Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Wrestlers and the Thin Skin of Celebrity

Pictured: A guy who's part of a SUPER SERIOUS FRATERNITY GUYS
Photo Credit: WWE.com
There are wrestlers who don't take criticism well. I'm not going to make a blanket statement that all wrestlers do or don't, because for every wrestler who pops off at the mouth about know-it-all fans or journalists, there's a Sugar Dunkerton who knows that there are valid viewpoints and states so, and about a dozen more whose opinions aren't known because they keep their mouths shut and fingers still. Wrestlers aren't the only breed of people who do this, mind you. Athletes and actors and everyone else can have thin skin.

I don't want to invent a problem specific to wrestling and wrestlers, because it's not. I don't follow athletes on Twitter because they oftentimes have nothing interesting to say, and because I'm a wrestling blogger, not a sports blogger. Well, I am a sports blogger, but not nearly as prolifically as I am for this medium. However, the more I follow these people, the more I find out that they have nothing interesting to say either, or more importantly, they have things interesting to say for the wrong reasons.

There's the generic thin-skinned backlash from people like Reby Sky, who had this to say about podcasters:
It's typical "you can't do what I do, so you just complain" rhetoric that is annoying no matter whom it comes from. The reason for me why it's so irritating coming from Sky is that she seems to be the most vocal when it comes to these kinds of tweets, and yet she's pretty much still learning the trade herself. Like, I get it, she's improving and stuff, but I don't need to hear about how I, a wrestling podcaster, have no valid grounds to say anything that isn't obsequiously positive about anyone in wrestling because I have what, two years less experience than she does?

The point is that I, like everyone else who praises or critiques her, am a fan, and what she does is aimed at me. I have my own set of criteria for what I feel is good wrestling or not, so I'm going to make it known. Yeah, I haven't gone to wrestling school, but if wrestling were just for the wrestlers, then she would not be in the fucking business. She was a fan first as well. We're drawn in, and just because she doesn't like being criticized by us nerdy trolls who live in our mothers' basements doesn't mean what we have to say is irrelevant. Sure, I'd like everyone to be as honest and fair as I think I am, but you know what? It's not my job to police people's thoughts, and I rather resent being lumped in with the dumbasses because of what I do. It would be like people judging all wrestlers as being bad after watching one Reby Sky match.

Then, there's the real thing that's specific to wrestling in general, its jargon. CM Punk recently tried to take a fan to task over his use of insider lingo:
The problem is, Punk, that the guy was technically using the term "heat" correctly. He theorized that "This Fire Burns" would get people to boo Punk more, and whether that prediction is right, it's a valid use of the term. Something tells me that it wasn't the correctness of the usage that bothered Punk, but that he deigned to use the word "heat" at all.

For better or worse, the insider terms have become popular in wrestling among a chunk of fans. I hesitate to call it mainstream because I'm not sure how many fans out there are like me and how many are like Johnny Five-Year-Old. Still, there are enough that WWE has even started putting out shirts with those terms on them. Again, it's a trend that's true in not just this art or sport but in others. Then again, terms like "shooting the 'A' gap" didn't really conceal any trade secrets about football that they didn't want people to know. Football was never a carny business. Wrestling was, and those in it still wish it existed as such today.

To me though, saying that using those terms is what's wrong with fans today misses the mark completely. I don't think performers should be blaming fans for wanting to know more about the thing they're a fan of. Dumb fans are dumb fans naturally, but it feels like it's lashing out for a change that wrestlers like the dominatingly relevant Punk or the entirely insignificant Joey Image are not comfortable with. Well, just like Punk tweeted that if we weren't down with the slate of Champions after TLC last year, than we'd left behind, maybe he should show the same kind of adaptability with how we are consuming the product.

That isn't to say that dumb fans shouldn't be dealt with. Lord knows I lash out at people who annoy me in the stands. But it's not really dealing with dumb fans as much as it's the way of dealing with them, or even worse, which fans are delegated as dumb. More and more, there's an insidious undercurrent of wrestlers who deal with fans who are trying to change the narrative of wrestling journalism with dismissive arrogance, and it hurts the fabric of the industry more than it helps.

I'm not sure that really anything that I could say about how wrestlers like Punk, Sky or anyone deal with fans they unfairly consider dumb. But at the same time, it doesn't really mean I should ignore it. Then again, just because people who strip down to their underwear, oil themselves up and play-fight for the benefit of entertaining masses are thin-skinned enough to get butthurt over things people say about them doesn't mean I necessarily have to either.
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