Are wrestling fans ever happy?

Having been a member of 606 and now 606v2 for several years, it seems to me that wrestling fans are never happy with the way things are booked. Every week there is a new gripe on who has been booked badly and who has been booked too undeservedly favourably – and the occasional exhaustive run-down of how someone would book a feud if they were in charge. Comments on booking and direction are almost exclusively negative. But is this because WWE and TNA always get it wrong? Or is it because wrestling fans are extremely difficult to please?

Why is it that wrestling fans want to see feuds booked exactly as they would expect them to, and feel the need to complain when they are not? Do you complain when a novel ends in a different way to how you had envisioned it to? Or a movie? Oddly, when a story derails from it’s consumers’ expectations in any other form of entertainment, it is seen as a positive – yet in wrestling, should the forums be believed, it is a negative. It’s almost as if we crave just another sterile, emotionless product where the supposed deserved prosper; yet we, the unqualified masses, decide who are those deserved – we crave an X Factor style telethon where we should get to choose what happens and boo and hiss Vincent Kennedy Cowell when he has the nerve to disagree. (Ignoring the fact, that just like Cowell, McMahon has earned more money than we could ever imagine in making the decisions that we deem wrong. Does that mean we would be richer if we just had his position??)

What if we all agreed one day how we would book the latest John Cena vs CM Punk feud – and three months down the line we find that our direction was followed to the letter? Would this then satisfy the members of this forum and all the others in existence? Or would the problem then be that wrestling has become too predictable? Would we then feel short-changed rather than overcharged?

Alternatively, if this utopia of alignment between our thoughts and the WWE’s creative thoughts were to exist, would it strip us of our other joy - which is to come on here and discuss it. If CM Punk and Christian were World Champions in WWE, and Mr. Anderson in TNA, defeating Hogan, Flair, Sting, all three conducting lengthy reigns as we so self-assuredly believe they deserve – what would we discuss then? Or would it still not be good enough?

Do we actually like the feeling of disappointment? Do we create impossible parameters of success just so we can feel abused? Or do we like to feel superior and share how things should be done, no risk involved, from the comfort of our swivel chairs? So many times you read “that’s how it should be done – but it won’t because it’s WWE” – but for just one moment think about a world in which they did do everything we suggest, crave and demand. Then in the next moment, think about how boring that would be.

This is World Wrestling Entertainment – and to be entertained, I don’t necessarily want things to go the way I believe they should. Just like going to the cinema. Just like buying a book, I have invested in someone else’s vision. And sure I have my views about how I would have done things differently – but I also enjoy theirs. That’s why I paid my money.

I don't really think we are; and even if the majority were, a vocal minority would exist to undermine it and criticise.

It's one of the joys of life, and I, as a sports fan in general, am drawn to Wrestling because it can be influenced and what is served up is something that is written and staged...and if they do it in a way I disagree with, I have a platform to complain and a target for it.

The WWE and others will never be perfect and I'm sure even back in the 'glory days' of the 90's and early 00's people were still complaining about poor booking or superstars not being pushed as they felt they should.

I do actually wonder if the 2 day reign of Christian was done that way to get the IWC fuming, to get them talking about how screwed over he was etc.
If he’d have had a lengthy reign, looked strong etc then the IWC would have just moved on to the next person to moan over (CM Punk’s lack of PPV wins).
By doing this it keeps the IWC watching SD every week in hope that somehow Christian once more retains that belt.

The people tuning in and turning up to that Smackdown where he lost the title got to see a shock. They would have been entertained by that. The last thing they would have expected was to see a world title change hands when it had only just done so.

For me it doesn't do any harm to show that a title reign is not a dead-cert few months at the top. Otherwise you can pretty much guarantee the result of the next few PPV's after a new champion is crowned. And that certainty is not entertaining

Francis remains forever angry

Im not happy!

I need to pooh

I'm normally happy.... except when RVD is on my screen!

I just want logical booking with continuity and I'm all for swerves as long as the make sense in the long term