Current WWE

[KrisZ]

The WWE is kind of anti-fun and fans.

 

No Toronto PPVs since 2006. Yes that is 9 years ago now.

 

Chicago, Philly, New York, LA all get a yearly PPV and Toronto (one of their hottest and most fun fans) haven't had one in 9 years.

 

They run like one TV taping in Toronto every other year and a house show or two a year. What is the deal?

 

Confiscate signs, kick out fans for dressing up, de-pushing the most loved wrestler, etc...

 

Seriously what is going on? There is a real issue here.

 

Canada in general doesn't get nearly the amount of shows they used to and I gotta think that Carl DeMarco leaving was part of the Canada decline

[BillThompson]

 

The WWE is kind of anti-fun and fans.

 

No Toronto PPVs since 2006. Yes that is 9 years ago now.

 

Chicago, Philly, New York, LA all get a yearly PPV and Toronto (one of their hottest and most fun fans) haven't had one in 9 years.

 

They run like one TV taping in Toronto every other year and a house show or two a year. What is the deal?

 

Confiscate signs, kick out fans for dressing up, de-pushing the most loved wrestler, etc...

 

Seriously what is going on? There is a real issue here.

 

Canada in general doesn't get nearly the amount of shows they used to and I gotta think that Carl DeMarco leaving was part of the Canada decline

 

 

Did Canadian business ever take a significant downturn? After Bret left? After Owen died? After the Benoit murders? After Edge quit? It just seems odd that WWF/E world forsake what has generally been a super hot country where they always do good business.

[Grimmas]

 

 

The WWE is kind of anti-fun and fans.

 

No Toronto PPVs since 2006. Yes that is 9 years ago now.

 

Chicago, Philly, New York, LA all get a yearly PPV and Toronto (one of their hottest and most fun fans) haven't had one in 9 years.

 

They run like one TV taping in Toronto every other year and a house show or two a year. What is the deal?

 

Confiscate signs, kick out fans for dressing up, de-pushing the most loved wrestler, etc...

 

Seriously what is going on? There is a real issue here.

 

Canada in general doesn't get nearly the amount of shows they used to and I gotta think that Carl DeMarco leaving was part of the Canada decline

 

 

Did Canadian business ever take a significant downturn? After Bret left? After Owen died? After the Benoit murders? After Edge quit? It just seems odd that WWF/E world forsake what has generally been a super hot country where they always do good business.

 

It always sells out and the crowds are always great. It really just comes down to them being hurt that the crowd cheered for the wrong people on past shows.

[(BP)]

"It's bizarro land!"

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

 

Bunch of dudes dressed up as old school wrestlers in the front row. WWE made them take off their costumes. That's pretty shitty.

Yeah, that sucks. Here's a letter one of the guys posted.

 

 

"As a life-long fan of your product, I was very excited to attend your show last night (Des Moines 3/16/2015). I had secured 10 tickets in the front row at $100 a ticket. By my math that is $1,000 that we paid the WWE to attend your event. The seats were in the front row. Being a huge fan, I made sure to invite 9 other rabid fans and we all made the decision to pay tribute to our favorite wrestlers and dress like them. Within 10 minutes of the show starting, we were told that our outfits were "too distracting" and to change clothes, or we would be moved. I assure you none of the members of our party were being in any way unruly or belligerent. You can watch the taping and see for yourself. We were merely watching the show. Now, I have heard rumblings in the past of people being booted from their seats for costumes, but I always sided with the WWE and assumed that those fans HAD to have done something else to lose their seats, and WWE wouldn't boot people for simply dressing up. Now I know that they indeed will do that, regardless of how respectful you are. This seems to contradict your "Be a Star" promotions (which ironically enough was running on the screen as we were being scolded by WWE producers) that seem to encourage fanaticism.I guess at the end of the day, all I am looking for is an explanation as to why you would boot fans who spend the time, energy, and money on advocating your product. Seems like just the kind of people you would want in your corner.

For the record, I am still in your corner, however disappointed I may be.

Thanks for your time, Matt Sheridan

PS - Had we all been dressed as John Cena or Roman Reigns would the outcome have been different? Please advise so I can let the other 9 guys know for future shows"

 

 

Key word in that whole letter is this:

 

"For the record, I am still in your corner, however disappointed I may be."

 

For as much as everyone bitches about WWE and the shit it pulls both inside the ring and out, most everyone "remains in their corner." Nothing will change until people start leaving that corner. Makes for good message board fodder, but nothing will change.

[BigBadMick]

 

 

I feel if you're a grown person who feels the need to dress up like Sting, Goldust, or any other wrestler when you go to a live event, not only should you be barred from entering the arena, you should also be legally prohibited from reproducing.

 

Having said that, it's a safe bet that guys who dress up like wrestlers are unlikely to ever have any form of sexual contact with a consenting female that doesn't involve money changing hands first, so perhaps the no reproduction law would be overkill.

I dressed as 1992 Shawn Michaels at a Halloween party and got laid after. Then I sold the costume on eBay for 400 dollars. It was awesome.

 

 

That's totally different. That's wearing a costume to a costume party.

 

Being a grown adult and dressing up like a wrestler when you are going to a live event, especially when you know the event is going to be televised, is basically just trying to bring attention to yourself - it's the equivilent of standing on your chair and screaming "hey everybody, look at me!"

 

In other words, quite lame, in my opinion.

 

Rumor has it that it was Kevin Dunn who ordered the costumed fans removed. From everything I have heard/read about Kevin Dunn, he is a jerk and I have little to no use for his decisions and opinions on pro wrestling. However, in his capacity as a television producer, he made the right decision in this case. When you are broadcasting a live event, you remove anything from the shot that is distracting the viewer from focusing on the action at hand.

 

What those costumed fans were doing was the same as somebody walking up behing a reporter who is doing a live remote, and making faces at the camera, or jumping up and down. They were taking away from the shot, so they were stopped from doing so. Dunn wanted people at home watching the ring, not trying to figure who the guys in the outfits were, what they were doing there, and if they were part of the show.

 

So you wouldn't object if they were seated further back?

[Matt D]

There's not really an alternative. Not to that Monday Night fix. Not to years and years of engagement, something that you've invested in for most of your life, something that appeals to childhood memories and some of the best feelings of spectator triumph and heartbreak of your life. WWE feels like "history" in a way that TNA or an indy can't. It's not about quality. It's about being part of something that is literally impossible to replace. You can find other wrestling, but you can't rewrite your life or history so that WWE wasn't a part of it. It'll always scratch slightly different itches.

 

I am always confused when people don't seem to understand this.

[(BP)]

What Matt said. This is a lean time, but I've seen worse (Guest GM Raw comes to mind), and we're less than a couple years removed from a really great 2012-2013 in terms of matches. Depending on what NXT develops into, they'll either have a ridiculously stacked main roster eventually or a viable second brand to watch when things are lame. I get disappointed in their direction sometimes, but I'll never completely dismiss them either.

[Loss]

One of the things that makes wrestling great when it's at its best is fans who are willing to make fools of themselves because they love it so much. Trying to stifle that seems petty. Instead of making them switch into WWE merchandise, they should have encouraged everyone else to wear costumes.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

There's not really an alternative. Not to that Monday Night fix. Not to years and years of engagement, something that you've invested in for most of your life, something that appeals to childhood memories and some of the best feelings of spectator triumph and heartbreak of your life. WWE feels like "history" in a way that TNA or an indy can't. It's not about quality. It's about being part of something that is literally impossible to replace. You can find other wrestling, but you can't rewrite your life or history so that WWE wasn't a part of it. It'll always scratch slightly different itches.

 

I am always confused when people don't seem to understand this.

 

I don't understand it. There are a lot of things I used to enjoy as a child that I no longer enjoy today as a an adult. My past enjoyment of those things plays no role in how I currently view those things. Instead of complaining about them and bemoaning the fact that these things I once enjoyed used to be so much better, I don't watch/listen/participate in/play with or consume them any more.

 

Is allegiance to WWE like an allegiance to a sports team for some people? Fans of the Cleveland Browns might do nothing but bitch and moan about how shitty their team is, but the Browns are still their team, dammit, and they still enjoy watching and supporting them, regardless of the misery that comes with it.

 

That I can understand (even if I don't personally feel the same way about wrestling).

[ButchReedMark]

I think it's just a case of liking pro wrestling and WWE's the easiest to watch, perhaps. And to them Pro Wrestling became WWE, or WWE became Pro Wrestling.

[Matt D]

 

There's not really an alternative. Not to that Monday Night fix. Not to years and years of engagement, something that you've invested in for most of your life, something that appeals to childhood memories and some of the best feelings of spectator triumph and heartbreak of your life. WWE feels like "history" in a way that TNA or an indy can't. It's not about quality. It's about being part of something that is literally impossible to replace. You can find other wrestling, but you can't rewrite your life or history so that WWE wasn't a part of it. It'll always scratch slightly different itches.

 

I am always confused when people don't seem to understand this.

 

I don't understand it. There are a lot of things I used to enjoy as a child that I no longer enjoy today as a an adult. My past enjoyment of those things plays no role in how I currently view those things. Instead of complaining about them and bemoaning the fact that these things I once enjoyed used to be so much better, I don't watch/listen/participate in/play with or consume them any more.

 

Is allegiance to WWE like an allegiance to a sports team for some people? Fans of the Cleveland Browns might do nothing but bitch and moan about how shitty their team is, but the Browns are still their team, dammit, and they still enjoy watching and supporting them, regardless of the misery that comes with it.

 

That I can understand (even if I don't personally feel the same way about wrestling).

 

 

Yes, but it's also as if the Browns were the only team who played football. And everyone else sort of play rugby and the closest you can get to watching football in the way that you have for decades is to read comic books or watch soap operas. That's actually closer in a lot of ways to watching football than watching rugby is to you.

 

It's kind of like that.

[Childs]

People also actively enjoy bitching about shit they follow, especially in the internet age, when it's so easy. A community of people complaining about something holds just as powerful an allure as a community of people loving something. That's just humanity.

[Sidebottom]

People also actively enjoy bitching about shit they follow, especially in the internet age, when it's so easy. A community of people complaining about something holds just as powerful an allure as a community of people loving something. That's just humanity.

 

I've said this for years. Misery loves company after all.

[The Thread Killer]

 

 

 

I feel if you're a grown person who feels the need to dress up like Sting, Goldust, or any other wrestler when you go to a live event, not only should you be barred from entering the arena, you should also be legally prohibited from reproducing.

 

Having said that, it's a safe bet that guys who dress up like wrestlers are unlikely to ever have any form of sexual contact with a consenting female that doesn't involve money changing hands first, so perhaps the no reproduction law would be overkill.

I dressed as 1992 Shawn Michaels at a Halloween party and got laid after. Then I sold the costume on eBay for 400 dollars. It was awesome.

 

 

That's totally different. That's wearing a costume to a costume party.

 

Being a grown adult and dressing up like a wrestler when you are going to a live event, especially when you know the event is going to be televised, is basically just trying to bring attention to yourself - it's the equivilent of standing on your chair and screaming "hey everybody, look at me!"

 

In other words, quite lame, in my opinion.

 

Rumor has it that it was Kevin Dunn who ordered the costumed fans removed. From everything I have heard/read about Kevin Dunn, he is a jerk and I have little to no use for his decisions and opinions on pro wrestling. However, in his capacity as a television producer, he made the right decision in this case. When you are broadcasting a live event, you remove anything from the shot that is distracting the viewer from focusing on the action at hand.

 

What those costumed fans were doing was the same as somebody walking up behing a reporter who is doing a live remote, and making faces at the camera, or jumping up and down. They were taking away from the shot, so they were stopped from doing so. Dunn wanted people at home watching the ring, not trying to figure who the guys in the outfits were, what they were doing there, and if they were part of the show.

 

So you wouldn't object if they were seated further back?

 

 

From a television production standpoint, no I would not.

 

From a "damn that's goofy" standpoint, I'd still think it's goofy.

 

Look...I understand that some people love to dress up and act goofy. This is why people go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Conventions, and Nickelback concerts.

 

What I don't like is fans who go places and act in a manner that is clearly meant to distract away from the event at hand, or at the very least draw attention to themselves. I don't like fans who do things to try and "get themselves over" especially when it is at the expense of the product. In this particular case, you could make an argument that these fans weren't doing any particular harm - and there may be some merit to that argument.

 

I freely admit I just don't get this whole dressing up thing. I get fandom, I get hardcore obsessive fandom. (Hell, that's why we are all here.)

 

Look, I am a huge Doctor Who fan. I have every single episode of the show from it's entire 50 year history - including some of the non-canon audio adventures. I have a poster. I have a t-shirt. I have action figures. But I don't dress up like one of the Doctors and go out in public dressed like that - which I could, because a couple of them were quite stylish dressers. To me, that crosses the line between super-fandom and "hey look at me, I have issues."

 

But that's just my opinion, so if you don't agree, you don't agree.

[C.S.]

But I don't dress up like one of the Doctors and go out in public dressed like that - which I could, because a couple of them were quite stylish dressers. To me, that crosses the line between super-fandom and "hey look at me, I have issues."

 

Except, there's a difference between walking out onto the street dressed like that vs. some kind of comic convention or live wrestling event. Those two scenarios are not exactly the same as "going out in public" and doing mundane things like shopping at the supermarket, buying coffee, etc. while fully dressed as Dr. Who or Sting. Even if it's not for you (and it's not for me either, truth be told), surely you can still see the distinction?

[Johnny Sorrow]

 

 

I feel if you're a grown person who feels the need to dress up like Sting, Goldust, or any other wrestler when you go to a live event, not only should you be barred from entering the arena, you should also be legally prohibited from reproducing.

 

Having said that, it's a safe bet that guys who dress up like wrestlers are unlikely to ever have any form of sexual contact with a consenting female that doesn't involve money changing hands first, so perhaps the no reproduction law would be overkill.

I dressed as 1992 Shawn Michaels at a Halloween party and got laid after. Then I sold the costume on eBay for 400 dollars. It was awesome.

 

 

That's totally different. That's wearing a costume to a costume party.

 

Being a grown adult and dressing up like a wrestler when you are going to a live event, especially when you know the event is going to be televised, is basically just trying to bring attention to yourself - it's the equivilent of standing on your chair and screaming "hey everybody, look at me!"

 

In other words, quite lame, in my opinion.

 

Rumor has it that it was Kevin Dunn who ordered the costumed fans removed. From everything I have heard/read about Kevin Dunn, he is a jerk and I have little to no use for his decisions and opinions on pro wrestling. However, in his capacity as a television producer, he made the right decision in this case. When you are broadcasting a live event, you remove anything from the shot that is distracting the viewer from focusing on the action at hand.

 

What those costumed fans were doing was the same as somebody walking up behing a reporter who is doing a live remote, and making faces at the camera, or jumping up and down. They were taking away from the shot, so they were stopped from doing so. Dunn wanted people at home watching the ring, not trying to figure who the guys in the outfits were, what they were doing there, and if they were part of the show.

 

[Russellmania]

 

 

Bunch of dudes dressed up as old school wrestlers in the front row. WWE made them take off their costumes. That's pretty shitty.

Yeah, that sucks. Here's a letter one of the guys posted.

 

 

"As a life-long fan of your product, I was very excited to attend your show last night (Des Moines 3/16/2015). I had secured 10 tickets in the front row at $100 a ticket. By my math that is $1,000 that we paid the WWE to attend your event. The seats were in the front row. Being a huge fan, I made sure to invite 9 other rabid fans and we all made the decision to pay tribute to our favorite wrestlers and dress like them. Within 10 minutes of the show starting, we were told that our outfits were "too distracting" and to change clothes, or we would be moved. I assure you none of the members of our party were being in any way unruly or belligerent. You can watch the taping and see for yourself. We were merely watching the show. Now, I have heard rumblings in the past of people being booted from their seats for costumes, but I always sided with the WWE and assumed that those fans HAD to have done something else to lose their seats, and WWE wouldn't boot people for simply dressing up. Now I know that they indeed will do that, regardless of how respectful you are. This seems to contradict your "Be a Star" promotions (which ironically enough was running on the screen as we were being scolded by WWE producers) that seem to encourage fanaticism.I guess at the end of the day, all I am looking for is an explanation as to why you would boot fans who spend the time, energy, and money on advocating your product. Seems like just the kind of people you would want in your corner.

For the record, I am still in your corner, however disappointed I may be.

Thanks for your time, Matt Sheridan

PS - Had we all been dressed as John Cena or Roman Reigns would the outcome have been different? Please advise so I can let the other 9 guys know for future shows"

 

 

Key word in that whole letter is this:

 

"For the record, I am still in your corner, however disappointed I may be."

 

For as much as everyone bitches about WWE and the shit it pulls both inside the ring and out, most everyone "remains in their corner." Nothing will change until people start leaving that corner. Makes for good message board fodder, but nothing will change.

 

yeah it's almost as if I made this exact point on the last page.

[goc]

 

There's not really an alternative. Not to that Monday Night fix. Not to years and years of engagement, something that you've invested in for most of your life, something that appeals to childhood memories and some of the best feelings of spectator triumph and heartbreak of your life. WWE feels like "history" in a way that TNA or an indy can't. It's not about quality. It's about being part of something that is literally impossible to replace. You can find other wrestling, but you can't rewrite your life or history so that WWE wasn't a part of it. It'll always scratch slightly different itches.

 

I am always confused when people don't seem to understand this.

 

I don't understand it. There are a lot of things I used to enjoy as a child that I no longer enjoy today as a an adult. My past enjoyment of those things plays no role in how I currently view those things. Instead of complaining about them and bemoaning the fact that these things I once enjoyed used to be so much better, I don't watch/listen/participate in/play with or consume them any more.

 

Is allegiance to WWE like an allegiance to a sports team for some people? Fans of the Cleveland Browns might do nothing but bitch and moan about how shitty their team is, but the Browns are still their team, dammit, and they still enjoy watching and supporting them, regardless of the misery that comes with it.

 

That I can understand (even if I don't personally feel the same way about wrestling).

 

Yea I don't really get the whole "I love WWF the most out of everything because I watched it growing up" thing. Well I did too but that doesn't mean I'd even consider for one single second watching an episode of the 1991 Superstars that I was watching when I was 7 years old over the 1981 Southeastern that I discovered 2 years ago. WWF is not some indelible part of my life and childhood. WRESTLING is though even if I happened to be introduced to it through WWF.

[fakeplastictrees]

One of the things that makes wrestling great when it's at its best is fans who are willing to make fools of themselves because they love it so much. Trying to stifle that seems petty. Instead of making them switch into WWE merchandise, they should have encouraged everyone else to wear costumes.

 

This is all too meta. I know what's going on here (or at least I think I know). WWE is trying its best to control 'The Reality Era' (as the company has dubbed it). Its like an old man trying to show that he is hip and with the times by buying any iPad but having absolutely no idea how to use it outside of sending/receiving email. WWE is trying to have its cake and eat it to by admitting its in the 'Reality Era', but still trying to control the narrative. We are at a point where fans are 'hijacking' shows and all that stuff that started in Canada (Bizarro Land) and the North East of the U.S. has spread and WWE is trying its best to curb it and keep the marks marks with a little spontaneous and true fan interaction as possible. WWE has NO PROBLEM with people wearing Warrior masks (once WWE staff passed it out) on the following Monday Night Raw after Warrior's death, but Joe Blow sitting front row dressed as Warrior is a problem?

 

The show is in the ring and WWE realizes that all the talking and lip service delivered over the year about the fans being apart of the show is more true than anyone in WWE actually wants. WWE received mainstream media coverage after RR 2015 and it was mainly about how everyone in the audience took a huge dump on the show. WWE booked WM30 the way they did to avoid a HUGE fucking bullet of people taking a huge dump on Batista/Orton. Its all just too meta for me. Its The ''Reality Era" with a group of people struggling ever so desperately to control the narrative at all costs. The fans want one thing and Vince is telling us what we really want. This story is familiar. Rim (now known as BlackBerry) in 2002 has stock selling at 200 plus dollar a share. Now you can get BlackBerry stock for less than 20 dollars.

 

What do I think fans should do? Realize that WWE is a corporation and its not about TRUE FUN, but rather corporate fun. That means cop orate flare and whatever the company will approve. Its the worse.

[Sean Liska]

You guys are making so much of this costume thing. I remember being at a Chicago show 7 years ago and seeing them make the clown super-fan guy move from opposite the hard-cam to front row on the other side of the ring. It's just a TV production thing and it's been this way for a long time. It has nothing to do with the Reality Era or Daniel Bryan or silencing fans or whatever.

 

And the Daniel Bryan thing is so silly. Think this through. They told security to allow a certain number of Daniel Bryan signs and then cut it off after a point? Did they count to 50 signs? The way this stuff works is WWE tells security to confiscate anything with vulgarity and then anything with a key word like "TNA". They don't tell some security guy with no product knowledge to count the number of signs that say "Daniel Bryan" or "Yes" and cut it off after a certain number. My guess is the fans had too many signs in general and were told to get rid of some.

People are so desperate to feel persecuted by this company. WWE didn't even alter the Rumble audio of Reigns getting destroyed by the crowd when they showed it on RAW the next night in front of 5 million people. There was a "We don't want Roman Reigns" sign opposite the hard cam during all of RAW.

[Johnny Sorrow]

You guys are making so much of this costume thing. I remember being at a Chicago show 7 years ago and seeing them make the clown super-fan guy move from opposite the hard-cam to front row on the other side of the ring. It's just a TV production thing and it's been this way for a long time. It has nothing to do with the Reality Era or Daniel Bryan or silencing fans or whatever.

 

And the Daniel Bryan thing is so silly. Think this through. They told security to allow a certain number of Daniel Bryan signs and then cut it off after a point? Did they count to 50 signs? The way this stuff works is WWE tells security to confiscate anything with vulgarity and then anything with a key word like "TNA". They don't tell some security guy with no product knowledge to count the number of signs that say "Daniel Bryan" or "Yes" and cut it off after a certain number. My guess is the fans had too many signs in general and were told to get rid of some.

 

People are so desperate to feel persecuted by this company. WWE didn't even alter the Rumble audio of Reigns getting destroyed by the crowd when they showed it on RAW the next night in front of 5 million people. There was a "We don't want Roman Reigns" sign opposite the hard cam during all of RAW.

Right on. I'm picturing ticket takers making a shitty wage having to count Daniel Bryan signs. Haha. Though I still think it was shitty about the costumes.

[The Thread Killer]

 

But I don't dress up like one of the Doctors and go out in public dressed like that - which I could, because a couple of them were quite stylish dressers. To me, that crosses the line between super-fandom and "hey look at me, I have issues."

 

Except, there's a difference between walking out onto the street dressed like that vs. some kind of comic convention or live wrestling event. Those two scenarios are not exactly the same as "going out in public" and doing mundane things like shopping at the supermarket, buying coffee, etc. while fully dressed as Dr. Who or Sting. Even if it's not for you (and it's not for me either, truth be told), surely you can still see the distinction?

 

 

I see the distinction, yes. But I also feel there is a difference between a fan convention and a live event. At a convention you're going to be around a ton of people in costume, at an event, probably not so much.

[The Thread Killer]

You guys are making so much of this costume thing. I remember being at a Chicago show 7 years ago and seeing them make the clown super-fan guy move from opposite the hard-cam to front row on the other side of the ring. It's just a TV production thing and it's been this way for a long time. It has nothing to do with the Reality Era or Daniel Bryan or silencing fans or whatever.

 

I agree...that's what I'm saying. I really think that anything any fan does in sight of the camera that production thinks might distract the viewer is going to get removed...fans in costumes, clowns, whatever.

[Johnny Sorrow]

 

 

You guys are making so much of this costume thing. I remember being at a Chicago show 7 years ago and seeing them make the clown super-fan guy move from opposite the hard-cam to front row on the other side of the ring. It's just a TV production thing and it's been this way for a long time. It has nothing to do with the Reality Era or Daniel Bryan or silencing fans or whatever.

I agree...that's what I'm saying. I really think that anything any fan does in sight of the camera that production thinks might distract the viewer is going to get removed...fans in costumes, clowns, whatever.

But how long is guys in costumes going to distract people during a three hour show unless they have the short term memory of a gnat with Alzheimer's?