From: fsspr@acad3.alaska.edu (Sean P. Ryan, Hardcore Alaskan)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Subject: Re: More Wrestlemania Comments
Date: 13 Apr 92 19:30:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: acad3.13APR92103009
Reply-To: fsspr@acad3.alaska.edu
Distribution: world
Organization: University of Fairbanks, Alaska...no wait, that's not right...
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-a3

In article <1992Apr13.032506.20786@cc.gatech.edu>, duggan@cc.gatech.edu (Rick Duggan) writes...
> 
>Well, today when I was talking to Joe Pedicino, I was asking him
>some non-mark-type questions.  Boni overheard us, and when she
>came over, she said something like, "So you're a smart fan?"
>I took as just what it means, as I did not have any idea that
>it was a term in the wrestling lingo.  I guess I should be
>happy that she didn't call me a "smart mark" :-).

Well, I had meant to bring this point up in another context, but now
appears to be as good a time as any.  Back around the end of 1983, there
was a letter in the Observer from Neil Drummond, who worked for many
years as a referee for the Tomko promotion in British Columbia.  He
warned that fans shouldn't use business terms (i.e. smart, mark, face,
heel, bump, etc.) in the course of their conversation, as it leads them
to eventually believe that they are part of the business.  As I look
back through recent years at the sheets and other forums for wrestling
fans, I think of just how prophetic this letter really was.  We now see
fans who walk around thinking that they're something that they're really
not, all the meanwhile drawing the wrath of wrestlers and others in the 
business.  Lord knows I've been guilty of this before, and have had
wrestlers mad at me for it.  I have little doubt that anyone who reads
this newsgroup that is in the business cannot help but chuckle at a
great deal of what they see.  Same with the large number of people in
the business that read the Observer every week.  I guess that the only
way to get around this stigma is to get in the ring and pay your dues
for x number of years, but not many fans have the ability/inclination
for that.

On a somewhat related topic, Jerry Lawler's hypocrisy towards the fans
is worth mentioning.  Lawler went up to Philadelphia on occasion years
ago to speak to Joel Goodheart's fan club, who are mostly "mutants." 
Since these are folks who are not "smart" but think they are, Lawler
gladly exposed the business to them.  However, when it came to true
"smart" fans, his attitude was different, generally because while the
"mutants" kiss his ass, the true "smart" fans tend to be honest and
criticize him.  About two years ago, Lawler asked Brian Tramel, then a
sheet editor, into the dressing room after a show in Jonesboro and
attempted to terrorize him.  This is probably the best known example. 
There have been other examples with fans, and he has done the same thing
with Jim Cornette, Paul E. Dangerously and Harvey Whippleman when they
worked in Memphis as managers.

************************************************************************
Sean Patrick Ryan, Hardcore Alaskan*****Internet: fsspr@acad3.alaska.edu
WWIVnet: 220@9704*CFN: au414*IRC: RadioKAOS, Aoxomoxoa*Ph: (907)488-8365
BITnet: FSSPR@ALASKA****Snail: P.O. Box 83381, Fairbanks, AK  99708-3381
*Call me Pastor - Pastor - Pastor of Muppets I'm pulling your string...*
I'll do a disclaimer when they pry my cold dead hands from the keyboard.
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling