• Wrestling News & Wrestling Rumors – WWE & TNA

What we now know as the World Wide Web was originally the brain child of the US Department of Defense. Then it was known as Arpanet and was to be used by the military to enhance computer aided communication. For years before it was given general public use it was only used by high ranking universities so that computer scientists across the country could conduct and compare notes on experiments as well as communicate discoveries and new developments in the realm of computer science through this innovation. Thus transforming Arpanet into the Internet as these select schools refined their direct pipeline to one another.

So the irony of it being originally conceived by the military is not lost on me. Because what we have now is a living breathing media battle zone. Gone are the days of humble opinion and rhetoric. Today everybody has something to say and no true filters to keep it from being said. The first lesson of technology ethics is to take everything online with a grain of salt. Most information has not been verified and feted properly, nor will it ever be. It’s the nature of the beast. But as a result of this phenomenon, it seems that several members of the professional wrestling community have become up in arms with the ring of professional wrestling online media channels. Culminating in this cryptic game of who said what when why and for however many times. This debacle of hearsay and half truths from one or both ends spawns catastrophe as online media markets manufacture information to sell their sites, performers feel they have to shoot down lies and the average fan is just trying to figure out what’s going on. With the current state of affairs, as a fan, it is impossible to tell a hack from a reputable source or to tell the difference between actual malicious intent and a simple perceptive misunderstanding. This is because there is no definitive online source reporting an agreed to truth. Until there is one, this issue will continue.

The development and history of the internet is a verifiable fact. However, my perspective that there is an online media war is an opinion as the rest of this piece is. Opinions are great when someone is observing something in a critical fashion because they are the meat of what is discussed. Criticism is necessary because it brings up the overall value of the product being critiqued. But it needs to go beyond one-sided one-level critiques. With differing perspectives an actual compass for quality can be formed and adhered to. If only one type of analysis is ever done who’s to say that there has been any actual growth or development. So criticize yes, falsify, no. Reporting assumptions and rumors as facts makes for great cheap advertising among a population that has no need to be advertised to with the added benefit of making everyone involved seem like a mark, especially from an ‘outside looking in’ perspective. It literally takes away any validity and respect that honest criticism can generate. The ambiguity just further tarnishes the already suspect media profile of professional wrestling when compared to other forms of televised entertainment.

Speaking from personal experiences, it’s hard to be a wrestling fan no matter your age. It’s even harder to be an adult wrestling fan. Judgments on character and intelligence usually follow shortly after someone foolishly admits in mixed company that they actually enjoy the theatrics of it. But how much harder is this to do when the people that you are actually trying to support become your biggest critics. When the entertainers themselves become the ones that mock you the most, it endears a sense of entitlement that can become downright ugly.

I can’t speak from personal experience here, but I’m sure it’s hard to be a wrestler. I would imagine harder than it is to be a fan in most cases. Just the view of society and other entertainment industries. Most entertainers are pretty open in interviews and they tell you they do it for love of the business and the fans. In my head I can do a quick roll call of how many injuries some of the top stars have had from broken bones to torn muscles. In my mind, at the most basic level, this person injured themselves for the sake of the everyday fan, so that people like me can continue to enjoy what they grew up loving. That alone endears a large wealth of respect. On the other end, would that exist if the fans didn’t truly get into the level of work that’s being done.

Like all entertainment environments, it’s a symbiotic relationship that for certain levels of fan and performer has to be a little difficult to process. It’s fair to be upset if someone you depended on to be loyal and dedicated proceeds to spread lies and mischief over the online media monster that is the internet citing a vague suspicion as the truth. As a fan, it’s the temptation of receiving validation from a world that earns you disrespect constantly proving to be too much to resist. I think the average fan that posts bogus information wants to be acknowledged by a proponent of what they love to the point that it doesn’t matter if it’s negative or positive.

As the computer scientists that created the Internet discovered, communication is a multi-tiered process that goes beyond simple call and response. There is a level of understanding that needs to take place, compassion and the ability to see life from a perspective outside your own. In this online media war it really seems like both parties sometimes use each other rather poorly from simply not understanding each other’s motivations. Considering how many enemies the professional wrestling world has it should be more of an “us against the world” mentality rather than all of this infighting.