Did the Internet ruin the way wrestling is viewed by the fans?

Ruin? No way. I too have been watching for ages and have known from an early age that everything is planned out ahead of time.

People still massively cheer and boo depending on whose the top heel/face at the time, or how fans receive that particular star. Take Cena currently...he continues to get mixed reactions despite being promoted as the face of WWE, and his charitable work that he is so well known for. I guess that's due in large part to him being the poster boy for the PG era, which so many folks still have a hard time accepting. It's all part of the experience that fans get into...fans are a part of wrestling as much as the stars themselves, and I think that is a large part of the appeal, giving wrestling it's staying power for so long.

BQ: Face who is probably really a jerk: Hmmm...not really sure.

Heel who is way nicer - CM Punk. I actually met him during a meet and greet and he seemed really into the fans, taking time for pictures and answering questions about all sorts of things (his lifestyle, tats, etc). Seemed like such a cool guy.

Because of the Internet, it's now impossible to get the sort of huge reactions you would get in the 80s/90s when something huge happened, i.e. Hulk Hogan's big heel turn. When Hogan joined forces with the NWO, it was the biggest shock in professional wrestling at the time, simply because no one saw it coming. Nowadays, we get wrestling spoiler sites getting interviews with their "sources" and they completely ruin any element of surprise.

Another thing which needs to be taken into account is wrestling superstars are now much more vocal towards their fans and the public than they were in the past. Almost, if not all, WWE/TNA/ROH etc superstars now have a Twitter account. While some are obviously ran by WWE to help promote PPVs/shows (like John Cena's, for example), some are personal. Ezekiel Jackson has a personal account and has in the past had a Q&A session with fans. Are you really telling me that after seeing his responses and that he's not actually a rampaging monster, I'm supposed to believe that he IS when I see him in the ring on RAW?

Recently on WWE, they announced the "Stand Up For WWE" thing, where a bunch of wrestlers were saying how amazing it is to do the things they do and how they were so proud of working for WWE. You see the "faces" like Cena and Rey Mysterio saying about the things they'd done and how they could never have imagined it, but you also see "heels" and "tweeners" such as Jack Swagger, Randy Orton, Edge, etc. You can imagine John Cena standing in the middle of the RAW ring and telling the fans how much he loves the business (like he does once a month or so), but can you really imagine Jack Swagger doing the same? CM Punk? Sheamus?

Has the Internet ruined the way I watch wrestling? To be perfectly honest, I'm 50/50 on this one. While WWE stars are all over the Internet (either on spoiler sites, social networking, youtube) they're also all over charity events, book signings, TV chat shows, TV game shows, etc. Is the Internet solely to blame here, or is the WWE doing too much to push their superstars anywhere and everywhere, so much that they lose touch with their on-screen character?

Ruin... no

Change.. yes.

oddly enough a similar thought came across my mind earlier tonight

for example,

anyone can look up R-Truth and know in minutes that he has been... Ron "the Truth" Killings, K Kwik, K Krush, former TNA Champion et al

when he re-debuted in WWE as R Truth I think they may have mentioned in passing that he'd been K Kwik back around 2002 and while they ignore the other facts they don't deny them either

whereas if you look at when Mick Foley came to WWE as Mankind back in the 90s they created a whole back story, exclusive costume, and several new moves and it wasn't until well into his time with WWE that there was any allusion to his having been Cactus Jack or worked for NWA/WCW

so back to the R Truth portion of my analogy, under the pre/infant Internet model, he'd likely have been cited, at least at first, as Cryme Tyme's fellow 'gangster/hustler' or old enemy from their past

It purely ruins wrestling in case you enable it destroy wrestling. case in point, i won't be in a position to help yet be conscious you ***** approximately spoilers, so... excuse me if i'm lacking something, yet why do you even examine out spoilers then? heavily, this is not rocket technology. in case you do no longer prefer the prepare spoiled, then do no longer examine spoilers. simple. additionally, idiots on message boards have no effect on the product this is placed out. and how do rankings and PPV income destroy wrestling for you? That isn't clever. this is not like the product is suffering because of the fact of a loss of money. that must be extra advantageous than evidenced by potential of the reality that Linda McMahon grew to become into in a position to spend $50 million (i think of) on a senate marketing campaign.

absolutely...internet spam-blogs ruined wrestling for hundreds.before you could have wrestling fan pen pals and exchange pirated or amateur video of wrestling,now its all on youtube.I use to love when they showed rare stuff like 'Remember when' or when a major PPV was coming up they'd show classic clips of past instances of that PPV(wrestlemania)...but now everything is beaten to death and over-played...kinda kills the spectacle.

I've thought it was phony since Haystack Calhoun retired. You have a good day now

No, Vince Russo ruined it for the fans by intentionally attempting to do shoots and failed to deliver quality feuds because he does not understand how the business works.

yes and no

because dirt sheets had spoilers long before the internet