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Pitbull 3

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BLAH

MARKING MY TERRITORY
On Fan Division

There has been, in my opinion, a dangerous level of division among internet wrestling fans recently. This can be attributed to the very different products being presented by the WWF and WCW, and even the WWF and what many purists say pro-wrestling should be.

While I have never had a problem with people liking one fed over another, I have never quite understood the deep-rooted hatred for the other fed that some people harbor. I will focus in on the WWF since much of what they have been doing has generally either been liked/loved or completely hated. There are many sides to this story, and I think both sides are completely pathetic. On one side we have people who dislike the WWF. There are those who actually dislike the WWF's product, which is something I can see, but then there are some who are actually calling for the WWF to fail. This seems too far for me. On the flip side are the so called fed marks. Since this is a WWF intensive column, I will stick with WWF marks, but this could apply to any fed.

To start with, I find it extremely sad that anyone would really call for the death of the WWF. I tend to believe that most of us here on this board would not be wrestling fans if not for the WWF and Vince McMahon. Period. When it all comes down, the WWF revolutionized pro-wrestling. I truly believe that the NWA would have remained (as it did) a territorial entity even longer than it did. While Vince was gaining huge national exposure, the NWA was living in the territories. When the NWA did try to go national, it was the megabucks backing of Ted Turner that really allowed it. Now, the WWF may not be responsible for where wrestling is today, directly, but it certainly set the stage for competition on a national scale, and for the type of awareness about pro-wrestling that has produced the two great booms in recent memory (Hogan and Austin). When WCW really sucked and they had the better ratings, I never wished for WCW's ratings to drop or for them to go out of business. I wanted the WWF's numbers to RISE and beat WCW's numbers. When it happened, I was happy for them. Now that WCW's ratings are way down, I do not rejoice in that, but am sad for them and wish for a better product or better ratings or ANYTHING to help their business aside from a sudden hurt on the WWF. Quite simply, I just find it odd and disgusting for anyone who claims to be a fan of wrestling to wish bad things on the companies that provide for their enjoyment by providing the product they love (even if the quality is not that great right now...it has been great in the past, continues to have great flashes at the present, and is pretty much a given to provide some great stuff in the future).

On the other side of the same coin, I sympathize with those who do not like the WWF's product right now because they are not getting what they believe they should be getting as wrestling fans. BUT, some of them think they have a right to get great angles and great wrestling every second that the WWF is on tv. I would LOVE to see that but the reality is that is will NEVER happen. There has never been a perfect wrestling show or even a perfect wrestling angle. The closest to a perfect angle has to be 1989 Flair-Steamboat and maybe 1989 Flair-Funk. This provided us with near perfect matches with near perfect angles. But, this said nothing for the rest of the show produced. Even Great American Bash 1989, heralded by some as the greatest PPV ever, had some slow matches or blown spots or spotty booking. I think that anyone who honestly believes that a wrestling promotion CAN and WILL put out a perfect show is kidding themselves. This is idealized to the point that it is beyond what we are as wrestling fans. Noone was ever hooked on wrestling by its perfection. I do not and can not believe that someone was just flipping through the channels and saw some of that fake wrestling shit on tv, stopped clicking and was captivated by the sequence of moves they saw, forever hooking them as wrestling fans. MAYBE, they were hooked by the wrestling, but I garauntee that they were kept around by the angles or the hot chicks or whatever. Our heros in wrestling, the things we remember from our youths, the things that made us long time wrestling fans was the great blend that wrestling provides between story, physical awe, actual wrestling, and that intangible charisma that people like Hogan have and the people like Luger desperately lack. You are the people that DEMAND a perfect wrestling product when it is not a perfect wrestling product that has made the WWF money. For that business, if they put out a perfect wrestling quality and lose money then what good have your demands made? And if they don't put out what you demand and make lots of money, then are they like an ECW wrestler, making little money and putting out a great ECW product, who goes to the WWF or WCW for lots of money and better security...only to get called a "Sell Out" by the ECW faithful? Is the WWF a bunch of Sell Outs for making money over good wrestling? This is a business and though money is not the ultimate excuse for everything, I think it is VERY unfair to ask a promotion to produce a product that would severely limit its fanbase and income just so that said product is composed of great wrestling.

On the other side of this argument, we have the fed marks (for our purposes, the WWF marks). I am generally more of a WWF fan, even during their dark days. Though, I have never been a die hard defender of the WWF and all that it does. The same could be said for wrestling in general. Last year, all I was able to watch in my dorms was Nitro. It didn't take me long to completely disavow myself of any excuse for the utter crap they were producing. I may be a wrestling fan, and even a huge mark at times, but there are things that are bad, and there are things that are utterly indefensible. I find it odd that anyone could honestly call themselves a mark fed because of the implications it puts on oneself. I find it impossible to believe that anyone likes everything done by a fed at any given time. I see how it is possible for someone to enjoy one product over another regardless of the level of quality of each fed. It is like a fan of a sorts team. No matter what another team is doing, I will always watch my favorite team over another team, even if my team sucks at a given time. Maybe that is what people think when they call themselves fed marks. THAT, I can see, but if my team sucks, I know it deep down even if I defend them with excuses or "we'll get 'em next time." With wrestling it is alot different because the product of a company is NOT objective material. I can't look at a win-loss column and see that my favorite fed is doing good or bad. It is more opinion oriented. BUT, I can tell the difference between whether or not my favorite fed is putting out a better product than the other fed. I know if the quality of my favorite fed is good or bad. I may watch my fed's show over the others even if the other show is better because I like and want to watch my fed over the other one. Qualitatively speaking, "yeah, but my fed is making money" is not a good defense for a poor product. "Yeah, but I like it" seems to be more of a defense for one's own perception of the wrestling landscape...though it says nothig for how others see the product. So, bascially, the fed mark's opinions are no better to others than anyone else's opinions are to the fed marks. So, arguing for either side seem completely silly to me.

Pitbull3
[slash] wrestling

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