The Tiger’s Take 11.15.07: What Makes A Real Fan?

Yes, yes, yes. I’m digging out this column again, and that can only mean one thing: I’ve got something to rant on. I actually made a short post about this topic in my 411 Blog, but I felt like I had more to say on the matter. As always I’ll start with a disclaimer that I’m not out to single out anybody, or convert anyone to my opinion. So if you find yourself offended by anything that I might say here: too bad, so sad, get over it.

The seeds for this column were actually planted quite a while ago, when Jacob Ziegler and I were having a casual IM conversation and one of us mentioned a new T-shirt from ROH with the tag line ‘Real Wrestling for Real Fans.’ Which the both of us agreed was a stupid thing to put on a shirt. Because #1 outside of the Olympics, you can’t really call wrestling real (notice I’m not using that F word), and trying to describe ‘real fans’ is an even more daunting task when one stops to actually think of the principles involved.

But apparently not too many others are stopping to think about the principles involved, and it seems that lately a new message board trend has been to beat your chest and proudly proclaim yourself to be a ‘real’ fan, based on how many shows you go to, how long you’ve been watching, how many of their DVDs you own, etc. And that somehow gives people the idea that they’ve got clout and they can start to dictate things to others. In the opinion of this person all it really does is make you look like a douche bag.

Just as an example of how stupid this is, I’ll use myself as an example with ROH. I’ve been following ROH since May of 2003, when I started on 411 and Gabe Sapolsky generously sent me the 4/12/03 show to review, and hooked me on ROH. I’ve only been to three ROH live shows, the three 2005 shows in Buffalo, NY. When ROH’s only stops in NY State became the NYC area, that was the end of my ROH live experience, anywhere else is just too far for me to go. I’ve got every ROH show from the first show up to the 8/6/06 Fight of the Century show. But I’ve been keeping up regularly with ROH results and goings on, and in all honesty, when I get some spare $$$ (getting married and going on a honeymoon is expensive), I’ll probably pick up the DVD versions of Respect Is Earned and Driven. So do I qualify as a real ROH fan? I’ve certainly given them plenty of my money over the last four years, and my reviews certainly reflect that I do enjoy quite a bit of the ROH product. Or did I have to forfeit my ‘hall pass of honor’ when I thought that ROH booking Mitsuharu Misawa was stupid, and being banned from the ROH board for saying as such (albeit in stronger, but not unreasonable nor vulgar terms). And if I still am a ‘real fan’ do I get to start telling Brad Garoon that he needs to stop hating on Ace Steel? Of course not! And if heaven forbid I ever did tell him that, I’d certainly hope that, friend of mine or not, Brad would tell me to can it (I’ll try to keep this somewhat clean in the language department).

Oh, but I’m not just going to include ROH, a promotion that I’m somehow labeled as being a hater of. I’ll talk about a federation that I’ve spent about a year trying to educate the readers and staff of 411 about: 2CW. On 9/21 they made a stop to the city that kicked Shawn Michaels’ ass, and I was front row as always. I was especially excited about match #3, Loca Vida vs. Delirious, and they had a very fun match, despite some mis communication either between the workers and the ref, or between the ref and bell ringer. But one thing really irked me about it. There was a guy in the crowd actually telling people to not cheer Delirious because he’s not a 2CW wrestler. It irked me a bit, but, whatever, I’m a big Delirious fan and that’s who I cheered for, and he won, so I was happy. But the next day, there’s a big post on the 2CW message board from the same person about being a real fan and the so-called requirements, such as doing everything you can to help the company grow, apparently buying tickets, and merchandise isn’t enough. And of course he mentioned how it was horrible that some fans were cheering Delirious over Loca.

I need to break kayfabe just for a minute here. Loca Vida in the real world is one of my best friends. He’s the best man in my wedding, and I cheered for his opponent. In fact, I was sporting a Delrious T-shirt that night and at the very beggining of the match I yelled out ‘Loca Vida you suck!’ Not because I didn’t like Loca, but because I was rooting for his opponent.

What irked me was that he wasn’t just giving his point of view, I’m all for cheering on the home team. And I’ve been on the receiving end of being bashed for a different opinion more times than I care to count. But that he felt that he somehow had the right to begin dictating who fans should cheer for and what exactly made him a real fan, and what others had to do to join this apparently elite fraternity. I’m not a member of this elite group, because I only go to the shows in Syracuse, and in fact I once opted to not go to a 2CW show so I could save some money and order a WWE PPV a couple of weeks later. So is spending plenty of money on tickets and merchandise, reviewing the shows on a big web site like 411, and buying another DVD to send to Larry so we can podcast about it, not enough to be considered a fan? Not according to him, but who is he to make that call? I’ve a good feeling that Larry will enjoy the DVD, and if my reviews, or the podcast decide to make one person go to the 2CW web site and order a DVD, then I’ll have done my job.

There’s just one last thing I want to touch on as far as this whole ‘real fan’ nonsense goes, and it’s something that anyone who knows me will know it’s something I’m all in favor of. Criticism. I’m sure anyone who’s been on a message board will have inevitably seen or even made a post that goes something like this. “Why are you even posting here if you don’t like . . . ?” and I’m here with the answer. Because whether or not you think something is good or bad, it’s still a discussion of the product. If you venture to the ROH message board you’ll see one of the forums is called ‘Talk About Ring of Honor’ not ‘Talk About How Good ROH Is’ or ‘Praise ROH Here.’ I used to talk about how much I hated Jimmy Rave, and how boring a wrestler I found him to be. But I was still talking about ROH. Yes, it’s possible to be critical of something and still like it.