Its sometimes difficult to defend the benefits of this expanding cyber universe we call the Internet Wrestling community. So many people, so many opinions and unfortunately so many narrow minded ‘anti-this’ and ‘anti-that’ angry little nit wits. For the literally thousands of columnists who choose to constructively criticise or just opinionate with evidence, there are another two thousand who like nothing more than to tell us why we’re all corporate gimps to the Republican party’s secret brain mashing super soaker that is the ‘evil’ WWE.
Some enlightened folk would have you believe that if you don’t masturbate at least six times a day over an ROH ‘super card’ then you’ve got no idea what real wrestling is all about. You might think I’m going to now state that this is all ok because everyone is allowed an opinion blah, blah, blah. The fact is some individuals feel that to be a supporter of the niche, to be a voice of the underdog is somehow enlightening. The interesting thing is if ROH, or promotions with a similar size and status, ever grew into a larger entity, made some serious money and reached a massive demographic then this would some how degenerate the product into no longer being ‘different’ and therefore ‘special’. This attitude has little to do with what they’re supporting but rather how many people are supporting it. What’s anti-establishment about supporting something that millions of people are already a part of? Nothing, therefore its non-beneficial to those who don’t know how to make a difference in the world.
If you genuinely don’t enjoy a product, namely WWE, then that’s fine, I couldn’t care less. If you prefer watching ROH type promotions, that’s great. If you like the intimate atmosphere, the style of wrestling, the remit of the promotion then fantastic. I applaud people who can honestly decide for themselves what they like and dislike. What you’ll find is that these people will watch ROH, they’ll buy the DVD’s and they’ll enjoy the promotion. What you won’t get from these people is narrow minded criticism of other people, other promotions and other outlooks on life. This is because they are content with what they enjoy, what they don‘t enjoy is irrelevant. If you like oranges but hate apples then you will eat an orange, you won’t think twice about eating an apple. You certainly won’t waste your time posting ignorant comments about how apples are what’s wrong with the world of fruit.
The most peculiar form of this ridiculous ‘my favourite promotion’s better than your favourite promotion’ argument comes in the form of the TNA vs. WWE circus. In a recent blog by Raw announcer and all round WWE veteran JR he made a comment about TNA trying to ‘out WWE the WWE’. For those of you who haven’t read that particular part of the blog then here it is below.
‘What, wrestlers taking lie detector tests on TV? Stop it now, please, I am begging you! Wrestling shows that try and “out WWE” the WWE is like flatulence in the wind, it just blows away. A wrestling show that focuses primarily on the in ring product might be a novel concept for a budding WWE wannabe. No one is going to out “WWE” the WWE. I went through the exact same issue while I was at WCW in the late 80’s-early 90’s’
JR
Now I don’t know about you, but to me JR is simply suggesting that TNA shouldn’t bother trying to do WWE style angles. It should rather concentrate on its own unique selling point. The hilariously predictable element about the reaction to JR’S comment is of course the amount of people that took it out of context. ’What, JR’s trying to punk out TNA! That son of bitch! Well he’s not going to get away with it that easily…Baldrick, fetch me my laptop!’. Here are a couple of carefully selected outputs from tunnel vision.
‘I’m tired of people that bashes TNA’s fans! I know that Double J put the title too often, but they so much better wrestlers(before your fans goes crazy, I still think wrestlers like Benoit(the most underrated wrestler ever), Paul London and CM Punk is good)……I’m tired of Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross! Long live JBL and Mike TeNAy…..ECW is a fluke’
Anesen (Denmark)
‘i’d much rather see lie detector tests on television than vince mcmahon’s ass, lame “press” conferences, mcmahons in the “top” feud, eddie guerrero’s death used to sell tickets, tasteless katrina references, dominick and vickie guerrero in storylines, diva search contests, the miz, etc……thank goodness those “wwe wannabes” actually focus on putting on wrestling matches on their wrestling shows (a novel concept indeed) and giving their ppv audiences their money’s worth. let me be clear in stating as a fan of 22 years, no wrestling company is perfect, and it’d be wise not to throw stones when there’s so much glass at wwe hq.’
Willydynamite
It seems clear to me that some people just couldn’t wait for a prominent WWE figure to make reference to TNA. The second quote is surprising because he actually makes a few good points about WWE’s shortcomings and is obviously at least a half intelligent person. Unfortunately its also clear that this is a horrible mutation of younger fans who can at least attribute their views to the complications of adolescence. This guy’s been watching wrestling for 22 years (therefore ultimately knows everything there is to know about everything and considers JR a zygote in comparison) and still he hasn’t actually understood what JR is writing. As soon as there was a whiff of criticism towards TNA then wham! ‘J.R.! The swine….’
What makes this blogging circus even more excruciating is the pro-WWE crowd who also take JR’s comments about TNA out of context. Once again, another enlightening comment from tunnel vision.
‘yea jr tell tna they ain’t shit finally u stepping in and letting it be known..jr you’re something special just keep your head up and stay focus’
Samuek tooks
This was just a snippet from the amount of posts insinuating that JR was trying to put TNA in its place or something. These comments are just as close minded, just as ‘my dad’s better than your dad’ as the anti-WWE posts. Its this constant search for a catalyst, the search for controversy and confrontation that makes the IWC look like a bunch of socially deficient keyboard jockeys with little else going on in their lives than the childish word vomit between wrestling promotions.
I have to now apologise for the time you’ve wasted reading the above posts, because that’s simply what it is, a waste of time. Due to this ‘my way or no way’ interpretation, JR had to explain his reasons for his paragraph of apparent war cries. For those of you who haven’t seen the blog, here it is, for those of you now bored with this moronic game of bullshit tennis then please keep reading, I’ve got a really funny quip about Tripple H’s nose coming up.
‘I am not throwing stones at TNA. I have zero issues with TNA but when their brand has a chance to be different and they begin to lean toward the established brand in the marketplace it is, in my individual opinion, a mistake. For the sake of all the talents who work within the business the more places they can work to earn a living the better. I have several friends who work in TNA and I certainly want them to be successful. Wishing ill of another company is non-productive, old school ‘rasslin B.S. The WWE is and always will be the leader within the sports entertainment genre and I am sure the fine folks at TNA would not dispute that claim. But that certainly is no indictment on their brand.,
JR
Thank you Jim Ross. That’s a point well made and a point you simply can’t argue with. The fact is that the more wrestling out there, the better it is for everyone. The more competition the for the WWE the better it is for every wrestling fan past, present and those who are fortunate enough not yet to have stumbled into our whacky world of words and wraslin!
The wrestling world isn’t going to be changed in internet forums. The agendas of tunnel vision aren’t going to persuade people to change channel. The opinions of myself and other internet columnists are somewhat irrelevant in the grand scale of things. The only thing that matters is support. Support of what you enjoy, support of what you think is worth your time. Forget the other guys, if you don’t like it then why waste your time. Enjoy your orange and leave the apples for the folk that enjoy apples. To save you reading another paragraph in which I will attempt to sum up my argument I’m going to cheat a little bit. Below is a quote from a fan replying to JR’S blog. Its probably the most sensible post I’ve ever read and saves everyone a lot of debate and a lot of time.
‘If someone’s really so committed to TNA, they shouldn’t go around bashing those who have an opposing viewpoint, or bringing signs about the company to WWE events. Instead, try the novel concept of financially supporting their product by watching the TV shows, or buying the pay-per-views, merchandise, etc‘
Ric Gillespe
Thank you Mr Gillespe. As always if you want to leave me some feedback then bring it on. If however you happen to be the exact type of person I’ve so harshly criticised in this column then you may of course blurb at me all you like, but don’t expect a reply. I’d rather leave you with that sense of self-satisfaction, safe in the knowledge that you’ve put that naïve and brain washed columnist in his place. Now excuse me while I go and purchase the new Tripple H t-shirt from WWE Shop.com. It should be a good buy, its depicts his gigantic honker, from which dribbles green snot that cleverly spells out the letters DX.
Tony Hudson
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