Nascar & Professional Wrestling

M

millermagic

Guest
Don't laugh at this. My dad has been saying that NASCAR is going to end up like Professional Wrestling. Why? He says that NASCAR is starting to just be a show, and that there really isn't much racing to it. I can see where he is coming from, beucase other series, like IRL can be better racing than NASCAR, everythhing is for a big show, and it's all sponsors and legal mumbo jumbo. I've also read an arcticle in a magazine, forgot which one, that says any sort of similarity between NASCAR and other racing organizations is just a coincidence. So I'd like to see what everyone else thinks about this, because it does seem like nascar is begining to look like professional wrestling.
 
One of the engineers I work with has been saying that all along. He is more of an open wheel fan, sprints, WOO, but will watch Cup ocasionally to see how Matt is doing.
 
Well during the allstar event, the drivers got introduced to music and and pyro. Just like pro wrestlers.
 
:D and they are sending Jeff Hammond off to cover and be trained in announcing pro wrestling. I guess he'll come back and give Larry, Darrel & Darrel lessons to bring NASCAR more in line with Pro Wrestling. :D
 
Yeah, I heard Vince MacMahn was taking over the driving duties of the Home Depot #20 in exchange for Stewart getting a shot at the Heavyweight title...with France jr the guest referee.

Now that's sports entertainment.

(not laughing your post, Miller, but rather the possibilities)
 
I can see some similarities. As NASCAR expands their audience they must move more into Entertainment, the same as the WWE, than other racing organizations who don't enjoy the same popularity in this country. There are parrallels between how the product is presented. Probably what we are seeing are growing pains of this transition from a racing product to an entertainment product where the fans are pandered to.
 
If Nascar does it wrong, they could end up like the WWE: on a small tv network.
 
Originally posted by barelypure@Jul 2 2004, 08:22 AM
I can see some similarities. As NASCAR expands their audience they must move more into Entertainment, the same as the WWE, than other racing organizations who don't enjoy the same popularity in this country.
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That's where I disagree. I don't think they must do the things they are doing. I think they choose to do them. Stock car racing has been around for a lot of years. It survived just fine, people made boat loads of money, became celebrities, lived a life of leisure, whatever. They did it without stooping to the levels they have in place today.

I see some of the veteran drivers like Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Terry Labonte...they're uncomfortable with the hoopla and the fluff they have to endure. You can see it in their faces when they are put in circumstances that dictate they tolerate it. Fox's little music videos with Ward Burton jumping up and down, and Joe Nemechek just shaking his head with his hands over his ears as this week's hip and popular crack addict's music blares behind them. When they are intorduced at the All Star race, they act differently. More mature, moe dignified, more professional. I for one like that. I can see twenty-somethings gyrate around anywhere I choose to look. I'd like a reprieve from it whenever possible.

Of course, the market NASCAR wants right now loves all this hogwash, so the drivers endure it. But to say they must do this to keep the sport strong is incorrect. It's a choice like everything else.

I never considered racing to be entertainment. I considered it a sport. When I want to be entertained, I'll satisfy that need with the entertainer of my choice, be it a musician, an actor, or whatever. I don't need my stock car drivers behaving like buffoons trying to be "hip".

Days like this, I really miss Alan Kulwicki and his demeanor.
 
My pop watched NASCAR on the sand at Daytona and we used to watch Dusty Rhoades wrestle. His opinion is that NASCAR has begun the slide down the same slope that relegated wrestling to the redneck soap opera that it is today, and I agree. It's hard to believe the inconsistent cautions, inconsistent penalties etc are not designed to or at least unintentionally intended to benefit the "all star faces" that the sponsors and most "new" fans clamor to. Helton and crew would do well to read forums such as these and realize that when fans toss crap on the track after a race, as bad as that is, NASCAR has at least some accountability in that behavior. My opinions to which I am entitled. I wish there was another series that raced... eek.. STOCK cars!
 
Originally posted by Georgia Jeff@Jul 2 2004, 11:01 AM
I wish there was another series that raced... eek.. STOCK cars!
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Try ARCA, ASA or Hooters Prp Cup.
 
When I said they must I was referring to expanding their audience base beyond the racing fans they have had for years. The bean counters have seen the money that can be made by appealing to a wider audience. An audience that is not necessarily there just for the racing. I never implied that I liked the new face of NASCAR.
 
stock car racing didn't just use to be a VERY small sport, but it was even looked down upon by sports car and open wheelers when they had the best talent making the most money and drawing the most fans...

but with bill france, jr., at the helm, they went from obscurity to being the number 2 sport in America in ratings and the cup series' weekly attendance blows everybody else away...and at the same time, it seemed like nascar was losing a bunch of the detractors that use to always say stock car racing wasn't a sport.

so, i really have no idea why the new powers that be at nascare (the "e" stands for entertainment) felt they had to change a whole bunch of stuff. i would think that the smartest thing to do when something keeps getting bigger is to keep going and see how big it'll get before major changes are made...but what do i know? i'm not the one calling the shots that are lowering ratings and upsetting fans...maybe brian france has something else in mind.

oh yeah...the topic. in the sense that the organization was passed down and the new generation felt he could improve the popularity of the events, nascare is like the wwwf/wwf/wwe...i don't know if the inept officiating is similar to the wwf in its origins, or if it's just the result of having rather stupid people trying to keep track of the etch-a-sketch rulebook, and i don't care all that much anymore...and i sure hope that any and all appearances of results tampering is just a bunch of wierd coincidences, but i wouldn't be surprised if there was some serious substance to the conspiracy theories (other than the persistant rumors that some teams don't have as thorough tech inspections and the inconsistancies concerning rules interpretations and timing of flags).
 
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