WWE - So who really watches it?

[surefire]

I was watching sky sports earlier today, and then my program ended and wrestling started.

What I found interesting about this was that one of the guys gave a speech along the lines of you will remember this day, just like your parents will remember the day Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.

This made me think that the average WWE fan must be around the 20-30 mark. Is this true?

I thought this stuff was aimed at kids, not adults.

 

[Aztecs27]

These days it's aimed at both.

I'm 26 and no longer watch. I'll occasionally flick over if it's on, to see if there's some actual wrestling taking place, but as a youth, from the age of 8 to about 18 or 19, I was obsessed.

It's not as lame or as fake as most people think it is. Of course all of the outcomes, evolving stories are all scripted as are most of the rivalries (not always the case though, there have been some VERY real rivalries which have been exploited by the WWE to make it more entertaining). If you take it for what it is, which is an entertaining, well scripted, written and performed (mostly ) soap opera, with violence, it can be very entertaining.

Back in the 80's-early 90's it was very much aimed at kids. It was "playful" fighting. It was all above board and it was very inoffensive with very little in the way of stories and themes which could be "scary" or "disturbing" to a younger kid.

Then the WWE changed the brand and entered the "attitude era". This is when they changed the look and appeal of it to cater for a wider audience. It still had the wrestling, but it also dealt with more serious and "adult" stories and themes. Themed matches (ladder match, cage matches, hell in a cell etc..) became ALOT more violent than they had in the past and thanks to some pioneering wrestlers (Mick Foley being the main one), it was really taken to the extreme. The characters were also more "real" (i.e. just a big guy, wrestling under a normal name as opposed to a "character").

Today it's kind of come full-circle again. It still has some of the "attitude" but has alot of "characters" back in it today. The WWE and the people that run it are VERY business savvy and know what they're talking about and are careful with every move they make.

Of course, the WWE is just the "commercial" side of professional wrestling. There were smaller brands back in the 1990's which were doing the "extreme" stuff waaay before WWE picked up on it and bought it to the masses. The best professional Wrestling franchise was ECW. It semi-exists under the WWE umbrella now because they basically have a monopoly of the market, but when it was an independant, small company run out of a bingo hall in Phildelphia, they were pioneering EVERYTHING that's been seen on WWE for the past 10 to 11 years. Plus a bit more. some of the fights on there were unscripted and very, very real. The wrestlers would always have each other's safety and well being in mind, but if you can find video footage of a Barbed Wire match between Terry Funk and Sabu at an event, aptly named, "Born To Be Wired", you will see what I mean.

 

[stevek1969]

I watched it when BSKYB just started so thats about 20 years ago when Hulk Hogan,Rick Flair wwwwwwooooo,Hacksaw Jim Duggan where on ,quality entertainment.

 

[Owen_Thomas_14]

I flick it on but quickly change if the women aint on

 

[viscount17]

I stopped watching wrestling when I found out Big Daddy's name was Shirley!

 

[Basher]

I don't watch WWE, stage managed tosh! And typical over the top American so called entertainment.

Now I do remember watching wrestling on good old World of Sport. It was on before the footie results. Of course, another stage managed event but more comedy than anything else.
Some great characters such as Mick McManus, Adrian Street, Les Kellet were the early ones. Giant Haystacks< kendo Nagasaki (I remember him being unmasked, can't remember who did it) Big Daddy (Shirley Crabtree, RIP, related to a Eorl Crabtree the huge Huddersfield Giants Rugby League player) and of course Ken Walton (commentator) "Greetings grapple fans!"

Happy days!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

WWE where it's pantomine season all year round

 

[goldenbare]

It's not as lame or as fake as most people think it is.

 

[Aztecs27]

It's not as lame or as fake as most people think it is.

Wondered who'd be the first. It chuffing hurts! I'll tell you that for nothing. I worked with some up-and-coming UK wrestlers when I was around 18. I thought it would be fun to give it a go.

People that think that they all come away unscathed and smelling of roses is sadly mistaken.

I get that some people will never be convinced though.

 

[Tommo21]

This made me think that the average WWE fan must be around the 20-30 mark. Is this true?

Thats about right 20 or 30 IQ.

 

[chris661]

It's not as lame or as fake as most people think it is.

Wondered who'd be the first. It chuffing hurts! I'll tell you that for nothing. I worked with some up-and-coming UK wrestlers when I was around 18. I thought it would be fun to give it a go.

People that think that they all come away unscathed and smelling of roses is sadly mistaken.

I get that some people will never be convinced though.

It is fake from the point that you can hear them talking to each other with regards with what is going to happen. It is lamer than a lame thing celebrating St. Lameness day while wearing a lame costume (it is almost as lame as WOW)

 

[goldenbare]

People that think that they all come away unscathed and smelling of roses is sadly mistaken.

I certainly don't think that they come away unscathed having seen only very few moments before I have had to switch over. But anybody who attacks another with a chair/table/steps placed exactly where they are needed should be charged with assault and those that watch it ashamed of themselves even before they pay for the privilege of doing so.

 

[Yerman]

People that think that they all come away unscathed and smelling of roses is sadly mistaken.

I certainly don't think that they come away unscathed having seen only very few moments before I have had to switch over. But anybody who attacks another with a chair/table/steps placed exactly where they are needed should be charged with assault and those that watch it ashamed of themselves even before they pay for the privilege of doing so.

Even when they're made of balsa wood, aluminium foil and papier mache???

-sometimes the glue can cause a really really horrid rash!! -well an itch.

 

[Aztecs27]

People that think that they all come away unscathed and smelling of roses is sadly mistaken.

I certainly don't think that they come away unscathed having seen only very few moments before I have had to switch over. But anybody who attacks another with a chair/table/steps placed exactly where they are needed should be charged with assault and those that watch it ashamed of themselves even before they pay for the privilege of doing so.

Even when they're made of balsa wood, aluminium foil and papier mache???

-sometimes the glue can cause a really really horrid rash!! -well an itch.

This is the stuff that is far better than the glossy WWE stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6fhU7WGTCY&feature=related

(Not for the feint-hearted!)

I hate that fake barbed wire!

 

[Golfmmad]

I don't watch WWE, stage managed tosh! And typical over the top American so called entertainment.

Now I do remember watching wrestling on good old World of Sport. It was on before the footie results. Of course, another stage managed event but more comedy than anything else.
Some great characters such as Mick McManus, Adrian Street, Les Kellet were the early ones. Giant Haystacks< kendo Nagasaki (I remember him being unmasked, can't remember who did it) Big Daddy (Shirley Crabtree, RIP, related to a Eorl Crabtree the huge Huddersfield Giants Rugby League player) and of course Ken Walton (commentator) "Greetings grapple fans!"

Happy days!

Aahh, Basher, I remember those days!

I'll give you -

Joe Cornelius!

Golfmmad.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Now I do remember watching wrestling on good old World of Sport. It was on before the footie results. Of course, another stage managed event but more comedy than anything else.
Some great characters such as Mick McManus, Adrian Street, Les Kellet were the early ones. Giant Haystacks< kendo Nagasaki (I remember him being unmasked, can't remember who did it) Big Daddy (Shirley Crabtree, RIP, related to a Eorl Crabtree the huge Huddersfield Giants Rugby League player) and of course Ken Walton (commentator) "Greetings grapple fans!"

I remember going over to my nan's every saturday with my dad. The house would be like a Victorian pea souper as she and my grandad puffed through a packet of Embassy watching the wrestling and then ticking off their pools coupon. Never really got into it and the funniest thing about watching old clips now is the old dears sitting there with their huge handbags ans Sunday best hats on

 

[drawboy]

Some others were:
Catweasel
Billy two rivers..not sure he was a genuine red indian
rollerball rocko
jacky (mr tv) pallow
pat roach
Jimmy saville
Skull murphy
fit finley
and Johnny Quango.
Oh and not forgetting Edna and Elsie who always bashed the baddies with their handbags

 

[Losttheplot]

I watch it sometimes when flicking over on sky.
To me it's the mens version of a soap on tv. Women have corrie, we have WWE.

 

[surefire]

Ahh memories!

That should be Pat "The Bomber" Roach if I remember correctly!

 

[viscount17]

The 'white hats' were always Bert Royal and his brother Vic Faulkener

Steve Logan was always the 'black hat'

and isn't Skull Murphy now the actor Brian Murphy?


I didn't realise that ITV started televising wrestling in the mid '50's