Wrestling IS FOR KIDS, you idiot!

[Loss]

This is the most nauseating recap of a show I think I've ever seen.

 

http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/h...t.asp?aID=17085

 

The make up of the crowd was predominately hardcore wrestling fans, all into the ROH product, although there were one or two families who just went because it was 'wrestling', and had no idea that this would be any different from ?All Star British Wrestling? or ?WWE Wrestling?. Boy, were they in for a surprise (mainly how much more athletic and realistic it was). There were also a fair number of young kids there; in particular, there were about five or six 10 year olds in one of the balcony boxes, who were having the absolute time of their lives chanting wrestlers names and cheering guys on. I mention this, because it took some of the heat out of the Davey Richards vs Jimmy Rave match early on, with both guys stopping to glare at the kids stealing their heat. A few 'Shut the f*** up' and 'Past Your Bedtime' chants later and they were generally less annoying (if not any less vocal).

How ridiculous is this? They're kids at a wrestling show. What has the world ... possibly come to? This is why people bash ROH fans all the time.

[Bix]

THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER AND RESPECT THE PRODUCT.

 

Seriously though, what the fuck is this shit?

 

From an ECW house show report last week:

 

-There were a lot more kids there than I expected or that I really

wanted there. Of course, what I want isn't important in the grand

scheme of things. I was just never able to experience a real ECW show,

and I don't know why I went into this one thinking that I would get to

this time. I guess it is truly time to move on.

[Guest The Metal Maniac]

Someone please explain to me how exactly a couple of kids "chanting wrestlers names and cheering guys on" steals anyone's heat. Please. PLEASE.

 

If that were true, doesn't that mean that no one in wrestling has gotten heat since, I dunno, ever?

 

And if you can't maintain your heat just because the crowd is cheering...wouldn't that mean that you very probably suck at getting heat?

[Mad Dog]

Someone please explain to me how exactly a couple of kids "chanting wrestlers names and cheering guys on" steals anyone's heat. Please. PLEASE.

Because that's not showing how smart you are and how much YOU YOU YOU YOU really understand and how much you appreciate everything that goes on in the ring. And did I forget to mention that it doesn't show how smart YOU YOU YOU YOU really are? I did mention that right? I mean heaven forbide people go to the show and actually try to have fun.

[Mad Dog]

RoH and ECW mutants also dislike being near children because it's a constant reminder of the fact that they will indeed probably never have sex with a woman.

[sek69]

I agree with the guy over on DVDVR who wished Brody was still around to beat the shit out of fans like that.

 

What a way to introduce kids to wrestling, they apparently were having fun (HOW DARE THEY! ROH IS SERIOUS BUSINESS, DAMMIT~!) only to have a bunch of jerkoffs chant at them to be quiet.

 

The next time someone acts puzzled when people complain about fans trying to put themselves over at a show, well, this is is what they're talking about. Anyone who chants "shut the fuck up" at a 10 year old needs tazered in the ballbag to ensure they won't have to deal with the burden of having kids of their own.

[Guest The Man in Blak]

Just as a contrast, how are enthusiastic children treated at Puroresu shows, which are (in my viewing experience) mostly "quiet" affairs as well?

[Marty]

RoH and ECW mutants also dislike being near children because it's a constant reminder of the fact that they will indeed probably never have sex with a woman.

If they ever have a "Post Of The Century" award, yours deserves it Mad Dog.

 

I agree with everything already stated. Well put, and shame on that "writer" and those "fans".

[anarchistxx]

I prefer going to shows with a few kids there. Makes for a better atmosphere, especially at some indy shows when they're more vocal about the 'good guys'.

 

Then again, it's easy to get caught up in the atmosphere of a show. I really criticised ROH fans for their duel chanting and 'this is awesome' chants, yet I was at a recent 1PW show and found myself doing the same thing.

 

Nobody bothered the kids at that show though, and a lot of them made the event a success. There were so many kids who bought the 'Pukka 1' orange t-shirt and were allowed in the ring in the intermission, and it added to the atmosphere for the Darren Burridge match.

[World's Worst Man]

And so, the "bitching about the crowd" syndrome continues on and on and on. First, it's people complaining about the "smarts" in the crowd, now people are complaining about the "marks" in the crowd. I love the intarweb. I don't see any reason to complain about how a crowd reacts, unless the crowd is full of jackasses (and chanting "shut the fuck up" to some innocent mark kids is pretty high in jackassery). I mean, god damn, how dare those kids cheer the wrestlers! Outrageous~!

[Guest CanadianChick]

The wrestlers are more jackasses than the fans. Oh geez, god forbid they are cheering! I think we'll just stop and glare at them, making sure they bid us the proper respect!

 

I really hope the guy reporting that was mistaken and Richards and Rave were just looking at them, and not glaring or being annoyed.

[Resident Evil]

There were also a fair number of young kids there; in particular, there were about five or six 10 year olds in one of the balcony boxes, who were having the absolute time of their lives chanting wrestlers names and cheering guys on. I mention this, because it took some of the heat out of the Davey Richards vs Jimmy Rave match early on, with both guys stopping to glare at the kids stealing their heat

I seriously don't understand at all what the author's trying to say here. How can people cheering take heat away from a match? Doesn't cheering mean heat is being added to the match?

Or does he mean the kids were distracting the audience and therefore "taking" potential heat away from the match?

 

Anyone who chants "shut the f**k up at kids" should be drug out to the streets and shot.

[Loss]

Just as a contrast, how are enthusiastic children treated at Puroresu shows, which are (in my viewing experience) mostly "quiet" affairs as well?

Japanese fans are anything but quiet for their favorites. What have you seen to make you think they're quiet? If anything, most of the matches start off and build to a really hot finish with the crowd getting more involved, but that's par the course for wrestling pretty much anywhere. As for children, the first thing that comes to mind is teenage girls going absolutely insane for 80s AJW when Dump Matsumoto and the Crush Girls were peaking in popularity. The sustained heat for a 60-minute match featuring 12 wrestlers at the end of '87 is so otherworldly in how long the shrieking and screaming is sustained that I don't even really know how to explain it properly.

[Guest wnyxmcneal]

One day there's going to be an ROH show where afterwards people don't immediately start crying about the crowd. That will be a happy day.

 

As usual, I bet this whole thing is being blown out of proportion

[sek69]

Right, because there's a perfectly logical reason to chant the mother of all swear words at a bunch of kids. If they were at the show and heard the chant directed at one of the wrestlers, then I could write that off as the risk you take when you bring kids to a wrestling show. When they're the target of said chant, there's no defense for that.

[anarchistxx]

At the end of the day, what would you rather hear?

 

Retarded duelling chants especially when there's a clear face/heel. 'This Is Awesome' chants making it so you can't concentrate on the match. 'Please Don't Stop' chants.

 

Or some kids cheering for their favourite wrestler.

 

I know which I'd rather have to listen to.

[Guest The Man in Blak]

Just as a contrast, how are enthusiastic children treated at Puroresu shows, which are (in my viewing experience) mostly "quiet" affairs as well?

Japanese fans are anything but quiet for their favorites. What have you seen to make you think they're quiet? If anything, most of the matches start off and build to a really hot finish with the crowd getting more involved, but that's par the course for wrestling pretty much anywhere. As for children, the first thing that comes to mind is teenage girls going absolutely insane for 80s AJW when Dump Matsumoto and the Crush Girls were peaking in popularity. The sustained heat for a 60-minute match featuring 12 wrestlers at the end of '87 is so otherworldly in how long the shrieking and screaming is sustained that I don't even really know how to explain it properly.

Maybe "quiet" isn't the right word for it. From what I have seen (and, admittedly, that may comprise a limited sample of the entire puroresu spectrum), the Japanese fans aren't typically the type that kickoff a match with dueling chants; the match may start off slow and the crowd may observe, popping or gasping for important moves until they build to the hot finish that you have mentioned.

 

And my question is, during those opening moments of the match, when the competitors are trying to tell a story (and the audience is trying to take it in), how are enthusiastic children treated at those times? Is it like the kids in the row in front of you at the theatre who talk during the movie?

 

Though, ultimately, it may be better to just drop the puroresu dialogue and get down to my main implication - is wrestling really for kids at this point? I know that most of us became fans as kids during a very kid-friendly era in the 80's but, now that ECW and the Attitude era are in the rearview mirror, can we really go back to that?

 

It's like the genie has already been let out of the proverbial bottle. The mainstream North American product is geared to be more entertaining for the older demographics and the fanbase has been trained to have certain expectations to go with that, expectations that they may carry to any show. In the case of RoH, that means that fans may walk in the arena with the expectation that they can/should be rowdy and indignant like those ECW-esque crowds of years ago, even if the product in the ring doesn't necessarily reflect that.

 

I'm not defending the act of cussing out kids at a wrestling show because I completely agree that it's despicable, even outside of the arena. But we can't just assign blame over the crowd for being stupid - I think we need to examine why some of the fans even thought that such an act would be acceptable at a wrestling event at all.

[Guest wnyxmcneal]

Other reports said the kids were yelling profanity at the wrestlers first and just generally being annoying.

 

I just love how people always take it so seriously what the crowd chants and how they react. If they're having a good time...so what?

[Loss]

Other reports said the kids were yelling profanity at the wrestlers first and just generally being annoying.

 

I just love how people always take it so seriously what the crowd chants and how they react. If they're having a good time...so what?

Yelling profanities at small children is supposed to be fun?

 

Then again, using "they started it" as a defense is pretty childish on its own.

 

My complaint was more with the way the recap was worded than anything, as if ROH is this mythical promotion beyond the realms of pro wrestling that is REAL~! and ATHLETIC~! unlike that sports entertainment crap that we see on Monday nights. It's just so annoying, and *screams* pretentious teenage bullshit.

 

ROH is pro wrestling. Sometimes good and sometimes great, but it's not so far beyond what a casual fan could even comprehend. Or maybe it is, which is perhaps the problem with it. Who knows?

[Guest wnyxmcneal]

If the kids were being annoying and yelling profanity and random stuff, then I see no problem with telling them to shut up. Did they have to curse? Probably not.

 

That recap was stupid, I agree with you.

 

It's more the ROH Message Board, where people are always complaining about every little thing the crowd does. So it just annoys me having to constantly see it brought up.

[Loss]

You know, I've never been the ROH board.

[Guest The Man in Blak]

I just love how people always take it so seriously what the crowd chants and how they react. If they're having a good time...so what?

And I could have a good time pissing all over your shoes - so what?

 

Yeah, everybody is there at the event to have fun and enjoy the wrestling, but the overall idea for most events is that you have fun in a way that doesn't screw up somebody else's appreciation of the proceedings. The fact that cussing out some kids and being a jerk may provide some joy to somebody doesn't necessarily make it right, especially when their acts may screw up the fun for those kids (or anybody else in the crowd, for that matter).

 

Of course, if those kids were cussing at the wrestlers and "starting it", then perhaps my concerns are misplaced.

[Guest wnyxmcneal]

You know, I've never been the ROH board.

It will make your head hurt. I only go there to see the newswire and to laugh at some of the threads. You might have fun in there.

 

Of course, ROH is dead to me since Nigel lost the Pure Title.

[Bix]

The relevant UKFF thread: http://ukff.com/index.php?showtopic=88258

 

Bobbins and Kenny are rather spectacular in it.

[Mad Dog]

Reading the RoHbots try and defend this just annoys me even more with them. What is it about RoH that just attracts pathetic assholes?