A Question for 21-26 Year Old WWE Fans

[Hawk Hart]

Alright guys, I know it's a weird age group but I'll explain. I'm 22, I've been watching WWF/E since literally the night after Wrestlemania XIV and I can't help but wonder...did the WWF home videos from the late 90s smarten anyone else up to the business? I know they're not the epitome of shoots by any means but there tended to be a lot of shoot style comments in these releases. For example, thanks to the glory of Classics on Demand, I'm watching the Y2J: Break the Walls Down release from 2000 that I fondly remember watching repeatedly in my youth and while explaining the idea behind the Countdown Clock, Jericho mentions he went to Vince and they planned on how long to the do the clock while Cole comments that "it was obvious we were building to something". I know they aren't the best examples but these sorts of comments mixed with stuff like guys discussion certain crowd reactions, right down to Mick Foley talking about how he came up with different spots for the Hell in a Cell with Taker on the "Three Faces of Foley" video. I know there's some other fans from my age group that learned a lot about wrestling from these releases. Hell, WCW did it too somewhat with their "Superstar Series" videos, the Stinger taught me the wrestling definition of "pop" when I was like 7.

[Razor Gives It A 4/10]

I watched Beyond The Mat as a kid, and it pretty much "smartened me up" to wrestling.

[Deleted]

Yeah it was Beyond The Mat for me as well. I was 8 when I watched it in theaters and it was an eye-opening experience for a young wrestling fan.

[Deleted]

Yup, Beyond The Mat for me too. That episode of True Life about wrestlers kinda showed alot of behind the scenes stuff too.

[chazraps]

I just turned 27, and I got smarted up at age 9 in the summer of '96 thanks to RAW magazine.

This is our generation gap.

[kidglov3s]

I know Montreal and then Wrestling With Shadows a year later did a lot to kind of change how I saw and thought of wrestling.

[xxshoyuweeniexx]

I think Confidintial did more to smarten me up then anything. What broke the kayfable straw for me was DX rumors popping up in Youtube comments and face, heel, and buried got used about every other comment.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

My sister told me wrestling was fake after the second WCW show I'd seen ever, Mick Foley's book did the rest.

[stealthamo]

Somehow no. And I think I saw parts of Beyond the Mat when I was around 9 as well. I didn't get smart to the business until the start of '04, when I got back into wrestling (stopped watching around mid-'01, between KotR and the Invasion PPV).

[Chip]

Can't say I got to watch any back then, my wrestling experience as a child was 2 maybe 3 months of Smackdown every weekend during Goldbergs feud with Evolution, I only really became solidified as a fan back in 2010 during Steen/Genericos ROH feud. Though I'm the kinda person that when they become a fan of something they don't consume it piece by piece, I go at it like it's a f***ing buffet and I haven't eaten in a month. The WWE releases I watched shortly after that definitely smartened me up to terms, traditions and procedures that otherwise aren't used or expressed on TV. I think it was the Rise and Fall of WCW and the Ultimate Warrior documentaries that really did it for me.

[kidglov3s]

Oh crap I forgot to mention A&E's The Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling. That had as much influence on how I watched wrestling as Wrestling with Shadows did.

[Hawk Hart]

Oct 8, 2013 16:21:26 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

My sister told me wrestling was fake after the second WCW show I'd seen ever, Mick Foley's book did the rest.

I kind of have that same thing. Wrestling was always something that was around when I was around my dad but I didn't become a full time fan until I was seven. When I started watching my aunt and mother sat me down to explain how things work. Not the specifics or anything, just that it was stage style combat like you'd see in a play or movie and that pro wrestlers are essentially a different class of actor. I got the whole spiel about not replicating it and all that. After that, they were fine with me watching, right down to my aunt doing stuff like recording A&E Biographies about wrestlers and even Wrestling with Shadows for me to watch and my mom tracking down literally the single VHS copy of Beyond the Mat for purchase in our town the day of release. I love my family for not making me feel like it's weird to like wrestling, even as I near 23.

[Deleted]

I always knew it was "fake" when I started watching it as a 10 year old (in 1998). I read Have a Nice Day in early 2000, that was what really smartened me up to a lot of the business.

[Young Game]

A friend of mine was a huge WCW fan. He let me borrow his copy of SuperBrawl VI.

"I respect you, booker man!".
At first I thought "Brian Pillman is legit crazy. He thinks he's fighting Booker T.".
It all made sense after a while, though.

[rnrk supports BLM]

I'm turning 28 later this month, so I might not fit, but do we mean "smarten up" in the sense of finding out pro wrestling is scripted, or in terms of learning more about the actual process behind staging it?

Because I knew wrestling was fake well before I started watching (for f***'s sake, I got into wrestling for the zombie vs. sumo action). Believe it or not, it was actually the much-derided (and justifiably so) "Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets" doc that introduced me to a lot of specific concepts, like blading.

[metylerca]

My stepdad made it a point to bring up how fake wrestling was everytime he walked by as it was on. Said if we knew it was fake, it'd save him money by not buying PPVs. We bought SO many PPVs.

Then my older brother wisened me up by showing me the Secrets of Professional Wrestling, featuring Salem the Cat on narration and the Stunt Granny. It was that day that me and my brothers would place a toy microphone under the couch cushions we wrestled on. To make it legit.