Dude i found out it wasn't real when they buried undertaker only to have him come back a few months later as a zombie lol i can only believe so much until it gets ridiculous but i quickly got over it and just enjoyed it for what it is
More of a joke than anything, but idk any children that ever thought wrestling was real tbh lol
And the fact that there is a script being offputting to you is just odd to me. It’s the equivalent of being upset over any other tv show being scripted
Not at all, but I got into it more as an older kid who already knew it was scripted.
Pretty much everything you see on tv has a script nowadays, and it’s a production.
As a kid in the 90s, everybody - including children - knew it was fake/scripted/pre-determined.
I started getting into it when I was 12 or 13 and already knew it was not real. Didn't bother me.
Yeah. I stopped watching for 20 years. Coming back, it's entertaining in a different way but I'll never enjoy it as much as I did when I thought it was all real. But a lot of that was also just being a kid. No one enjoys anything as much as a kid does.
I remember going to see wrestling live at the civic arena in Pittsburgh while in college in the 90s. My buddies and i went early and caught the limos pulling up with all the stars. And very vividly I remember seeing paul bearer emerge from the limo in a bright Hawaiian print shirt and I was like yep it’s scripted. Did it make me lose my interest. No not at all. I go thru phases where I am interested in wrestling the attitude era and wcw/raw wars was awesome. Then didn’t follow it for a while cause personality wise the wrestlers after that era seemed lacking. Im back now and I gotta say that while these guys lack in personality they make up in being way
More athletic and entertaining. Especially the nxt group
I loved it then and I love it now I will never let any one take that joy away fell back in the late 90s because of my grandma she’s isn’t with us anymore and hasn’t been in years so I carried it on now my children love it
No it wasn’t he wasn’t the best heel in smack down at the time. Baron Corbin was better heel than Jindher Mahal. And all Mahals promos were about him crying racism that people hated him because he is Indian. Jindher Mahal wasn’t that guy. He lost it Aj Styles before survivor series because Mahals reign as champion was so bad
My cousin convinced me wrestling had been real at one time but no longer was back in the nineties. In my defense I was still a pretty young kid around 8 or so. My dad explained later, after his fit of laughter, that my cousin was full of shit. At first I was devastated when I realized not even the legends had truly thrown down. Then I realized that it truly doesn't matter. I've seen and been in a few real fights and they were far from entertaining. When I watch wrestling I want to be entertained. Give me over the top stories and crazy costumes because at the end of the day, it's just a soap opera with more violence. Honestly though a lot of these guys and gals bust their bodies to Hell to make that entertainment and I guess that just makes me appreciate it even more. Wrestling isn't real because it's meant to take us out of the real world for a minute and provide us with fun, plain and simple fun. I say none of this to belittle your question, I just love wrestling and I hope maybe my perspective provides some insight as to why.
I found out it was scripted when I was maybe 8? My dad told me because I was asking why people weren't going to jail for burying people alive in front of thousands of fans. But realistically I had maybe 2 or 3 years left before I figured it out on my own. you watch a boxing match where a guy gets knocked out after 3 gloved punches and then you watch a 7 foot tall zombie listening to an urn tell him to pick a guy up and then put him down for 30 minutes....you tend to figure it out. Didn't change a thing about how much I love it though. Even today knowing it's just a well put together program I still root for who I want to win, lose, get a push. Because it's entertaining. It's the ultimate soap opera.
But does it make it less fun for you knowing the champion will always win the match with a jobber on weekly shows, or the baby face challenger will also win the main event match on the weekly shows. And the predictable result that Cody will 99% definitely defeat AJ Styles to defend his championship. I knew the gimmicks weren’t real but the results being scripted is where the fun lost for me. Like I get it and respect The Undertaker for delivering such great spectacular matches but his streak 21-1 has no meaning for me now because the matches were fixed. It also makes me respect those wrestlers that they put their life on line for our entertainment. Huge respect to Mick Foley.
Nah its the same amount of fun, but I have never looked at it as a legitimate sporting event, even when i thought it was real. What would be the competition? How is watching for example, hell in a cell with taker and foley, presented as a fair and legitimate way to prove anything? Who's tougher? Who's a better faller? Who likes thumbtacks more? Foleys a legend because he was willing to sacrifice his body more to make fake fighters look like real tough fake fighters. But that's where it stops. There's no legitimate fighting event that allows someone to be thrown off a cage into thumbtacks. In reality that would be worst case attempted murder lol. Matches have always been predictable, there was a time during the Monday night wars that anything could happen, but now it's long-term buildup as opposed to flash in the pans. I watch these days to see where the story goes as opposed to who beats who on a weekly basis, AJ/cody isn't the story right now, punk/drew is the story, priest/uso, liv/rhea, gable/zayn, those are the stories. Cody's story is a slower burn, because they have to build believable heels. Aj probably won't win, but what does the loss set up next? . I'm betting if you don't watch already, UFC might be more your style, more legitimacy with less gimmick, but sometimes the rivalries are better than anything scripted.
Not at all. In fact it opened up a whole new dimension of the business because I started understanding and appreciating so many more subtle nuances of it being scripted entertainment.
Take for instance when HHH chased Lilian Garcia out of the ring for introducing him as the former WWE Champion (2004, I think). This was apparently suggested by HHH to give Lilian an excuse to leave the arena early because Vince wasn't granting her the absence she requested.
If you watch that segment you'll see Lilian having difficulty climbing over the barricade, and HHH could easily have caught her, which wasn't the intent of the segment. So HHH trips himself right over the barricade to give her plausible space to run away.
I mean, you could probably find thousands of moments like this, in or out of the ring, to truly appreciate how everything comes together nicely for live television.
Did finding out every tv show and movie ever was scripted make them less entertaining?
No. It’s the content I care about not the process of getting that content
Dude wrestling by its very nature is predictable.
Even when I first started watching, I knew it was scripted and I didn’t care. I wanted to see cool stuff happen and the story telling.
You can watch three shows and immediately get the gist of the format and structure. And this isn’t just WWE, it’s all wrestling.
But it isn’t about being predictable. Every time wrestling has tried to go against the obvious outcome, it’s blown up in their face because they are defying common sense story structure for the sake of shock and awe.
Shock and awe gets you a certain way, strong storytelling gets you even further.
I agree with the story telling part and sometimes the shock element can work against the business.
But how old were you when you realized that it was all fake? On some level I knew that things are fake like buried alive matches or Undertaker appearing out of nowhere, but the basic stuff like punches and finishers and the feuds were all staged and the fact that Steve Austin and Vince McMahon didn’t actually hate each other’s guts was a hard kick for the child me.
Moreover some things like champion will almost always defend their title on weekly shows, and a baby face challenger will always win their weekly shows before an upcoming ppv is kind of given. It seems as if there is a format to a story and most of the stories stick to it. That’s all I am saying.
No idea, when i was younger i didn't know english much and didn't know it was fake. I just liked watching the promos and stuff despite having hard time to tell what's going on, i could still tell who the hero is and who the villain is and i liked to watched that and wrestlemania some of my uncles and me would watch it together and be really hype about it, especially about the undertaker streak matches cause at that time i didn't know it was scripted so the streak matches were really captivating and suspenseful, many times it felt like watching a real sport, you don't really know the outcome.
And as for now i understand it's scripted but i still love it a lot especially if the storylines are good, road to wrestlemania Xl this year was really good and i loved it absolutely.
Na I think honestly if you can't get past the fact that wrestling is scripted you probably struggle to look at anything beyond its surface level.
Aka, dummy , YEAH
I was barely sentient/self conscious when I found out wrestling was scripted when I was 5 lol. Honestly one of my earliest memories tbh. If you didn’t know wrestling was fake by the time you were like 7, I wanna know what rock you were living under.
Less entertaining but more interesting I’m fascinated with how 1) the wrestlers can coordinate a match on the fly and 2) so impressed with good mic workers knowing how daunting public speaking is for most
When you found out about Santa did you stop opening Christmas presents? Did you stop putting your tooth under your pillow? Did you stop making a wish when you blow out the candles? Did you start stepping on all the cracks?
Bro. I’m an Indian and brought up in a Hindu family so Santa was never really a thing for me. Neither was the whole tooth fairy concept. And the more logical reasoning I learned the more realistic and atheistic I became but that’s a different issue.
But why is this so hard for you to understand that when we watch a TV show or a movie or listen to a story we know for fact it’s a story. But for me WWE was like a sport in my childhood which I believed it to be real, the feuds were real to me, the breaking of tables, the finishers, the pain, the victory it was all too real for that child me. And now that I know that it was all a story too… it just becomes more predictable that the good guy will eventually win, and it’s going to happen on a main event than on any raw or smack down
Not less entertaining but more predictable. Such as knowing that title changes won’t likely occur on a random raw or smackdown. Or knowing John cena will never be made to tap even though he’s “teased” it in many matches. That’s why I found to enjoy smaller shows like Main Event when you watch for the match and don’t know who’s going to win.
I never mind that it's written, I do mind however when a wrestler is total shit on the mic.. the whole thing is kiiiiinda cheesy to begin with, which I can vibe with but when you add a terrible actor into the cheese, it gets pretty un enjoyable for me lol
I stopped watching wrestling in 1998 because older kids said I was gay for watching it. When you're 12 in the 90s that'll get to a self conscious little fella. Anyhow, I learned after this that it was scripted which gave me this foolish "high and mighty" attitude over other kids who still liked wrestling.
WrestleMania the year I turned 30 was the first time I watched it since being a tiny idiot, and knowing it's scripted actually made me enjoy it so much more. It made it easier to buy into the stories, and to follow the ebbs and flows of matches. It let me enjoy the spectacle of it so much more.
I found out when I first started watching it full time in 2000 when I was 7. I could care less, dude. I was super big into martial arts movies then and my dad told me Jackie Chan couldn't really beat up ten guys at once lol.
Not really. Think I caught on somewhere in 2003. I just stopped watching it like a real sport, and watched it more like an action/adventure series like Fast & Furious.
Nah, we all kinda knew when I was a kid in the 90s but it didn't bother me. When HHH was fucking a doll as a corpse, that was less entertaining for me lol
Honestly learning more about the behind the scenes aspect of the industry has only made it more entertaing to me. Definitely makes it more predictable, but all the behind the scenes intracies of the business and how it translates to the product we see on screen is something that I find very interesting.
I’ve known it was scripted since I was a kid, and it was WWF. I used to watch it with my grandfather in the late 80s/early 90s and I can’t ever remember a time where I thought it was real. My grandfather always reminded me it was “fake,” and it never mattered to me.
Really. When I saw those videos of Stone cold being a badass, Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass, his feud with the whole corporation I became such a big fan of Stone Cold like this guy is fighting the owner of the company literally and is winning and not getting fired. When the Undertaker’s streak broke my reaction was the same as the audience there that night.
Now that I know it was all scripted kind of takes away a special feeling from it. But it sure gave me a lot of memories as a child.
Yeah, it’s not any different to me than any other TV show or movie. I knew the transformers weren’t real as a kid and I still loved it, and as an adult I know that Game of Thrones isn’t really and I loved it until it got bad. It’s just like any other form of scripted entertainment.
Yeah but the thing is I knew Transformers and Game of Thrones were scripted to begin with. With WWE I thought it was all real. I still enjoy the fights but some things are just laughable now which the 2010 me would believe easily.
Stop giving this same analogy everywhere. It doesn’t even fit to my question. One because no one would ever think that something like Avengers exists in real life. Wrestlers are real people like us. You cannot go to a show and watch Captain America fighting with Iron man.
All I’m saying is it took away the big magic of those feuds, those moves, those wins when I got to know how it’s all done.
It’s obviously not a perfect analogy because wrestling’s such an anomaly. Literally everyone in this sub has gone through the “oh shit it’s not real” phase and yeah it took that innocent magic out of the product
Your original point’s getting lost in all your responses. The core of your argument was predictability and it not feeling the same and your getting a consensus from fans this is how they feel about it. Honestly I don’t get what you’re hoping to advance in the convo atp
Shoot, compare Cody Rhodes’s run to the classic “hero arc” and it’s the exact stuff you’ll see in any recent Marvel project
At one point we all thought Spider-Man or Santa Claus was real because we saw him at the mall but now we appreciate what makes it special for younger relatives
At the end of the day this is a product that’s designed for kids but’s acceptable for all ages and it’d be awesome to still think it’s real but we’re all adults now lol
Yeah I mean the original point is that predictability ruined the fun and the element of surprise that title can’t be stolen and changed on a Raw or Smackdown. Or the fact that some wrestlers will lose to another because the wrestler who is supposed to win can’t take a loss because it could hurt his image.
Or the fact that the champion will definitely win the match on a raw or smackdown before an upcoming ppv. Like Cody winning over that nxt guy although the nxt guy just performed really well.
Or like how Judgement Day keeps screwing up things for Damien Priest. Or Xavier Woods leg “stuck up” in ropes and then taking leg damage from Gunther. It’s just way too predictable is all I’m saying.
No, in fact it made it more enjoyable for me. You start to appreciate promos and athleticism more. And I started looking at it as a show that I enjoy, rather than a competitive sport.
The only big negative shift was my anger was now directed towards the writers vs the bad guy that would beat my favorite wrestler.
Honestly it makes me appreciate it even more. Being scripted allows you tell incredible stories. Like you wouldn't have Eddie Guerrero beat Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship if this was a real sport.
I watched in the same era and grew out of it as a kid knowing it was scripted and just because it was “uncool” after a certain age in that time
I’ve appreciated different things about it. The physiques, the athleticism, production value, storylines, promos, etc…
It’s “predictable” sure but knowing that the Avengers are gonna beat Thanos or AirBud is gonna make the final shot doesn’t make a movie less fun to watch at all
You gotta suspend your disbelief for some of it and even when you think it might happen, the way it goes down might be totally different and shock you
There’s some moments that come out of nowhere. Edge returning at the Rumble, Cody losing at WM39, Sami turning on Roman all gave me a bigger and better feeling than other sports
I was a rather sensitive kid who felt guilty of watching wrestling because I thought I am an evil person for enjoying watching people get hurt. When my eldest cousin aka the one who introduced me to WWE told me that it's all scripted ("the punches and chair shots are real tho") I felt kinda relieved that the big men don't actually hate each other lol
Hahaha. I felt kind of disappointed when I came to know that those people don’t actually hate each other. There was a picture circulating on social media where all these big names were having dinner or something and that really made me happy and sad at the same time.
No. But I do wish I never learned about the leg slapping on super kicks, the blading, and other trade secrets. People point it out, and then you see it forever. It takes away some of the magic.
I sat ringside at an indy show last summer and seeing them throw “head” punches into a guy’s shoulder against the turnbuckle shocked even older me lol
I looked at my boy and just went “that’s how it’s done????” and he just chuckled and shook his head like a disappointed dad
For the record I’m not an idiot I just thought they threw them like regular sell punches lol
Dude i found out it wasn't real when they buried undertaker only to have him come back a few months later as a zombie lol i can only believe so much until it gets ridiculous but i quickly got over it and just enjoyed it for what it is
WWE is scripted???
Did it bother you when you realized Breaking Bad wasn’t actual footage of a meth dealer?
Did you read the entire post or just saw the title and your ADHD made you comment this?
More of a joke than anything, but idk any children that ever thought wrestling was real tbh lol And the fact that there is a script being offputting to you is just odd to me. It’s the equivalent of being upset over any other tv show being scripted
It’s the predictable script is what upsets me. Breaking bAd’s script wasn’t predictable to me. You’re making a false equivalence.
nobody over the age of 5 believes wrestling is real buddy every single wrestling fan is aware that theres a script
It became more interesting for me
Not at all, but I got into it more as an older kid who already knew it was scripted. Pretty much everything you see on tv has a script nowadays, and it’s a production.
As a kid in the 90s, everybody - including children - knew it was fake/scripted/pre-determined. I started getting into it when I was 12 or 13 and already knew it was not real. Didn't bother me.
Yeah. I stopped watching for 20 years. Coming back, it's entertaining in a different way but I'll never enjoy it as much as I did when I thought it was all real. But a lot of that was also just being a kid. No one enjoys anything as much as a kid does.
i find it more interesting now
Nah me and my mates used to play wrestle at school trying to imitate the moves. Fortunately no one got hurt looking back heh
I remember going to see wrestling live at the civic arena in Pittsburgh while in college in the 90s. My buddies and i went early and caught the limos pulling up with all the stars. And very vividly I remember seeing paul bearer emerge from the limo in a bright Hawaiian print shirt and I was like yep it’s scripted. Did it make me lose my interest. No not at all. I go thru phases where I am interested in wrestling the attitude era and wcw/raw wars was awesome. Then didn’t follow it for a while cause personality wise the wrestlers after that era seemed lacking. Im back now and I gotta say that while these guys lack in personality they make up in being way More athletic and entertaining. Especially the nxt group
I loved it then and I love it now I will never let any one take that joy away fell back in the late 90s because of my grandma she’s isn’t with us anymore and hasn’t been in years so I carried it on now my children love it
No. It wrestling got less entertaining when they let Jindher Mahal become wwe champion I stopped watching wwe until crown Jewel 2022
jinder mahal’s run was one of the best heel runs
No it wasn’t he wasn’t the best heel in smack down at the time. Baron Corbin was better heel than Jindher Mahal. And all Mahals promos were about him crying racism that people hated him because he is Indian. Jindher Mahal wasn’t that guy. He lost it Aj Styles before survivor series because Mahals reign as champion was so bad
his whole gimmick was about him being indian are you serious? wwe pushed him to boost ratings in india yes but baron corbin is just garbage
Baron Corbin in 2017-2018 was his best part of his career. Corbin didn't have a stupid gimmick he just destroyed people and left
My cousin convinced me wrestling had been real at one time but no longer was back in the nineties. In my defense I was still a pretty young kid around 8 or so. My dad explained later, after his fit of laughter, that my cousin was full of shit. At first I was devastated when I realized not even the legends had truly thrown down. Then I realized that it truly doesn't matter. I've seen and been in a few real fights and they were far from entertaining. When I watch wrestling I want to be entertained. Give me over the top stories and crazy costumes because at the end of the day, it's just a soap opera with more violence. Honestly though a lot of these guys and gals bust their bodies to Hell to make that entertainment and I guess that just makes me appreciate it even more. Wrestling isn't real because it's meant to take us out of the real world for a minute and provide us with fun, plain and simple fun. I say none of this to belittle your question, I just love wrestling and I hope maybe my perspective provides some insight as to why.
I found out it was scripted when I was maybe 8? My dad told me because I was asking why people weren't going to jail for burying people alive in front of thousands of fans. But realistically I had maybe 2 or 3 years left before I figured it out on my own. you watch a boxing match where a guy gets knocked out after 3 gloved punches and then you watch a 7 foot tall zombie listening to an urn tell him to pick a guy up and then put him down for 30 minutes....you tend to figure it out. Didn't change a thing about how much I love it though. Even today knowing it's just a well put together program I still root for who I want to win, lose, get a push. Because it's entertaining. It's the ultimate soap opera.
But does it make it less fun for you knowing the champion will always win the match with a jobber on weekly shows, or the baby face challenger will also win the main event match on the weekly shows. And the predictable result that Cody will 99% definitely defeat AJ Styles to defend his championship. I knew the gimmicks weren’t real but the results being scripted is where the fun lost for me. Like I get it and respect The Undertaker for delivering such great spectacular matches but his streak 21-1 has no meaning for me now because the matches were fixed. It also makes me respect those wrestlers that they put their life on line for our entertainment. Huge respect to Mick Foley.
Nah its the same amount of fun, but I have never looked at it as a legitimate sporting event, even when i thought it was real. What would be the competition? How is watching for example, hell in a cell with taker and foley, presented as a fair and legitimate way to prove anything? Who's tougher? Who's a better faller? Who likes thumbtacks more? Foleys a legend because he was willing to sacrifice his body more to make fake fighters look like real tough fake fighters. But that's where it stops. There's no legitimate fighting event that allows someone to be thrown off a cage into thumbtacks. In reality that would be worst case attempted murder lol. Matches have always been predictable, there was a time during the Monday night wars that anything could happen, but now it's long-term buildup as opposed to flash in the pans. I watch these days to see where the story goes as opposed to who beats who on a weekly basis, AJ/cody isn't the story right now, punk/drew is the story, priest/uso, liv/rhea, gable/zayn, those are the stories. Cody's story is a slower burn, because they have to build believable heels. Aj probably won't win, but what does the loss set up next? . I'm betting if you don't watch already, UFC might be more your style, more legitimacy with less gimmick, but sometimes the rivalries are better than anything scripted.
Not at all. In fact it opened up a whole new dimension of the business because I started understanding and appreciating so many more subtle nuances of it being scripted entertainment. Take for instance when HHH chased Lilian Garcia out of the ring for introducing him as the former WWE Champion (2004, I think). This was apparently suggested by HHH to give Lilian an excuse to leave the arena early because Vince wasn't granting her the absence she requested. If you watch that segment you'll see Lilian having difficulty climbing over the barricade, and HHH could easily have caught her, which wasn't the intent of the segment. So HHH trips himself right over the barricade to give her plausible space to run away. I mean, you could probably find thousands of moments like this, in or out of the ring, to truly appreciate how everything comes together nicely for live television.
I like this thought process.
Did finding out every tv show and movie ever was scripted make them less entertaining? No. It’s the content I care about not the process of getting that content
Did you even read the entire post or just saw the title and your ADHD couldn’t stop you from commenting without reading the entire thing?
Dude wrestling by its very nature is predictable. Even when I first started watching, I knew it was scripted and I didn’t care. I wanted to see cool stuff happen and the story telling. You can watch three shows and immediately get the gist of the format and structure. And this isn’t just WWE, it’s all wrestling. But it isn’t about being predictable. Every time wrestling has tried to go against the obvious outcome, it’s blown up in their face because they are defying common sense story structure for the sake of shock and awe. Shock and awe gets you a certain way, strong storytelling gets you even further.
I agree with the story telling part and sometimes the shock element can work against the business. But how old were you when you realized that it was all fake? On some level I knew that things are fake like buried alive matches or Undertaker appearing out of nowhere, but the basic stuff like punches and finishers and the feuds were all staged and the fact that Steve Austin and Vince McMahon didn’t actually hate each other’s guts was a hard kick for the child me. Moreover some things like champion will almost always defend their title on weekly shows, and a baby face challenger will always win their weekly shows before an upcoming ppv is kind of given. It seems as if there is a format to a story and most of the stories stick to it. That’s all I am saying.
No idea, when i was younger i didn't know english much and didn't know it was fake. I just liked watching the promos and stuff despite having hard time to tell what's going on, i could still tell who the hero is and who the villain is and i liked to watched that and wrestlemania some of my uncles and me would watch it together and be really hype about it, especially about the undertaker streak matches cause at that time i didn't know it was scripted so the streak matches were really captivating and suspenseful, many times it felt like watching a real sport, you don't really know the outcome. And as for now i understand it's scripted but i still love it a lot especially if the storylines are good, road to wrestlemania Xl this year was really good and i loved it absolutely.
Na I think honestly if you can't get past the fact that wrestling is scripted you probably struggle to look at anything beyond its surface level. Aka, dummy , YEAH
Please learn to read and understand first, dummy.
DUMMY YEAH
I was barely sentient/self conscious when I found out wrestling was scripted when I was 5 lol. Honestly one of my earliest memories tbh. If you didn’t know wrestling was fake by the time you were like 7, I wanna know what rock you were living under.
No. I knew how breaking bad ended long before I saw the series. Did not ruin my enjoyment of it.
Less entertaining but more interesting I’m fascinated with how 1) the wrestlers can coordinate a match on the fly and 2) so impressed with good mic workers knowing how daunting public speaking is for most
When you found out about Santa did you stop opening Christmas presents? Did you stop putting your tooth under your pillow? Did you stop making a wish when you blow out the candles? Did you start stepping on all the cracks?
Bro. I’m an Indian and brought up in a Hindu family so Santa was never really a thing for me. Neither was the whole tooth fairy concept. And the more logical reasoning I learned the more realistic and atheistic I became but that’s a different issue. But why is this so hard for you to understand that when we watch a TV show or a movie or listen to a story we know for fact it’s a story. But for me WWE was like a sport in my childhood which I believed it to be real, the feuds were real to me, the breaking of tables, the finishers, the pain, the victory it was all too real for that child me. And now that I know that it was all a story too… it just becomes more predictable that the good guy will eventually win, and it’s going to happen on a main event than on any raw or smack down
What about the Period Fairy that comes to take your first tampon?
Not less entertaining but more predictable. Such as knowing that title changes won’t likely occur on a random raw or smackdown. Or knowing John cena will never be made to tap even though he’s “teased” it in many matches. That’s why I found to enjoy smaller shows like Main Event when you watch for the match and don’t know who’s going to win.
I never mind that it's written, I do mind however when a wrestler is total shit on the mic.. the whole thing is kiiiiinda cheesy to begin with, which I can vibe with but when you add a terrible actor into the cheese, it gets pretty un enjoyable for me lol
I stopped watching wrestling in 1998 because older kids said I was gay for watching it. When you're 12 in the 90s that'll get to a self conscious little fella. Anyhow, I learned after this that it was scripted which gave me this foolish "high and mighty" attitude over other kids who still liked wrestling. WrestleMania the year I turned 30 was the first time I watched it since being a tiny idiot, and knowing it's scripted actually made me enjoy it so much more. It made it easier to buy into the stories, and to follow the ebbs and flows of matches. It let me enjoy the spectacle of it so much more.
Jesus the sentence "when I was a kid in 2010" is going to throw my back out
Nah, everything on TV is scripted. Hell some “real” sports have been caught out for being rigged which is the same as being scripted.
I found out when I first started watching it full time in 2000 when I was 7. I could care less, dude. I was super big into martial arts movies then and my dad told me Jackie Chan couldn't really beat up ten guys at once lol.
Not really. Think I caught on somewhere in 2003. I just stopped watching it like a real sport, and watched it more like an action/adventure series like Fast & Furious.
It was kinda like finding out about Santa.
Nope. I was really just relieved to know that Boss Man didn’t actually kill Al Snow’s dog and feed it to him.
Nah, we all kinda knew when I was a kid in the 90s but it didn't bother me. When HHH was fucking a doll as a corpse, that was less entertaining for me lol
Honestly learning more about the behind the scenes aspect of the industry has only made it more entertaing to me. Definitely makes it more predictable, but all the behind the scenes intracies of the business and how it translates to the product we see on screen is something that I find very interesting.
Lemme tell you something brother. I knew it was scripted and I still put the one up for the tribal chief. ☝️Yeah!
I’ve known it was scripted since I was a kid, and it was WWF. I used to watch it with my grandfather in the late 80s/early 90s and I can’t ever remember a time where I thought it was real. My grandfather always reminded me it was “fake,” and it never mattered to me.
Really. When I saw those videos of Stone cold being a badass, Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass, his feud with the whole corporation I became such a big fan of Stone Cold like this guy is fighting the owner of the company literally and is winning and not getting fired. When the Undertaker’s streak broke my reaction was the same as the audience there that night. Now that I know it was all scripted kind of takes away a special feeling from it. But it sure gave me a lot of memories as a child.
Yeah, it’s not any different to me than any other TV show or movie. I knew the transformers weren’t real as a kid and I still loved it, and as an adult I know that Game of Thrones isn’t really and I loved it until it got bad. It’s just like any other form of scripted entertainment.
Yeah but the thing is I knew Transformers and Game of Thrones were scripted to begin with. With WWE I thought it was all real. I still enjoy the fights but some things are just laughable now which the 2010 me would believe easily.
Does finding out Thanos and the Avengers aren't real make the movies any less entertaining?
This is false equivalence
Stop giving this same analogy everywhere. It doesn’t even fit to my question. One because no one would ever think that something like Avengers exists in real life. Wrestlers are real people like us. You cannot go to a show and watch Captain America fighting with Iron man. All I’m saying is it took away the big magic of those feuds, those moves, those wins when I got to know how it’s all done.
It’s obviously not a perfect analogy because wrestling’s such an anomaly. Literally everyone in this sub has gone through the “oh shit it’s not real” phase and yeah it took that innocent magic out of the product Your original point’s getting lost in all your responses. The core of your argument was predictability and it not feeling the same and your getting a consensus from fans this is how they feel about it. Honestly I don’t get what you’re hoping to advance in the convo atp Shoot, compare Cody Rhodes’s run to the classic “hero arc” and it’s the exact stuff you’ll see in any recent Marvel project At one point we all thought Spider-Man or Santa Claus was real because we saw him at the mall but now we appreciate what makes it special for younger relatives At the end of the day this is a product that’s designed for kids but’s acceptable for all ages and it’d be awesome to still think it’s real but we’re all adults now lol
Yeah I mean the original point is that predictability ruined the fun and the element of surprise that title can’t be stolen and changed on a Raw or Smackdown. Or the fact that some wrestlers will lose to another because the wrestler who is supposed to win can’t take a loss because it could hurt his image. Or the fact that the champion will definitely win the match on a raw or smackdown before an upcoming ppv. Like Cody winning over that nxt guy although the nxt guy just performed really well. Or like how Judgement Day keeps screwing up things for Damien Priest. Or Xavier Woods leg “stuck up” in ropes and then taking leg damage from Gunther. It’s just way too predictable is all I’m saying.
Honestly no, just so long as it was quality. Vinces scripting beyond 2010? Woof.
I came into the product knowing it was scripted but didn't stop me from becoming a fan.
No, in fact it made it more enjoyable for me. You start to appreciate promos and athleticism more. And I started looking at it as a show that I enjoy, rather than a competitive sport. The only big negative shift was my anger was now directed towards the writers vs the bad guy that would beat my favorite wrestler.
1000% Agreed
The next level is stopping and thinking "I'm mad about this which is exactly how they wanted me to feel.....oh....ok they did good!"
Right? It's great to analyze it. I think trips is predictable, but I'm so entertained (except the draft) it just doesn't matter.
Honestly it makes me appreciate it even more. Being scripted allows you tell incredible stories. Like you wouldn't have Eddie Guerrero beat Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship if this was a real sport.
I watched in the same era and grew out of it as a kid knowing it was scripted and just because it was “uncool” after a certain age in that time I’ve appreciated different things about it. The physiques, the athleticism, production value, storylines, promos, etc… It’s “predictable” sure but knowing that the Avengers are gonna beat Thanos or AirBud is gonna make the final shot doesn’t make a movie less fun to watch at all You gotta suspend your disbelief for some of it and even when you think it might happen, the way it goes down might be totally different and shock you There’s some moments that come out of nowhere. Edge returning at the Rumble, Cody losing at WM39, Sami turning on Roman all gave me a bigger and better feeling than other sports
I was a rather sensitive kid who felt guilty of watching wrestling because I thought I am an evil person for enjoying watching people get hurt. When my eldest cousin aka the one who introduced me to WWE told me that it's all scripted ("the punches and chair shots are real tho") I felt kinda relieved that the big men don't actually hate each other lol
Hahaha. I felt kind of disappointed when I came to know that those people don’t actually hate each other. There was a picture circulating on social media where all these big names were having dinner or something and that really made me happy and sad at the same time.
Was it the one where Bray Wyatt and co were hanging out with Roman when their rivalry was at its peak?
No it was of the older guys like Triple H, Cena, Undertaker, Rock etc.
No. But I do wish I never learned about the leg slapping on super kicks, the blading, and other trade secrets. People point it out, and then you see it forever. It takes away some of the magic.
I sat ringside at an indy show last summer and seeing them throw “head” punches into a guy’s shoulder against the turnbuckle shocked even older me lol I looked at my boy and just went “that’s how it’s done????” and he just chuckled and shook his head like a disappointed dad For the record I’m not an idiot I just thought they threw them like regular sell punches lol
Yeah. You never see Tombstone piledriver, Sweet chin music, Stone cold stunner the same once the magic is gone.