We don't need to know

Real or fake?
Shoot or work?
Courtesy: WWE

By Kevin Hunsperger

@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
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Wrestling News BI: Before Internet

I've been a wrestling fan for more than 30 years. During my youth and even most of my college days the primary source of wrestling news was through the "Apter magazines." Each month I'd buy Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Wrestler and Inside Wrestling and check out the news features in the front of each issue. Of course the details were dated by then, but it was the only way I knew how to stay informed. I'd never heard of Dave Meltzer at the time.

Then in 1995 something magical happened. The internet was born and I spent hours every day on a site called rec.sport.pro-wrestling. It wasn't even a traditional website, but a message board with posts on news and other topics by wrestling fans and presumably insiders. I became obsessed with it, wanting to know what was happening because in college I wasn't always able to watch the weekly wrestling shows and DVR was still years away.

Glad this was never spoiled
Courtesy: WWE

Now you get spoilers without even looking for them. Some members of the Internet Wrestling Community seem compelled to post who's backstage at Raw or who was spotted at the airport in the city of the night's big pay per view. No one wants to be surprised anymore. I don't want to know these things. I like being surprised. That's what made the early years of wrestling so much fun to me. Bobby Heenan pulling out Ric Flair's WCW big gold belt on WWF programming is still one of the most shocking things I ever saw. It was special because no one tweeted it or blogged that Ric Flair was coming to the WWF.

Courtesy: WWE

Recently on Talking Smack on the WWE Network, the Miz and Daniel Bryan had a heated debate. Fans are still speculating whether it was real or fake. Does it matter? Can't we just sit back and be entertained without trying to figure out these things? Over the last couple of years WWE has done a great job of blurring the lines between reality and storylines to make fans wonder. I said during a recent Facebook Live, I like when my predictions are wrong because it means WWE is staying a step ahead of the fans. 

We all need to just take more time enjoying the product and less time trying to figure out what's real or not. Do you like spoilers? Do you have to know if everything is "part of the show"? Let me know here or on Facebook.

Spoiler Alert: Why Be Spoiled

Some of the new Star Wars characters
Photo Courtesy: My 1-2-3 Cents

By Chad Smart
@chadsmart & @my123cents on Twitter

This past weekend (July 26 to be exact) I attended the San Diego Comic-Con for the fifth time. Originally I wasn’t going to go, but changed my mind on Saturday morning, found someone selling a pass on Craigslist and decided to make the, what was supposed to be, two hour drive from Hollywood to San Diego. Part of my decision to go was based on friends being down there since opening night and posting pictures on Facebook. Friends that I didn’t tell I was coming nor tell them I was there until after I had left. 

Part of the reason for not telling anyone I was at Comic-Con was I figured they would be sitting in panels and I was only interested in walking around the main floor seeing the displays and picking up some free swag. I have never been big on the panels. Maybe it’s due to living in Hollywood where on a monthly basis there are film screenings with actor/director Q&As so standing in line for hours on end (people camp out overnight in order to get into Hall H) just to hear an actor/director talk positively (seriously, has any actor while promoting a film ever said the movie sucks, making the movie sucked, or the co-stars are horrible people?) about a film doesn’t sound like time well spent. Add in the fact 90% of the panels will be up on YouTube either legally or not within minutes of the panel being finished so again, why spend hours to watch something you can view on your own time? 

Yoda
Photo courtesy: My 1-2-3 Cents

Some Comic-Con attendees will say the chance to see “exclusive” footage of films months in advance is a draw for attending the panels. This makes even less sense to me. First off, some panels in the past have shown the first 10 minutes, or scenes from upcoming films. I, speaking from a strictly personal perspective, don’t want to see 10 minutes of a film. I want to see the entire film. I will wait 6-12 months too see a film in its entirety instead of being teased with a small portion and then having to wait to see what happens next. 

When I got home from Comic-Con there were postings on Facebook of a scene from Superman vs. Batman. I didn’t watch the clip. I think it showed Wonder Woman, if I remember the description on the clip correctly. Again, to me, why would I want to have part of a film spoiled before seeing the film? 

More new Star Wars characters
Photo courtesy: My 1-2-3 Cents

A month or two ago, Kevin posted an article on the My 1-2-3 Cents Facebook page regarding Star Wars: Episode 7. I used to be a HUGE Star Wars fan. I have a tattoo of Han Solo on a tauntaun, so it’s fair to question my judgment. The prequels kind of killed my Star Wars fandom, but I’m still interested in seeing the story being told in Episodes 7-9. However, I don’t want to know everything about the movie before I walk into the theater. That’s something I don’t understand about today’s 
entertainment society. 

With all the entertainment news websites and all the “Cons” throughout the year there is so much information being passed out on a daily basis if one wanted to know every detail about a movie, pressing a few keys and a couple mouse clicks and there’s really no reason to go to the movies anymore. My question is, why? 

Boba Fett
Photo courtesy: My 1-2-3 Cents

Why would you want to know if Boba Fett is going to make an appearance in Episode 7? Why would you want to know what Avengers villain would show up at the end of Avengers 2 to set up Avengers 3? 

If you know what’s going to happen, where’s the sense of wonder and just going along for the ride? If you read a book do you turn to the last page to see what happens before starting the story? I know I’m probably in the minority and some may claim the spoilers add to the excitement and anticipation they feel for a film. 

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Spoilers...No Seriously, You've Been Warned

Photo courtesy: Fox

By Aaron Heller, "the Wrestling Roommate"
@stillreal2me on Twitter

Editors note: The Wrestling Roommate is an exaggeration of the truth, not to be taken too seriously.

So let me tell you a little story about Mr. Ring Post Testa himself. Adam, easily one of my best friends, has a problem…. Adam likes to be on the net, when I say this I don’t mean, “Hey have you seen the wall post I put on Facebook last week?” I mean Adam might need an intervention.

 Most nights Adam has Twitter, Facebook, and Skype open on his Mac. He also sits there with his Droid going off about every 10 seconds. If it didn’t make me laugh a little inside it would annoy me. Not because I hear his ringtone and messengers going off nonstop, but because Adam can’t unplug long enough to actually enjoy a show.  Most of the time Adam knows the outcome of a show before it airs. I don’t know why he actually watches anything.

Photo courtesy: AMC

This is fine if he wants to live that way, however the problem I have is that he generally doesn’t keep this knowledge to himself. Adam also has a very skewed opinion of spoilers, mind you I don’t even watch trailers for some video games or movies because I like the experience. Adam thinks that sitting there during The Walking Dead and repeating “oh the prison, oh the prison” like he did at the end of season two isn’t a spoiler. Most people would probably agree, however I knew that REMOVED (yea I don’t want to spoil it for you) was going to shoot REMOVED because Adam let it slip. Now, Adam generally makes his joke about me saying “If I told you the boat sank at the end of Titanic you would be yelling about spoilers.” My only answer to that is, somewhere there is a member of the Jersey Shore who thinks an “Iceberg” is a drink that contains vodka.

Let me clue you in on the first 10 seconds of me walking in the door every day after work:  ​Aaron walks in the door, sees Adam on the couch watching some wrestling DVD, computer open with Twitter, Facebook, WWE.com, the Baltimore Sun’s website and some other random site about whatever show he is into that week.

Adam: What’s up?
Aaron: Nothi-
Adam: Everyone is just in a expletive deleted church?!
Aaron: -_- I’m going to bed….

Brock's back (Courtesy WWE)

The worst thing about this is that Adam just doesn’t get it. I knew that Brock Lesnar was coming back 6 weeks ago because Adam knew it. Adam told me that the Rock was going over at Wrestlemania 28 after Wrestlemania 18 went off the air. I don’t know how he knows this stuff, but he does and it makes watching anything with him infuriating. He even ruined the Bible for me, (the main character comes back at the end.)

In his honor we here at My 1-2-3 Cents present to you this public service announcement about spoilers….please…..

Click here for College Humor's take.