Fan vs. mark?

Smark is an embarrassing name if you look at who considers themselves a smark.

I'd rather be a mark or a fan and not be ashamed of it. Smarks are pricks.

I completely agree.

Ok, so smarks are bad as is a mark. I think I want to be in between. Know that it is scripted, but still be excited and surprised while watching.

I recently have been taking all the proper steps to remove myself from the internet wrestling community (save for WFigs, of course). I wanna be ignorant, I wanna be surprised, I want my passion to come back for the product. I'm going back to living in a kayfabe world as much as can. No spoilers, no dirtsheets, etc. I wanna have fun being a wrestling fan again.

"I think we have let some of the magic slip away, and that may be why we don't enjoy it as much."
It's called getting older, seriously the booking isn't that much better than the attitude era, Mae Young gave birth to a freaking hand. I've just come to accept that I just out grew out of pro wrestling and stopped judging it with a magnifying glass, I enjoy it a lot better now that I don't look for flaws and take it that serious. And if I don't like it, I just turn the channel over. Meh...

I seriously hate the word mark. It was first used back in the day by wrestlers and wrestling promoters at fairs and carnivals to refer to the fans that they considered to be rubes because they thought it was real and could get them to pay to see the show, so they started calling them marks to identify the fans without the fans knowing it. I think it's incredibly deplorable and disrespectful and I absolutely hate it especially that it's still used to identify the fans today and it makes me sick. If it wasn't for these so called "marks", wrestling and the WWE wouldn't be as popular or successful today. Calling the fans that pay to see something they love and enjoy a mark is incredibly disrespectful, almost like biting the hand that feeds you. The fans are the backbone of the wrestling industry and to continue to refer to them as marks is just ridiculous. I am a music fan, I am a comic book fan, I am a movie fan why can't I just be a wrestling fan? Why the to have to be labled as a "mark" just because I enjoy it and get into it sometimes. Yes I know it's not real, but it's still fun to watch, now does that make me a "smark"? Definitely not. That's just as ridiculous and it's an oxymoron, I mean a smart mark? Come on, like I mentioned before a mark was considered a rube and a rube is basically a dumbass that will buy into anything, so IDC what anyone says but smark is not just a disrespectful name but it's stupid too. I just don't get why we can't call ourselves and others wrestling fans. Why do we have to continue disrespecting ourselves and let the wrestlers (who wouldn't be where they are today if it wasn't for us) disrespect us by referring to us as marks? that sh*t! I am not a mark and I'm not a smark, I am a wrestling fan plain and simple.

Here's a question.

If a mark is someone who thinks it's real, how come smarks are too busy trying to figure out if Rock and Cena are shooting on each other or not? Sounds to me like the "smark" has become the biggest "mark."

None.
I dont know a damn thing about the behind the scenes stuff at The Office but I sit back and try and enjoy each week. This season has been garbage and they've been spiraling downhill for a few years.

That doesnt make me an Office "smark," it means the show sucks. You can criticize something that you watch without classifying yourself with a silly name.

If something is bad, how can you sit back and enjoy it?

Are we really having this stupid conversation?

I swear I hate to be a broken record but whatever happened to "Choosing" to believe?

I leave EVERY & I mean EVERY smug, jerk, skeptic, man, woman & child who questions my almost unhealthy love of Professional Wrestling with a new found respect or at least erased their superiority complex about the art form after I give the "Portrayal of a sport" Lecture. I mean how do educated fans not use their intellect to their advantage to not only improve their enjoyment of the match but silence the ignorant?

How this relates back to Marks I can explain in just a few points.

One: From the way most of you talk I first thought a "mark" was a mentally ill person or an ignorant child since who else lacks the capacity to understand what it really is?

Two: Spoilers are the worst thing to happen to wrestling ever. The only thing that could be worse hasn't even happened yet(Vince's death) That's how bad spoilers are.

Three: It should speak for the deep, psychological effect that professional wrestling has on people considering people who are considered truly jaded about the business still are fairly fixated with the current on-goings.

I personally think this whole conversation & 90% of forum conversations are a waste of Internet space & can't see the point unless a conversation has justification in that's educating, either to a serious shoot matter or an angle, is humorous for cleverness's sake or is a droll discussion.