There’s a lot of interesting shakeups happening in the wrestling world that I could talk about this week and they are storyline based. However, I felt compelled to write my column this week on the latest, non-storyline based news item – Chris Jericho’s altercation with fans in Canada that was posted on TMZ and reported by mainstream media.
Even though the WWE is jumping on the bandwagon that they didn’t support to begin with (the success of The Wrestler), by making it apart of their storylines by using Chris Jericho as a heel to rip on guys like Ric Flair for having a life outside of the WWE and getting ‘promotion’ for The Wrestler, exploiting that route just in time for WrestleMania.
The reason I want to pair up both these thoughts is they are indeed, related. Fans should not provoke wrestlers to the point of disrespectful actions, such as spitting. Wrestlers sacrifice their lives, ultimately to make a living entertaining the fans. They don’t need their car surrounded, or their personal time invaded. They are not the exact same people they portray on TV – there is no need to go out of your way to be jerks to these people. Would these same minority of fans go out of their way to disrespect a leading actor in a Hollywood movie? If you don’t support their character, don’t go out of your way to get in their face about it.
Fans in general have little to no understanding what kind of real sacrifice wrestlers in the pro wrestling industry make – though The Wrestler does brush the surface. Family situations are harder because they are never home, relationships outside of the industry are not easy because the industry itself is such a microcosm onto itself, not to mention the industry peer pressure to stay on top of their game and just having a existence of a normal, day to day life existence, for at least one day a week, is difficult, when it’s mostly about washing clothes and repacking to get back to the airport.
The Wrestler made a positive contribution to the industry from the sense that it’s gotten non-wrestling fans to appreciate and talk about the pro wrestling business, even though it’s been viewed as “tragic.” I’m glad the movie was made, and I thought it was well done, and hopefully the good that will come out from this movie that wrestlers are people too, in a industry that they are expected to be larger than life, 24 hours a day.
I do think fans who are that disrespectful, like the ones who got in Jericho’s face, are a minority, however, when incidents like this happen, I think it’s important for us as a industry, to step back and send out a PSA reminder and a thank you to the veterans and rookies, respect those who make their lives about entertaining you for 2+ hours a week that you see in your living rooms and don’t forget what we were all taught in school, The Golden Rule.
