Hello everyone. Today, we’re digging in to a topic close to my heart. As many older fans grow weary of what wrestling has become, they like to reminisce on days gone by. To the times when it wasn’t easy, but it was all the more rewarding. An era where naivety would inadvertently create magical qualities in our perceptions.
Of course, we’re talking about how it was to watch wrestling before the dawn of the internet age. Having a Facebook community who are so open in sharing their experiences is something I really enjoy. I’ll keep reaching out to them so we can continue making pieces like this together. So once again, I extend my gratitude to each person who responded to my questions:
Would you say watching wrestling was different before everyone got the internet? And if so, what were the biggest differences?
As a counter, considering a portion of the audience isn’t old enough to have grown up in a household without the internet, I forward this question on to you: Could you watch wrestling without ever using the internet for results/news/rumours?
There’s many aspects to this subject, so to begin, I’d like to touch on some of the things our Facebook readers didn’t mention.
You’re My Best Friend
Imagine the Queen song of the same name as we go through this. Ok, so back in the late 90’s wrestling was booming, but as a kid .. you might have felt like you would be laughed at when you get to big school. “Wrestling’s fake you know!” says your uncle/auntie, who have no clue what they’re talking about. So with your Stone Cold Steve Austin skull shirt on, you go to your room. Admiring your Rock, DX, and Undertaker (etc.) posters, there’s hope you will find other kids who appreciate it.
Sat in class on the first day, you can’t tell what others like right away .. as they’re all wearing school uniforms. You hear two guys behind ya slinging catchphrases, doing full Austin/Rock promos with People’s Eyebrows, middle fingers and Stone Cold Stunners. The teacher tells them off for messing about .. but you’re happy. Why? Because from that point, you know they’re likely to be your best friends for the next few years.
And the same could be said for any age group. You could be an adult sat in a bar, and the bartender puts wrestling on the TV. You ask the other guys watching it “isn’t this that fake crap?”, and they tell you to “just watch it man, it’s really good”. You get hooked on it while drinking your sorrows away (it’s been a rough week alright). You chat to these guys, wanting to learn everything he can. Suddenly, you come to the realization this wrestling thing isn’t too bad, and you made friends because of it. Brought together by its power, you all enjoy a few years of pitching in for PPVs to be aired during lock-ins.
Getting to the point, wrestling before the internet was exciting as it brought people together with a common bond. You couldn’t go online and find literally hundreds, thousands of other fans to chat with via a few clicks. If you really wanted to talk wrestling, or watch it with others, you had to go out in to the world and find these people. And others were willing to do so, coz they were in the same boat. It was magical finding others who enjoyed it as much as you did.
Also, there was very little negativity. Newly bonded friends could sit together and appreciate everything without it devolving in to pointless, petty arguments. Nowadays, you come across another fan, and it might be considered strange to randomly strike up a conversation. They could be a fan who doesn’t care for anything WWE. Or you could be an Indy fan, and the other guy has never seen anything but WWE. They could tell you to leave them alone .. because they already have enough wrestling friends.
This is in stark contrast to the Attitude Era, where I had a friend who loved WCW (he didn’t care for WWF much), but as rival fans we remained close and enjoyed educating each other on our favourite promotion. The magic of finding other people who like wrestling isn’t the same as it used to be .. mostly because the internet ensures we don’t feel like the only fan in the village.
The Original VP
Speaking of making wrestling friends and being a British fan .. PPVs always aired very late at night (1-4am) for us. Even with school/college/work the next day, the feeling of getting your buddies together at your house for a viewing party was like nothing else. I remember a friend of mine, Mad Dave (can’t remember why he was mad), who was the biggest Undertaker fan I ever knew. He wasn’t interested in anyone else, as he was a casual viewer who rarely tuned in. WrestleMania was the biggest highlight of his year, as The Streak ensured his favourite wrestler would walk out victorious.
We’d all gather at my house with nibbles and everyone chipping in their share of the money towards the bill. My dad would order it, and we’d passionately discuss our expectations for the upcoming card. We made sure to get everything we needed beforehand, because it’s not like we could pause it if someone desperately needed the toilet. The excitement when the “copyright” screen appeared was always high. We had no clue what was going to happen, and there were always surprises. I can’t remember any of us regretting the decision to stay up so late.
Even if the PPV wasn’t the greatest, we made up for it by having fun. They were some of the best times I ever had, and I know they will never happen again. Online viewing parties don’t have the same anticipation or excitement. The magic of the original viewing parties still exists, but they’re not as widespread as they were before the internet. Watching PPVs with your friends in a small living room at stupid o’clock, knowing you’re all gonna be knackered the next day? The sacrifice was worth it .. for the feeling of comradery.
To Watch, Or Not To Watch
One thing I believe some do not realize, is how available shows have become. Before the internet, you couldn’t stream, you couldn’t download, and unless you had a video tape player? You couldn’t record shows to add to your collection. I still have so many of my old tapes of Raw, Smackdown & PPVs, which I only recorded because I assumed it would be the only way I could relive those memories. Nowadays, we have streams, torrents, YouTube, and networks which let you record or watch shows at your leisure. We can rewind, pause, or fast forward at any moment.
There’s no longer a necessity to be glued to the screen, unlike the old days when you’d miss things if you had to leave the room. And unless you were an avid tape collector and trader? You probably wouldn’t get the opportunity to see other wrestling outside the WWF and WCW. We had to get out there and search for these things, unlike now .. where you can do a few Google searches and find what you’re after without leaving the comfort of your chair. How many people fast forward through Raw & Smackdown these days? We didn’t have that choice before the internet. Afraid of missing anything, we paid as much attention as humanly possible.
The Experts
I was quite pleased to see one of the FB comments allude to the fact that so many consider themselves experts. Because of the internet, some believe they know everything about the business, and you better not disagree with these people. Much like most things on the internet, wrestling has succumbed to the unbridled negativity of those who have nothing better to do than ruin other people’s good times. It’s the same for those who write about wrestling. Anyone claiming to be an “expert” is lying to themselves.
Even the almighty “God of Facts” Dave Meltzer can’t claim to know everything that’s happening. Only those working in the business know anything substantial, and anyone outside of it claiming to be in the know, are likely exaggerating to seem momentarily important. As long as I write articles, there will never be a time I’ll consider myself an expert. Slightly off-topic here, but I’d also say that fans are not “smarks” or “marks” either, as these terms are generally used in a pejorative way to dismiss other’s opinions. Before everyone got the internet, the worst we had were people who made up silly rumours.
They’d make themselves seem interesting by making up stories no one could disprove. That’s something, at least the internet is capable of quickly telling us if something is real or imaginary. Also, just so I don’t have to make another heading, one comment touched on younger fans criticizing the quality of matches in this era, without realizing the quality 20-30 years ago was often poor. But we didn’t care much about match quality back then, so I guess our standards have changed? Because the internet provided us a platform to see 5-star matches away from our familiar shows (WWF/WCW/ECW).
Pushing In Line!
How many times have we seen comments like .. so-and-so needs a push, this guy doesn’t need a push, why in the hell is this woman getting pushed?? I wish they’d stop pushing this guy down our throats. Oh! My favourite wrestler’s being pushed! Yay! Two weeks later .. oh boy, that push ended quickly. But wait .. maybe this other person will be pushed now? The circle of life continues ..
.. and it’s really tiresome. The fact is, before the internet, no one anywhere ever said a wrestler “needs a push”. Yeah OK, so we had fans who perhaps saw a mid-carder and asked their friends “wouldn’t it be so cool if say .. Ken Shamrock won the WWF title?”, but that’s about as far as it would go. They wouldn’t start throwing a fit because Shamrock was relegated to wrestling Mr. Ass .. they’d just be happy he’s on TV. There was no time to get upset over the small things. If someone didn’t get pushed? We didn’t insult Vince McMahon for being out of touch, we just enjoyed the show for what it was.
And that’s the problem now .. is that we know in advance who is likely to get pushed. We know Roman Reigns is the next golden boy, so the fans react by claiming he doesn’t deserve it. There’s no patience, and no willingness to sit things out to see where it goes. Like the Bray Wyatt Firefly Fun House thing .. can’t we be happy he’s on TV? Do we need to get frustrated over the fact he still hasn’t debuted his character in the ring? Can we not find it in ourselves to muster up the patience to wait it out? Or should WWE ruin the anticipation by rolling him out to please the impatient few? A simple phrase springs to mind: “Good things come to those who wait.”
Dirty Spoilers
The biggest, most commented point from our Facebook users regarded spoilers. Guilty of working for a dirtsheet site who posts daily results & rumours, I know first hand how spoilers can ruin a show. It irks me too, just as much as any of you .. when I log in to Facebook and accidentally see a post telling me a result I didn’t want to know.
And the fact is, news sites are only doing their jobs. At EWN, we do our best to make sure we are not spoiling shows as they air, but we also have a commitment to bring the latest news. It’s a catch 22 situation .. where you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Avoiding spoilers isn’t always easy, but all I can suggest is to avoid the internet like the plague til you’ve seen the show.
The biggest point people made, was the fact there’s no surprises anymore. All it takes is one person to see Goldberg in the vicinity of Raw, and in super quick time there are dozens of sites ready to post the rumour of his impending appearance. Everything’s predictable now, because WrestleMania plans are leaked months ahead of time. When someone disappears from TV, instead of living in ignorance, we’re told 1) the exact reason, 2) roughly how long they’ll be out for, and 3) when they’re expected to make their triumphant return. Much like River Song in Doctor Who, spoilers are both sacred and damaging.
Still Real To Me, Dammit!
The internet further hit the nail in the coffin of kayfabe. It was dead anyways .. but it made the information that proved wrestling isn’t real more readily available. Interviews of wrestlers sharing the ins-and-outs of the business, educated us to the degree we couldn’t help but see it from a new perspective. Instead of enjoying the characters and storylines like any other TV show, our focus switched to the “real” backstage decision-making. Like how a match is booked a certain way, or how good a wrestler can “sell”. Before the internet, I never heard a single fan say “that wrestler sells better than anyone”, or “that was shoddy booking”. Educating the fans of wrestling’s inner workings, effectively killed the art form’s mystique.
The fact is, before the internet, very few people could predict what was going to happen. Many years with it, has educated the majority of us to the point it’s too easily predicted. Wrestling has not evolved along with it .. in fact, I’d say it’s gone the opposite direction. Anyone (older than a toddler) still thinking wrestling is real are mocked, as it’s so painfully obvious. In WWE’s PG era especially, booking is simplified to make it digestible by young kids. To teens & adults, we often feel like our intelligence is being insulted by WWE, while other shows (NXT, AEW etc.) aiming at the older demographic, are praised for booking in ways we cannot so easily call.
Conclusion
I’m finding the fans who enjoy the product more, are those who stay away from the headlines. I have faith that wrestling can be as enjoyable as it ever was, but it’s more due to WWE’s monopoly, than anything to do with us being spoiled by the internet. Some might be looking through nostalgia goggles though, as not everything before it was so awesome. Yes, this is where I provide some counter argument to everything we’ve been through.
Imagine not being able to talk to other fans online? Think about how convenient it is, to have everything at our fingertips. Back then, we couldn’t find other fans with similar interests. And there was no such thing as wrestling memes either; if that’s your cup of tea. You couldn’t get all the latest news by clicking on a bookmark, only by looking for it in magazines. If you was a hardcore fan back then? Finding what you wanted took up an incredible amount of time & money. Establishing connections was not as easy as sending an email, or finding a phone number on Google. So yes, there are some positives to having the internet, although I think some may be justified if they were to claim the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.
I do miss the days of being naive, when wrestling felt magical. At the same time, I’m also grateful for the internet, as it lets me share articles like these with people I never would’ve reached without. What would I be doing otherwise? Well, if we didn’t have the net .. I probably would not have continued enjoying wrestling in the same way. There’s a good chance I’d still be watching, although not with the same passion. Ironically, it was finding eWrestlingNews which kept my interest, otherwise I might have gone off it altogether. Could you say you would still be watching?
There’s possibly more we could discuss here .. but nothing springs to mind, so if you do have any points we overlooked? Please don’t be shy in sharing your thoughts in the comments. For those who watched before the internet? You will always know how unique it was. And for those who didn’t? Don’t feel too bad, you missed out on a boom period which I’m sure will come around again very soon. Again, thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts in our FB post! As always, I’m truly happy when people take time out of their day to read my stuff. Cannot possibly appreciate it anymore than I do. See you guys later!
