When did you realise you were a smart mark?

[Guest Cam Chaos]

I just had this curious thought whilsy watching a WCW six man tag. At some point when were kids we thought wrestling was real. They purported it to be real and as we saw little aside from boxing we didn't know that actual fighting was not like pro wrestling. Some of us even tried to do wrestling moves and matches with our friends in our living rooms and back yards, curious as to why this didn't work like it does on TV. But at what point did you go beyond thinking "this isn't realistic" to "you know, Bret Hart won't lose to this chump, he'll probably hold it for a while because he's earned his spot"? When did you question it all and when did you actually take an interest in what went on behind the scenes?

 

For me personally, I read PWI when I was young and wondered why this person wasn't in the WWF now and then, but I first really thought something outside the box when I think Damien pulled off a muscle buster on Juventud Guerrera on a WCW Nitro and I thought "that'd be a great finisher, I'm surprised he kicked out, someone should steal that". I first took a real interest in behind the scenes matters after Bret Hart's screwjob as I didn't understand what happened on the PPV so sought out every publication I could on the matter.

[Guest EastCoastJ]

I never really considered wrestling to be a work until 1990 when The Black Scorpion started doing black magic and talking over the PA system in what sounded suspiciously like an Ole Anderson voice track. At first I thought that The Black Scorpion was Ole and was shocked no one else knew this, but as it got sillier and he came from the ceiling in a UFO, it was basically over for me. The NWA had almost lost me earlier in the year with the Robocop thing, and they lost me for good at that point. In many ways the WWF was still more believable than the NWA at that point in the eyes of a ten year old kid.

 

I would say that I became interested in behind the scenes happenings in 5th grade when this girl told me that Ric Flair would be going into the Royal Rumble early and winning two weeks before the event happened. I was so shocked when it actually happened, and that was the first time that I really knew 100% that it was a work. The girl told me about this article that ran in the paper each weekend with all of this behind the scenes news, and the paper led me to this free local hotline that you could call. The guy always gave credit to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter, and the Wrestling Lariat newsletter I use to want these so badly, but before the internet really became commercially popular it was virtually impossible to figure out how to get something like this.

[Loss]

I knew better, but I was in denial about wrestling being fake until I was about 17 years old and started coming online. At that point, it was impossible to deny. I remember going into a chat room and saying, "Hey, I think Luger is going to beat Hogan at Road Wild since he's been on a roll lately" and people responding with stuff like "No way Bollea jobs to Pfohl." That line makes me roll my eyes more than anything, actually.

 

I don't wish I could go back. My appreciation for the art form that is pro wrestling has grown immeasurably since learning the secrets behind the curtain, and I can still suspend my disbelief easily in the right situation. That seems to be the opposite line of thinking from a lot of people, but I'm very grateful for the effect the Internet has had on my fandom.

[silverwidow]

I knew wrestling was fake/predetermined as a 12-year-old kid watching RAW every week in 1993 and it had absolutely no bearing on my enjoyment of the product. So that's never been an issue for me.

 

The biggest eye opener was when I got on AOL around mid '96, shortly after the Hall/Nash invasion stuff in WCW. At that point, I was reading for the first time about future storylines, wrestlers possibly jumping promotions, etc, and just thought it was fascinating. My favorite site was called "Micasa Wrestling News" which was mostly accurate news taken from the Observer 900 line.

 

The story that really captured my interest, though, was Bret Hart's negotiations with WWF and WCW that Fall. It sounded like he was leaving for the huge offer WCW had put on the table, so as a WWF fan, I was ecstatic when he chose to re-sign.

 

A few months later, after hearing the Observer pimped so much, I decided to subscribe and was absolutely hooked. So yeah, learning about the insider stuff really made me a much bigger fan.

[Strummer]

I always had suspicions, but I realized that wrestling was a work when on an episode of Prime Time in 1988, JYD was wrestling Demolition Ax and JYD did a clothesline that missed by so much that it wasn't even funny and Ax still sold it. I kept rewinding to make sure what I saw was true and after pausing and slow motion, it was clear that JYD did not come close to touching him. I kept suspending disbelief for basically the next 10 years, but deep down I knew it was fake.

 

Finally, I came on the net in the Spring of 1997 as I was just graduating High School (right in the middle of the Austin/Hart Foundation angle) and was just blown away. I loved it. All the news and spoilers made me more of a fan. I visited all the NEWZ boards and just couldn't get enough of it. It wasn't until I discovered Herb Kunze's site and came across the "feud" he was having with Sean Shannon, did I realize the big deal about "knowing how to work" and "good wrestling" I never really thought of "good' wrestling or "bad" wrestling, it was all the same to me. I was a big time fan of Scott Keith when I discovered his reviews in 1999, but by 2001 I was basically done with him. After years of lurking I started posting at Mark boards in early 2003 and in the fall of 03 I joined Kayfabe memories and then finally joined TSM in July 04.

[Guest MJHimJfadeaway23]

When I started calling hotlines (Not WWE or WCW promoted ones) and they'd say "X is going over Y because of A" so I knew the match were predetermined. For a while I used to think the WWE was fake and NWA was real, especially when I was down south and it was further reinforced by others who were just as gullable as I was. I was about 11 when I knew for CERTAIN every aspect of wrestling was fake. Which was about 1993.

 

For the record, I wasn't heart broken when I found out, cause it was said for years. And like Loss said, I can easily suspend disbelief when the time is right.

 

This lead to me wondering if UFC was fake too

[sek69]

I started watching wrestling so early (I was about 5) that my mom made sure I knew it was worked so I didn't go to school and try to Cobra Clutch someone on the playground. There was still a time where I didn't know the matches were pre-determined, I just thought it was like any other sport where they were trying to win without really hurting each other.

 

What opened my eyes on that was when I watched AWA TV and someone botched a pinfall in a squash and the ref counted three anyway.

[Mad Dog]

I've always known it was fake, I didn't start watching till I was 16. As far as knowing who's going to win and all that. I had a pretty good grasp on that after about 2 months. I used to get made fun of because when my friends and I ordered a PPV I usually predicted who would win and run ins, etc. pretty easily.

[Slasher]

I realized wrestling was fake when my uncle took me to a show when I was very young, and he was pointing out those little details that made it a work. He also smartened me up pretty shortly afterwards, with all those insider terms he was shooting over at me on the ride home. After that, he bought me some subscriptions to dirt sheets, and I've been a smark ever since.