Breaking The Walls Down - Do Non Professional Wrestling Fans Care About The Realness of The Fakeness? Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 3:00 PM EST
Breaking The Walls Down
Hello all and welcome back to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. March decided to give us a little winter sendoff; hopefully it’s the last snow/ice to show in the area. I apologize for no column last week, outside of my fulltime job, the company I’m starting is currently seeking funding and putting together the necessary paperwork and researching the potential investors is both extensive and tiring. I’m going to pass on Bits and Pieces this week, as I want to focus on something that Jim Ross brought up recently.
Do Non Professional Wrestling Fans Care About The Realness of The Fakeness?
I’ve read Jim Ross’ comments concerning the handling of their “Battle of the Billionaires” by ESPN. I was a bit shocked and a bit dumbfounded by Ross’ comments. If you haven’t had a chance to read his comments check out the post on LoP. It’s a very informative read. Yet, once I was done reading the entry, I sighed and thought to myself, “This is exactly what the ‘real’ media mean.” Ross’ blog entry/column came across as a bitter man who didn’t get what he wanted. And, because he didn’t get what he wanted, he figured it was best to lash out on a verbal diatribe and focus it on the main offender. . . ESPN. First and foremost, I am not a fan of ESPN and I agree with Ross, I too am tired of their constant tongue-in-cheek references, but, in my opinion, the way Ross went about handling the situation neither helped our cause nor made us appear mature in any way possible.
One would argue that it’s good to get your emotions off of your chest and the best way to do that is through writing. While I won’t argue against that, as I’ve done that from time to time, one certain shouldn’t post those statements in a medium many people read. By Jim Ross’ own admittance, professional wrestling isn’t handled well by the “real media”; therefore, he feels the need to come out and give the real media a coy tongue-lashing of his own. Well, in several areas it worked and it made some poignant points concerning how professional wrestling is not treated fairly by the “real media”. But, where Ross goes wrong is by using the word “jackass” when describing the person in his encounter on an airplane. That person was the former head of ESPN who left to work for Daniel Snyder of the NFL’s Washington Redskins. That kind of language is exactly what people associate with anyone in the wrestling business. Foul-mouthed, beer drinking, and generally ornery in nature, professional wrestlers, whether right or wrong, owns this reputation. Jim Ross did nothing to stifle that stigma; rather he perpetuated it with that one, not-so-simple, remark.
At the same time, I can’t fault Jim Ross for his comments; only point them out in a constructive way. Jim Ross is passionate about professional wrestling. He has his finger on the pulse of the sport and knows the ins and outs better than many in the business. He has earned this reputation through his solid announcing skills, great talent evaluation, and his handling of the talent behind the scenes. In short, Jim Ross’ life is professional wrestling and he’s going to defend it when he feels it’s been done wrong. No one can find fault in the kind of dedication as long as it’s not misguided, which Ross’ certainly is not. However, Ross wants his product, his sport, to be taken seriously. He wants the same kind of decency given to other sports that are marred by controversy.
Sports such as the NFL has their fair share of problems. PacMan Jones (a.k.a. Rain Man Jones, due to his “incident” in Las Vegas, Nevada over the NBA All-Star weekend), and the Cincinnati Bengals have earned them honors on the hallowed website www.profootballtalk.com, which I am a frequent (several times a day) visitor. Their “Turd Watch” has a ranking system for teams who harbor players who break the law. The Bengals are the joke of the NFL right now due to their players familiarity with the police. In addition, The NFL has steroids and HGH (Human Growth Hormone) issues. The NFL, however, is arguably the most popular sport in America and with the billions it generates a year, will not be spoken of in a tongue-in-cheek reference. The NBA has a black eye from last year’s events involving NBA players fighting fans. The NHL is trying to recover from a player strike and a betting scandal involving some of its former players. And, finally, America’s favorite pastime, baseball (The MLB) is still trying to recover and distance itself from steroid scandals and HGH created mega-players.
And this is the point that Word crashed on me and lost the next two paragraphs, so please bear with me as I try and reconstruct it from memory. The difference however, and this is what ESPN focuses on, is the reality of our beloved sport. The reality is, professional wrestling is staged. Surprise! I bet you didn’t know that. That’s what ESPN has a problem with, they know the wrestlers aren’t out there intentionally trying to hurt one another. In fact, and I can’t say for sure which wrestler it was, although I am fairly certain who, I won’t mention that person’s name unless I’m certain, stated that he believed professional wrestling was headed the way of soap operas. Meaning, eventually there would be more and more talk segments and interviews and less and less wrestling. The emphasis would be on the story line outside the ring, rather than the story the wrestlers can develop inside the ring. Regardless, the professional wrestler professional wrestling was going that route now. I can agree with that. Currently The WWE employs several writers from varied backgrounds, some of which know nothing of the sport.
Take a step back and think about that for a second. How do you perceive soap operas? Many people argue it is the same story rehashed over and over again, with tweaks here and there so the product does not look the same. Now, think of how you perceive when you hear that someone you know watches soap operas. Normally it’s a “guilty pleasure” of theirs and they will defend it to the bitter end. Is it any wonder why ESPN looks down about professional wrestling? On top of that, there are angles in the professional wrestling world that simply give more ammunition to the naysayers of professional wrestling.
One needn’t look far for these angles. To list a few: Mae Young gives birth to a hand, Donald Trump vs. Rosie O'Donnell, Hawk’s drunk angle, Droz’s puking angle, The Boogey Man, etc. These kind of angles add no form of credibility to the sport. Granted, there will always be an element of zany entertainment, but the previously mentioned angles do nothing in terms of adding credibility to the professional wrestling world, rather it hurts it, seriously hurts it. The WWE is said to be upset that the main stream press is not picking up on the billionaire vs. billionaire match at Wrestlemania. While The WWE may be upset about this, it must recognize its own responsibility in this. This is not to say that the media hasn’t always had an element of tongue-in-cheek concerning professional wrestling, but once Vince McMahon added his touch to the company and then later took it over, professional wrestling has been looked at in a different light. . . a comical light.
In the end it comes down to reputation and The WWE doesn’t really have a stellar one. Whether it dates back to the steroid scandal of the late 80s/early 90s or the current dilemma that reaches beyond The WWE and touches professional wrestling as a whole, the untimely deaths of many of its former and current stars. Let’s not forget the media debacle that occurred when Owen Hart passed away so many years ago. When it came out that Owen was very nervous about doing the stunt, the media backlash on The WWE was cold and ruthless. The WWE weathered the storm, but yet another stigma became attached to the growing list: foul-mouthed, uneducated, alcohol/drug addicted, violent, and the latest stigma – management pushes its superstars well past their comfort range.
While I can definitely see where Jim Ross gets angry about the lack of positive media attention and the disgust at the incessant tongue-in-cheek references, Ross must acknowledge a lot of this is self-induced. It’s the hardest thing to do, admitting that you may be the cause of a lot of the current misconceptions you have, but it’s the truth. It’s whether or not you attempt to clean yourself up, correct the things that are blatantly wrong (like The WWE is attempting to do now with its “Wellness Program”), and move forward with a resolute ideal of making things better. The WWE is trying this. They have eliminated a lot of the zany angles. They’re doing their best to eliminate drugs. And, one can only assume they are not trying to push their workers into situations they are uncomfortable with. The problem is, that perception is out there of professional wrestling, and they have to deal with it. These are the lumps they have to take. While it’s alright to acknowledge the tongue-in-cheek references, pointing out the positives is the best way to move forward, not throwing out the word “jackass” in a column that could be read by any number of media outlets. It’s tough to have the thing you loved trashed day in and day out. But, that appears to be the nature of the beast. While I can certainly understand how Jim Ross can become tired of the whole thing and feel the need to lash out, he must remain calm and not so cynical, as his column appeared. Ross made some really good points about the ratings, but it was behind a cynical voice. In the end, professional wrestling may never get the perception it deserves, but the faces of the company need to make sure they don’t give an ever-growing negative-focused media more fuel for the fire.
