3 ms·

It's a "strawman". You see this in fake wrestling: a designedly weak contender is set up to get owned by the audience's favorite protagonist

mattferderer 8y ago
Do they still do that? I thought that was a 90's thing. Also known as a "Squash Match". If pro wrestling can move on from them, maybe news media should too!
- deadmetheny 8y ago
  Jobbing is alive and well, especially on the mid-card, but not as prevalent as it used to be.
- StevePerkins 8y ago
  Of all my random childhood / young-adulthood interests, I never expected a Hacker News tangent discussing this one. The role of "jobbers" or "enhancement talent" (i.e. performers on the show whose role was to make the real stars look good) faded in the mid-1980's. The industry consolidated, from a collection of regional operators focused on live events, to two main companies with national footprints and a focus on television (i.e. WWF and WCW). Competition heated up between the two, and the "squash matches" that had filled out live event cards were not compelling to the newer television audience. With the dawn of The Attitude Era (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Era), squash matches became virtually extinct. They had already become more rare in the preceding years. Much of the Attitude Era can be seen as a postmodern deconstruction of the old-school tropes that came before. In this environment, a group of former-"jobbers" even formed an on-screen faction dealing wit the concept (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_J.O.B._Squad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_J.O.B._Squad), which elevated them to moderate stardom by breaking the fourth wall for an increasingly-informed audience. Today, some performers will still never have the same potential for stardom as other top performers. But no one is kept on the roster to always lose. It's too boring, and doesn't really work to enhance the winners. You are correct, of course. The industry changed only because the "mark" fans "smartened up" and demanded it!
lightbyte 8y ago
In this case climate change denial and conspiracy theories are a mainstream opposition. >"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." -President of the United States https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/265895292191248385 https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/26589529219124838...
- Faark 8y ago
  Here he is ridiculing climate change as of last week, in case someone wants a more recent example (he missed the 15th anniversary of The Day After Tomorrow by a few months) > "[..Its cold right now..] What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!" -Leader and representative of the United States https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1090074254010404864 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/10900742540104048...

mattferderer 8y ago

Do they still do that? I thought that was a 90's thing. Also known as a "Squash Match". If pro wrestling can move on from them, maybe news media should too!

deadmetheny 8y ago
Jobbing is alive and well, especially on the mid-card, but not as prevalent as it used to be.
StevePerkins 8y ago
Of all my random childhood / young-adulthood interests, I never expected a Hacker News tangent discussing this one. The role of "jobbers" or "enhancement talent" (i.e. performers on the show whose role was to make the real stars look good) faded in the mid-1980's. The industry consolidated, from a collection of regional operators focused on live events, to two main companies with national footprints and a focus on television (i.e. WWF and WCW). Competition heated up between the two, and the "squash matches" that had filled out live event cards were not compelling to the newer television audience. With the dawn of The Attitude Era (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_Era), squash matches became virtually extinct. They had already become more rare in the preceding years. Much of the Attitude Era can be seen as a postmodern deconstruction of the old-school tropes that came before. In this environment, a group of former-"jobbers" even formed an on-screen faction dealing wit the concept (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_J.O.B._Squad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_J.O.B._Squad), which elevated them to moderate stardom by breaking the fourth wall for an increasingly-informed audience. Today, some performers will still never have the same potential for stardom as other top performers. But no one is kept on the roster to always lose. It's too boring, and doesn't really work to enhance the winners. You are correct, of course. The industry changed only because the "mark" fans "smartened up" and demanded it!

lightbyte 8y ago

In this case climate change denial and conspiracy theories are a mainstream opposition. >"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." -President of the United States https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/265895292191248385 https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/26589529219124838...

Faark 8y ago
Here he is ridiculing climate change as of last week, in case someone wants a more recent example (he missed the 15th anniversary of The Day After Tomorrow by a few months) > "[..Its cold right now..] What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!" -Leader and representative of the United States https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1090074254010404864 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/10900742540104048...