Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Reading Between The Ropes. I sit here today as a fan of the WWE and a fan of wrestling. Right now I'm ashamed to call myself one of those things. Can you guess which one it is? Yeah, it would be the WWE part.
I was going to write a column regarding the release of Rhyno anyway, and then today some more news has filtered through to the IWC. Matt Hardy has been released by the WWE.
First off, Matt Hardy is an exceptional athlete, and one I have admired for quite some time. I really thought he was destined for great things in the WWE. Rhyno was also talked about as a future main event man in the WWE a few years ago, but has since slipped off of the radar. Rhyno is more than a solid worker on his day and, while I never believed he was World Champion material, he certainly more than deserved his place on the roster, and in a respectable position on the card.
Both of these men are now done with the WWE, and for reasons which I feel are disgraceful. Rhyno trashed a plant pot and lost his cool. In a world of macho athletes and in the sort of environment like the wrestling business, with egos running wild, I am sure there are many incidents of people losing their cool.
Rhyno lost his over a situation that was a very serious one. My parents divorced a number of years ago, and I realise just how stressful than can be on a family. It can rip your insides apart and it hurts ALL parties involved. If, as reports indicate, Rhyno and his wife are going through a messy divorce, then I can vouch from first-hand experience that these situations are a terrible trauma on everyone involved.
Rhyno did not commit a hideous act. He did not cheat on his wife with another member of the roster's family. He did not shit in the bags of a fellow employee. He did not twirl his penis around on an aeroplane. He did not chop somebody's hair off when they were sleeping. He did not beat a guy up legitimately in a match over an automobile ticket. He lost his cool and smashed a plant pot because his family is being torn apart and he cannot see his child. Of all the crimes I mentioned above, I see Rhyno's as the least serious, yet all of the above crimes go seemingly unpunished in a WWE which is full of politics and bullshit it seems, nowadays.
The most dangerous aspect of Rhyno's crime is that potentially fans of the WWE could have been exposed to the incident. That could have played a major factor in the WWE's decision to release him. However, in the world of knowledgeable fans who surf the Internet, more fans would hear about this incident from the WWE releasing Rhyno and the subsequent reason for his release becoming evident anyway. In short, less people would have heard about this incident had he not been released.
Indeed, such knowledgeable fans are probably equally as aware of all the incidents I have mentioned above as they are of Rhyno's actions. I hardly see the argument that Rhyno's actions happening in a public place make this a stronger candidate for disciplinary action, therefore.
The fact is that if HHH trashed a plant pot in a hotel lobby in front of double the number of people that witnessed Rhyno do it, Hunter would still be with the company. It is double standards in the WWE, and this is not just evident from my hypothetical Hunter theory; it is evident in ALL the non-fictional examples I have listed above. The bag shitting, the hair cutting, the adultery, the penis twirling, and so on and so forth.
Of the two releases, though, the second more recent one is far more disturbing. While Rhyno did little wrong, Matt Hardy did nothing wrong. I hear there are suggestions that the WWE did not like Hardy making his break up with Lita common knowledge. His break up with Lita would have become common knowledge had he hinted and eventually confirmed it on his site or not. And even if you believe it would not have, that is not a sack-able offence. It's not Hardy's fault they split up, is it?
I hear Edge's tyres were slashed at a show recently. Maybe Hardy did it, and that's why he got fired. If so... it still doesn't make this right. If Hardy slashed a tyre in return for his heart being slashed then good for him! If he didn't, then why on earth is he being fired?
As you can tell, there are many rumours flying around as to why Hardy has been released, but the one thing that is the common denominator in all of this is that it has stemmed from the evil love triangle that is Edge-Lita-Matt Hardy, and this is a love triangle that came about through two wrongs, of which neither of those were Matt Hardy's.
Of the three people involved in the situation the WWE doesn't punish the adulterer, they don't punish the infidel. Nope. They choose to punish the man who's the innocent party in this situation. And it isn't as if the WWE are trying to punish the adulterer. Edge has got a push while all this has gone on! Lita will no doubt win the women's title again sometime down the road, too. While the wonderful world of TNA awaits Matt Hardy, it seems. I hope not. I hope he works for ROH, IWA: MS, NOAH, or whoever else that recognises talent when they see it and lets said talent display their credentials for all true wrestling fans to see.
However, I will refrain from making this column a rant. I will merely calmly state that in a wrestling world of egos and heinous crimes, a guy who loses his cool and a man who ends up becoming gooseberry in a love triangle are hardly the worst of people, and hardly candidates for a disciplinary firing.
So, go on WWE... carry on pushing and employing your thugs, your hazers, your bag-shitters, your adulterers, your penis-twirlers. Let your topur top stars commit equal or worse crimes and get away with it. Meanwhile, in the eyes of those who see past your political bullshit, we realise what heartless bastards you can really be.
Until next time,
Mitchell L. Gadd
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