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| Why not just add a Troll Face to the logo too, while you're at it, Dixie? |
Chris Jericho was recently on the Wrestling Voice radio show, and among other things he talked about, he spoke about the WWE's decision to ban the word wrestling from the lexicon:
As long as there is a ring and guys in spandex throwing each other around it’s gonna be wrestling, you can call it what you want but if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and moves like a it’s a duck, it’s always gonna be wrestling.Despite all the haranguing about the banning of said word and the rebranding of WWE to a three-letter acronym that doesn't stand for anything, I feel like this is the attitude to have, and it goes to show that 99% of the time, Jericho is speaking the truth, when he's not telling everyone to pipe down over Christian losing the WHC, that is. I'm not denying that it's dumb that the WWE is denying its history and the term that describes it best. It is. However, it's also something that the fan who has perspective knows not really to get in a tizzy over.
I guess that's why I get more frustrated over people joking that guys don't wrestle in WWE anymore, they entertain. It's like, okay, the joke was funny when the news first came down, but now here we are, months later, and the WWE is still giving us matches on cable, pay-per-view and the Internet that rank amongst the best of what any company, wrestling or otherwise, is putting out. You can't tell me that the Cena/Miz match from a couple weeks back on RAW (finish notwithstanding), the Undertaker/Triple H match from WM (my problems with it aside judging by the praise it gets from people who do make these tired jokes) or anything they've aired on Superstars, well, since the show came back isn't what Jericho is describing as walking and talking like a wrestling-incarnate duck.
It's not that the jokes don't fit, it's that the jokes are tired. You know where they're most tired coming from though? The "competition". Yep, TNA is going through its own rebrand right now, morphing the name of its company from the sophomoric-named Total Nonstop Action to Impact Wrestling. That's a good thing. However, their new slogan? "Wrestling matters here"... it might sound like a great tag line if I didn't think they were just going to be airing the same ol' shit over and over again.
TNA president and the wrestling world's highest profile Internet troll Dixie Carter tweeted that same slogan. I had to wonder if she even watches her own program, since I heard that Impact Thursday really was the same ol' shit. (I haven't watched yet). If wrestling matters, then why are Eric Bischoff, Vince Russo and Hulk Hogan still with their hands in the creative cookie jar? If it matters, then what's Chyna doing being brought back when she's been in mothballs? Why is the title still tied up in political BS rather than a clean storyline? Why does TNA feel like a carbon copy of late '90s WWF instead of an entity unto itself? I'll tell you why, it's because Dixie Carter is a troll, and again, she's using her air time and publicity to troll the WWE over their abandonment of the word "wrestling". It's amazing.
Whether it comes from smart-ass fans or a wrestling company that doesn't get it, the jokes are getting tired. Yeah, I know the WWE wants you to think of them as an entertainment company, and that Daniel Bryan and Sin Cara are doing entertainment in the ring (which is true to a point) rather than "wrestling". However, Jericho's right. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it's a duck. If it plays out like a wrestling match, then it is a wrestling match, no matter the nomenclature.
Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!
