Why Can't Wrestling Fans Be Positive?

[ratetankmark]

A majority of wrestling fans seem to love to complain about anything and everything saying a promotion is 'the drizzling shits' after only a few shows, things take time to develop, it doesn't happen overnight, do wrestling fans want too much or are we just a fanbase of nerds who will never be satisfied, so lets be positive for a change, let's list our current favorite thing about pro wrestling.

It defiantly has to be Bullet Club for me.

[Deleted]

Beyond Wrestling. Since discovering them they have showed me some of the fastest rising stars in the indies. Along with all the free content on Youtube and how interactive they are they are quickly becoming my favorite indy promotion

Wrestling Is... Though Chikara is gone which makes me sad I am enjoying as these companies find there own identity. One of them being the town over from me is great as well.

WWE is putting on great matches each and every week. I am really enjoying turning into Raw.

NXT is great. It's the house of Zayn and nothing makes me happier. Along with colorful gimicks and great action they arguably are the best show WWE puts on each week.

The Chikara storyline although has taken them away for a while I am loving putting the pieces together. Though I am not as active as many its still very interesting.

Getting more into ROH, CZW, and PWG. Great promotions that are putting on great shows. I never thought I would be a CZW fan because of death matches and I turned off ROH a year ago. They have both made me a fan.

I could keep going. I love wrestling right now. I do really need to watch NJPW. As Bullet Club does sound great from what I have heard.

[chazraps]

I think a lot of them have been watching too long and need to take a break. The people who take breaks every few years, even when they disagree with things the product does, still seem to enjoy it the most.

[SEAN CARLESS]

In the same vein, though, a lot of people on the other end of the spectrum often dismiss valid criticisms (sometimes blindly). Sometimes it's not that wrestling fans are never happy, it's that there are certain issues that need to be remedied and these fans want to see them fixed.

[nickcave]

Honestly, FAN has been pretty positive for the last few months (with WWE mostly, TNA still gets a good chunk of hate) I mean there's always going to be people who hate just to hate but I think people are doing better at least around here of not overly nitpicking.

[fart]

I think it's just an online thing. The anonymity exxagerates a lot of feelings. I have been going to shows from rec centers and high school gyms to MSG and places like Staple Center for 15 years, watched every from livewire with the old man to ppvs in NYC restaurants packed to the t. There have been some events that collectively pissed people off.... Orton vs HHH and Cena Miz where people left in disgust en masse, but not often. Even a bad card can be a riot with a great crowd.

The opposite is people sitting at home venting. It's not wrestling fans; it's the psychology of the internet. Always has been, always will be. While up for critical debate and fun, I try and dodge negativity at all costs. Waste of time.

[molson5]

Sept 11, 2013 12:20:32 GMT -5 nickcave said:

Honestly, FAN has been pretty positive for the last few months (with WWE mostly, TNA still gets a good chunk of hate)

This is actually the most positive wrestling board I've been to, which is why it's the only one I visit now.

I think internet discussion and speculation have changed the way people consume any form of entertainment. I've kind of experienced that change myself. You have so much time and opportunity to speculate on what's going to happen, that it's easy to get your mind set on what you think is the "correct" thing to happen. The odds of that one thing actually happening exactly as you envision are pretty minuscule, which can lead to disappointment.

And I think people can get to this really cynical place where they actually experience double disappointment about everything - in that they're 100% sure something's going to be terrible, which pisses them off, and then what actually happens isn't their preferred outcome, so they're pissed off again (even if what happened isn't close to their "terrible" prediction). How many threads and posts have we had where people are freaking out about worst-case booking scenarios that never actually happen? Doesn't matter, those posters still felt and experienced that negativity, and that just adds to their overall cynicism for the product.

We've actually gotten to the point on this board, as relatively as positive as it is, that you'll be mocked if you say something like, "let's see where this goes." So unless you expect something to be terrible, your opinion is actually wrong, according to that viewpoint.

The amazing thing to me, is that going by (at least my perception) of the majority opinion of fans on wrestling boards since about 1995 or so, there's been maybe 3 or 4 good WWE years in all that time. 1998-2001. 3 or 4 good years in almost 20. I mean, how can just a terrible company even stay in business?

[Deleted]

Sit down and talk about any interest long term and you'll hear about more negativity. If things are awesome, there's not much to discuss.

NXT is awesome right now. Antonio Cesaro constantly having good matches is awesome too.

[chazraps]

Sept 11, 2013 13:21:42 GMT -5 fart said:

I think it's just an online thing. The anonymity exxagerates a lot of feelings. I have been going to shows from rec centers and high school gyms to MSG and places like Staple Center for 15 years, watched every from livewire with the old man to ppvs in NYC restaurants packed to the t. There have been some events that collectively pissed people off.... Orton vs HHH and Cena Miz where people left in disgust en masse, but not often. Even a bad card can be a riot with a great crowd.

The opposite is people sitting at home venting. It's not wrestling fans; it's the psychology of the internet. Always has been, always will be. While up for critical debate and fun, I try and dodge negativity at all costs. Waste of time.

Speaking as a fellow New Yorker, I've had the exact opposite experience. Crowd like ROH's and certain indies (who I won't mention because I love their product and don't want the association) draw some of the most obnoxious dour curmudgeons.

[Deleted]

It's hardly limited to wrestling, just listen to any sports radio call-in show on a Monday after a football game. You'll have some people with level headed well thought out opinions, some people that are just complaining without even really understanding what they're complaining about, and some people that say that the sky is falling regardless of what happened.

As for the original intent of the thread the WWE is really good right now; D-Bry is bringing it every week, Orton is wrestling his ass off, Santino is back, Cesaro is always good, the Shield is awesome. Virtually everyone on the roster is delivering in-ring.

[Chip]

Watching PWG is one of the most entertaining experiences I ever have.

[ritt works hard fo da chickens]

Sept 11, 2013 11:55:43 GMT -5 SEAN CARLESS said:

In the same vein, though, a lot of people on the other end of the spectrum often dismiss valid criticisms (sometimes blindly). Sometimes it's not that wrestling fans are never happy, it's that there are certain issues that need to be remedied and these fans want to see them fixed.

This is exactly it.

I see a lot of "negativity" fingers pointed whenever someone doesn't share a view of appreciation or reverance to what others do. I'm kind of surprised by how many people take jokes so seriously sometimes.

FAN is a spinoff of WRESTLECRAP where a lot of wrestling was parodied and absurdity was highlighted. Just because one person thinks Hulk Hogan is the greatest wrestler in the history of ever doesn't mean that the person who thinks Pastamania is a riot is negative. He's finding some humor in something that someone else chooses to overlook when making their own personal evaluations. Some people think Shawn Micheals and see him ziplining into wrestlemania, some people picture him putting the sharpshooter on Bret and some people picture in their heads something altogether different...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Spoiler

Similarly if someone praises an entire match and says their only disappointment is Cena won doesn't mean they are negative. It's like one criticism will undo all other praise or positivity. If positivity isn't absolute and unwavering it isn't positivity? I actually find the majority of these "anti-negative" people to be the true negative ones who are out to shut down other peoples modes of enjoyment and force their ideas of what's great and what's not laughable, mockable or down right absurd on others and make them feel guilty for spoiling your reverance to a subject all while pretentiously claiming everyone else are the negative ones.

Some people think Lucha is the greatest thing on the planet. Some think its pointless spotfests. Some think
the best wrestling ever was the Rock 'n Wrestling era, while some see it as the rise up bloated muscleheads who couldn't really wrestle. The point being it takes all types and in wrestling their is a lot of variety. There's a lot you will like and probably more you won't. I don't need anyone else's validation to like what I like and I know their are a lot of people who don't appreciate it the way I do.

[Sam Punk]

Wrestling fans aren't a hivemind. Some will like a wrestler/angle/etc and others won't. The people that don't like something will be more vocal about it, making it seem more negative than it really is.

[Bo Rida]

We have so much wrestling and entertainment in general available to us that the bar has been unfairly raised, something that is merely average is no longer enough and wrestling by it's very nature is often at that level.
As molson5 said so many people discuss the possibilities the actual outcome can be a disappointment, same sort of thing applies to little faults that some may have overlooked are highlighted, it's much harder to retcon something these days.
Even newer fans are affected, the old seven year rule barely applies when they can see what they missed via everything from youtube to DVDs, there's a good chance kids that weren't even born in 1998 are comparing the current corporate WWE storyline to the Austin vs McMahon and do the same for every storyline, it makes it hard for newer stuff to compete.

All that aside NXT is fantastic.
It's also a good example of something with a positive buzz, people may not like individual elements like Bo Dallas as champion, CJ Parker's new gimmick, the commentary or rarely entire episodes but most people are still hugely enthusiastic about the show and have been for quite some time now.
I guess it helps that most of the wrestlers are new enough that they're not stale.

[no]

No

[Deleted]

Its a product of modern society/western civilization. Most of us dont have to worry about where our next meal is coming from so we have time to think and come up with something to complain about. Look at the new Star Wars movies, Ive talked to grown men that claimed they ruined their lives because they didnt live up to their expectations. Im guilty of it as well,but with wrestling like someone mentioned above if you take a break it helps.

[siredger]

Absolutely. I used to watch every WWE show there was on TV for several years and I've stopped watching WWE regularly roughly about 3 years ago, although I keep in touch with what happens over the internet and boards like FAN. I order the Big 4 PPV every year and I found myself enjoying the product much more than I did 3 years ago. On the other hand, I've been watching TNA every week for the past 3 years and ordered almost all of their PPVs and I admit that I've been nitpicking on a few things here and there. So yeah, watching too much of a product for too long can definitely have a big impact on your expectations and can alter the vision of that product. It really struck me in the past few months with how good WWE and NXT has consistently been.

[rnrk supports BLM]

I'll just quote what I said the last time this came up:

Apr 16, 2013 17:53:51 GMT -5 rnrk supports BLM said:

Isn't this pretty much always the cliche about fanboys for any niche product? Especially on the internet? That the people who most obsessively follow all the latest developments within a genre/franchise are the ones who seemingly don't actually take any enjoyment out of their obsessive interest anymore, and spend all their time complaining about how badly things have gone to shit compared to some rose-tinted golden era that coincidentally coincides with when they were around 12?

[thegame415]

Don't look on the Internet. Most fans of anything talk crap.

I wonder if there are MLB forums where people talk about how ESPN covers the Yankees too much, and a team like the A's doesn't get the credit they deserve.

[Instant Classic]

I usually love everything WWE does.