest of the business.

TNA’s Frustrations

I don’t hate TNA.

I want to make that clear right off the bat. People think I have it in for this company and I want to see it fail but I don’t. I’ve always liked TNA from the start with their pushing fresh new talent and how they provided a much-needed dose of competition for WWE. They still can provide that but unfortunately, seem intent too often on following in WWE’s worst steps.

This company has managed to improve in the last several months with AJ Styles proving himself as champion with great matches against Daniels and Joe. However, there are some worrisome aspects. I’ve read even some TNA fanatics didn’t like the big three-hour Impact with an over-reliance on old guys like Hogan, Flair, Nash, Hall etc. I’m not going to judge TNA’s future on that one show as I got the feeling they might have been trying too hard to throw too much on at once and it got out of hand. But I worry still, not just about the company but fan reactions.

Let’s make this clear right now. Anyone who says that TNA is on an equal level with WWE is fooling themselves. They have one TV show against WWE’s four, their merchandise and DVD sales are far less and of course there’s the fact that they still do 90% of their shows in front of a theme park studio audience of less than a thousand people, all of whom are non-paying. They may turn a profit but in no way are they close to being equal in terms of money-making of the WWE juggernaut. That’s not bias, that’s simple fact.

The problem is that TNA doesn’t judge by the success they’ve achieved, which is impressive. They’ve been around going on eight years which is about seven and a half years longer than most gave them when they first started out. They have a good base of workers (even some of the older ones) and their fans are loyal. But rather than being happy with that, TNA apparently thinks they can truly be the equal of WWE and that leads them to grabbing big names regardless of their possible problems in the ring or backstage and move away from focusing on in-ring action to the same sort of stupid skits and angles WWE does too often.

One of the most annoying aspects of fandom to me is how people tend to think that just because something isn’t WWE means it’s automatically better. The TNA fandom doesn’t help either as they can be way too into the company for their own good. To be fair, they can acknowledge the horrible stuff like the “this is bullshit” chants during the Steel Asylum debacle. But as my comments section often shows, the fans can be too rah-rah for TNA to the point of near-obsession, blocking out problems to seriously believe this company will take WWE down in no time. That fan base has helped TNA massively but I can’t help but wonder quite often what the Impact Zone fervor would be like if people actually paid to see the show. I mean, if the folks who get in free can scream “bullshit” at times, makes you wonder about people who laid down money for it.

I want TNA to succeed as they provide a good alternative for WWE, a dose of much-needed competition and gives some newer guys a shot at times. That’s not to mention a stronger Women’s division (at least when they’re not doing stupid stuff like reality show contestants as competitors) and good tag teams as well. The company also seems much stronger now, not quite the near-disaster it has been in the past and the arrival of Hogan could be the attention-getter they really need. But I just wish that both TNA itself and their fans could be happy with what they achieve instead of being obsessed with knocking WWE off its pedestal. The fact they talk about being so much on wrestling yet their commercials talk about Hogan being the king in “sports entertainment” sends a bit of mixed signals. The company has done a great job surviving and making their mark but this nagging tendency to emulate WWE mars their attempts to be a true alternative and increases the view of them as a knock-off. I still have hopes they turn it around but just wish the TNA fanatics can see that this company is nowhere near the perfect giant they like it to be.

Ring Of Smark

Ring of Honor has been rather unique in the wrestling world. They’re not big enough as TNA or WWE but too big to really be called a true indy anymore. The fans have rightfully pointed out the amazing action that makes the company so awesome to watch but that same fervor can hurt the company a bit too, particularly as they’re in a time of flux right now.

A problem is that too many ROH fans are “smart” fans and as Raven once brilliantly observed, the smart fans who think they know everything are the easiest ones to con. Thus the “smark” label which sadly can fit a lot of the ROH fan base. I like the company a lot too but many fans can be rather elitist, making ROH sound sheer perfection, doing no wrong but then will turn around and blast it for the tiniest errors. That attitude can affect newer fans as they might think ROH is too elitist to get into and turn away from it.

At the risk of sounding like a suck-up, I think our own Ari Bernestein is the ideal ROH fan. He’s passionate about the company and an expert at details, raving about shows but will also rake ROH over the coals when they mess up. See how he took them to task over the debacle of the Final Battle main event while other ROH fans tried to claim the sixty-minute dullfest was a great match. I do put some blame on the New York audience which, no matter the promotion, always tend to be pretty dickish just for the hell of it.

So it makes no sense to me that ROH is going to be doing a rematch of Aries and Black at the same arena this month. The whole judges thing indicates they might go for another Broadway which also makes no sense. Worse is that Jim Cornette and others in the company don’t take responsibility for the bad booking that led to the match being a mess but insist it was a good matchup with a few flaws.

I do worry about ROH under Cornette. The man is a great mind and knows the wresting business with long experience. But after hearing his pod cast ranting on TNA-WWE, it hits me that Cornette may be a bit behind the times. I get his desire to get back to basics in wrestling and ROH is a good place for it. But, like it or not, times have changed, the young fans have changed and this is an age of Twitter and shorter attention spans. You can’t just throw a Broadway match out for no reason any more than throw out some goofy gimmick bout out and expect fans to eat it up. The time of fans loving that type of stalling bouts is long gone, they expect action, especially in ROH.

The company still does fantastic work and the best booking/presentation in North America wrestling. But I worry about how the company may be going too “old school” for its own good. The fans will mostly eat it up but too many others will see it as being boring and not the top-notch action they expect from ROH. Of course, the fact so many of their fans are a bit smarky doesn’t help as they’ll still sniff at any other company being as good and hold ROH to somewhat impossible standards. It’s a tough problem to crack and I hope ROH can but listening too much to the true fanatics can be as bad as ignoring the fans.

Summation

This may have sounded meandering but I wanted to get out my feelings on the main three promotions and how I feel, not just about them but their fans. I’m not trying to knock a fan’s love or tell them to change their minds. It’s hard to do that and really not right as everyone has the right to cheer or boo whatever they want. I just wish folks would be more open to both sides of the company they cheer for. I enjoy WWE but I recognize their many flaws and how they can drive a fan crazy with dumb stuff. But TNA fans will say the company is on the verge of beating WWE and being the top company, ignoring its true status and that can hurt their drive. ROH can also champion their company a bit much but will turn on it at an instant, the smarks doing a poor job for newer fans to get into the company. You’re free to cheer and boo whoever you want, that’s what wrestling is about. I just wish some fans could have a modicum of moderation in their adulation. Too much of anything, even a love of wresting, may not be a good thing.