Here's a cool question from a fella who didn't sign his name in a question, so I'm going to refer to him as Jeorge.
Hey, (Insert traditional ego-stroking here)
Hey, (Insert traditional ego-stroking here)
In your personal experience, who are some of the
wrestlers the uber-casual fans you know mark for? I'm talking people
who only watch wrestling when you're watching wrestling. And what
reasons do they give for liking who they like?
Well, Jeorge, I've noticed a lot of Sports Radio guys, especially in New England, anyway, still mark for folks like Hacksaw, Hogan, Sarge, Macho Man, and Andre The Giant. If they mention any of those guys, they'll eventually tag John Cena as the face of the company currently, what with him being a Boston guy and all.
Beyond that, when I'm watching wrestling and my family pops in, so far the only people who have managed to keep them interested beyond and eye-roll and silent judgement of my entertainment habits, it's been The Rock, Cena, Lesnar - essentially guys that fit the mold of muscled bad asses.
In fact a few weeks ago my Dad was watching it with me briefly, and got really, *really* upset that the WWE expected ANYONE to believe that CM Punk could beat up Brock Lesnar. "There's no way! No Way! Come on! That's so fake!".
My sister is currently on the path to becoming a professional dancer, but I've yet to be able to show her Fandango, though once she caught me humming his song and I had to explain why there was a ball room dancing wrestler when ball room dancing was hard enough as it is.
On the subject of Fandango, there's a great Kevin Costner movie by that title that's really sweet and kind of cheesy. I'd check it out.
On the subject of Fandango, there's a great Kevin Costner movie by that title that's really sweet and kind of cheesy. I'd check it out.
'they'll eventually tag John Cena as the face of the company currently'
ReplyDeletethis makes hhh angry
So does the fact he looks more and more like Double A every day.
ReplyDeleteThe Rock.
ReplyDeleteAustin Aries?
ReplyDeletea decade ago, my dad was always struck by the "goddamn" factor of Lesnar. I'd assume that's still in play.
ReplyDeleteNo the other double A
ReplyDeleteI thought Austin Aries was A-Double?
ReplyDeleteArn Anderson?
ReplyDeleteUndertaker.
ReplyDeleteAnyone that they think is attractive
ReplyDeleteAlcoholics Anonymous!
ReplyDeleteGiant bad-asses or anyone who can pop a spectacular high spot. And the high spot guy only gets their interest if the opponent sells it like a champ.
ReplyDeleteDuring WM 111 my friend was marking out for LT which made me sad. My other non wrestling fans who would come and watch PPVs always liked Austin and Rock. And my dad used to like Jeff Hardy which was wierd.
ReplyDeleteRic Flair is a pretty common answer. Male casual fans generally seem to be into the badasses like Lesnar, while female fans are a bit more diverse. My friend wanted to take Justin Gabriel to the boneyard the second she saw him.
ReplyDeleteChris Benoit
ReplyDeleteWill WM 111 be in space or what?
ReplyDeleteI have a handful of answers to this one.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, Taker. I have a friend who doesn't watch at all, but will ask me to go to a match with her if she sees that Taker is wrestling. The last show we saw was in 2010 (Smackdown before the Rumble), but guess who's idea it was.
Next, Big Show. Her sister (another friend) loves Big Show. I think she's watched maybe twice without me (and twice with me), but I told her live shows were fun, she went, and now, she'll call to go back if Big Show is in town.
When Rock came back around WM 27, I got Facebook messages from friends who gave up on watching around 2002 (when we graduated college), but who were told Rock was on Raw, flipped over to watch (or looked it up on Youtube).
Either than that, I think it's mostly the gimmick wrestlers that catch attention. The best man at my wedding didn't like wrestling at all, but liked Rikishi. After that, for guys, it's the trash talkers (Austin, Rock), and for girls, the cute guys (Cena, Buff, HBK, Scotty 2 Hottie of all people) that would kind of catch their attention.
Now my wife hates wrestling completely b/c she says she went to high school with people who swore it was real and would emulate the guys on Raw because they thought that's what cool was (imagine that in real life; some 17 year old flipping off teachers for trying to make him do homework. Where do they get off?), BUT, because my wife is awesome, anytime she walks into the room when CM Punk is on, she'll sit and watch until the end of the segment. She event devoted 30 minutes to the entire Jericho-Punk match from WM 28 (and even got into the story, saying "How can they let Jericho win after he said all that? I mean - Punk wins, right? Doesn't he?").
And on the subject, the "Pipe Bomb" promo got some lite buzz from my old crew too. Sadly, I haven't watched it with crowds in a long time, so I don't have any recent answers to this question.
Holy crap that's a long winded answer. Sorry. Guess I was having fun reminiscing.
ReplyDeleteI remember a family saying "Hulk Hogan? Seriously? He's still involved in this stuff?"
ReplyDeleteThat was in 2002.
My wife (who claims she hates wrestling, despite loving DDP yoga) LOVES Rey Mysterio.
ReplyDeleteNot many adults (in my universe) are into the current crop at all, even uber-casually. Lesnar or Rocky currently, maybe.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is very casually into it and she sort of likes Bryan, Kane, Taker, Lesnar, and HHH. She doesn't like Punk, Miz, or Cena.
Ben Affleck.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he'll offer Randy HIS spot with evolution.....or does he have a liver spot? Or a dog named spot? Or a fat broad?
ReplyDeleteNo problem! My wife (in addition to the aforementioned Mysterio love) finds Big Show "Cute... In a weird way..." Again, despite professing to hate wrestling.
ReplyDeleteAaron Aguilera?!
ReplyDeleteI'd consider my mom a casual fan—between me and my dad wrestling has been on in her house for 30 years. I still go by their house every Monday to watch Raw with my dad, and she'll pop in the TV room for a bit and watch a few segments, and usually end up watching PPVs when we order. So yeah, she enjoys the big shows and is aware of who the main guys are. She'd never seek it out if it wasn't in front of her, but she definitely qualifies as a casual.
ReplyDeleteAnd the one wrestler that this nice 60-year-old woman legit marks out for is The Undertaker. Like, just 100% gets sucked into the theatricality of his entrances and thinks everything he does in the ring is great. In fact this past year, since me and my dad were actually at Mmania, she asked me to download Taker-Punk so she could watch the whole match afterwards. Zero interest in anything else on the show, but she had to see Taker. And she made sure to watch Taker's six-man on Raw against the Shield.
As for current roster guys, she thinks John Cena seems like a great guy, she thinks Punk looks disgusting, and recognizes Daniel Bryan as "the Yes guy with the beard that flies around."
OH, and the one other think she legit marks out for is the Royal Rumble match itself. Even if she doesn't recognize the majority of the roster, she'll still watch the Rumble every year and ALWAYS comment "Remember that year when Flair kept hanging on?" So yeah, my mom's favorite wrestling match ever is the '92 Rumble. Maybe she would make a good smark...
Undertaker seems to be one of the most common, people of all generations recognize him even if they don't care about wrestling. The rest are pretty much the obvious, Hogan, Rock, Austin, etc. A few of my friends' kids like Cena & Mysterio.
ReplyDeleteMy father always recognized Christian of all people, besides the obvious Rock, Taker, Foley, Austin, and Triple H.
ReplyDeleteI almost forgot, when I was younger my mom liked Ric Flair. Not because of his wrestling ability though but because she thought he was good looking. This always gave me mixed feelings about Flair.
ReplyDeleteA good deal of my extended family are total marks for wrestling and were essentially my gateway into it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, they live and breathe it. One sect of the family--let's call them the Grubers--probably have a cumulative IQ of 64 and are constantly dining on government cheese but it does not hinder them from spending $49 bucks for every monthly PPV.
Months ago I learned that my grandfather--who a) is constantly embarrassed by the Grubers, b)(it seemed) reluctantly held WrestleMania parties for them for years before they had a huge falling out, and c)hated every god damn thing about wrestling--is a giant mark for CM Punk.
maybe he saw some sweet E&C/Foley back in the day. they were all awesome.
ReplyDeleteMy wife absolutely loathes Randy Orton because she thinks he looks like a cocky a-hole. She loves Cesaro because she finds him hot.
ReplyDeleteAside from the looks department, she thinks Punk is a bad ass. She also finds me totally silly "Yessing" alone in my living room every monday night.
My wife loves Sabu. Thinks his whole aura is fascinating & finds him really attractive, which is still pretty funny to me.
ReplyDeleteShe hates hates hates Randy Orton. Summerslam was the first time in years I had got her to sit down & watch the current product with me, and she was really getting into the whole show, until the ending. She stood up & basically said "Fuck this shit. I'm not watching this again."
My dad, who does NOT like wrestling, was always into Stone Cold, Taker & Farooq because they looked legitimately tough to him.
Most everyone else I know will usually do the Ultimate Warrior "raise the roof" motion at me when they hear I'm into wrestling.
I hate the Ultimate Warrior.
jbinek, I love DDP Yoga too. I've been trying to get my wife into it for the last month or two now.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure who "They" found attractive anyway. I haven't heard a peep from them since Bound For Glory in 2010. (buh du bum.)
ReplyDeleteI don't get it... but I don't really follow TNA
ReplyDeleteThe thread title got me confused. Is Scotts box groomed and neat or spacious and unkept?
ReplyDeleteYour grandfather seems like a man with great taste.
ReplyDeleteMy question BTW.
ReplyDeleteI asked because my brother, who only watches wrestling if I have it on. Is a fan of Sandow cause he digs the "brutal street brawler pretending to be an intellectual" gimmick. Of course he lets me go on about wrestling so I've smartened him up somewhat to the business.
Mysterio back in the day
ReplyDeleteBrock Lesnar. He's the only person I get asked about when people find out I'm a wrestling fan.
ReplyDeleteDoes he get asked about in a wrestling context?
ReplyDeleteI guy I know is still a huge Hogan and nWo mark after all these years. He's happy that Orton cashed in on Bryan because he hates Bryan's beard.
ReplyDeleteFilled with an ever expanding tampon of questions.
ReplyDeleteBetter the raising the roof gesture than they all snort and threaten to crash the plane right into the ground.
ReplyDeleteDavid Arquette.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they're all actually doing the Rikishi raise the roof motion?
ReplyDelete