Black & White Report for 1/26/10 - "Dear Internet...."
|
Jan 26 2010, 7:01 PM
The greatest pro wrestling style storyline of the last couple weeks was Jay vs. Conan. It had everything that makes a wrestling angle great: personal feuds, a corporate boss playing with his employees though they were pawns, outsider run-ins by Letterman and Kimmel, mainstream publicity, and increased ratings. WWE and TNA would be wise to take a lesson from the real war between the late night talk show hosts. I, also, was reminded of a lesson in the midst of all this. When Conan, on his final show, pretended to trash a Picasso with caviar he joked about the outrage of viewers left on the internet. “Dear Internet…”
Over the last fifteen years, the Internet has grown and evolved into a household item (I know the internet has technically been around much longer than that, but it wasn’t as prolific as it is now…) It has given everyone who wants it a forum to voice their opinion on any topic. As a result, everything has been affected. We live in a democratic society where people are allowed to voice their opinions, elect government representatives, and generally influence the direction in which the nation goes. It’s not perfect, of course, but the idea and principle is there. This mentality is magnified on the internet. Because we have the ability to present our voice and perspective through blogs, social networking sites, etc. we feel (from experience in real world society) that we can influence the direction of whatever it is we’re commenting on. And often times, civility is ignored because of the convenience of anonymity.
This has dramatically changed the wrestling world. Dirt sheets (wrestling newsletters) have existed for a long, long time. But with the advent and immediacy of the internet their impact on the wrestling world has been magnified. Combine this with the use of the internet by various wrestling personalities, and the communication between fans and pros has grown to immense levels. But, both sides of that communication need to pause occasionally to ensure that the communication doesn’t get out of hand.
Bubba the Love Sponge’s opinion on Haiti caused a flame war against him. He has a right to his opinion, and has the right to express it. Was it insensitive? Yes. Did he pay for it? Seems to have. But the outrage, of which I was guilty in this column myself, was overkill. Even after Bubba apologized, the hateful rhetoric against him—much more personal than his comments ever were—continued. Wrestling fans hid behind the anonymity of the internet to slam the man, call for his firing from TNA, and even for advertisers to pull their support of TNA and anything else Bubba would be involved in. The people who expressed these opinions certainly have the right to those views, and do express them. But there’s a fine line between insightful criticism and being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. It seems to me, sadly, that more often than not people online are the latter rather than the former.
Civility in the wrestling fan community may, on the surface, seem like a ridiculous concept, but I think it’s a necessity. Vince Russo, Jim Ross, and others often answer fan questions and comments. Sometimes their answers are more defensive than necessary, but at the very least they are taking the time to open channels of communications to the fan bases. The least we, as the fan community, can do is be polite and civil in our correspondence with these people.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t ever have critiques or concerns about the wrestling industry. As fans it is inevitable and even appropriate. But we should also try to keep in the back of our minds that the people producing wrestling are striving to present a quality program, increase ratings/interest, and grow the brand. It’s that way with any creative endeavor.
Realistically, the flaming opinions of the internet community do little to affect the quality of wrestling programming. Especially when it’s bred of angry or hostile reactions. Again, it’s a fine line. Comment on the programming. Have opinions. Be strong about them. Just don’t be a jerk. Like Conan said in his final show, don’t be a cynic. Sometimes wrestling’s good, sometimes it’s lousy. In any case, everyone can work together by direct or indirect means (critiques are valid!) to make it a better product and industry.
There it is in Black and White.
The greatest pro wrestling style storyline of the last couple weeks was Jay vs. Conan. It had everything that makes a wrestling angle great: personal feuds, a corporate boss playing with his employees though they were pawns, outsider run-ins by Letterman and Kimmel, mainstream publicity, and increased ratings. WWE and TNA would be wise to take a lesson from the real war between the late night talk show hosts. I, also, was reminded of a lesson in the midst of all this. When Conan, on his final show, pretended to trash a Picasso with caviar he joked about the outrage of viewers left on the internet. “Dear Internet…”
Over the last fifteen years, the Internet has grown and evolved into a household item (I know the internet has technically been around much longer than that, but it wasn’t as prolific as it is now…) It has given everyone who wants it a forum to voice their opinion on any topic. As a result, everything has been affected. We live in a democratic society where people are allowed to voice their opinions, elect government representatives, and generally influence the direction in which the nation goes. It’s not perfect, of course, but the idea and principle is there. This mentality is magnified on the internet. Because we have the ability to present our voice and perspective through blogs, social networking sites, etc. we feel (from experience in real world society) that we can influence the direction of whatever it is we’re commenting on. And often times, civility is ignored because of the convenience of anonymity.
This has dramatically changed the wrestling world. Dirt sheets (wrestling newsletters) have existed for a long, long time. But with the advent and immediacy of the internet their impact on the wrestling world has been magnified. Combine this with the use of the internet by various wrestling personalities, and the communication between fans and pros has grown to immense levels. But, both sides of that communication need to pause occasionally to ensure that the communication doesn’t get out of hand.
Bubba the Love Sponge’s opinion on Haiti caused a flame war against him. He has a right to his opinion, and has the right to express it. Was it insensitive? Yes. Did he pay for it? Seems to have. But the outrage, of which I was guilty in this column myself, was overkill. Even after Bubba apologized, the hateful rhetoric against him—much more personal than his comments ever were—continued. Wrestling fans hid behind the anonymity of the internet to slam the man, call for his firing from TNA, and even for advertisers to pull their support of TNA and anything else Bubba would be involved in. The people who expressed these opinions certainly have the right to those views, and do express them. But there’s a fine line between insightful criticism and being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. It seems to me, sadly, that more often than not people online are the latter rather than the former.
Civility in the wrestling fan community may, on the surface, seem like a ridiculous concept, but I think it’s a necessity. Vince Russo, Jim Ross, and others often answer fan questions and comments. Sometimes their answers are more defensive than necessary, but at the very least they are taking the time to open channels of communications to the fan bases. The least we, as the fan community, can do is be polite and civil in our correspondence with these people.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t ever have critiques or concerns about the wrestling industry. As fans it is inevitable and even appropriate. But we should also try to keep in the back of our minds that the people producing wrestling are striving to present a quality program, increase ratings/interest, and grow the brand. It’s that way with any creative endeavor.
Realistically, the flaming opinions of the internet community do little to affect the quality of wrestling programming. Especially when it’s bred of angry or hostile reactions. Again, it’s a fine line. Comment on the programming. Have opinions. Be strong about them. Just don’t be a jerk. Like Conan said in his final show, don’t be a cynic. Sometimes wrestling’s good, sometimes it’s lousy. In any case, everyone can work together by direct or indirect means (critiques are valid!) to make it a better product and industry.
There it is in Black and White.
Over the last fifteen years, the Internet has grown and evolved into a household item (I know the internet has technically been around much longer than that, but it wasn’t as prolific as it is now…) It has given everyone who wants it a forum to voice their opinion on any topic. As a result, everything has been affected. We live in a democratic society where people are allowed to voice their opinions, elect government representatives, and generally influence the direction in which the nation goes. It’s not perfect, of course, but the idea and principle is there. This mentality is magnified on the internet. Because we have the ability to present our voice and perspective through blogs, social networking sites, etc. we feel (from experience in real world society) that we can influence the direction of whatever it is we’re commenting on. And often times, civility is ignored because of the convenience of anonymity.
This has dramatically changed the wrestling world. Dirt sheets (wrestling newsletters) have existed for a long, long time. But with the advent and immediacy of the internet their impact on the wrestling world has been magnified. Combine this with the use of the internet by various wrestling personalities, and the communication between fans and pros has grown to immense levels. But, both sides of that communication need to pause occasionally to ensure that the communication doesn’t get out of hand.
Bubba the Love Sponge’s opinion on Haiti caused a flame war against him. He has a right to his opinion, and has the right to express it. Was it insensitive? Yes. Did he pay for it? Seems to have. But the outrage, of which I was guilty in this column myself, was overkill. Even after Bubba apologized, the hateful rhetoric against him—much more personal than his comments ever were—continued. Wrestling fans hid behind the anonymity of the internet to slam the man, call for his firing from TNA, and even for advertisers to pull their support of TNA and anything else Bubba would be involved in. The people who expressed these opinions certainly have the right to those views, and do express them. But there’s a fine line between insightful criticism and being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. It seems to me, sadly, that more often than not people online are the latter rather than the former.
Civility in the wrestling fan community may, on the surface, seem like a ridiculous concept, but I think it’s a necessity. Vince Russo, Jim Ross, and others often answer fan questions and comments. Sometimes their answers are more defensive than necessary, but at the very least they are taking the time to open channels of communications to the fan bases. The least we, as the fan community, can do is be polite and civil in our correspondence with these people.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t ever have critiques or concerns about the wrestling industry. As fans it is inevitable and even appropriate. But we should also try to keep in the back of our minds that the people producing wrestling are striving to present a quality program, increase ratings/interest, and grow the brand. It’s that way with any creative endeavor.
Realistically, the flaming opinions of the internet community do little to affect the quality of wrestling programming. Especially when it’s bred of angry or hostile reactions. Again, it’s a fine line. Comment on the programming. Have opinions. Be strong about them. Just don’t be a jerk. Like Conan said in his final show, don’t be a cynic. Sometimes wrestling’s good, sometimes it’s lousy. In any case, everyone can work together by direct or indirect means (critiques are valid!) to make it a better product and industry.
There it is in Black and White.
Comments
Sign in to comment with your TypePad, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo or OpenID.