Do You Ruin It For Marks?

[thesunbeast]

I've been wrong many times with these types of conversations with "marks". It's not healthy to get a big head.

The thing is, is that WWE often blurs the lines big time between real life and storyline, since wrestling fans seem to care more about what happens in real life than storyline. For every time there is a hiatus like Jeff Hardy that is told to be storyline but an actual contract dispute, there is another time where a guy like Batista goes away for a while with storyline injury when it is an actual injury.

[MentalMidget]

I do everything that I can to not ruin it for marks that still believe. Mainly because I wish I could still see wrestling for what it is.

[Real Folk Bruce]

Although I knew wrestling was a show the moment I first watched it (Threeish), I knew many folks that did and I would never ruin their fun for the life of me (Unlike my dickhead ex-uncle who tried his damndest to turn his son off wrestling.)


If anything I played to their markdom for all its worth, for all the funny things they would say. Cheer for the bad-guys, pull out Ventura-esque
heel-commentary, the whole nine-yards. It was a lot of fun, and it's a shame you don't get many chances to do this nowadays.

[cuneo77]

the whole mark/smark/fan judge thing weird sometimes. to my understanding it works like this

if a fan meets theyre favorite wrestler,they cant act too excited,or they are a mark

yet you can be a guy (see comic book guy) who never has a gf and is obsessed with watching and not much else and thats "ok"

if you know too much and talk about it ur a smark and if your a casual fan who doesnt go deeper than what you see on tv, theyre "dorks"

isnt it weird?

[chunkylover53]

If there's anything I can't stand, its continuously breaking kayfabe during the show that bothers me. My brother to me is a huge(and often annoying) mark, but in a smarkish way. When we were inviting a few friends over for Backlash and Night of Champions 2008, he pointed out several things that annoyed me big time...

When Matt Hardy defeated MVP, and celebrated(a few seconds early), my brother said Matt Hardy is going to get crap backstage.

At Night of Champions, my brother STRESSED OUT that Cody Rhodes was going to turn on Bob Holly, and when it happened, he was like "OH MY GOD I TOLD YOU SO!!!"

That same PPV, Kane sells a hurt knee and he asked "Is he legit injured?" To me, fake injured and real injured should be the same to us fans.

WWE is bad enough at keeping kayfabe these days and the fact that my OLDER brother has to rub it in just adds salt to the wounds. Yes, we know its a show, but you don't have to bring up every little detail, whats the fun in that?

As far as what I'm like with my other friends goes. I cater to their fandom and play along with it. The only time I am smarky is when I tell them why I stopped watching wrestling, which is the same as I do on this site.

[Allie Kitsune]

The only time I try to point out what's really going on to the other wrestling fan at work is if someone's on their way out of WWE (or TNA), and why they're on their way out.

Of course he knows it isn't real, but he still likes to believe it is, at times, and always gets aggravated that bigger guys don't always beat smaller guys (ie : Rey beating Big Show or Mark Henry would irk him to no end).

As for child marks? Even though most children around here are MASSIVE Cena fans (and were huge Dave fans), they still seem to like guys like Miz and Swagger, too. Probably because they're loud. The closest I came to "ruining" it was some kid whining at me to stop rooting for Edge during an Edge/Batista match at a house show, and me just saying that I can't stand Batista.

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

I just support the heels, countering things they say about faces in the way a heel would E.g. "John Cena is much better than the Miz" "But what about the time The Miz beat Cena?" "Oh he beat him loads after that." I'll either just agree or kinda heelishly laugh it off

[Evilution E5150]

little kids hell no but i was watching a TNA ppv and my friend matt brought this guy who he works with who is supposed to be a big fan and turned out to be a huge mark. I was fine this this tell he kept saying more and more outlandish things which i was just ignoring. Then he started talking about legacy and me and matt were discuss how they should have done a Cody/Goldust fued and this other guy was like why? so we mentioned that they were brothers which we figured even most marks would even know as it gets metioned on air they are Dustys kids.
Not only did he refused to believe that they are brothers but the reason he gave was because Goldust was FAT!!! (insert Scott Stiener)

i being the rational man that i am completely lost it and made him go look it up online

[hajimenoippo]

Have you ever had Dinner at Medieval times or some sort of "adventure/dinner" show thing.

The crowds get riled up, see fake fighting, have good guys and bad guys, and a cool performance in a group of people.

Awesome.

Why ruin it for people that know it's fake?

[ritt works hard fo da chickens]

Little bit of a loaded question. Do you like to ruin it? I bet if you changed the question to "Do you like to be patronizing to people who aren't smarks?" A larger percentage would switch there answer right around and accuse those who do of being the dicks.

I take it all on a case by case basis. If there is no harm then I don't worry. If they risk making fools of themselves or making all wrestling fans look like gape jawed idiots I tend to try to put them on a right path.

[Quote the Tozz, Nevermore.]

Nov 5, 2009 8:22:23 GMT -5 @TenaciousBe said:

I've got a couple friends who are pretty markish... I just try to keep them clued in on the real reasons behind people being gone, and such. And when they blindly cheer the faces and boo the heels, I just grin and say "Screw you... the Miz IS awesome!"

Haha, that's exactly the same as me and my friend, she is quite marky, and we were watching Smackdown the other week, and Miz came on, and I was like "Yay, I love Miz." She said, "I don't, he's really annoying." I replied with,"Good, that means he's doing his job right." Though, I'm pulling her round to the smarky side of things, I talk about people being 'over' and 'teh workratez' but no, I'd never ruin it for someone, especially younger fans because isn't that like telling them Santa Claus doesn't exist?

[Schemer]

It's funny, I don't like to ruin it for marks. Cause I was a mark once and I felt bad when it was ruined for me.

But I did teach my fiancee how some of the stuff is done when we play around.

[Super Nintenjoe KBD]

I dont think I've ever met an adult who was still a wrestling mark. If they were I would assume there was something wrong with them.

[KingPopper]

In my case I'm the guy they always ask a million questions to, all the newz and what not. Almost to the point they think I know all the Mania results ahead of time.

[celticjobber]

I know people who believe or atleast want to believe, so I don't say anything about what's really going on. Some people just seem to enjoy watching the show without knowing any of the real life stuff.

Its the same with movies and TV shows, I know some people who hate to see any "behind the scenes" footage because it shatter their illusion.

[derrtaysouth95]

I give them a reality check.

Is it mean to do? Yes.

But, it's got to be done. When someone tells me they remember when CM Punk had his first wrestling match in his life when he debuted for ECW.....they must be corrected.

[chunkylover53]

Mar 21, 2010 21:35:49 GMT -5 @derrtaysouth95 said:

I give them a reality check.

Is it mean to do? Yes.

But, it's got to be done. When someone tells me they remember when CM Punk had his first wrestling match in his life when he debuted for ECW.....they must be corrected.

Actually, the WWE encyclopedia said he worked on the "indy scene" prior to debuting in WWECW, so his past experience is technically WWE canon.

[derrtaysouth95]

Mar 21, 2010 23:03:52 GMT -5 chunkylover53 said:

Mar 21, 2010 21:35:49 GMT -5 @derrtaysouth95 said:

I give them a reality check.

Is it mean to do? Yes.

But, it's got to be done. When someone tells me they remember when CM Punk had his first wrestling match in his life when he debuted for ECW.....they must be corrected.

Actually, the WWE encyclopedia said he worked on the "indy scene" prior to debuting in WWECW, so his past experience is technically WWE canon.

That is a conditional technicality.

And their referencing to it, makes what the individual said wrong even more because WWE admits CM Punk had wrestled elsewhere prior to coming to them.

[Lair of the Shadow MaDaBa]

During the show, it's real. When the show ends, it's fake. Just like any other show on television. If you're not intelligent enough to know that it's fake, you're not really worth my time explaining to you how fabricated it is.

[Milkman Norm]

Nov 6, 2009 0:47:40 GMT -5 MentalMidget said:

I do everything that I can to not ruin it for marks that still believe. Mainly because I wish I could still see wrestling for what it is.

This is an attitude I can' understand. When I see an awesome match I mark out. When I hear a kick ass promo I mark out. The marking out is the same as it was when I was a total mark fan. The only thing that's changed in my fandom of the product is now instead of believing that the really fat guy putting on a chin lock was using his weight to ware down his opponent before doing his devistating fat leg drop. Now I see it was a fat dude needing to take a breather before he jumps on somebody. So I guess Uncle Elmer was ruined for me, but I wouldn't call that a serious loss.