Agree or Disagree. Has the internet ruined wrestling?

My take is that it's not ruined wrestling itself, but the way we actually watch it. However, it is still pretty simple, if you don't want to know about it, you don't read it, remember, this is not a sport, this is high impact theatre, sports entertainment, and should be treated as such. Everyone knows what happens in Hamlet, yet people will sit and watch it all their lives, it has nothing to do with results, spoilers, crap matches, internet, etc, its all about the emotion, the spectacle that is wrestling, and it is not mean't to be taken so seriously. Granted, since being involved on the 'net, it has taken some of my passion away, but I choose what to look at. So if the net affects your viewing in a negative way, choose not to allow it.

In addition, the IWC has certainly had a big factor in how the average fan view's the product (whether that product be TNA, WWE, ROH, etc) today. I know I can't speak for those who have watched it for 15 - 20 years (or even more) because I've only been watching since about 99 ish. But the opinions that many "fans" have compiled for every single factor of wrestling at the moment has caused the average fan to look into the product too much. And, because of that, we are abliged to conform to other people's opinions and therefore we are forced to like or dislike the product accordingly. Thanks to the internet, I miss exactly what others miss about wrestling, like sneaking up early to watch a taped PPV and being mad when your favourite wrestler loses, etc.

Back when it was fun, who really cared about how bad a wrestler was in-ring? Does anybody remember the Rock vs. Bossman and Bull Buchanan in a Cage match? Nobody cared how bad the other two were in-ring, everyone just wanted the Rock to win 'coz he was the good boy and the odds were stacked against him. If that happened today the internet "smarts" will go "-**, terrible match, I don't know why they bother" but back when no-one cared about the actual quality of the match, everyone would shout "YAY, ROCK WON". It's nowhere near as fun anymore, because the fun gets drained by these people who call themselves reporters, like that Dave Meltzer, everyone gets excited about his star ratings and no matter how good a PPV can be he will pull out all the bad points and all his loyal readers will agree and start off a massive chain that will go on and on until everyone on the Internet agrees.

I think today, the wrestling business has to cater to the internet in many ways because it has become such a big part of the industry, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. It's been proven that WWE and TNA can still swerve the internet at times and keep spoilers unknown, but they just have to go that extra mile and work harder to do it. Sadly, the days of when wrestling was presented as a legit sport are gone, in part because of the internet and in part because of Vince McMahon telling us its scripted

So to answer, the IWC hasn't "ruined wrestling" as the actual quality of the product hasn't declined over the past 3-4 years, but our perspective on it has.Somewhat, in general the internet has ruin the element of surprise and shock and the world of pro wrestling, and the thing that really grinds my gears is that people expect WWE and TNA to be unpredictable, but when most people read spoilers and plans for the future, now does that make any sense no it does not, but I do not blame it all of fans, because wrestling companies should have there information secure because it seems that people that work for the companies or an inside source leaks the information, blame it on the internet and the internet wrestling community.

It only ruins wrestling if you let it ruin wrestling. For example, I can't help but notice you complain about spoilers, so... excuse me if I'm missing something, but why do you even look at spoilers then? Seriously, it's not rocket science. If you don't want the show spoiled, then don't read spoilers. Simple.

Also, idiots on message boards have no impact on the product that's put out.

And how do ratings and PPV profits ruin wrestling for you? That makes no sense. It's not like the product is suffering because of a lack of money. That should be more than evidenced by the fact that Linda McMahon was able to spend $50 million (I think) on a senate campaign.

Well friend, I disagree. Firstly, Vinny Mac ruined wrestling. Let's get that out of the way first. He ruined it by booking guys like Cena into being superman. That wasn't because of the internet at all. "McMahorny" is the sole reason why wrestling is atrocious today. Secondly, it's not the internet folks that put up spoilers, it's the respectative wrestling company it's self. They spoil their own shows. The internet fans just talk about what they want, that's it. It's up to V.M that he listens to them or not. The internet has done nothing wrong, management is the problem. So with that said mate, I disagree. Im MERCURYX and I approve this answer.

I respect your point and you back it up with some good Ideas but I think you are just wrong.

Wrestling has been destroyed by a LACK of competition. There was a time in the 80s when there where over 50 independent federations many of them under the independent NWA banner and many others. Vince Mcmuffin destroyed them all by taking their talent or buying them or using the law.

Only now is the sport beginning to recover from a lack of competition and basically an entire entertainment form held captive to one man’s idea of what it should be like. Monopolies in all forms of human endeavors inherently stifle innovation and drive up cost and charges to the consumer. While Vince does deserve some credit for his part to bring wrestling to the highs in the 80s he also deserves the blame for what his multinational corporation has done to bring it to the under performing sport it is today with wrestlers who all look alike and act alike and who the general public are no almost unaware of as NAMES. As the Hulk Hogans and Rick Flairs move out of the biz, there will be no public faces of wrestling left and that is a problem not of too much but too little competition and diversity.

The internet is the only hope for some of the many small town feds to build back up enough support to then jump to a small market tv station spot and then to a regional spot so they can begin to pay talent.

Still, it was an interesting point of view

Agree, agree, agree, and more agreement! I've had these same thoughts for a very long time. Back in the day, wrestling news was delivered by two main sources: Watching it and reading magazines. With watching it, you saw skin deep; you never knew, "Oh', they did that because this guy pissed off Vince," or, "They gave him that because the writers like him," or any of that B.S. All we knew was, "Yeah, he won!" or, "Dang, he lost!" And as for magazines, they were usually kayfabe-based, meaning they didn't give you what was really going on, they gave you the same stories that we were being given by the business, so that only furthered the experience. With the internet, you can't even go onto a wrestling-related website besides WWE.com without accidentally reading spoilers or backstage news. It really makes it hard to truly suspend-disbelief. If I could do anything about it, I'd silence all wrestling-spoiler sites or "truth"-sites and bring wrestling back to the way it was in the 80's; where no-one knew what was real and fake and the majority of fans thought it was all legit.

No self righteous fans like myself and everyone who comes to this section ruined wrestling. The internet just gave us a place to show how much of a d*uche we all could be.

One word: yes

Both the internet and too many insider, smart fans have hurt the business. The sad thing is, the smarter fans are getting younger and younger. 12 year olds now know the inner workings of the business

SPOILERS on internet have ruined wrestling

No. I blame over exposure for low buy rates and poor booking for the inability to create new stars.

Give yourself five points for answering your question.