FanPost

Don't Let WWE Fool You, 'Smarks' Do Matter

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Conventional wisdom tells us that there is no money in the Hardcore Fan, at least not big time mainstream money. The thought process is simple, even if the biggest geeks for one's product is willing to spend a lot on it. Those individuals are short in number, and appeasing them is bad for business. Especially if you compare with the returns that you get by trying to get as many casual viewers to tune into your products.

If you've watched TV at all you've seen it a million times, awesome series getting canceled or losing what endeared them to select groups just to try to and keep up with the mainstream monster.

The same logic has been applied to wrestling from the start, and it isn't hard to see why.

A generation before ours, our type of fan certainly had it harder. They had to buy or trade tapes, buy the infamous dirt sheets. These fans were far in between, and just like any other hardcore fan base, wasn't really good for business. I mean, think about it. Being a "Smark" was actually hard, you had to put a lot of effort into it, so there weren't many of them out there.

Then the internet came and changed it all.

We, wrestling nerds, spend countless hours staring at the dirt screens, debating about who should get pushed, and who had the best match. We skip over toYoutube, Dailymotion, et al. and watch Matches from Indies and Japan just for their workrate. These days just a few clicks can make you a "smark", and our numbers are growing. But more importantly, our influence is growing.

Even with the internet, the conventional logic on hardcore fanbases has not changed. TV can afford to keep ignoring their geekdom for now, and still make the big bucks. But wrestling is unlike many other TV shows, professional wrestling has a live audience, a live audience where smarkdom can actively influence the product. Maybe the casual fan in attendance doesn't log into Cageside Seats for all the latest rumors, and maybe he doesn't know that the latest cool thing to do is to boo Reigns because he's Vince's new "Chosen One". But he can most certainly hear the fellow fan booing his heart out, he can read the signs scattered through the crowd, and he can ask around to see what is going on, And so can the fans at home...

But WWE should've seen this coming from a mile away, do you think casuals started chanting Cena Sucks? Daniel Bryan is sure appealing to any kind of fan, but his YES movement was basically defined by Smarky Crowds. But nothing compares with last year's Royal Rumble debacle and the subsequent road to wrestlemania. Last year should've changed how things are done in WWE; Last year was a clear indication that something had to be done to adjust to these new times.

Apparently the boss man thinks otherwise...

We live on a era where fan backlash is immediate, book a crappy rumble? #CancelWWENetwork starts trending worldwide on Twitter.

Any type of fan can just click on the hashtag and read what everyone is saying about the Royal Fumble 2.0, maybe they can find a stray link that leads them into the dirtscreens, and just maybe they'll start turning "Smark". Maybe tomorrow at RAW the dissenting voice will be stronger, maybe after tonight the "Bullshit", "We Want Refunds", and "Change the Channel" chants will start appearing more often.

Wrestling Nerds matter more than maybe any other type of wrestling fanbase. Because our voice can be heard live once a week, we have a bigger influence in the product that a certain VKM would like.

But because the powers that be decided to ignore that same voice, WWE network subscriptions are likely trending down, and I wouldn't be surprised if WWE Stock starts reflecting that trend sooner than later.

Fucking Millennials, amrite?

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.