Former ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham recently sat with the Better Than Broadway podcast and discussed his preference for a more traditional wrestling fan. It’s something I think about as a long-time wrestling fan became a fan in the early days of wrestling on the internet.
Impact Wrestling Star Jonathan Gresham Misses Fans Just Enjoying Wrestling and Believes the Current Openness Spoils Things for the Wrestlers
Gresham noted that he likes it “when the fan…come to just enjoy and not break intricate details of wrestling.” While the intricates have always interested me, just as a modern fan who learned more about it over the decades, it does spoil things. I’m watching it and I do enjoy it but I’m going to discuss the show with my brother afterwards. We’re going to praise some stuff and pick over others.
However, there was a time when I was like Gresham who said he didn’t watch ECW and WCW to rate matches or anything. He was there for the storylines. Of course, we both watched wrestling as kids and teenagers when the extent of technology to share our takes were message boards and chat rooms. News via blogs was in its very early stages.
There are many fans from the period we became fans who now critique the matches and stories. That’s in part because we’ve got more access to interviews with wrestlers where matches and storylines are discussed similarly to how actors discuss screen roles. Also, there’s more news about business and backstage happenings related to wrestling.
If someone is injured, we know what the exact injury is, how long they should be out including surgery and rehab, that they were seen practicing and taking bumps, and can guess when they might return to television. There was a time when we just didn’t know and 1-900-909-9900 didn’t give us the details on when someone was returning to WCW.
Jonathan Gresham also expressed that with the industry being more exposed, a lot of the fun is taken out of it for the wrestlers:
“I wish that fans were into that now and the wrestling industry wasn’t so open because it’s spoiling a lot of the fun for the boys and long-term for the fans as well.”
Has learning too much about the inner workings of the industry impacted how you enjoy wrestling? Let us know in the comments.
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