Wikipedia wrestling pages

[hitch]

Is it just me or is it sometimes really obvious that some wrestling pages/profiles on wiki are added by wrestling fans just because of use of terminology that you rarely, if ever, see in 'formal' writing outside of the IWC?

For example you might read 'In April 2003, Smith announced he was done with FBW'. I've only ever heard 'done with' meaning 'had left' in the wrestling sphere.

Hogan 'done with' TNA
Cena 'done with' WWE

...I realise both sentences are music to some ears, but wrestling is the only medium where I'd ever expect to come across the expression 'done with' rather than 'has left' or similar.

Then there's the assumption 'put over' means anything to anyone else. I've seen that a few times in bios

It's not a criticism, as such, but I do notice that the style of celebrity bios on wikipedia tends to be noticeably different to wrestling ones both in style and the language used.

[chazraps]

Wrestling wikipedia pages are largely terrible. I remember in 2006 they weren't moderated at all, leading to my favorite Wiki "sentence" ever on a Sgt. Slaughter page:

"He used to not be fat but then he got fat and hes fat now."

[Jeremy]

Oct 26, 2012 2:04:20 GMT -5 chazraps said:

"He used to not be fat but then he got fat and hes fat now."

Covers all the bases. Past, present and the transition from past to present.

[skulldouggory]

its better than "he wasn't fat then he got really fat but then he got old so hes not so fat, might have cancer"

[Deleted]

Tom Zenk used to edit or had someone edit his page to make him sound like a huge star. It's a normal page now.

[sagsag]

There was a brief period a few years ago where a bunch of pages were written in a totally non-kayfabe sense, and nearly every sentence was full of things that explained that it was fake. It was stuff like "Steve Williams, portraying his "Stone Cold" persona, then used his Stone Cold Stunner on Michael Hickenbottom, playing his Shawn Michaels character, and both fell down to the mat, cooperating with each other to execute the move. As per the pre-determined script, Williams then laid on top of Hickenbottom to pin him, and win the championship."

It was absolutely ridiculous, but didn't last long. Not sure if it was just a few guys doing it for the hell of it, or if wikipedia actually wanted wrestling articles to be written this way.

[Sam Punk]

Oct 26, 2012 8:49:20 GMT -5 sagsag said:

There was a brief period a few years ago where a bunch of pages were written in a totally non-kayfabe sense, and nearly every sentence was full of things that explained that it was fake. It was stuff like "Steve Williams, portraying his "Stone Cold" persona, then used his Stone Cold Stunner on Michael Hickenbottom, playing his Shawn Michaels character, and both fell down to the mat, cooperating with each other to execute the move. As per the pre-determined script, Williams then laid on top of Hickenbottom to pin him, and win the championship."

It was absolutely ridiculous, but didn't last long. Not sure if it was just a few guys doing it for the hell of it, or if wikipedia actually wanted wrestling articles to be written this way.

There's still stuff like that on there now.

[mcmahonfan85]

Oct 26, 2012 8:49:20 GMT -5 sagsag said:

There was a brief period a few years ago where a bunch of pages were written in a totally non-kayfabe sense, and nearly every sentence was full of things that explained that it was fake. It was stuff like "Steve Williams, portraying his "Stone Cold" persona, then used his Stone Cold Stunner on Michael Hickenbottom, playing his Shawn Michaels character, and both fell down to the mat, cooperating with each other to execute the move. As per the pre-determined script, Williams then laid on top of Hickenbottom to pin him, and win the championship."

It was absolutely ridiculous, but didn't last long. Not sure if it was just a few guys doing it for the hell of it, or if wikipedia actually wanted wrestling articles to be written this way.

you forgot the part where they mention that Stone Cold Williams plays the hero (can't use "babyface") and Michaels Hickenbottom is the villain (can't say "heel")



wikipedia wrestling articles are the absolute worse and as a wrestling fan i'm more embarrassed by them than a bad match, because with a bad match everyone already knows its a work predetermined but those articles are written by people who think non-fans have no idea so they write stupid s*** like that to repeatedly let you know its not real (which is very stupid, because who is more likely to read a wrestling article: a fan of pro wrestling or a non-fan of pro wrestling?)

[h]

Wrestling Wikipedia pages are written that way because some of the people who evaluate the content (determine whether it can be considered "good" or "featured") thought they were written as if wrestling was a 100% legitimate sport. Wikipedia has a guideline against writing "in universe" so that they can be understoof by any reader, which makes it difficult with a form of entertainment that portrays itself in kayfabe. People wanted the articles they had worked on to be recognized, so they took this feedback (which came from a handful of people) and ran with it, going way overboard.

I'd say the problem is a combination of people trying too carefully to stick to (arguably unhelpful) guidelines and exaggerations from critics.

[Crappler El 0 M]

Back during my days as a grammarian, I tried to improve a lot of the wikipedia wrestling pages, but grew tired of it.

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

Brimstone had the best wiki page till someone edited down.

[sagsag]

Oct 26, 2012 9:17:46 GMT -5 Sam Punk said:

Oct 26, 2012 8:49:20 GMT -5 sagsag said:

There was a brief period a few years ago where a bunch of pages were written in a totally non-kayfabe sense, and nearly every sentence was full of things that explained that it was fake. It was stuff like "Steve Williams, portraying his "Stone Cold" persona, then used his Stone Cold Stunner on Michael Hickenbottom, playing his Shawn Michaels character, and both fell down to the mat, cooperating with each other to execute the move. As per the pre-determined script, Williams then laid on top of Hickenbottom to pin him, and win the championship."

It was absolutely ridiculous, but didn't last long. Not sure if it was just a few guys doing it for the hell of it, or if wikipedia actually wanted wrestling articles to be written this way.

There's still stuff like that on there now.

Got any links? I found them oddly hilarious.

[hitch]

It's amusing also, I think, how more recent feuds/matches are told with such unnecessary detail as if it's a requirement to give a week by week, segment by segment, blow by blow account of precisely what happened between two guys.

[mizerable]

Chris Harris was married to Susan B Anthony. This didn't get corrected for almost a year.

[h]

Oct 26, 2012 15:12:23 GMT -5 mizerable said:

Chris Harris was married to Susan B Anthony. This didn't get corrected for almost a year.

...or a little over a month, whichever makes for a more hilarious story.

[chazraps]

The best wrestling-relationship gaffe is still - www.spokeo.com/Billy+Kidman+1
(look in the romance section)

[crowwreak was WRONG]

Oct 26, 2012 8:49:20 GMT -5 sagsag said:

There was a brief period a few years ago where a bunch of pages were written in a totally non-kayfabe sense, and nearly every sentence was full of things that explained that it was fake. It was stuff like "Steve Williams, portraying his "Stone Cold" persona, then used his Stone Cold Stunner on Michael Hickenbottom, playing his Shawn Michaels character, and both fell down to the mat, cooperating with each other to execute the move. As per the pre-determined script, Williams then laid on top of Hickenbottom to pin him, and win the championship."

It was absolutely ridiculous, but didn't last long. Not sure if it was just a few guys doing it for the hell of it, or if wikipedia actually wanted wrestling articles to be written this way.

As I used to be part of the WP-PW project, I'll explain this one: As you probably know, aricles on wikipedia get "graded" on how good they are, and only "Featured class" articles can reach the front page.

On one featured article review, an admin pointed out that noone who isn't a wrestling fan will know what a Swanton is, so we had to describe it in detail with no terminology, and generally, it spread from there. Later, other admins pointed out that this was stupid, so we overturned it.

[mizerable]

Oct 26, 2012 15:26:19 GMT -5 h said:

Oct 26, 2012 15:12:23 GMT -5 mizerable said:

Chris Harris was married to Susan B Anthony. This didn't get corrected for almost a year.

...or a little over a month, whichever makes for a more hilarious story.

Really? Maybe someone changed it more than once since I somehow ended up on his page a few times and it still had it as it was.

[Sparvid]

Oct 26, 2012 8:49:20 GMT -5 sagsag said:

There was a brief period a few years ago where a bunch of pages were written in a totally non-kayfabe sense, and nearly every sentence was full of things that explained that it was fake. It was stuff like "Steve Williams, portraying his "Stone Cold" persona, then used his Stone Cold Stunner on Michael Hickenbottom, playing his Shawn Michaels character, and both fell down to the mat, cooperating with each other to execute the move. As per the pre-determined script, Williams then laid on top of Hickenbottom to pin him, and win the championship."

It was absolutely ridiculous, but didn't last long. Not sure if it was just a few guys doing it for the hell of it, or if wikipedia actually wanted wrestling articles to be written this way.

Correction: It would say something like "...used a seated three-quarter facelock jawbreaker, dubbed the Stone Cold Stunner".

When this was going on, I seem to recall someone wondering if this style of writing would be used elsewhere as well, like pointing out that Indiana Jones is a fictional character played by Harrison Ford, whose actions were written by scriptwriters whenever his name is mentioned in an article.