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Submitted by Xan on Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 10:55 PM EST
 "Who am I? Why am I here?"--Vice-Admiral James Stockdale Okay, so I'm early. Trust me, there's a reason for it. I like writing at the end of the Star when the next one will be up and holding to that, but I felt obligated to throw this one up as soon as Impact! ended tonight because I have a lot to say and still want to do another full-fledged column that I'll probably put up on Monday night or Tuesday morning just to give a little space between columns. Today I won't have "The Comment Box", because what I'm writing today basically stemmed from a few e-mails I received in response to "Glory Day" informing me that Rhino had already lost the World Heavyweight Title five full days before tonight(the night the event aired on Impact!) and a couple of recent columns in the LOP Columns Forum. What I want to explore today is the nature of the Internet Wrestling Community. Why does it exist? What is it for? Are we fans better or worse off because of it? What about the promotions? Would we be bigger or lesser wrestling fans if it didn't exist? I ask these questions not because there's any chance of it going away, but because I think a lot of people haven't really examined how they use the tool known as "the internet" as it relates to professional wrestling. So, let's start where everything does: at the beginning. Why does the Internet Wrestling Community(henceforth referred to as the IWC) exist? Well, it seems obvious, doesn't it? It's a place for wrestling fans to discuss all aspects of wrestling. Who's the greatest wrestler of all-time? The worst? Who would have won if the Midnight Express took on The Hart Foundation? These questions and more can be debated ad nauseum by wrestling fans the world over because of the World Wide Web, and that's cool. Of course, it also provides me this forum to express my opinions on professional wrestling, which I love and am grateful for. The Internet is also a great resource for a wrestling company, as the WWF is showing with Taboo Tuesday, but other promotions have benefited even more. Would we even have heard of Ring of Honor or Total Nonstop Action if the IWC didn't exist? No, and TNA may have stopped operating earlier this year when they allowed the FSN contract to run out because they expected to be on WGN Monday nights. Instead, they were able to continue taping their Impact! shows and broadcasting them on their website. ROH makes most of their money selling their merchandise online. A couple of months ago, my brother asked me, "What ever happened to the Dudleys?" Because I am an active member of the IWC, I was able to tell him that they refused to sign the new contract proposed by the WWF and were no longer with the company. Earlier this year, while watching the Royal Rumble, I suggested to him that we might see something happen between Angle and Michaels because it was rumored that they were going to face-off at Wrestlemania. I also mentioned something else during the show that might happen and it did, and he was like, "Damn, do you know everything?" or something like that; and it seemed I did. But, is that a good thing? I don't think so. I think it fucked up some things that could have been surprises for him. He could have been shocked at Bubba and DVon showing up on the first Spike Impact! or Angle and Michaels getting into that brawl at the Rumble; instead I ruined it for him--I spoiled it for him--and I felt horrible about it; the Michaels thing, especially, because it's not like I told him the Dudleys would be at the first episode of Impact! How would I know? "You know, I...I've got a hole in my pocket. Give me some love and I'll drop it. I'll just throw it away."--Sheryl Crow Oh, I'm sure there are those that did due to the bane of the wrestling fan--SPOILERS. We've all seen this heading on LordsofPain.net/Wrestlingheadlines.com, but I feel many people don't recognize it for what it is. If a spoiler came in a bottle, the label would read "Danger: Slow-acting poison; if swallowed, call 911...", however I believe it should actually come in a vial of the kind that rarely bear a description of their contents. You see, a spoiler works like a plague, and you have to treat one very, very carefully. Otherwise, it can harm the one to happen upon it, as well as anyone he or she comes into contact with. Luckily, these organisms cannot travel by air or by blood. Rather, they are transmitted via the oral/aural path or by typing and sending it off to another. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I don't read spoilers, never have, and never will, but I will tell you that I feel they are harmful to the spirit and it is beneficial to you to view them with appropriate care. If remained untreated, they will destroy all the love you have for pro wrestling. The Michaels/Angle example is a good one, but I have an even better one. In December of 2003, I remember reading a rumor that stated Chris Benoit would be challenging Triple H for the World Heavyweight Title in the main event of Wrestlemania XX. As a huge fan of The Crippler, I was very excited to hear this for a few reasons. The first is the most obvious: Chris Benoit + World Title match + Wrestlemania= HOLY FUCKING GOD! The second is that I remember Chris Benoit's first ever match on WWF television, when(while still WCW World Champion) he came within an eyelash of defeating then-WWF Champion Triple H in one of the best matches of 2000 on Smackdown. As thrilled as I was, however, I was also extremely confused. After all, Chris Benoit was not only one of the headliners on Smackdown, but he was also embroiled in a feud involving Brock Lesnar, then-WWF Champion and then-Smackdown GM Paul Heyman at the time, so it seemed dubious that he'd be facing Triple H just 4 months later. As we all know, the rumor was pretty much true, and Benoit walked away from 'Mania XX with his long sought after World Heavyweight Championship. As much fun as I had watching him win what I consider the match of the year for 2004--the Royal Rumble--and, though I clearly remember kneeling on the floor in anticipation and jumping up to cheer loudly when he made Triple H tap out to the crossface to end Wrestlemania last year, I wonder how much more I would have enjoyed his run to the championship had I not heard about it in advance? I don't wonder this about Michaels/Angle, because the build for it flat-out sucked, but about the great drama that was the whole Benoit-Cena-Heyman-Lesnar turned Benoit-Michaels-Triple H? Aye, that is something that is worth considering. I think the only way to avoid hearing about rumored upcoming plans for wrestlers is to stop going on internet wrestling sites altogether, and since I go here to read the news and columns every day, I don't see that happening for me and the truth is these rumors are not always right. After all, this year Randy Orton was rumored to be facing Triple H for the World Title at Mania and it never happened. John Cena was largely expected to win the Rumble and that didn't either, nor did I ever once see HBCade show his face. "The peril of the hour moved the British to tremendous exertions, just as always in a moment of extreme danger things can be done which had previously been thought impossible. Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas."--General Erwin Rommel The thing is that I believe the WWF(and TNA for that matter) now have an excellent opportunity to pull back the veil that used to exist; to stop people from knowing what's coming up in terms of storylines and such. To force wrestling fans to go back to being fans again and not the quasi-insiders we seem to have become. We may not know why things happen or the reasoning that factors into it, but often nowadays we know what is going to happen and when. As I stated, I believe this is unfortunate, and I don't believe there's really any way for the WWF to stop these rumors from leaking out. They've tried to stop the gaps before, and have never been very successful for long. So, instead, I think what they should do is let the floodgates open. Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't think they should let us know everything that's going to happen in the following X number of months; that would be corporate suicide. So, if they shouldn't try to put a cork on all their bottles and they shouldn't purposely tell us the plans, what is another option? Simple. They make shit up and release it. That's right, your Ambassador of X is suborning propaganda. This is a wrestling news and opinion site. When news breaks in the world of wrestling, this is the place to read it. Since finding it in late 1999, I have personally always felt that this is the #1 site for wrestling news and information on the internet, which is one of the reasons it was a goal of mine to one day write for LOP, which, of course, I am now proudly doing. It is the mission of Lordsofpain.net to report any and all news available in the world of professional wrestling and when something is far from proven you will often see a disclaimer along the lines of "This has not been confirmed, so treat it as a RUMOR at this point." I feel this site does an excellent job of performing its duty, as there is always breaking news available to peruse. So, this is our job. But, isn't it the job of any entertainment organization to make sure that we don't know what's coming next? To keep us guessing? How many of us would have loved Empire Strikes Back if we knew that Yoda was going to turn out to be a little green guy or that Darth Vader was going to reveal that Luke Skywalker was his son? These are the kind of dramatic things that make stories work, the climactic ups and downs are the reason that we tune into any entertainment medium. If you disagree, you're obviously one of those people that jump to the back of the book first to see how the story ends. Lita-gate(which is a really inappropriate name, because she apparently don't prevent nothin' gettin' in) proved that as wrestling fans we're just a little too locked-in. I've been a Matt Hardy fan from the word go, and I've never really bought into Edge as a prime time performer, so I never became one of those calling Hardy a whiner or a crybaby, but I can certainly understand those sentiments even if I don't agree. Whatever your feelings on Hardy, though, you have to admit that a story that started as completely legit turned into a work at some point and we were all had by the two parties, as on the date Matt's no-compete clause was to expire he showed up on RAW attacking Edge; which was the first act for Matt under his new contract that they were able to keep from us very successfully by putting up a smoke-screen of the exact opposite. In effect, they lied to us and we bought it hook, line, and sinker. This is the kind of thing McMahon and company should do more often. If there was a lot of disinformation sent out through the rumor/news mill, we wouldn't know what to believe, we wouldn't have any idea exactly what's going to happen, and at the very least it would make the job of LOP much harder; as we'd have to sift through the pile and investigate which stories are legit and which aren't. If the WWF were to do this, they would be doing everything they can to fulfill their duty of keeping us from knowing what's coming next; to keep us from jumping ahead in the book. "Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you."--Carlos Castaneda But, there's work for us to do on our end, as well, because there is usually at least one of us LOPites at every show the WWF has whether it's a house show, a PPV, a RAW, Impact!, or a Smackdown TV taping. This is why if you look at the "Results" section of this page you can read the results of every taped show before they go on the air. I'd love for wrestling organizations to always air their shows live, but this is an ideal and we live in a world where large costs are involved in doing such, which means this is where our prudence must win out. It's unreasonable to expect the WWF, TNA, or any other promotion to take steps to restrict their taping results going up on a website. This would probably involve having every single fan in attendance at every single show sign a confidentiality agreement before the show begins, and even if they could somehow convince all those people to do this, given the nature of the WWW, it would be impossible to enforce such a contract. So, it's clear that it's unreasonable to expect a wrestling organization to take this action. It's also unreasonable to expect LOP to not post these results. This is a wrestling news site, and results of shows are clearly wrestling news, so it falls within our duties to have these results available to be viewed by our readers. Instead, it falls to the viewer of LOP or any other wrestling site out there to use discretion when viewing these spoilers, whether it be reading taped show results or the reported planned outcomes for that night's matches on PPV's and RAWs. I won't say that I've never read the show spoilers, but I will say that I only read those for shows I know I won't be watching. For instance, if I know I'm not going to see Smackdown and won't even get a chance to watch a tape of it, I may read the taping results to see what happened so I'm aware of what's going on before the next episode comes on; or if I'm not going to order a pay per view, I see no reason not to read the rumored outcomes for the matches because it's not going to affect my enjoyment of the show in any way. I think if you're truly a fan of wrestling that this should be the stance you take, as well. Otherwise, those spoilers will wear away at you like a cancer, like a poison, like a plague. I'm offering you the chance at a cure. Do you care? Do you care if the enjoyment of and love for the sport of kings is withered away from your body? I hope you do. I know I care, because I want to see the excitement of wrestling return, and the best way for that to happen is for nobody to have a damned clue what's going to happen next. If you are a true fan, that's what you want. You want to see what's coming next for yourself and to try to guess based on your past experiences; not be spoonfed the angles that are coming up and what their result will be. So, I'm challenging all out there right now to stop reading spoilers for shows you are going to watch; to cease and desist this practice right now, to stop fast-forwarding to the climax of the movie. Are you a fan? Are you really? I ask this question honestly, though I don't really expect all 1,000+ of you who read this to send me a response. Search inside yourselves for the answer, and if you haven't been good enough in the recent past to do everything you can to remain a real fan of pro wrestling, turn it around now. I can't promise you it'll be easy or painless, and it's true that you're going to lose that god-like feeling of knowing what's going to happen, but I guarantee you're going to have a helluva lot more fun. But, if you haven't the strength, will, or desire to try to rid yourself of this disease, at least have some common decency. Don't assume I want to share your needle and cover your fucking mouth when you sneeze. These three columns were posted in the last few days and are awesome as all get-out, so they definitely deserve your readership: Legend Or Not, Here H Comes Topica: I'm Looking Through You Write My Column #1 Please e-mail any feedback to me at XanManX@hotmail.com, with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line. The Northern Star will rise again in 5 days. Until then, I bid you... Long days, pleasant nights
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