Children

D.Q

So fast forward 5-10-15 years, whatever number is appropriate. Somehow we've all found a partner that is willing to settle down and have kids.

So the kids come along, great. They grow up, get to about five and start going to school.

I am actually going somewhere with this

Now somewhere along their educational travels, probably in primary school, they will be exposed to pro wrestling. But they wont be clued in as such. It will still be presented as real, and they wont be sure of the ins and outs of how everything works, ie. just how real/fake it is.

What would you do? do we tell them to stop being a little mark and to get onto boards? or do we let them go on, blissfully unaware that their parents know an awful lot about professional wrestling??

waltersobchak

Get the kid to listen to one of the podcasts..:pac:

Angron

Leave them blissfully unaware, whilst you secretly hate them for supporting the biggest face of the time.

jaykhunter

Sometimes i wish i was still a mark, blindly enjoying whatever WWE threw at me. If people care enough about wrestling, they'll turn into a smark in their own good time. No sense in rushing them, leave it to them to form ideas and opinions.

I'd hate it is some tosspot started giving out to me for loving the Ultimate Warrior when I was a kid. So don't do it to your kids! Let them hate John Cena for their own (valid) reasons, not because you made them!

Angron

jaykhunter wrote: »

Sometimes i wish i was still a mark, blindly enjoying whatever WWE threw at me. If people care enough about wrestling, they'll turn into a smark in their own good time. No sense in rushing them, leave it to them to form ideas and opinions.

I'd hate it is some tosspot started giving out to me for loving the Ultimate Warrior when I was a kid. So don't do it to your kids! Let them hate John Cena for their own (valid) reasons, not because you made them!

That's why I said secretly hate :pac:

pdbhp

Well I'm still the biggest mark ever even though I know it's a staged event I'll still blindly follow whats happening like a lemming.
I found out the ins and outs of pro wrestling at a young age due to having 2 older brothers who told me it was staged. This did not diminish my interest in wrestling in anyway infact it made me more interested in it, trying to see them make mistakes and see all the spots etc..

So to conclude let them know that its entertainment and allow them to follow thier own natural path in the wrestling spectrum.

thebostoncrab

I can't wait to have kids so I can watch them view wresting without knowing the ins and outs of the sport. It'll be a worse day in the Reid house when the kids find out wrestling isn't real than finding out about Santa.

Mr.Nice Guy

I would leave them unaware too. I recall watching wrestling on ITV as a young kid (6 or so) and it was my cousin who revealed to me that it was all staged. I couldn't believe this and said he was wrong but my aunt confirmed it and after that I no longer watched it. In primary I then became one of those smart alec muppet kids who would make fun of those who still watched. 'You watch wrestling? Don't you know it's fake? :rolleyes:'

When the Attitude era came along wrestling became 'cool' again and so I allowed myself to watch it again and I have been pretty much hooked ever since. In hindsight I wish I had been left to enjoy it in my ignorance as I don't think I would have turned away from it. Finding out it wasn't real made me feel like I was being duped so I became hostile to it, but I see now that this is not the right way to look at it.

D2D

thebostoncrab wrote: »

I can't wait to have kids so I can watch them view wresting without knowing the ins and outs of the sport. It'll be a worse day in the Reid house when the kids find out wrestling isn't real than finding out about Santa.

What d'ya mean about Santa??

parker kent

Dare_2_defy wrote: »

What d'ya mean about Santa??

He's turned heel and telling kids he isn't real :pac:

flahavaj

I'll be glad of the excuse to watch wrestling on telly without looking like a complete tool tbh.

chordtype

flahavaj wrote: »

I'll be glad of the excuse to watch wrestling on telly without looking like a complete tool tbh.

This. I live with 4 other guys who were all minor fans during the boom. Now I feel so embarrassed every time I put iMPACT! on.


I think you need that period of believing that it's real to really enjoy wrestling. I wouldn't be telling them what an asshole Vince Russo is.

D.Q

Funny thing is, my da is the ultimate mark. He thinks wrestling begins and ends with hulk hogan. With honourable mention going to the ultimate warrior.

We went to an impact taping on holidays there, found myself trying to explain about the backstage politics that Hogan was so involved with... didnt go well.

jaykhunter

Slightly off-topic, but i hate child actors. They're terrible. Awful actors. I understand it's not their fault, but wow they suck.

CMpunked

jaykhunter wrote: »

Slightly off-topic, but i hate child actors. They're terrible. Awful actors. I understand it's not their fault, but wow they suck.

Anyway...

Heres another scenario to throw into the pot..
What if you have a kid and when he is about 5/6, wrestling isnt (shockingly) as big as it is now.
Lets say wwe go into a slump and pull alot of their merch from overseas, ie Smyths.
So the whole consumer push towards kids to be wrestling fans=Buy the stuff is gone.

So the child has a little to no interest in wrestling. to you try and push it on them, sneakily putting it on inbetween episodes of whatever incarnation of bbc produced kids-soaps they will have then, hoping to give them a hunger for it.

Ridley

DieselQueen wrote: »

Now somewhere along their educational travels, probably in primary school, they will be exposed to pro wrestling.

More likely to watch if you still are, no?

And I'd tell them it's fake enough as necessary. So they're less likely to do something stupid.

jaykhunter

Em, thanks for that? :pac:

Watched Monster Squad earlier. Horrific acting and dialogue from the kids.

I think most kids get out of wrestling themselves by 10-12 because they suddenly found out it was 'fake'... I think the product has to be extra friggin' awesome to make hardcore fans like ourselves, who will stick with wrestling through the lean years, as an addict.

I've no idea how someone who started watching WWE in 2003+ got hooked and kept watching. Hulkamania Era and the Attitude Era made so many hardcore fans; there's been no upswing since.

Rjd2

jaykhunter wrote: »

Slightly off-topic, but i hate child actors. They're terrible. Awful actors. I understand it's not their fault, but wow they suck.

Boo!

Vince135792003

DieselQueen wrote: »

But they wont be clued in as such. It will still be presented as real, and they wont be sure of the ins and outs of how everything works, ie. just how real/fake it is.

Even in schools there is a snobbery about wrestling. Lots believe it is real and love it. There is a minority of kids though (generally the smarter ones) who see right through it and have no problem shattering other kids illusions.

Gerard.C

I still tell my cousin its real. Hard to convince him the Undertaker is dead though. He doesnt think Sheamus is Irish either. ****in eejit

waltersobchak

Gerard.C wrote: »

I still tell my cousin its real. Hard to convince him the Undertaker is dead though. He doesnt think Sheamus is Irish either. ****in eejit

That got a serious LOL from me:cool::pac:

CMpunked

Vince135792003 wrote: »

Even in schools there is a snobbery about wrestling. Lots believe it is real and love it. There is a minority of kids though (generally the smarter ones) who see right through it and have no problem shattering other kids illusions.

I do that with a friend of mine. She's 20.

Shes the kinda girl who loves john Cena, hates randy orton/edge etc. Shes completely markish.
But I always tell her what matches I expect to come up for ppvs (from dirtsheets), then I say who I'll expect to win.

She thinks im a genius! :rolleyes:

parker kent

CMpunked wrote: »

I do that with a friend of mine. She's 20.

Shes the kinda girl who loves john Cena, hates randy orton/edge etc. Shes completely markish.
But I always tell her what matches I expect to come up for ppvs (from dirtsheets), then I say who I'll expect to win.

She thinks im a genius! :rolleyes:

Hmm I wonder will my tale of how I invented Facebook and became the youngest billionaire work on her

I became a big fan of the wrestling in late 1996 mainly due to Shawn Michaels, Mankind, Undertaker and the NWO. I think I was extremely lucky that we got Sky in the house that year, turned out to be such a significant year in wrestling history.

I wonder if we had got it a year earlier, would I have ended up such a fan? I semi-suspected it was not real but somehow I developed a suspension of disbelief and genuinely believed for a good while. The Taker/Kane stuff is where I twigged I was right that it was just "sport entertainment"

Also Sunny may have a major impact on me given my love of blondes now that I'm in my 20s

CMpunked

Well i grew up without sky, the channel 4 sunday night/monday morning heat shows seem to keep me happy.

Of course waking up at 4 to watch it wasnt that great.

when i got to see my dad on an odd sunday afternoon/evening i would get to watch smackdown (he got sky) and then the more regularly i was there the more i would watch.

But i would never miss an episode of heat in 2000/2001. EVER!

Wompa1

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

I would leave them unaware too. I recall watching wrestling on ITV as a young kid (6 or so) and it was my cousin who revealed to me that it was all staged. I couldn't believe this and said he was wrong but my aunt confirmed it and after that I no longer watched it. In primary I then became one of those smart alec muppet kids who would make fun of those who still watched. 'You watch wrestling? Don't you know it's fake? :rolleyes:'

When the Attitude era came along wrestling became 'cool' again and so I allowed myself to watch it again and I have been pretty much hooked ever since. In hindsight I wish I had been left to enjoy it in my ignorance as I don't think I would have turned away from it. Finding out it wasn't real made me feel like I was being duped so I became hostile to it, but I see now that this is not the right way to look at it.

You b@st@rd! :P I was one of the ones you were mocking..My dad made it glaringly obvious it wasn't real and would call them all f@ggots in tights and the like...even with my father and people at school raggin' on me I kept watching. Did you miss the whole Razor Ramon era then? It was epic :P

Mr.Nice Guy

Wompa1 wrote: »

You b@st@rd! :P I was one of the ones you were mocking..My dad made it glaringly obvious it wasn't real and would call them all f@ggots in tights and the like...even with my father and people at school raggin' on me I kept watching. Did you miss the whole Razor Ramon era then? It was epic :P

Yeah I missed a lot of the good mid nineties stuff, unfortunately. Suppose it serves me right. :pac: