A British Point of View: The FANS Speak!

Seeing as my previous article garnered such a surprising positive response I felt the need to share with you some of the FANS opinions on this Stand up for WWE campaign.

I have tried to include as many responses as I could but I do apologise if you have not been mentioned or if your original message is slightly shorter than your original response as I’ve tried to keep this to a readable length for everyone. I do apologise if this is a long entry but I wanted to make sure that peoples voices on this can be heard.

Mr. T. Wrote:
 
Although our viewpoints are different, I’ll make mine short and sweet.

 

It’s not about the PG rating.  I’ve watched different wrestling shows for almost 23 years (I’m 27), I’ve witnessed bad, good, great, stale, unpredictable, and predictable.  That being said, "stand up for WWE" is basically a campaign for the wrestling industry in general.

 

Many wrestlers have been defamed and made to look silly by mainstream media.  No one mentions the discounts given to the sick.  Or the Troops show, that the WWE did for several years.  Basically, Linda’s opponent has nothing on her except to insult wrestling and it’s fans.

 

It doesn’t matter if you like PG or not, stand up against someone that is directly insulting you.

 

Lasting, the PG rating isn’t the problem, the writing, the logic, and the lack of talent in wrestling today is what is hurting the business.  There’s nothing that is compelling.  The only reason UFC is "popular" is because it’s "real", and respected.  Wrestling could be respected, if some angles were believeable in terms of having good actors pull them off.
 
Kevin Roxborough Wrote:
 
Hi Martyn, Another great read.

 

I totally take on board the bit about video segments, that totally spoilt the outcome of the main event for me I can’t understand why they would do this???

 

Sadly I think it’s just the fact that WWE seems to have forgotten they any fans over the age of about 13. Which I don’t see the point of, yes you need a "Family Friendly" product if your wife is running for senate but surely your main objective would be to appeal to a demographic of people who can actually cast a vote!?
 
Keep up the good work!

Aaron Longstreth Wrote:

 

Just read you latest article "Stand up for the FANS!" Wrestlezone.com.

Couldn’t agree more. Congratulations again, I think you speak for most smart

fans. Keep up the good work!

 

Ashton Wrote:
 
Another exceptional column, I really enjoyed reading it, thank you for sharing your opinions!
 
Keep up the great work!
 
Edward Jones (Wonka666) Wrote:
 
Best editorial EVER. Vince is making lost PPV revenue up with quantity while forgetting quality. He has sunk millions into Linda’s campaign and early voting has her behind 18 points and wrestling fans have to suffer. I Stand up for WWE but they really should read your Point of View on Wrestlezone.com
 
First, let me tell you that the political climate and Linda being behind in her Connecticut senate race is what spawned this campaign.

Instead of focusing on the political environment in Connecticut and that Linda is a smart business woman, her challenger has made it all about WWE, Steroids, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and most recently the challengers campaign was blessed with Lance Cade’s death. 

As a fan of WWE, I feel for Vince and the WWE getting such negative press when it’s totally unrelated to our current political woes in the U.S. and the global economy.  We have some type of law in the U.S. that you can’t wear shirts or ads for political candidates to the polling places on Election Day. But instead of not being able to wear a Linda McMahon for Senate shirt to the polls on Election Day, you cannot even wear a Stone Cold Steve Austin, a Randy Orton or any other WWE Superstar’s shirt to the polls on Election Day.  They are advertising in Connecticut that you will be turned away from voting if you show up with any WWE shirt on. 

WWE isn’t running for Senate, Linda McMahon former CEO of WWE is running for Senate and that in and of itself is my issue and why I support the WWE.  They are not running for a political office and WWE should not be brought up as an issue. 

Linda’s campaign has not only garnered negative press for WWE in Connecticut, her particular campaign has received the second most political attention in the entire United States. 

Uneducated people now look at WWE in a bad light in all 50 states as a result of the untruths that are being slung in the Connecticut Senate race, Vince has every right to want fans of WWE to let it be known that they are not a bad company that is poisoning the youth of America, but a form of entertainment that is fun for the fans who enjoy it.

That is why I thought WWE needed to read your editorial because they really do need to stand up for their fans also and start producing an entertaining show rather than worry what is going to be slung about them in the media.

WWE can’t have its cake and eat it too.  But it’s Linda McMahon for Senate, not WWE for Senate.  WWE got lured into this from the very beginning and gave in when they never should have. 

Anyway, those are the reasons I thought WWE should read your article, you bring very valid points up in it that WWE headquarters needs to look at. 

 
Ed  

Vegetto Wrote:
 
I agree with you. The fact that WWE is PG does not mean they can’t do things that will appeal to fans. These days it seems both companies have trouble finding that nitch. Somewhere the wrestling aspect has taken a backseat. However, this is known. I also agree that these are dark days for wrestling as a whole. As a fan it’s hard to watch the quality of the product with WWE, TNA as well. Wish the answer will be found soon. Great article as always.
 
Zack Olson Wrote:
 
I think that you hit it on the head with your latest column.  I live in the United States and I’m still not willing to travel any further than Chicago (which is about 2 hours away from me) to see a WWE show, and realistically, I’m not even willing to travel that far these days.  I constantly feel like my intelligence is being insulted by their product.  It’s not like I have run out of positive things to say.  I can still pick out some good things from each week’s programming, which is more than I can say about TNA. 
 
Thanks for a great column,
Zack
 
Gabby McCay Wrote:
 
My name is Gabby. I agree with your opinion on Stand Up for the Fans article on wrestlezone.com. I’d stay if the WWE is going to go PG for a while can they at least push the envelope a little bit, like let the Divas get a chance too.

 

For me it’s hard to understand this whole Stand Up for the WWE thing until I realized it was about Linda McMahon’s political career. I don’t know if the WWE understands what the fans want from the looks of the ratings and what everything wants better for the WWE, as for me I just want a little bit of what the WWE was have it like PG-13 something for the adults and the children. I’m a big female wrestling fan and I want more variety in the WWE Women’s Division not having anymore of these model turned wrestlers, and have more wrestlers like Beth Phoenix and Natayla.

 

Just want to say I like your opinion, can’t wait for your next article to hit wrestlezone.com.
 
Antonio Villicana Wrote:
 
Honestly Martyn I could not agree more. Most fans are not happy with the current WWE product but we continue to watch in hope that things change. They don’t. I have bought more PPV’s this year than ever before and after each one I realize it’s not worth the 50 dollars I fork over. That’s why I stopped buying after Money in The Bank. Its clear as day that Vince McMahon doesn’t care about the WWE fans, all he cares about is making money. If they really cared about "The WWE Universe" as they say they do, then they’d understand that we don’t want the PG B.S he feeds out every week. You said that WWE doesn’t need to have the swearing and sexual remarks to make a good show, but history shows that it does need all that.

 

Monday Night RAW was never more popular than during the Attitude Era when Stone Cold was flipping the bird and stunning anyone who got in his way and Vince was a man whore. I’m not saying have it like before, they can tone it down if they’d like. But adding a small sampling here and there if the old WWE product I grew up watching would certainly make things a lot better.
 
For example the WWE Divas; Vince doesn’t treat them like serious athletes, he just sees them as eye candy. I don’t approve of this because I feel they are serious competitors who’s job is also to entertain just like the superstars, but if he’s just going to have them running around in skimpy outfits cutting lousy promos then why cut us off right there? Give us more. I for one miss the annual WWE Diva Playboy issue.

 

Now about the theme PPV’s, you’re completely right, they suck! It reminds me of something familiar… I got it, TNAs Lockdown PPV! I watched the Money in the Bank PPV all while thinking they had just ruined the uniqueness of the concept by taking it out of Wrestlemania and giving it its own PPV. Knowing that there’s going to be a Hell in a Cell match during the year is not exciting whatsoever. The whole point of concept matches is the rarity of them. Giving them their own PPV just waters the whole thing down. And to top it all off stale, unoriginal names. Elimination Chamber? Hell in a Cell? TLC? Really? I guess the writers have gotten just as lazy at coming up with new PPV names as they have with writing decent storylines.

 

The "Stand up for WWE" campaign is simply pathetic. They claim that it has nothing to do with politics but what a coincidence that it just happens to come out around election time when a certain former WWE exec just happens to be running for senate. From the very first video package that aired a few weeks back I knew that it had everything to do with Linda’s campaign. The fact that it had nothing to do with the show, no Make a Wish kids were in the audience, and it was just out of the blue shows how low Vince and Linda will go to win a lousy election. Pathetic, I for one hope that she loses. Not only for the sake of WWE because like you said, if she does win we’ll continue seeing the same product.

 

I will continue to watch WWE TV in hope that it gets better (it probably won’t), but mostly because I love wrestling. I don’t get ROH where I live, and TNA, well TNA is TNA, no need say more.
 
Ttonal Tweeted:
 
Awesome article mate, totally agree with the match stipulations the WWE does now – why not build up to Hell in a Cell and the Elimination Chamber?
 
WatchFanUK Tweeted:
 
Bragging Rights was a big advert for SD v RAW 2011. Not enough quality in PPV’s these days. Re-hashing the same fueds.
 
Craig O’Donnell (Skhafe) Tweeted:
 
That is the truest words I have ever read in a column or forum in your last Wrestlezone piece, thank you!
 
Stephen Skeen Wrote:
 
I have been a fan of WWE for 27 years, but to me they now need to go back. Lose the PG. I remember I would not miss WWE for anything but now I miss it. I use Wrestlzone.com every date to see what up dated.


But I must say I have started to watch TNA now I love it!
 
As you can see there is a variety of opinions on show here which demonstrates the Internet Wrestling Community’s overall beliefs on this current state, unfortunately we only mark a small amount of the global wrestling fans and it looks like this current climate of WWE could be here to stay.
 
A big thank you for the kind mention from fellow Wrestlezone columnist Chris Fitzpatrick in his latest article which I suggest you read as he looks more into the flaws of Bragging Rights.
 
As always you can reach me on beansontoastuk@msn.com and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beansontoastuk.
 
Martyn.

TRENDING