Reported by Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
On Sunday, February 25, 2007 at 7:33 PM EST

Around the Town #2
Monday, February 25, 2007
Reported By: Hunter Golden WrestleVIew.com

Over the past few weeks I’ve been receiving a ton of emails from people regarding a variety of topics, but a few in particular commending the overall tone of the stuff on WrestleView.com being far more positive than most. Because that tone is improved, some are saying that we come off as more credible and enjoyable to read. I’d like to thank you all for your feedback, but also use your words as fodder for my commentary this week. If this ever makes money, I owe you folks!

Here’s where I put my partisan hat on and say I agree ten-fold.

The Internet Wrestling Community has become far too negative as a whole and I sometimes wonder whether or not they’re ever going to be capable of enjoying wrestling again. Sure, we all have moments where we get pissed about a bad episode of Raw or Vince Russo having cage dancers on PPV, but in all honesty, I still enjoy wrestling, even if it’s not as much as I used to.

I read other recaps, columns and even browse some other forums to see what the rest of the world thinks about Pro Wrestling as I feel there’s a benefit to immersing one’s self in as many opinions as possible when trying to form one’s own views. What I find though, is that the Internet media in general these days, goes way too far in terms of trying to find something to hammer the WWE with.

Some places dwell on the terrible, some even just make it up to be ‘different’. It’s amazing how self-actualized we’ve become, filling the ‘news lines’ with silly, baseless statements and overly cynical stupidity that really doesn’t help anyone. All it really says is that you’ve got an opinion and apparently aren’t afraid to be stupid enough to share it, regardless of how counter productive it may be to what folks are trying to do.

Perhaps the most pointed example of stupidity on the part of the net wrestling community is it’s encouraging Fans to criticize the WWE for being far too oppositional it’s fan-base. However, if you read the reports coming off of half of the web sites and forums that cover the sport, you’d figure it was the opposite. Listen to the following statement I picked up on a forum this weekend:

“I can honestly say, the whole deal with McMahon and trump has almost killed my interest in WM. We have two great main event matches - one that could be really, really good (HBK/Cena) and one that will at least be interesting to watch (UT/Batista - can UT carry the big lug to something good), plus there'll probably be either a MITB or some other kind of ladder/gimmick match on the show. And now the focus is going to be on this.

Every problem in pro wrestling right now is shamelessly evident right there."

That post is a telling one because it describes really what’s wrong with the IWC these days rather than professional wrestling. Now the body of that post was entirely positive. He seemed to commend and be happy for everything that was going on but programmed to the point where he had to come off negative in the end to sound ‘smart’. The IWC has clearly forgotten how to enjoy wrestling and/or compliment the industry when they’re doing something well. This poster seems to want to compliment Wrestlemania as a well put together card, but just can’t bring himself to do it.

Sometimes I find myself not all that immune to this kind of empty criticism, either. Last week I spent an entire column kicking the crap out of TNA Wrestling for the consistently awful television shows they keep producing. I like to think however, that I call a spade a spade and point to the positive when I see it.

Raw has been the best it’s been since the brand split began. We are heading into Wrestlemania with two main event matches that actually feel important and are semi-unpredictable. Even if they don’t produce a lot in the way of work rate or whatever it is Net fans deem as important, it’ll be fun for the moment it’ll produce. There isn’t a bad match on the card and the Raw TV show is consistently great every week, or at least has been since the beginning of the new year.

Smackdown, while not blowing anyone’s doors off, is beginning to feel, legitimately, like a blast from the past with all sorts of fun characters and entertaining wrestling. It’s been consistently good since October of 2005 and hasn’t ever really let up. It’s an even greater accomplishment considering the injuries, suspensions, loss of talent to other brands and even death it’s experienced.

TNA has a ton of work to do. They’re not headed in the right direction. The story lines are awful, management seems completely clueless as to what running a wrestling promotion entails in addition to the pay per views being pretty poor.

However, despite the fact that some shows are doing well and some shows aren’t doing so well, we should as wrestling fans, want them to all succeed. Now that doesn’t mean showering every fed and worker that has something redeeming about them with flowers, but it means not being so freaking’ snotty and downright vicious when talking about them if we don’t like them.

Whether ourselves, WWE, TNA or anyone else for that matter likes it or not, we are part of this business as well. To a certain degree, we in the wrestling media, especially, have a responsibility to help it grow and succeed, supporting others who enjoy it like we do in an attempt to make it better. After all, if there wasn’t wrestling, I wouldn’t be anything for us to write about.

I’m sure I’ll be inundated with emails about ‘how can you pass judgement on others opinions?", but really, folks need to start taking responsibility for the opinions they make and the positions they take. As the old saying goes ‘your opinion counts’, but with that freedom and being fortunate enough to have a medium like the internet to communicate them, comes a responsibility to realize the impact of what we’re saying and how it effects what we enjoy.

It’s really just wrestling in the end. Let’s for once, try to enjoy it.

NOTE: The views expressed in this column are not the views of WrestleView.com and its immediate staff.