I’ll admit I haven’t read the whole two page post list – only about halfway, two-thirds down page 1 – but I’m trying to do several things at once, so please forgive me if I reiterate something or if the thread has gotten out from under me. Thank you in advance.
I’m 17 and I used to swear up, down, sideways and diagonally that I would NEVER be caught dead watching wrestling on TV because it’s nothing but a soap-opera for rednecks. Then, I realized that if you look at me, I AM a redneck, so there goes half my arguments. I still don’t like soap operas though, so I avoided wrestling on the principal of the thing, even though both my best friends and every guy I’ve ever been on a date with has been a wrestling fan.
Then two weeks ago I went to Mississippi to stay with my sister and brother-in-law (I just got back a couple days ago), and they had me watch WWF with them twice a week and even had all their friends over to watch SummerSlam on PPV. I decided to give it an honest chance, and I actually appreciate it for the low-level entertainment that it still is. I LIKE it, sure, but it’s still redneck soap opera. I guess that’s just not such a bad thing after all.
I don’t think kids should watch this kind of stuff. It’s too violent and sexual, and kids get enough of that from their peers without being exposed to it on prime time television in their own home. When you’re bigger, I think it’s perfectly fine, if it’s the kind of thing you enjoy.
WWF’s biggest draw for me (I don’t like WCW, except for Jeff Jarrett, but my friend says he USED to be WWF so that might explain it LOL) is that it’s got storylines just as lame as every soap opera I’ve ever seen, only it’s simpler to understand (I got the whole point of the HHH/Stephanie/Angle thing as well as most of the other storylines between characters by the end of the first SmackDown I watched). And, when I watch a normal soap opera, I’m always thinking about how much I’d love to beat up the characters… in wrestling, I CAN see the characters get beaten up!
That’s right! As soon as we finish arranging the tables and cjairs, we’ll use the ladder to paint the living room a lovely shade of chatruse and then… SAAAY!!! Wait a minute!
I don’t mind watching the wrestling, even though it does all seem to be choreographed. It is a pity though that the size of the wrestlers bicpes and egos don’t match their brain size.
However, neither of the programs shown on Monday nights are professional wrestling shows anymore. Professional wrestling is not supposed to be real, it is supposed to be entertaining.
However, the entertainment value of both WCW and WWF is not within the context of a wrestling match. <i>Good</i> wrestling entails wrestling matches which tell a story themselves. A hypothetical example:
Wrestler A, the “face”(good guy) is attacked viciously by Wrestler B, the “heel”(bad guy) prior to their match. B works over a certain part of A’s body(neck, back, arm, leg) for a while to prime him for finishing. A mounts a comeback, however, all the while acknowledging the damage he has taken by “selling.”(looking and acting as though the part that has been worked over is hurt or unusable) He hits his finishing maneuver, and covers B to the ovation of the crowd.
This is a professional wrestling match. What can be found on Monday nights has nothing to do with this. The Rock is not a wrestler, nor are the majority of the other performers currently employed by the WWF/WCW.
For consistently decent wrestling, one must look to Japan(best solution), Mexico, ECW(has many flaws and shortcomings, but is actually still a <i>wrestling</i> show), or independents.
Professional wrestling was much better back when it was supposed to be some redneck thing, and it wasn’t some big bullshit pop culture phenomenon. It is essentially as good as ruined, unless popularity wanes anytime soon. One can only hope that the fairweather-attention-span-of-a-gnat-pubescent-midnight-choking parasites that currently make up a large percentage of “wrestling”'s viewership will move on to something more appealing to them, such as bizarre bondage pornography that involves people being hit with chairs.
