Comments that don't warrant a thread

[Dylan Waco]

"Racist," anti-Southerner? I'm struggling to think of a more inaccurate description one could give a person.

Subconciously self-loathing, then? Because despite all your credentials, you twice hit up the same "stupid fuckin' rednecks" stereotypes that so many yankees often make such an annoying habit out of.

 

 

 

Not self-loathing at all as evidenced by everything I just wrote. And I must admit that I find the interjection of managerial elite language about the "subconscious" to be deeply amusing, albeit in an unintentional way.

 

But enough of this. This is PWO and I will leave discussion of my political/cultural/economic views for other venues.

[ohtani's jacket]

I don't understand why it matters. What's the point? That there's a vast majority of wrestling fans who are stupid? Is being a wrestling fan supposed to be something you're clever at?

[kjh]

Stalkers tend to specifically fixate upon a single particular individual, and mentally imbue them with the stalker's own deranged fantasies of how this is the Perfect Girl and such. I don't think their flirting while bringing you a pitcher of beer has any real impact on that.

Most stalkers tend to fixate on people they feel they know personally, not random strangers. Flirting would have a real impact on that, because the stalker comes to believe that the Hooters waitress or stripper *really* likes him and isn't just saying nice things to him to get a bigger tip.

[Marty]

I should also point out that there is a difference between job where emotional management is aimed at making customer feel well liked/wanted (Hooters) and one where job is getting customer angry.

That's the closest I've found to a genuine explanation. I tried to sit down and think of other forms of entertainment in which half the show's goals involve deliberately pissing off the paying customers, and really there aren't many besides purorasslin.

 

To some degree, journalism falls into this category. You'll hear more about economic downturns than economic upswings, for example. "Plane lands safely" is not a good newspaper headline. "H1N1 will affect many, many people" is a good one.

 

I generally agree with Tom's analogy.

[Bob Morris]

I should also point out that there is a difference between job where emotional management is aimed at making customer feel well liked/wanted (Hooters) and one where job is getting customer angry.

That's the closest I've found to a genuine explanation. I tried to sit down and think of other forms of entertainment in which half the show's goals involve deliberately pissing off the paying customers, and really there aren't many besides purorasslin.

 

To some degree, journalism falls into this category. You'll hear more about economic downturns than economic upswings, for example. "Plane lands safely" is not a good newspaper headline. "H1N1 will affect many, many people" is a good one.

 

I generally agree with Tom's analogy.

 

Oh, yes, I can certainly tell you that's how journalism tends to be... with some exceptions. A pilot who lands a plane safely when all indicators were that it was going to crash will definitely make news, for example.

 

Tom's analogy is about the best one that can be made. I suppose one could try to compare it to actors on afternoon soap operas (and there are plenty of stories about fans who came up to actors and started chewing them out, as if the actor and the character were the same person), but that being said, the actors on soap operas don't stay in character outside of the shows.

[Bix]

I've wondered why that seems to happen so much more with daytime soaps than other TV shows, except for the aforementioned Jamie Walters stuff which seems like it was even worse than the daytime shows as far as how open and widespread it was.

[Bob Morris]

I've wondered why that seems to happen so much more with daytime soaps than other TV shows, except for the aforementioned Jamie Walters stuff which seems like it was even worse than the daytime shows as far as how open and widespread it was.

That's probably because daytime soap operas don't run credits before the show, and do it after only once in a while. Hence the fans watching them didn't always know who the actors were.

 

When I was a kid, I sometimes watched the soaps because my mother watched them. While I knew the actor who played the Fonz was named Henry Winkler, I never knew the names of any of the actors on the soaps because they seldom aired credits to point out their names.

[Bix]

That makes a certain degree of sense.

 

Now explain Jamie Walters.

[KrisZ]

It also didn't help that Walters singing in real life like his character on TV which he didn't become successful as a singer until playing one on a previous show The Heights where they had a #1 song in How Do You Talk To An Angel as the theme of a show that was cancelled very quickly.

[S.L.L.]

Does anyone know what the extent of the IRL harassment and hatred was for Gordon Jump after playing a pedophile on Diff'rent Strokes? I know his daughter talked about people who actually knew him turning against him because "you played this character on TV, that means that some of that must be in you", but I don't know how far that went.

 

My natural inclination is to chalk this up to a combination of wrestling having an abnormally high number of stupid and/or crazy fans compared to other forms of entertainment, people in the biz stretching the truth (not lying, mind you, just "fish story" stuff), all the stuff TomK was talking about WRT to jobs that manipulate people's emotions, and booze.

[ohtani's jacket]

I'd say actors would be more weary of crazy fans than professional wrestlers. There's never been a Rebecca Schaeffer case in wrestling as far as I'm aware.

[Loss]

I have also heard stories about Tony Goldwyn dealing with some hostile people on the streets after Ghost.

[KrisZ]

I wonder what Tony Geary went through after his Luke character raped Laura on General Hospital.

[Bix]

There's never been a Rebecca Schaeffer case in wrestling as far as I'm aware.

No, but I've encountered enough people on the internet that it wouldn't shock me to see some wrestling fan determined X female wrestler was "now a whore" and decided to kill her.

[jdw]

I wonder what Tony Geary went through after his Luke character raped Laura on General Hospital.

One of the great twists of soap history was Luke getting spun into a babyface after that, and Scotty going heel.

 

John

[Log]

Oh, yes, I can certainly tell you that's how journalism tends to be... with some exceptions. A pilot who lands a plane safely when all indicators were that it was going to crash will definitely make news, for example.

No, no it wouldn't unfortunately (in my experience). Believe me, I've called back to my station from many, many crime scenes/auto accidents/etc, told them no one died, and got a disappointed, "Really? That's too bad." It's gotta be big, big like the "Miracle on the Hudson" deal to warrent news coverage.

[ohtani's jacket]

There's never been a Rebecca Schaeffer case in wrestling as far as I'm aware.

No, but I've encountered enough people on the internet that it wouldn't shock me to see some wrestling fan determined X female wrestler was "now a whore" and decided to kill her.

 

Semi-related point... I read this article when I was trying to remember Schaeffer's name -- http://www.people.com/people/archive/artic...0120867,00.html

 

This raises an interesting point:

 

Gavin de Becker, an L.A. security expert who helps stars ward off unwanted attentions, thinks the problem is increasing. "It's getting much worse," says de Becker. "It's because of the emphasis on the personal lives of media figures, particularly on television. And this has blurred the line between appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Nowhere in history could you completely 'know' someone like you can now 'know' Johnny Carson."

I'm not sure it was ever like that in professional wrestling, and thus much harder for people to separate the person from the wrestler they play in a promotion. When people were threatening Dump Matsumoto and her family during AJW's heyday, I don't think they were thinking about her as Kaori Matsumoto, a young woman who played a villain on television. It wasn't until after she retired that she became a TV personality and known performer. Before that, her shit was getting censored and thrown off the air in some places.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Oh, yes, I can certainly tell you that's how journalism tends to be... with some exceptions. A pilot who lands a plane safely when all indicators were that it was going to crash will definitely make news, for example.

No, no it wouldn't unfortunately (in my experience). Believe me, I've called back to my station from many, many crime scenes/auto accidents/etc, told them no one died, and got a disappointed, "Really? That's too bad." It's gotta be big, big like the "Miracle on the Hudson" deal to warrent news coverage.

 

This is a (probably sad) fact. However, most research shows that people just don't read or care that much about the good news stories. Everyone says they do, but when it comes to ratings/viewership/subscriptions the bad news far outdraws the good.

[Loss]

Just like people say they're turned off by negative campaigning in politics, but it usually works.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Just like people say they're turned off by negative campaigning in politics, but it usually works.

Or how people say they want politicians to speak their mind. Most politicians that speak their mind get the boot from voters.

[sek69]

In my experience, people generally only want to be told things they want to hear and tend to get really upset if you tell them anything else.

[Bix]

From the new classic WON:

 

What appears to be the biggest news came from a non-wrestling magazine interview with George and Shunji Takano this past week. The brothers said they were quitting NOW (Network of Wrestling) and said that Hachiro Tanaka, the billionaire behind NOW, WAR and PWF, was growing tired of the wrestling business. They said the limit of his involvement is to give WAR $1.5 million to start up and NOW $480,000, but that would be the end of his financial involvement. Tanaka's groups, with the exception of PWF, have been huge money losers. Many feel it's simply a matter of time before both groups go through their allotment and that, barring getting a new financier, they may both be history at that point.

I had no idea that NOW had Tanaka funding. I get PWFG and SWS/WAR being separate promotions because one was shoot style. I don't get funding a indy that wasn't on a lot of people's radar on top of the "traditional" and shoot stlye groups.

[Bix]

And from the same Observer...

 

Kevin Von Erich made some quotes in a St. Louis newspaper last week that showed his state of mind, or lack thereof. When asked what he'd been up to after arriving two hours late for an autograph session, Kevin replied he was in Oklahoma and working with a group called Feed the Children. "Oh man, it's a great group. I don't care if you hate my guts or whatever. They're fighting some disease that, I told you I can't get political. But if we can't take care of the little kids, who will? The homosexuals? "The homosexuals are in charge of the media. They'll run you down if you oppose them. The people I talk to are America. But if you don't dance to their tunes, you don't get on television. It burns me up. Radical groups in San Francisco are telling you the whole country's like that. Well, it ain't. They all keep doing it and dying, and they call us ignorant." Kevin then no-showed his scheduled wrestling appearance the next day in St. Louis with them claiming there was a mechanical problem with his plane. Problem was everyone knew he was in town the day before. In reality, Kevin was waiting for Kerry at the airport and Kerry arrived at 7 p.m. for a 2 p.m. show, and instead of going to the arena, Kevin just sat at the airport.

[Loss]

They all keep doing it and dying, and they call us ignorant.

I actually laughed at that line, I'm ashamed to say.

 

But yeah, interesting how far we have progressed in 17 years. If a pro wrestler said something like that publicly now, there would be controversy over it.

[sek69]

Two things struck me reading that Kevin bit:

 

1. Anything, no matter how bigoted, sounds hilarious when you picture Kevin's voice saying it.

 

2. The image of Kevin waiting for hours in the airport was like the saddest thing ever. In my mind they were playing the sad walking away music from the Incredible Hulk tv show while Kevin walked slowly away.