To the fans...How important are back stories to your enjoyment of a wrestling event?

I'm just curious because I grew up with WWF wrestling and have watched it for most of my life, but I find now that I can't be bothered, that there is too much soap opera drama crap and not enough wrestling.

Professional wrestling outcomes may be scripted, but that doesn't take away from the actual athletic abilities of these athletes. They are the best and most diversely trained of any sport, so why take away from that with all this backstage garbage? This guy stole this guys girl and what have you. Sure it's nice to have rivalries amongst the wrestlers but there is such a thing as taking it too far.

I was just asking to see if anyone else out there agrees with me or has any thoughts on the subject.

Thanks for reading!

Personally, I'd say the back stories are important to the whole thing. They help put meaning and rivalry into the matches when done properly. Though when they are done in a way that they takes away from the wrestling itself then I don't like it.
Ideally I'd want them to be used as a support to the main show, a build up, not the actual show itself.

This is something that I totally agree with...

Its hard for the audience to work out alot of storylines if they are not regular viewers... this includes all indie and other wrestling feds as the audience are not always regular.

I love simple and energetic storylines, ones that are clear and concise and are aimed at making the audience feel a part of it.

Ahh but I am looking at it from a consumer point of view... and some people love epic storyline...

Yeah, agreed.

Except in Japan though, they just go out there and tear down the house!

But you'd expect back stories in most situations, especially in American wrestling (and everything else that falls under it, AUS included) where there usually is a storyline to most things or everything and they need a back story or fans will be scratching their heads throughout the match.

Story time is fine, but I really go to watch the wrestling, and abuse the Wraith.

Storylines are a artform. You can have the WWF/E style which is more of a joke then anything making the wrestlers seem like they are larger then life and such. Or you could have small things liek this person hates this person and so on like ROH, ECW and Japan

Japan has gotten their idea of wrestling by keeping it look like a sport. Win/Lose Records and only the people that are up on top can fight the champion and so on. IT really is an artform. One of the biggest reason why The results from the matches get published in the papers still. The fans know its pretty decided but they still believe it as a sport.

In the USA and Australia it seems that everything has changed due to the stupidity of the E/F. Hopefully the fans will notice this more as things change but there needs to be another change to do that and with the market being held by the E thats not going to happen to much.

Just my ten cents.

Everything seems to be going fine so far. I find a little bit of back story to heat up rivalries is a good thing. So what we need is a projector and a little summary show saying what happened last event and who shot who in the what now. I reckon we could really get the crowd involved with some carefully crafted scripts and good production of said shows, and highlights of the previous show. Hey, I'm awesome. It'd be fun, but I wouldn't enjoy more than say five minutes of stuff. Also it would cover that awkward break between getting in the hall and then waiting for GO!