|
|
If you’re reading this, then you’ve obviously seen an internet news reporter and their charade of ‘behind the scenes’ news tidbits. Whether true or false, those reporters will tell you everything they can possibly tell you so you’ll read their columns. And then there’s the infamous ‘bookers’. They have fed you every single angle that’s happened (and been permitted) over the last 50+ years of professional wrestling’s existence. But who’s to blame for the current decline in wrestling? Every television show has its lull periods. Over time, every network on the planet has had to ‘pull the plug’ on numerous shows, whether it be to bad writing or lack of interest from the public eye. In other instances, some shows have been able to recapture the interest of their audience by pulling out great writing and acting to garner their lost viewers. So the question must be posed. Are the WWE writers simply dropping the ball on their current viewers? Current ratings show a listing (vague numbers) of about six million that would watch wrestling each week. With that being said, Vince and Co. estimate that 25% of the wrestling audience is made up of internet readers. These readers will visit multiple news sites to see the “news and rumors” backstage of the WWE. Four years ago, internet news and backstage information was damn near taboo. So who’s to blame? We’ve all been marks at one point or another, but I’m sure most of us can agree that it’s hard to be a mark nowadays. In this current day and age, we are a mere dozen or so letters from finding out the secret person backstage. And they’re set to debut in twenty or so minutes from the time you read it. Three years ago, it was hard to find out why someone got screwed, days after it happened. Bret Hart would get screwed at Survivor Series, and it took almost a week to find out why. So ask yourself a question. If David Meltzer wasn’t a credible source of information, would the surprises catch you off guard nowadays? If Bob Ryder and Dave Scherer weren’t in the wrestling business, would you still be a mark? In all seriousness, we could blame ourselves and our friends around us. We have the will power to avoid such news sites, and ask our friends to do the same. But realistically, that will never happen. There’s always someone out there who never uses a “spoiler” tag in a forum, or someone who generally just has a big mouth and no common sense.  Do we really need to know everything he can find out backstage? Everyone’s read about Eric Bischoff’s surprise return to the WWE. People knew that Shawn Michaels was backstage over the years (even though every forty or so minutes, someone predicted it. On a side note, did anyone notice that nobody predicted his current return?). We’ve sat through Higher Power angles, debut’s of Jericho in the WWF, and replacements of King with Paul Heyman. And we knew about every single one of these days before the events happened. Would these events have had a more fierce impact if there were no news reporters? I believe so. (note: highlight the text below to see a spoiler that is relevant to this story, or wait until Thursday.) With the return of Stephanie McMahon to a General Manager’s position is a great example of reporters destroying the WWE’s credibility. Just by scouring forums across any wrestling site, you’ll notice that people are already calling for the end of watching Smackdown. And she hasn’t even appeared yet (as of this writing). Another example is a news story that is floating around, telling people that The Rock will win Vengeance as the world champ. Reasoning? They already have someone who found out details of the September WWE magazine, displaying information about Rock vs. Brock at Summer Slam. Who in the hell needs to know this information already? Why can’t we just be marks for a little bit longer? So who is to blame for the current demise of the WWE? If the reporters nowadays had as little information as they did three years ago, I don’t think wrestling would be as bad as it is today. Take NWA-TNT for example. People believe it’s a great show, and there’s hardly any information out there to spoil or ruin the show right now. Sure, you can argue great workers and maybe even decent storytelling. But you don’t know the story three days before the show with them. And sometimes, I wish I never had access to the stories out there now with any federation. But the mark in me has to know what’s happening. Then the realist comes out and wishes he never read. Adam |