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| Dunno if this was posted anywhere else, but this is a column by Glen Gilberti(Disco Inferno) from wrestlezone.com... Part One: "Internet Wrestling Fans don't know what a good match is!" First of all, let me describe to you what an internet wrestling fan(IWF) is by my definition. An IWF goes on the wrestling websites at least three times a week, thinks that Vince Russo killed WCW, thinks Paul Heyman is a genius and ECW is the greatest thing ever, loves cruiserweights and X-Division guys, loves Japanese wrestling, and takes whatever Wade Keller and Dave Meltzer say as gospel. Now we could debate what an IWF is, but for arguments sake, let's just say that the demographic I just described exists and it does represent a percentage of the pie chart. I would say about a third of IWF's show the aforementioned characteristics. Let's not contest this point because I think it would be a waste of time. For the purposes of this article, I'm talking about this stereotypical smart mark. How do I know that they don't know what a good match is? Answer: the rating system. Most of these fans don't have any clue what a four star match is. I was at a TNA TV taping a couple of years ago and this Ring of Honor kid had a tryout match with some other X-Division guy. He was doing a Bruiser Brody rip-off gimmick complete with the boots, the "Husp, Husp" and had the "hold your wrist out in the upside down karate chop" thing working. And he weighed about 150 lbs. I'm at the monitor with I believe Harris and Storm and I'm like,"let's see how long these guys sell." Well, they have about a five minute match with every ridiculous high spot you can imagine and they sold every spot for literally almost exactly eight seconds, no more than ten tops. The thing was that this guy was supposedly having four star matches on the internet. If that's the type of matches that he'd been doing than he'd never had a four star match in his life. So as I started paying attention to the X-Division guys, I started noticing that everyone was following the "8 second rule." Do your spot, sell it for 8 seconds, do another high spot, sell it for eight seconds. All the while, I'm reading on the internet how great these guys are and how they're being underutilized. I'm reading on the internet how these crazy high fliers in Ring of Honor need to be signed. I watch them and most of them are using the 8 second rule. I'm thinking, "Does anybody have a clue what a good match is?" When I was booking WCW, I attended a focus group. There were 12 mainstream male wrestling fans - ages 18 to 38 - in a room being posed questions by a moderator while myself and about 4 other people from marketing were behind a two way mirror. Two of them were IWF's. We could see them, they couldn't see us, and they're being asked questions like, "Who's your favorite wrestler?" Goldberg, Austin, Rock, Sting, Outsiders they answer. "How often do you watch the shows?" Almost all of them watched the shows. "How often do you watch a ppv?" Every month. "How many times have you rented a ppv?" Zero. Wait - what was that? ZERO? How could that be? I call the moderator behind the glass and tell him to ask where they watch them. Answer: friends' houses, illegal black box, and bars. I'm like "that is unbelievable". We're writing four hours of TV a week to sell a ppv that nobody buys, but everybody sees. What a great business plan. And we wonder why WCW went out of business. So the guy asks them if they liked the cruiserweights. "Nope". What do you mean "nope"? Nobody likes the cruiserweights?? I find that hard to believe. Why not? The consensus was that they're too small and they looked fake. I wanted to come out from behind the two way mirror and smack them. OF COURSE IT'S FAKE! IT'S WRESTLING! I mean smaller boxers have entertaining fights and such, why does their size matter. But then other things are coming out of this group like, "I know wrestling's fake, but Goldberg, man, I don't know. I think he's real." Good Lord. Goldberg's got wrestling fans thinking things are getting real again. Wow! So I'm pretty much surmising that the reason they think the matches look fake is because they're not doing anything to make it look real. Goldberg's smashing people with three devastating moves and the match is over. Cruiserweights are smashing each other with 7 different moves and they're selling for eight seconds. But all the while, I'm reading on the internet how great their matches are. News Flash! All of the guys I know in the business are reading the internet. Just hoping and praying that they get "4 stars." The problem with this is that this mindset of work that has been created infects the industry, because people believe what they read. That's marketing 101. People are more inclined to believe something when they read it. So you've got a whole bunch of up 'n comers coming into the business and everyone's killing themselves and selling for eight seconds and none of them are getting over because mainstream fans think it looks fake. Here's some advice: LEARN HOW TO SELL! Instead of watching Japanese wrestling tapes where matches start with two guys standing in front of each other trading forearms to the head. Watch the main events of every WWE ppv you can get your hands on. Watch Austin, Rock, Angle, and HHH work each other and watch how long they sell. One of the main problems with the smaller guys is that they're given a specific amount of time to wrestle and they try to fit all their high spots in, but they don't figure in how long they should be selling. They end up selling everything for eight seconds and then the match is over. However, the IWF's are still putting them over and they're not changing a thing. I say those matches would be just as good if they took out a third of the high spots and selling the moves that they do more. Make the moves look like they hurt. If you don't, it just comes across as scripted acrobatics. Now I don't want people to think that I don't know that Bret and Austin had a four star match. Or that Benoit/Angle was four stars or most of the matches that are generally accepted as great matches are what they are...great matches. My rant is against the subliminal education that is happening via the internet, where IWF's and the workers themselves are reading and watching guys that can't sell and being told that these guys know how to work, when the reality is that it's creating a style that's hurting the business. Now, of course there are guys that are great and have a clue, like AJ and Samoa Joe. It's just that I'm worried that in this computer age we live in that a bad message is spread so fast that it's hard to find a cure. As long as the internet creates a forum where guys can be told whether they're good or not, and that message is held as gospel, even when they're not, then you can make an argument that the internet is hurting the business. That's just my opinion. I may be wrong. |
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| "Some SMARK tries to talk about something he knows nothing about. nickflair says: "So the fans don't know what a four star match is...according to who's rating system? Shouldn't the fans be the ones who do the rating anyway? I mean honestly, and with all do respect to the business, but does anyone care that Mick Foley thought he had a four star match in 1987 somewhere in the south, or if Angle thinks his best work has been in TNA? Hell no. Fans want to be entertained, and the biz lives or dies dependent on what the fans, IWF (goofy moniker btw) or otherwise like or dislike. I think that you are mainly upset that wrestling doesn't have as much of the magic that it use to have. Before the Monday Night War's, wrestler's did not use their actual names as their stage name. When Nash and Hall showed up on Nitro and the nWo started, it was something totally new, because it blurred the line between real life and the ring. Since then, about half the wrestlers out there use their real names, instead of some made up 'catchy' name, because in my opinion, I doubt that fans care as much; it's just another facet of the business that has been taken down because it is outmoded. 2007 Wrestling is not the wrestling that we all grew up on. People don't want to see two guys sit in a headlock for 10 minutes, and thus, wrestlers don't do it anymore. A cross-body from the top is not much of a pop anymore, so guys do Swanton's and 450 splash's and moonsaults, because it's what the fans want, and the wrestlers know it. What I am trying to say is that the times have changed, and they will keep changing; either the magicians are running out of their magic or they need to learn some new tricks." Glenn's Response: "Boy, you don't get it all. First of all, a big wig from production the other day at TNA told me, and I'm going to investigate this further to see if it's true, that if you looked at the number of hits the wrestling websites get compared to the number of people that watch the show, the internet wrestling fan represents ONE PERCENT OF THE WRESTLING AUDIENCE! Let me repeat that. The internet wrestling fan represents ONE PERCENT OF THE WRESTLING AUDIENCE! And you're trying to tell me they keep the wrestling business alive? The problem is is that 99% of the boys go on the internet, and they're reading stuff about how good certain guys are, and these guys have no charismatic actions that can connect them with the fans. They can't cut promos and guys like you come on and talk about how booking is holding them back. The truth is, because the guys can wrestle, and thats all they can do, they should feel happy they're making money in this business, because most of their fans on the internet have selective memory. They forget about when guys were given a chance to cut an in ring 5 minute promo and they bombed, or when they were put in an angle with a top guy and were just concerned about getting their $#!+ in a match and it didn't get over. The internet fans forget things like that. They see the guy can wrestle the style they like and keep putting them over and the guy reads about how one percent of the fan base thinks he's great and you can't tell him otherwise. It creates a situation where a guy has talent, but needs to start doing something different because he's stuck in a rut and needs to be elevated. The veterans are trying to work with the guy to help him get over, but you can't tell the guy anything because he doesn't want to listen and why should he? He's reading how great he is and how great his matches are. THAT IS HURTING THE BUSINESS! THE NUMBERS DO NOT LIE!"" |
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| Receipts: My Response To Jericho & Killing WCW 01/10/2008 by Glenn Gilbertti Two things on my agenda this week: Number one, I read some of Chris Jericho's book as it pertained to the sections I was mentioned in. First of all, Martin Short IS NOT funny. I started this debate in WCW. Jericho and I were arguing over the supposed "humor" of Martin Short. I just think the guy sucks. Well, Jericho, being a fellow Canadian, thought he was funny. So we get Bob Ryder to post a poll of the boys on WCW's website of whether or not Martin Short was funny, and surprisingly, NOT FUNNY barely won. I thought it would be a landslide. However, we had a lot of Canadians in WCW back then which kind of skewed the numbers in my opinion. I'd like to put up a poll on this website as to whether or not everyone feels that he's funny. The answers would have to be A.) Funny and American. B.) Funny and Canadian C.) Not funny and American D.) Not funny and Canadian. I doubt there would be a lot of A's and D's. Secondly, Jericho referred to me as a "dweeb" when talking about me introducing him to his wife. Also, he referenced me as the #143 reason WCW went out of business. Let me say this: from this point on and at least once in every future article I write, the actions, words, and everything else involved in Chris Jericho's career will be heavily critiqued, scrutinized, and analyzed, beginning with his failed return to Raw which hasn't boosted ratings and his ridiculous outfit that he wears. There's only so much you can say about a guy whose father you can see getting his ass beat in hockey fights on YouTube. In the future I won't be as nice as I was this week to the man that besmirched the good name of the guy that introduced him to the mother of his stupid kids. Number two on my agenda is in reference to the recent Raw magazine article citing myself as the number four reason Nitro failed, just behind David Arquette, The Misfits in Action, and Warrior and Beefcake. Also, I was just ahead of Mongo McMichael. This might be my proudest moment in wrestling, for finally getting the credit I deserve for ruining Nitro. Interesting that of the fifteen reasons that were mentioned, Bischoff wasn't one of them. Neither was Johnny Ace, who was in charge of creative when the last month of them aired. Come to think of it, four weeks after I got taken off the booking committee, WCW went out of business. So, theoretically, I could make a case that taking me off the booking committee directly caused Nitro to fail. I should be number one! On a related subject, let's name ten of the reasons why Raw's ratings have gone from a 6.9 to a 3.8. 10.) Reformation of DX with a 40 and 38 year old. 9.) Mae young gives birth to a hand 8.) Kurt Angle wears a wig 7.) The death of Vince McMahon 6.) Johnny Laurinaitis signs the wrong one-legged guy 5.) The Mexicools 4.) Benoit tribute show 3.) Katie Vick Tie for first 1.) Hornswoggle McMahon 1.) Y2J's return I'll be back next week with more reasons Raw went out of business and a critical review of the superband "Fozzy". |