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Post by Milkman Norm on Apr 4, 2010 10:44:36 GMT -5
Really it was more a series of steps
1. My dad told me it was fake. I believed him but I didn't care. Though I really didn't know what that meant. Meaning that while I believed him I thought that somethings had to be real.I also thought of the characters as real living people who existed outside the ring (around 1990)
2. Watching the Royal Rumble something raised some red flags. It seemed odd that whenever Ric Flair, who was the top bad guy at the time, was in danger the other wrestlers attention would change. It wasn't so much that I knew that Flair was a top card heel and Skinner was a JTTS heel. I just knew that Flair beat guys and gave interviews wheras Skinner never really beat anyone good. So why not take Flair out? It was almost as if someone wanted Flair to there at the end. I didn't quite reach this conclusion but I took a step in that direction
3. In 1993 on Superstars there was a little WWF helps Somalia (I think) piece with wrestlers all standing on a Podium, good guys and bad guys mixed. In particular I saw Papa Shango and thought "wait a minute? why is he on stage with...oh" Then what my dad sad made more sense.
4. The steriod trials broke and Vince was exposed as the owner. For the first time in my memorable life time the mainstream press started interviewing wrestlers or former wrestlers about the "business".(1994)
5. I discovered the Smartish sites on the internet (1996)
I guess that would be the basic progression of things.
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Post by Kris Kobain on Apr 5, 2010 3:54:03 GMT -5
So it was kind of you knew but still held onto the thought that maybe some of it was still real. It's interesting that you were able to hold on to the thought for so long. To me that is a great credit to the product itself.
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Futureraven: Beelzebruv
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Ultimate Arbiter of Right And Wrong
Spent half my life here, God help me
Posts: 15,050
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Apr 5, 2010 4:49:44 GMT -5
When I first saw Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets Revealed!
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Post by The Thread Barbi on Apr 5, 2010 5:52:54 GMT -5
I was a believer until I read a small interview with Vince McMahon in a national newspaper, basically admitting its scripted entertainment, around the start of the attitude era.
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Post by Kris Kobain on Apr 5, 2010 6:16:01 GMT -5
Did your discoveries change it for either of you?
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Futureraven: Beelzebruv
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Ultimate Arbiter of Right And Wrong
Spent half my life here, God help me
Posts: 15,050
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Apr 5, 2010 10:56:09 GMT -5
Dude, I was kidding, Salem talking about Stunt Grannies was hardly an education, thought I'd bring this back to westlecrap.
I already answered this, I was the irish whip guy, and it didn't change anything, I was about 7-8, and I figured Iwatched shows on tv, they were fake, this wasn't the news, so I assumed it was fake like everything else I watched, just enjoyed the show
Actually, that was when I first realised matches were scripted, I justified it as 'these people really hate each other, but they know they can earn more money fighting safely a few times than for real once and injuring each other'.
In total I realised it was scripted in the mid 90s because I couldn't believe Goldust was really a person like that, before I'd always had a way of thinking how people were basically themselves, but Goldust was too weird.
Didn't change a thing for me, I just thought 'ok, this is like Star Trek then)'and carried on with watching.
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Post by Ash Whenzday on Apr 7, 2010 2:40:31 GMT -5
I had an irrational disinterest in professional wrestling until I was about 8. I went to a live event, fully armed with the knowlege it was scripted, but once I actually saw it, with my own eyes, I didn't care. I was hooked.
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Post by Free Hat on Apr 7, 2010 3:26:36 GMT -5
There was never a time when I didn't know it was scripted. It never effected my interest.
In fact, I think I've only known one person throughout my entire life who ever thought it was real. The real kicker is that he knew that the WWF was scripted, but he always insisted that WCW was real, no matter how nonsensical the storylines became. Any wrestlers who jumped ship from the WWF were only doing so because they "wanted to try their hands at legit competition." It was both sad and hilarious at the same time.
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Post by mcclanahan on Apr 7, 2010 3:58:27 GMT -5
What are you guys talking about...I've been in this buisness 5 years now why am I just now learning about this
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efarns
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,273
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Post by efarns on Apr 7, 2010 7:30:30 GMT -5
When I was young, in the early/mid 80's, I remember my dad talking with some other guys about wrestling being fake. But, it seemed to me like certain aspects had to be real. Like, I couldn't understand why the NWA would want Ric Flair to be their champion even though everyone hated him, so I thought he must have won some legitimate contest backstage so they'd put him over in front of the fans. So even though I never truly believed it was legit, I was still a complete mark. I figured all the matches were totally scripted, and the internet in the early/mid 90's helped me figure out how everything is put together.
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Post by repomanfan on Apr 7, 2010 9:12:39 GMT -5
I think the better question would be, when did you stop suspending disbelief? I don't think i ever believed it was real, but i never questioning the legitimacy of the competitors(i never thought about it from that standpoint, i just enjoyed). If someone told me that it was stupid or fake, i just shrugged it off within a few minutes, and went back to suspending disbelief. The problem i have at the moment, is that i cannot suspend disbelief, anymore. I simply cannot do it. It's over for me as a wrestling fan. The overload of the internet, media, and Mcmahon constantly telling you it's scripted, fake, sports entertainment etc.... It's no wonder people treat the sport as nothing more then a cheap reality show/comedy. Real wrestling fans do not exist anymore.
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Post by "Gentleman" AJ Powell on Apr 7, 2010 11:13:38 GMT -5
My dad told me it was fake & but he had never taken any interest in it, but whenever he saw any legends on he instantly knew who they were & gladly watches the shows, so it an be more of a bonding experience now.
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mrrotten
Don Corleone
The #1 Kaneinite
Posts: 2,066
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Post by mrrotten on Apr 7, 2010 11:24:25 GMT -5
To me it still real!!!!!
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Post by Crazy Diamond on Apr 7, 2010 14:00:07 GMT -5
Watching Hogan wrestle as a kid made me think it was fake. Then I saw Sting and I began to wonder how fake it really was. I kept going back and forwards until I really started posting online and learned about the full process behind pro wrestling. It didn't ruin my enjoyment because oftentimes what happens behind the scenes is more interesting than what you see on TV these days. The only thing that really shocked me was finding out that Japanese promotions like NJPW were staged too. I thought groups like that were legit for years because they always seemed to work much harder and more realistically than what you saw in the US or Mexico. I've never met anyone who thought wrestling was completely real, even when they were fans who watched back when the NWA was still around. What I never understood was why people got so emotional over the fact that wrestling wasn't a legit competition. It was like admitting you liked pro wrestling was a personal affront to them, especially after 2001.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2010 14:25:13 GMT -5
As I mentioned, I always knew that wrestling was scripted, even before I started watching when I was 6 years old. I never saw it as a sport, but as a TV show. I can't imagine what it would be like to watch thinking it was real, though I sometimes feel like I missed out by not having that experience.
What I didn't know much about was the nature of how it worked. I knew some of it was improvised, but I was under the impression as a kid that much more of it was choreographed. It wasn't until I was older that I understood that it is a lot more improvisation between several pre-planned spots and that there is a logic and theory as to why things happen when and how they do.
Oddly enough, my revelation was kind of the opposite of what you'd expect. When I started watching as a kid, I was under the impression that everything was planned, but learned over time that less of it is than I thought.
I was never one of those "everything is fake" people where I thought that falls didn't hurt and that they used fake chairs, I just didn't realize how much of the match was called on the fly. Now that I do know, it gives me an even greater appreciation of wrestlers who can work a good match from start to finish.
The Internet didn't necessarily "smarten me up." It was more of a case of just watching enough wrestling and going to enough shows to catch on that certain things would always lead to certain other things.
I did learn more about the backstage goings-on of the WWF and WCW once I got online in about '96, and that was interesting.
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"Hollywood" Cactus Matt
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
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Post by "Hollywood" Cactus Matt on Apr 7, 2010 14:33:24 GMT -5
I was obsessed - OBSESSED![/i] - with wrestling for a good part of my childhood, and can still rattle off useless information whenever called upon. I watched with my dad from the age I was old enough to remember (probably about five years old) until my parents divorced when I was seven. So ... probably about seven years old or so, after my parents split, I had asked my mom a wrestling-related question, and that's when she let me in on the World's Worst-Kept Secret. When she said "fake," though, it conjured up images in my head of "smoke and mirrors"-type trickery; I pictured a Tito Santana vs. Andre the Giant match where Tito was landing dropkicks with the aid of wires and whatnot. I didn't fully understand "fake" until my dad showed me a column in the Detroit Free Press written by M.L. Curly* containing what are known today as "Spoilers." It said that the WWF was interested in signing this guy, and that he would most likely work a program with this other guy, and win a title from him in this month. Then I saw an ad in the back of a non-Apter kayfabe wrestling magazine for something called the Pro Wrestling Torch. That was in 1995, and I've been a "smark" ever since. Still hasn't diminished my enjoyment one bit, though; I look at is as very similar to comic books: these guys (and ladies) have certain powers or abilities that you or I don't have, and that's why they're able to handle such abuse and not bruise. That's the excuse I use when people ask me how I can "watch that crap." I'm a nerd - so what? EDIT:*I forgot to mention the ever-so-slight LANGUAGE WARNING in the embedded link.
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Post by bigjohnstudd on Apr 7, 2010 21:31:36 GMT -5
Playfighting with my friends and realizing that you needed co-operation to pull off 98% of the moves.
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Post by Ryushinku on Apr 8, 2010 6:54:54 GMT -5
Actually when I first starting watched some, in 1993...WCW Saturday Night.
I always suspected, but I remember seeing like a 3-4 week stretch where Ricky Steamboat lost the exact same way every time due to ref bump/distraction. I thought "no-one could be that much of a dumb-ass and not bring a friend or whatever to the ring to watch for that."
So I guess you could say it was actually scripted ref incompetance, and the fact that bad ref calls are virtually never overturned (or even mentioned), that put the 100% confirmation in my head.
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Post by "UnHoly AltarBoy" Tyler Shane on Apr 8, 2010 12:57:02 GMT -5
When my dad started working matches on indy shows in the area about 15 years ago. It was disappointing, but I never stopped watching. Hey! That makes me a 2nd Generation Wrestler! Whoo!!
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dsriggs
Samurai Cop
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Post by dsriggs on Apr 8, 2010 13:04:28 GMT -5
Visiting rajahwwf.com may or may not have been a wise decision for me.
Source - rajah.com
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