Im Back And Better Than Ever

DONT FORGET TO CATCH THE SHOWDOWN! PODCAST ON THURSDAY AT 6PM EST. 

DEAN AMBROSE IS GOD. CM PUNK IS GOD. AJ LEE IS A GOD. 

This sort of thing appears on my twitter feed too often and the worst part is is that those who post it truly believe it. This idea that a wrestler can become a deity is more confusing than Swoggle being the anonymous GM. I understand that you can believe in whatever and whoever you choose but going this far is unnatural. So I ask, "Has Fandom gone too far?"

As I write this I guarantee that there is at least one argument on my feed about the newly announced UFC fighter CM Punk and about how he is amazing or how he is the worst thing to happen to wrestling in ten years. The fact is fans, in my opinion, have become part of the problem with wrestling. Well, I say that but they always have been a big issue in wrestling. Since the IWC was, shall we say, dead, during the 90's there was never any real focus on the arguing between fans and it was just that wrestling was pushed at those in the arena. Now it seems that wrestling is pushed at the wider market and rightfully so but there is one issue. The fans. The fans believe that they impact the product much more than they actually do. Take the AJ/Paige fiasco for example. Fans began demanding a Paige/AJ feud and the WWE gave it to them and all this did was prove that Paige wasn't ready for that level of feud. Regardless of what people think Paige was not ready and AJ was held back. That being said the writing was never great so that impacts it. But this was all added to by the fact that fans couldn't just learn to watch the damn product. 

You have a voice. Use it. But DO NOT abuse that gift. When you abuse that gift you ruin teh product for yourself and everyone else. Take the CM Punk chant, The WHAT chant, The BORING chants. Just because you want something doesnt mean we all do. Fans seem to think that by worshiping stars such as Dean Ambrose that WWE will pay attention and put him in the main event spots. Well guess what kids, DEAN DOESNT WANT TO BE YOUR HUSBAND AND WWE DOESNT WANT HIM THERE YET. Dean could be ready for years, nae, decades and WWE wouldn't use him in the main event until they feel he is ready. They may give him some spotlight for sometime just to keep you amused but that doesn't mean he is primed to be pushed. Look at Ziggler. Try tell me I'm wrong. I dare you. 

On top of that you have the fans who believe that if they bombard their favorite wrestlers with tweets and affectionate sayings like "BAE" "MY HUBBY" "INSPIRATION" that they will get a RT, Follow or a FAV. Wrestlers, while they may appreciate your fandom, do not appreciate the constant attention. They are people too. Your tweets may "inspire" them but I also guarantee that they ignore more than 90% of your messages. Im sorry to burst your fan bubble but it's true. 

CM Punk, Ambrose, AJ Lee, WWE. None of them care. Seriously. All WWE care about is that you watch their product and get invested enough to buy a tshirt or some other kind of merch. Its sad but true. 

Don't get me wrong. You have a right to voice how you feel and you have a right to let WWE know what you think but be realistic. Take a step back and look at what happens when other people do it and you might see how you are reacting. Its a harsh and cold reality but sometimes when you step back from the product like I have recently you begin to see some of the real problems. Would you say Captain America is a God? Would you say Joker is a Deity? Is Batman........ok Batman is but we all know that. The point is, these wrestlers, these characters, are all people on the inside. Even people can feel pressure. So why not just step back and observe. Be immersed but not to the point you are drowning. Trust me, you will be thankful for it.

I CHALLENGE YOU TO NOT USE SOCIAL MEDIA THIS WEEK BEFORE AND AFTER WATCHING WRESTLING. DONT READ SHEETS, DONT READ RUMORS AND DONT TWEET YOUR FAVORITE WRESTLER.


Want to give me your thoughts? Get in touch on twitter at @LevellerLOW.

Guest Blogger - Yellow Brick Road

Is there an emerald castle at the end of WWE’s yellow brick road or are we heading to the witch’s
castle? The general complaint coming from the camp of the diehard fans is the lack of direction in current WWE storylines. More to the point is this…Is there even Storylines period? Because it sure doesn’t look like it from here…

But then again I am a diehard fan of Pro-Wrestling; I tune in every week in some way. However, the juggernaut that is WWE is not really writing for the diehard fan. Their audience is now the casual fan, that fan that perhaps tunes in every 2 out of 4 RAW shows, and skips Smack Down (I will be honest; I sometimes skip SmackDown in favour of trolling the internet for some indy stuff I haven’t seen yet…or scouring DIY sites for ideas I will probably never do…or trying out a new recipe).

They are writing storylines that should the casual fan miss a couple of Raw’s they’ll be able to catch up on the doings; much akin to the afternoon soaps – you can always figure out what is happening with everyone by the end of the hour in the soaps; the same goes for WWE.

Probably one of the bigger issues is there is too many ‘cooks’ in the ‘kitchen’ and the ‘executive chef’ (Vince) swoops in right before the ‘dish’ is served, tosses something totally opposite to what the dish is – think whipped cream on beef wellington – and sends it out for consumption. So any so called storyline pretty much goes tits up as it leaves the ‘kitchen’. I think the storylines suffer greatly from the situation that seemly could be so easily rectified and that is to have the writers sit down with the wrestlers they are writing for. This would give them a sense of who the wrestler is trying to portray. If they are the Heel (aka the Villain) of the piece then they need to be villainous; not acting like a toddler who didn’t get a treat when his mom took him to the store. The Face (aka the Hero) needs to seem heroic not wishy washy. Wrestlers portray larger than life personas; they need to do so convincingly. Think of the iconic characters in tv and film, and the actors who portrayed them; if they half-assed it those portrayals would not have resonated or stood the test of time. Promos are Ads; and Wrestlers are the Ad Men/Women. They need to sell what they are saying, with everything
they have. 

If I get the impression they would rather be in the rear making puppies I am going to lose
interest really fast…especially since one of my other favourite shows airs in the last hour of Raw. It’s a fine line in selling this from Dolph Ziggler at one end of the spectrum with the oversell…to John Cena at the other with the No Sell. Cena is superman to the WWE universe, but even Faster than a speeding bullet had his weakness (Kryptonite); Cena will also have his Kryptonite; and when that happens; Cena will need to sell it. Lesnar could have been Cena’s Kryptonite or at the very least his Lex; the WWE Universe would have bought that. Especially since Lesnar defeated ‘Taker at Wrestlemania 30. I am pretty confident that people would have totally bought into it; and they could have had Cena battle back after a break from the ring and our viewing pleasure – stick his bland ass in another movie…do vignettes showing him working out to get back to peak form. Ziggler at the other end oversells everything…EVERYTHING…even the botches where it’s blatantly obvious that they didn’t even connect and there’s Ziggler writhing around on the mat or the floor or wherever he happens to be. Ziggler does have his moments I will admit that; like when he was the last man in a battle royal for the IC contender spot only to be dumped from the ring by Miz who sat most of it out; the look on his face was heartbreaking. But Ziggler also suffers from staleness; sure he’s the show off and he steals the show…but it needs to evolve again (remember he was a member of the spirit squad). The rest fall somewhere in between; including the ladies…who seem to sound like they are involved in a high school spat in the locker room as opposed to the squared ring. It makes it hard to suspend belief when they miss the mark. No different than going to a much anticipated movie only to have it suck donkey wang (Horror movies are exempt for as every horror buff knows…you will sift through a lot of shit before you find ‘gold’.)

Storylines lose their direction and thus the investment we as spectators put in when someone in the back chickens out on pulling the ‘trigger’ on the feud; or when they decided to have random feuds resulting from two random wrestlers thrown together in a tag team as a way to set up for a feud. It becomes frustrating to the viewer who invests anywhere from 3 to 6 hours per week; every week when this occurs. I used to watch 3 hours of Raw; 1 hour of NXT (before Sportsnet 360 decided to stop showing it in favour of Main Event…thanks a lot Rogers…dicks); and SmackDown. Now those 3 to 6 hours are devoted to maybe two hours of Raw…maybe…and then scoping the Net for some Indy stuff to see what’s going on and who is making consistent noise.

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a change in the direction…or lack thereof in storylines. Because they don’t have too; there are enough fans of the casual variety tuning in every week. As I said in a previous post; they write for TV…and the casual fan.

So diehards…keep a look out for those flying monkeys…the witch’s castle is hoving into view…

Let Krysta know your thoughts on twitter at @Krysta_Ibach and be sure to catch her on Lowdown and Showdown giving her opinions each week from 6pm EST.