Thursday, September 10, 2015

Gunner Kicked a Fan

Gunner definitely is in some hot water
Photo Credit: Lee South/ImpactWrestling.com
Pro Wrestling Xperience held its X-16 Tournament at VapeMania this past weekend, and Gunner was one of the wrestlers involved. While he didn't win the thing, he made news in a less than positive way, as he reportedly kicked a fan in the chest in front of his kid. The fan, identified as Carolina indie regular Adrian Rohr, wrote not-so-flattering things about Gunner on social media, and fans around him were chanting "Dixie's reject!" at him. The attack was described in the Wrestling Observer newsletter as "unprovoked." For what it's worth, Gunner accused the fan of "step[ping] up into his ring" in a post he later deleted.

The PWX show didn't have barriers, so it's unclear where the boundary is between the staging area and the seating area. Rohr could have advanced too far, in which case Gunner's actions may still have been extreme but a little more understandable. However, if the other extreme is true and Gunner was just taking it out on a fan who was getting under his skin, holy shit, the dude should probably take a break from social media and wrestling for a little while at least. Unless what Rohr wrote was inflammatory beyond all logic and compassion, I'm not sure he deserved to get kicked during a wrestling show, especially by surprise. Gunner doesn't seem like the thickest-skinned wrestler anyway.

Hopefully, this gets resolved satisfactorily, especially for Rohr, because no one should expect going to a show and being assaulted physically. Unless he did something totally out of line that isn't being reported, he shouldn't have had to have endured that attack. As for Gunner, dude needs to sit back and think about what might have caused him to attack a fan and maybe figure those issues out. If it indeed was due negative social media posts and a chant, the dude needs a timeout at the very least.