NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Smark

Smark is abbreviated professional wrestling slang. The term is a portmanteau of "smart mark," two other terms in their own right. A "smart" is a person who is privy to the behind-the-scenes operations and understands that professional wrestling is choreographed, whereas a "mark" is one who believes that professional wrestling is real. A "smark", therefore, is a combination of the two, a wrestling fan who enjoys following the on-screen product and the off-screen, backstage affairs equally. Professional wrestling is generally any form of performance art in which pro-wrestlers receive payment for participating. ... Professional wrestling has accrued a considerable amount of slang, in-references and jargon. ... Look up Portmanteau word in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A smart in the sense of professional wrestling was, historically, a person who was fully aware that professional wrestling was entertainment and was scripted (booking is used) in order to increase fan enjoyment and excitement. ... A mark is a professional wrestling fan who believes that everything associated with pro wrestling is real, rather than recognizing the existence of kayfabe (that is, it is a work). ...

Smarks are a subset of the professional wrestling fanbase. They come from many different social backgrounds and are often referred to as "smart" fans. Many smarks are part of the "IWC", or Internet Wrestling Community, a general term for the fans of wrestling who use the Internet as their means of communication. Smarks also make themselves heard on TV through signs and crowd chants, much to the chagrin of promoters and show producers. Cities such as New York, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto and Philadelphia, are notorious for having an audience who are "in the know". The Internet Wrestling Community (often abbreviated to IWC) is a group of people on the Internet who write articles and commentaries on professional wrestling. ... Braun HF 1, Germany, 1958 Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. ... Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area - City 1,214. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 606. ... Motto: Concordia Salus Coordinates: Country Canada Province Quebec Founded 1642 Established 1832 City Mayor GÃ©rald Tremblay Area - City 366. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area - City 369. ...

Smarks define themselves by embracing the "workrate", or talent level, of wrestlers. They have been associated with the practice of criticizing "big men" (in weight and/or muscle), unflatteringly called hosses by them in favor of smaller, faster wrestlers with a wider variety of moves. Also, being followers of off-screen politics, smart marks typically despise those whom they see as wielding too much power backstage (e.g Triple H in WWE and Jeff Jarrett in TNA) and support underdogs who they feel have been overlooked by management. In professional wrestling, a wrestlers workrate is somewhat synoymous with his talent level. ... Hoss is a professional wrestling term, slang for a large professional wrestler with a well-built body, but often with little technical wrestling ability and not much charisma. ... Paul Michael Levesque (born July 27, 1969) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name, Triple H, an abbreviation of his former monicker, Hunter Hearst Helmsley. ... World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. ... Jeff Jarrett (born Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett on July 14, 1967 in Nashville, Tennessee) is an American professional wrestler. ... // Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Jeff Jarrett and his father Jerry Jarrett. ...

Some smarks have turned to TNA and Ring of Honor rather than WWE, as their views on workrate over politics and spectacle makes these promotions more palatable to them as opposed to WWE's sports entertainment orientation. Others also investigate foreign wrestling, particularly Puroresu. Ring of Honor (ROH) is an independent professional wrestling promotion created in 2002 that is owned by Cary Silkin. ... Sports entertainment is a type of entertainment that superficially takes the form of a sporting event, but with more emphasis on dramatic storylines, humor, spectacle or titillation than on the contest of athletic skills. ... New Japan Pro Wrestling is the most popular professional wrestling promotions in Japan. ...

Criticisms of Smarks

Smarks have been looked down upon by wrestlers and other wrestling fans alike because they are seen as fans who are incapable of suspending their disbelief. As such, they are very critical of matches and often have negative reviews of wrestling matches, storylines, and wrestlers in general. Suspension of disbelief refers to the willingness of a reader or viewer to accept the premises of a work of fiction, even if they are fantastic or impossible. ... In professional wrestling, an angle is a fictional storyline (the wrestler Kurt Angles name is a coincidence; Angle is his given surname). ...

Also, smarks are often instinctively critical of wrestlers who are heavily "pushed", even if the wrestler in question is greatly over with crowds or even if they originally supported them before their push. For instance, John Cena was once well liked by a section of the smark community as a dedicated and underappreciated young worker with great charisma and significant potential in the ring. Today, he has become one of the industry's biggest stars and is one of the most hated wrestlers among that same section of smarks due to having a now repetitive moveset, dropping the more popular points of his original gimmick (freestyle, having the crowd curse for him, etc.), as well as being more kid friendly as opposed to the original gimmick having a more adult feel. In professional wrestling, a push is an attempt by the booker to make the wrestler win more matches and become more popular with the fans. ... In professional wrestling, the term over means making a wrestler look good. ... John Felix Anthony Cena, Jr. ...

Several Smarks have also become less impressed with TNA, accusing it of pushing too many old school performers as main eventers (such as Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, and Sting former WWE and WCW wrestlers), and then neglecting them when they fail to make as much impact as management had thought. Jeff Jarrett (born Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett on July 14, 1967 in Nashville, Tennessee) is an American professional wrestler. ... Scott Carl Rechsteiner (born July 29, 1962), better known by his ring name Scott Steiner, is an American professional wrestler currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. ... Steven James Borden (born March 20, 1959 in Omaha, Nebraska), better known by his ring name, Sting, is an American professional wrestler, currently wrestling for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Also, many smarks are seen as hypocrites for decrying the fact that the WWE seems to have a prejudice for big men, while at the same time expressing similar feelings of their own about the smaller, faster wrestlers. These views, however, are broad generalizations and do not apply to all wrestling fans. For example, some smarks recognize talent in big men, such as Samoa Joe, and have expressions of hope for Bobby Lashley and Paul Burchill. Brock Lesnar was also a big man that was liked by smarks at large due to his combination of power, technique, and agility, but fell out of favor with them after a match against Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania XX. Nuufolau Joel (Joe) Seanoa (born March 17, 1979), better known by his ring name Samoa Joe, is an American professional wrestler, currently performing for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and Ring of Honor (ROH). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Paul Birchall (born October 8, 1979 in Guildford, Surrey), better known as Paul Burchill, is a British professional wrestler who works for World Wrestling Entertainment in its Ohio Valley Wrestling development territory. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... William Scott (Bill) Goldberg (born December 27, 1966 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American professional wrestler and retired American football player. ... WrestleMania XX was the twentieth WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. ...

Smark fans that attend arena shows also have a tendency to try to promote their knowledge of the business as well as their personal tastes over the action in the ring by initiating (often vulgar) chants. This is a common occurrence in promotions like Ring of Honor, but has been known to permeate the larger promotions at times. Ring of Honor (ROH) is an independent professional wrestling promotion created in 2002 that is owned by Cary Silkin. ...

Smarks have been blamed many times by various wrestling promotions (mostly WWE) of killing kayfabe, or the suspension of disbelief within the business even though it was WWE owner Vince McMahon himself at his highly publicized steroid trial in the early 1990s, saying publicly and under oath that it is all a predetermined spectacle. In professional wrestling, kayfabe (pronounced KAY-fayb; IPA: ) refers to the portrayal of events within the industry as real, that is the portrayal of professional wrestling as not staged or worked. ... Vincent Kennedy McMahon (born August 24, 1945) is an American wrestling promoter, occasional professional wrestler, on-screen personality, and former play-by-play announcer. ... Chemical structure of the natural anabolic hormone testosterone, 17b-hydroxy-4-androsten-3-one. ... See also 1990s, the band Germans dancing on the Berlin Wall in late 1989, the symbol of the cold war divide falls down as the world unites in the 1990s. ...