Greetings TSM!

It's your good pal Stephen here. Many of you know me best as my TSM persona "DrVenkman PhD" but today we're going to be prying deep (or not so deep) into what makes - or perhaps made - your wrestling clocks tick. This is basically kind of exactly like a survey Cheech already did in Site Feedback, but I am trying to put a larger focus on wrestling on this one. Traffic wise, it made sense to launch the survey in the WWE folder, but heck (HECK!) if you've never watched a minute of WWE television and want to talk about why Fedora Town Wrestling rocks the wrestling world, please do. I'm also interested in hearing from the ex-fans that populate the board, but that would require them to actually be in this area to read this, and honestly, almost all of the questions are skewed to current viewers (I'm planning on doing some "why are you LESS interested" type questions, but not many "Why aren't you interested at all?" questions). Either way, have some fun with it and if you hate this and think it's dumb... well, keep it to yourself. You'll hurt my feeling otherwise (IMG:http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) Or mention it in the appropriate NHB thread.

General Interest Questions

1. Who are you and what's your business here?
Feel free to not answer this if you don't want to. Basically, if you wish, let us know what your deal is and how you came across TSM Forums.

2. When did you discover an interest in wrestling?
What year/era? Perhaps it was the Showa era? Maybe the Heisei era? 1993? Attitude era? (You get the idea). What angle, match, or wrestler/character do you vividly remember as your first wrestling experience?

3. The Company Line:
A. Which companies have you actively followed in your tenure as a wrestling fan?
B. What have some of your favourite companies been? Your least favourite? (In theory, your answer can be the same - if you were growing up a fan of the technical wrestling WCW brought to the table but thought the end of the line for them was some of the worst television this side of My Mother The Car, that's cool).
C. What is your favourite company right now? Any reason why?

4. (Not So) Favourites:
A. Who were your favourite wrestlers (or gimmicks) growing up / when you first started watching wrestling?
B. Who were some guys you couldn't stand?
C. Who are your current favourites (if applicable / different from A.)
D. There was a 4th question here, but it basically ripped off the entire premise of a thread (or more than one thread, in theory) that already exists in General.

Specific Questions about your Interest

5. How would you gauge your current interest level in the product?
Do you still get butterflies of excitement that make you look forward to upcoming PPVs? Did you ever? Do you watch every televsied wrestling program live, or just a few - and FF'd via DVR at that? If you consider right now to be the most interested in wrestling you've ever been, the rest of the questions in this section can be skipped over.

6. At what point in wrestling history (if it's not now) would you consider your interest to have been at it's peak?
When were you compelled to watch every second of televised wrestling AND shell out money on PPVs, get excited about the release of video games, have TV/PPV parties with friends, etc.

7. At what point could you tell your interest was dipping and why do you think this happened, or what specific event(s) triggered the decrease?
Was there anything even specific? Just a gradual interest loss of interest? Retirement (or death) of a favourite? A boring title reign on SmackDown in the Summer of 2004?

8. Have you ALWAYS stuck with wrestling even during times of low interest, or are there any lengths of time you stopped watching for a period only to come back at a later date?

9. If applicable, at what point did you decide to pack in the wrestling fandom?

Interesting Questions of a Somewhat Random Nature

10. What style of pro wrestling best resonates with your personal tastes?
Has it always been this way, or have your tastes changed over time?

11. Where do you "draw the line" with the whole "suspended disbelief" deal?
Do you tell critics to "relax because it's just wrestling and you should enjoy the matches" (aka TNA fans about everything that happens on Impact!), do you come up with solutions that the writing team didn't bother to think about but you figure "it's there if you read between the lines" (aka "WWE Apologists"), somewhere inbetween, or do you take your greatest joy in watching wrestling to deconstruct everything that makes no sense?

12. Do you attend live events?
And more specifically, do you get a thrill out of big arena shows, do you prefer the smaller 'intimate' settings of the local indy show, or would you rather forget the whole thing and watch everything unfold on your HDTV without dealing with 'the marks'?

13. If applicable, what are the best and worst experiences you've had going to a show live?

14. What are your favourite matches, moments, or events?

15. Freestyle
Add any closing remarks you feel are absolutely necessary to letting TSM know your thoughts on wrestling.

Again, just have fun with it. If it comes off as lame, I apologize, but I'm hoping it brings the "wrestling sections" of the board closer together instead of further apart.

So, the year is just about done, eh?

IMPORTANT: Please post your team in the thread every month, but also PM me with your monthly team, otherwise it can't be entered. Your team needs to be posted/sent to me the day before the "month" starts.

Month 1 begins with Raw (10/6/08) and ends with Cyber Sunday (10/26/08).
Month 2 begins with Raw (10/27/08) and ends with Survivor Series (11/23/08)
Month 3 begins with Raw (11/24/08) and ends with Armageddon (12/14/08)
Month 4 begins with Raw (12/14/08) and ends with The Royal Rumble (01/25/08)

TSM Fantasy 1 League:

Queries that might come up:





Speciality Match Types:


Roster: (finishing moves eligible for point-scoring in brackets)






Current standings:


(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v260/teamfranchise/month35.jpg)

History:

Month 1 Champion: The Franchise - 325 points
Month 2 Champion: Fazzle - 536 points
Month 3 Champion:
Month 4 Champion:

Newest additions are in italics.

Making New Threads

Ideally, with the traffic this forum receives, we should see 2-3 new threads per day. However, we need to keep a few things in mind when starting new threads, lest the forum be cluttered with unnecessary topics.

1 - Has it been posted before, or would it be better suited for an existing thread? Do a scan of at least the first page of the forum, to ensure it hasn't been posted before. Updates on prior news probably doesn't need a new thread, except in exceptional circumstances. Use common sense.

2 - Is it really threadworthy? Run of the mill comments or news do not need their own thread. Try using the Random Thoughts thread for random thoughts. Use the News You Can Barely Use thread for news you can barely use.

3 - Is it relevant? There is a General Wrestling folder on the board for non-WWE items. This folder is also used for fantasy booking and topics that are older than five years. If you want to discuss something that happened more than five years ago, make sure it has relevance to today's WWE.

4 - Try and give an opinion when posting news items. This isn't WO.com. We aren't here for groundbrearking journalism. The idea behind the forums is DISCUSSION.

Posting

I can't believe this next rule still needs to be included, but it seems that it does.

1 - Everyone is entitled to their opinion. There is no right and wrong when it comes to professional wrestling. Give them the opportunity to explain their point of view, then refute it if necessary.

2 - Back things up. If you say Cena isn't a draw, back that up with some numbers. If you think Shawn Michaels sucks, tell us why. We don't want to read inane comments without justification.

3 - When posting news items or editorials from other websites, cite your sources.

4 - No direct copying and pasting of any copyrighted material. This includes newsletters, audio updates, shoot interviews or anything else. Paraphrasing is fine, but absolutely no copying and pasting.

Trolling & Flamebaiting

The following will not be acceptable:

1- Insulting someone directly because of their opinion. Period. Arguments will get heated, but that is not justification for attacking other posters. If you have a problem with another poster, take it Don Dokken's Chocolate Socket.

2. Racism. Don't do it.

On breaking a guideline

If you believe that someone has broken a rule, please do one, or both of the following:

1 - Quote the relevant rule to them. Don't be sarcastic or rude, don't flame, and don't dwell on it. Tell them, and move on.

2 - Send a PM to one of the many (usually) moderators that are reading the forum. We ditched the report button, because unfortunately, people abused it.

Remember this is a message board and we are here to have fun. The rules exist to make sure everyone plays fair.

The moderators are here to make sure things runs smoothly. If you have problems with the forums, or suggestions for improvements, please send a PM or post your concerns in the Site Feedback located towards the lower part of the board.

Was wondering when they were going to have Swagger vs. Ortiz.

I think they should have waited until Ortiz beat someone that's a bigger name than his usual first, but that's just me.