Real Quotes From Casual Wrestling Fans

Hi, I’m Justin Watry. You may remember me from such classic columns as “WWE WrestleMania 28: Sheamus Should Defeat Daniel Bryan in Less Than a Minute” and “WWE Should Send John Morrison Down to FCW Right Now.”

Give me the Denver Broncos over the Carolina Panthers, even if that is my heart talking rather than my head. Been picking Peyton Manning to claim the Super Bowl trophy the past few years before finally jumping off the bandwagon four months ago and going with the Indianapolis Colts. Well, back on board! Win one more game and retire on top sir.

Reader Feedback

John: What’s your dislike for wyyat?He seems to have the company behind him at every WM.

Dislike for Wyatt?!?! Good grief. I am a fan of Bray and have done nothing but praise him ever since his debut in summer 2013 (on multiple websites). All I said last week was that Brock Lesnar is above feuding with him at Wrestle FREAKIN’ Mania with 100,000 fans live in attendance, and yes folks, he has far better high profile matchups than battling The Wyatt Family. Sorry, but we all know it is true.

I can say that as a fan of both Bray Wyatt and Brock Lesnar. Just like I am BIG fan of Alex Riley, but if he is feuding with Roman Reigns tomorrow, it wouldn’t make sense at all. I am a fan of Riley and Reigns, but it’s the truth. Same with Bray and Brock. Just stating the obvious…

..and yeah, WWE is behind Wyatt every WM. Too bad they aren’t the rest of the year.

R Contini: you were doing fine with this until you started talking about Bray. First off I don’t see who else you want to put him against and secondly the fact he has faced Cena and Taker the last 2 years should tell you how well Bray is trusted. God forbid we should have a main event with someone who can actually use a microphone. Bray is probably the most switched on guy on the roster, anyone who doesn’t believe this should go on you tube and listen to his shoot interviews. If they would just give him a little control of his own creative like they did with Punk he’d be unstoppable.

……Haters gonna hate.

Not a ‘hater’at all and as noted above, I have sung the praise of The Wyatts for the better part of the last 30 months. The issue is more of finding the best spot for Brock Lesnar (you know, the mega-star getting paid millions of dollars) at Mania. If you think that is feuding with Bray Wyatt, you are fooling yourself.

James: I am extremely disappointed with this years RR, Justin. I was hoping for nostalgia entries like Hogan, Nash, Goldberg, etc. And in the end, the promotion’s CEO is its champion — is that even possible? makes no sense.

and WWE should stop assuming ALL pro-wrestling fans are Indy Fans , AJ styles should be given proper introduction before showing up like that.

Hulk Hogan is currently serving his “fired” time, until WWE bring him back. Wasn’t going to happen this soon.

Kevin Nash has been in two recent Royal Rumbles. Can’t really do it a third time.

Goldberg has not been inside a WWE ring for nearly 12 years. Why in the world would he show up?

The entire saga between Triple H and Roman Reigns has written itself since late 2015, so you can’t be too surprised. I wrote about it for weeks before the pay-per-view multiple times. Like it or hate it is a different story.

As for AJ Styles, I watched the show with a buddy of mine who does not know read the dirt sheets, does not know what the “IWC” is, does not know who has imaginary heat backstage, does not know who is dating who, does not care one bit about all that junk, yet he still watches RAW every week and the WWE Network pay-per-views.

He did NOT know who AJ Styles was.

Clearly, Orlando, Florida knows AJ Styles. His debut crowd reaction was amazing. Then again, keep in mind the location and the fact that WWE PPVs tend to be invaded by the diehard fans these days. Regardless, I was fine with the surprise debut for him because the stars aligned to make it all come off great, even though it is 100% true that not every WWE fan also follows independent wrestling.

Not even close to being true.

Bubbles: I could used a few more “casual wrestling fan” mentions

Good. You are going to love this column then…

Backstory

Last year, I cut the (cable) cord. Moving into a new condo meant making some cutbacks on expenses each month. One of those was eliminating a $150 cable bill, instead opting for Netflix ($10), Hulu ($8), and WWE Network ($9.99). At first, I feared missing ESPN programming, endless reruns of Pawn Stars, all three hours of RAW each week, two hours of Smackdown, and other fine show…except I didn’t. Within a few weeks, it was no big deal and life moved on – much cheaper at that.

What that meant was A LOT of Hulu, Netflix, and WWE Network viewing. Like, a lot. Outside of NFL games every Sunday, I don’t watch anything on NBC, FOX, or CBS. Big Brothers airs in the summer, for those wondering. Also, I watch nothing on ABC. Just this past week for instance, none of those channels were on for even a single second.

Long story short, when the TV is on here, that means wrestling, wrestling, a movie, Doug, Hey Arnold, wrestling, or wrestling…

…and that is when I knew this column would be written eventually. After a couple of months of “research,” now seems like a good time to put this all together.

As the headline alludes to, this is basically just a bunch of real quotes from different casual wrestling fans. Please be aware that these are very casual wrestling fans. They don’t know who Dave Meltzer is. They don’t know what the “IWC” term is. They don’t search for WWE news online (but all use the internet regularly). They don’t care one bit about supposed backstage drama or any of that nonsense. In the truest sense of the debate, when people mention the differences between ‘internet fans’ and ‘casual fans,’ trust me – there is a huge divide.

Quotes

When watching Royal Rumble 2001 – “Even Elvis can enter? Get rid of Elvis.”

When Triple H won the Royal Rumble last week – “Cool to see somebody from the past as champion.”

When watching an nWo/WWE Network special – “Why did Hulk Hogan HAVE to be the third man? He wasn’t even in WWF that long.”

When The Undertaker lost at WrestleMania 30 – “I hope everybody stopped watching after this.”

As The Undertaker walked up the ramp after The Streak ended – “I know it’s a show, but some things just shouldn’t happen.”

When Roman Reigns had his job on the line on RAW vs. Sheamus – “If WCW was still around, I bet they would sign Roman Reigns if he lost.”

When watching the new WrestleMania documentary on the WWE Network – “Did Ultimate Warrior die or something?”

When watching an old WCW Nitro – “I liked Glacier.”

When RAW was on Hulu – “Triple H and Stephanie are still together? I mean, on TV obviously, right?”

Every time a wrestler would bleed – “FAKE BLOOD!”

When Royal Rumble 2012 was on – “Sheamus is only popular because he is so white.”

During Chris Jericho’s Royal Rumble entrance last week – “Jericho! What is he doing still wrestling?”

Watching a Cody Rhodes match from years ago – “That’s Goldust, right?”

As the Triple H vs. Sting match is winding down – “There’s no way Sting would lose his first WWE match.”

Moments after Triple H pinned Sting – “Wow.”

Seeing what Vince Russo booked on WCW during the Monday Night War series – “Vince Russo is a f****ng idiot.”

Talking about recent television ratings for WWE – “How’s TNA doing? They still on?”

When AJ Styles stepped foot into the ring staring down Reigns at the Royal Rumble last week – “So!”

Watching five seconds of Breaking Ground – “What’s so great about NXT? It’s only women matches anyways.”

Okay, I could go on and on here folks. You get the point. Not that it needs to be repeated a million times, but if you live inside the internet bubble, you have no idea that *this* is the minority of fans. Minority by a wide margin. I understand that, as I know internet fans AND casual fans. I get the full picture. The majority of WWE fans are casual viewers who just turn on RAW each week, Smackdown once in awhile, and then the monthly pay-per-views. That’s it. No daily forum visits, no comment section rants, etc. It is their form of entertainment a few hours a month and nothing more. We…yes, WE are diehards who love the genre and obsess over it. Now, for the purpose of this column, these quotes came from guys and girls aged from 26-33 years old. To end this column, I will re-post something from early 2015 where two 8 year old WWE fans (not using their real names) told me their thoughts on wrestling.

8 Year Old WWE Fans Speak Out

Instead of breaking down the whole conversation word for word (as best I recall), I will use bullet points and rely on my memory for the rest. First up was who their favorite wrestler of all-time was…

Timmy: Shawn Michaels is the greatest. I love him.

Keep in mind this is an eight year old. I said I agreed, he was the greatest. Of course, Timmy followed that up by telling me he also really liked Shawn Michaels’ brother wrestle – Triple H! Huh, learn something new every day…I guess they were brothers? At this point, the first wave crashed into my face just how HUGE the difference is between ‘internet fans’ and the new PG ‘casual fans’ just turning on the product at a young age. HBK and HHH were apparently brothers, who did DX. Well then.

Jimmy: Ultimate Warrior!

He then proceeded to pretend to shake the ring ropes and make a growling sound. Again, remember their ages here. It may not have been the right followup, but I told him how sad everybody was when he passed away last year. To my shock, Jimmy looked at me bug eyed and said, “He did?” I can not tell explain the feeling I had, realizing I just broke the news to this poor kid that his favorite wrestler was dead. I guess that is what happens when you assume, right? After the somber mood passed, I asked about current favorite wrestlers.

Both spoke highly of John Cena. Obviously. Then it was Timmy who jumped in…

Timmy: The Miz because he is awesome. And funny.

My response to that was “Really? Really?” Each time, the answer was yeah, yeah. Say what you will about The Miz, but he has his fanbase and works VERY hard behind the scenes living and breathing the business. As for the current favorite of Jimmy…

Jimmy: Kane! He is a monster. Scary.

He demonstrated by doing the ‘fire’ pose he does in the ring and acting like fire was coming out everywhere. Sarcastically, I said he may be like Shawn Michaels soon – retired. Finally, both kids really praised Andre the Giant. I believe it was Jimmy who keep calling him ANDRE! ANDRE! ANDRE! Timmy mentioned the battle royal, which confirmed my suspicion that the two only knew him from recent WWE mentions on television. No idea if they had the WWE Network. Being they were so young, I asked how they knew he was so great if he wrestled before they were even born. Heck, almost before I was born!

What do I know? Timmy and Jimmy just kept repeating how great “Andre” was. I am sure I could remember more, but this was two weeks ago, and my memory is already getting fuzzy. Regardless, it was a fun day, and these two kids taught me more in five minutes than I have on the internet in the past ten years when speaking with supposed “adults” online about wrestling.

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