Could This Generation be Enjoying These WresteManias Like We Once Did?

[CMBison]

I ask this question because I hated this year's WrestleMania because some matches are just thrown together while a couple get the biggest exposure which really dumbs shit down for me to try and enjoy it knowing the attention the others are meant to get.

But it occurred to me, that back in the day, WWE always did this with WrestleManias, like WrestleMania III only had the two title matches advertised heavily, Hogan/Andre and Steamboat/Savage, while matches like Roddy's farewell hair vs hair match against Adrian Adonis wasn't really given much credit, or The Junkyard Dog vs Harley Race for pride against crown. Many WrestleMania matches seen shit, like would you have actually enjoy D'lo Brown & God Father vs Big Bossman & Bull Buchanan opening a WrestleMania? Or would have you enjoyed a match like Kurt Angle vs Chris Jericho vs Chris Benoit for both European and Intercontinental Championship being made on Sunday Heat RIGHT before the event even starts? No, there would be a lot of butthurt fans crying about how these guys didn't get much exposure or build for their match and how WWE isn't treating them right. No one complained, we enjoyed the hell out of those matches, every single one of them, because we were kids who simply just watched watched wrestling, well, I did anyway. I never thought about the card or anything, WrestleMania X8 had Kurt Angle vs Kane, and I bet today, fans would be complaining how they didn't give Kurt Angle a "proper" opponent for his skills, no one gave a damn. I have noticed that...well, I am not as young as I use to, and as soon as you forget that you are fan and decide to start accepting the company, you claim to love, how to run it's business, then you lost it, you lost that very part of you that made you a happy fan.

WWE is targeted at kids, and we loved the ride, but we are now saying that WWE shouldn't anymore, I do not want to come off as preachy, but I realized this a while back. I already feel that we have witnessed 3 generations of wrestling, there's The Golden Age - Hulk Hogan, Attitude Era-Stone Cold, and now PG Era-John Cena. (And CM Punk will lead the new generation right-a-way.)

It cuts off every 10 or more years, a soon as you stop enjoying it as fan who enjoys the show, and start looking for the backstage politics and start standing up to yell at the man behind the curtain, than that's the end of your generation. What's so fun about now? Everything tastes like shit when you grow up and face the real world. I for one hate where it is going, but I wonder how it must look to the next generation of fans, who don;t care where the careers of CM Punk or Daniel Bryan head off to, or if El Generico will be treated like a great performer by WWE, they don't care, and why should they? I certainly didn;t care how Chris Jericho as gonna be used, I just enjoyed his time as "Y2J". They enjoy the show, and I doubt the wrestlers are feeling the same thing everyone else is. A job's a job to them, and as long as they wrestle in the ring and keep doing what they love, then why should they give a damn about our misery?

I am sorry if I am starting to sound bitchy, just how I felt after realizing it. (again sorry) I am kinda getting off track here, but my simple question still stands

Are today's fans enjoying wrestling as we did in our innocent times?(*chuckles* "innocent")

[eyehatecena]

I kind of think they are/and will enjoy Wrestlemania. Its a different world as it was 10, 15, 20, 30 + years ago. Everything is all so social mediaized, so hyped up- the average fan can't help but pay attention. You can't watch a WWE show without the constant bombardment of it. They don't care that some of the match ups are a bit too rushed while back in the day there was actual build ups to the match ups. They only care that their heroes- Cena, Sheamus, HHH and Orton will win and that they can buy their newest TShirts

It being PG is not a bad thing though- I am cool with that. Its just creative seems lazy, no long range plans which is perfect for the kids who have a short attention span

[JohnnyV123]

Kids aren't as dumb as you think they are. When I was a 5 or 6 year old watching wrestling in the early 90's yeah I didn't care about anything and really only watched out of interest because my brother and dad were watching. Then my brother (10 years older than me) when I was about 12 years old goes hey check this out. The match was Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. a masked wrestler (who turned out to be Eddie Guererro) and they did moves in the ring I didn't even know were possible. Rey became my favorite wrestler because he looked cool, could do cool moves, and had cool music.

As a kid that's all you know. You wanna act like the guys you like. It's tough now because there are so few guys with characters I don't even know who I would like or if I would even be interested enough to watch. I could see myself liking CM Punk and Sheamus but not too many more. Definitely would have thought The Undertaker was cool just based on the entrance. I honestly don't think my younger self, who didn't care about match quality and just wanted to see some cool guys and moves would have liked anyone else.

[Robstar]

Back then, there was still an element of kayfabe, where we pretended we didn't know what was going on behind the scenes. We preferred it that way. Nowadays we are saturated with the truth, be it from the companies making great pains to show us that everything is safe and above board or our new found ability to analyse the living hell out of every little component of the product.

[SESAfro]

Kids aren't as dumb as you think they are. When I was a 5 or 6 year old watching wrestling in the early 90's yeah I didn't care about anything and really only watched out of interest because my brother and dad were watching. Then my brother (10 years older than me) when I was about 12 years old goes hey check this out. The match was Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. a masked wrestler (who turned out to be Eddie Guererro) and they did moves in the ring I didn't even know were possible. Rey became my favorite wrestler because he looked cool, could do cool moves, and had cool music.

As a kid that's all you know. You wanna act like the guys you like. It's tough now because there are so few guys with characters I don't even know who I would like or if I would even be interested enough to watch. I could see myself liking CM Punk and Sheamus but not too many more. Definitely would have thought The Undertaker was cool just based on the entrance. I honestly don't think my younger self, who didn't care about match quality and just wanted to see some cool guys and moves would have liked anyone else.

Back then, there was still an element of kayfabe, where we pretended we didn't know what was going on behind the scenes. We preferred it that way. Nowadays we are saturated with the truth, be it from the companies making great pains to show us that everything is safe and above board or our new found ability to analyse the living hell out of every little component of the product.

Both of these are correct. Not much else to say. /thread

[Wade Barrett 1979]

It's all the drive by IWC's fault.

[CMBison]

Back then, there was still an element of kayfabe, where we pretended we didn't know what was going on behind the scenes. We preferred it that way. Nowadays we are saturated with the truth, be it from the companies making great pains to show us that everything is safe and above board or our new found ability to analyse the living hell out of every little component of the product.

Yeah, that's true. With everyone exploiting the backstage politics and how they "Work" with others instead of "fighting"
or "facing" them. And kids are being exposed to this, liking it, then suddenly told, "It's all a work, you know it, we know it, the world knows it" right there from the same source.

CM Punk's promo in 2011 really made us happy and blew our funky minds, but probably really warped the kids' fragile little minds. He had a lot of truth in it.

[imswm]

Yeah, that's true. With everyone exploiting the backstage politics and how they "Work" with others instead of "fighting"
or "facing" them.

Minor quibble and not necessarily a disagreement with the opinion expressed, but is anyone else irritated by how, primarily because Vince hates the word "wrestling"--despite it being in his company's name!--and barred WWE announcers from using it, substituting "fighting" instead, so many others have followed suit (including, lamely, TNA) rather than protest the absurdity of using the term? What occurs in a wrestling ring is not fighting, regardless of what JBL bellows. It's wrestling.

(And don't even get me started on "superstars.")

[Cabers]

I ask this question because I hated this year's WrestleMania because some matches are just thrown together while a couple get the biggest exposure which really dumbs shit down for me to try and enjoy it knowing the attention the others are meant to get.

Hmm you have already seen this years WM i am afraid i have to bar you from the prediction contest in that case

[CMBison]

Hmm you have already seen this years WM i am afraid i have to bar you from the prediction contest in that case

Internet's gone too far!!! Wanna know how Taker loses?