Friday, June 13, 2014

The Polling Place: Future Endeavors, Pat Patterson, The World Cup

Yoshi Tatsu in New Japan... you dig?
Photo Credit: WWE.com
Welcome to this week's Polling Place, where I ask the questions and you vote on the answers. Kicking off is WWE's mass layoff of talent yesterday. The stark reality for those released is that they lost a job with the most lucrative wrestling company in the world. However, those who will continue their wrestling careers have options ahead of them. Whether they go back to former haunts like Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne) and Dragon Gate and Yoshi Tatsu and New Japan Pro Wrestling, or whether they stomp new grounds, the potential for fresh and exciting matches and stories exist in spades. My question, what pairing of wrestler and company(ies) would you like to see most?


Second, Pat Patterson officially came out of the closet and confirmed his homosexuality on the season finale of Legends House last night. Patterson's sexuality has been the worst kept secret in pro wrestling for the last 30 years, but the fact that he decided to come out in the open is commendable and should be lauded. He is the second WWE employee to come out of the closet in the last year, as Darren Young famously revealed his sexuality in August last year. Are wrestling personalities able to come out more easily because the art is more showbiz than sport? Is wrestling the friendliest of the sports and sports-style entertainments for the LGBT community?


Finally, the World Cup, the most-expansive sporting tournament in the world, has gotten underway in the host country, Brazil. The field is competitive, but a few favorites exist in the field. Who do you think will win the Cup and take home international bragging rights in soccer for the next four years?