Smark

From Freepedia

A 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 pro wrestling is scripted, whereas a "mark" is one who believes that pro wrestling is real. A "smark," therefore, is a combination of the two, a wrestling fan who realizes that pro wrestling is scripted, but still enjoys the on-screen product as much as the off-screen affairs.

Smarks are an subset of the pro wrestling fanbase. They come from a many different social background and are often referred to as "smart" fans. Many smarks are part of the "IWC," or Internet Wrestling Community, a general term for the legions of fans of wrestling that use the Web as their means of communication. Smarks also make themselves heard on television, much to the chagrin of show producers: cities like New York, and Philadelphia, as well as any city in Canada, are notorious for having an audience that knows just a little too much.

Smarks define themselves by embracing the "workrate," or talent level, of wrestlers. They will spite the celebrated "big men" in favor of smaller, faster wrestlers with a wider variety of moves.

Many smarks also investigate foreign wrestling, particularly Japanese. One reason for this is many smarks believe that Japanese wrestling has a better workrate and better workers.

Other definitions

A smark is one who knows that wrestling is predetermined, not fake, and respects the athleticism wrestlers show and the wrestler's ring ability. Many criticisms smarks have against certain wrestlers come up either because of a lack of talent, a lack of "putting over" other talent, or failure of the writing staff to give good a talent a chance to shine. This is much in the same respect to fans of a TV series criticizing the producers or writing staff for not living up to expectations or giving the actors a chance to show what they have (or actors who can do better, not doing better).

Criticisms of Smarks

Smarks have been looked down upon negatively by wrestlers and other internet wrestling fans alike because they are very critical of matches and often have negative reviews of wrestling matches, angles, and wrestlers in general, thusly giving off an impression that they can't seem to make up their minds.

Also, smarks are critical of wrestlers who are "pushed", even if the said fans supported the wrestler in question at first or that have a low "workrate" regardless if they are "over" with crowds as a "heel" or a "face".

Smarks often ignore which wrestler is "over" with the crowds and often look at a wrestler's workrate as opposed to a wrestler's crowd reaction as a "heel" or "face".

These views, however, are broad generalizations, and do not apply to all wrestling fans.