June 22, 2007
Mike Abitabile

The Devil’s Advocate:
Pro Wrestling is Still Fake

The first thing I would like to do is thank Graham Cawthon for giving me the opportunity to write this column for his site. The second thing I would like to do is explain to you what this column will be about. For far too long, the wrestling news sites have presented their stories with a negative bias, which has always annoyed me. Some criticism is justified, but everything is negative according to them. Judging by the number of people who watch and enjoy WWE shows each week, I figured I wasn’t alone in rolling my eyes at the negative editorial comments included with the news. So I started a blog (which you can visit here) where I attempt to debunk the negativity and present the positives. This weekly column will focus on one major story and how it is being covered.

So why don’t I start with, quite possibly, the biggest story of the year. Yes, that would be the Mr. McMahon exploding limousine saga. You’ll notice how I called him “Mr. McMahon.” This is because that is the name of the character you see on TV every week. Vince McMahon is the real life person. It’s a little confusing with the whole same last name thing and all. I know it’s not as easy as understanding the difference between, say, Steve Williams and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. But I don’t think it’s that hard to get. Nonetheless, there seemed to be some misunderstanding there, as many initially reported (and some still do) about the “Vince McMahon death storyline” (like here and here). I know I am nit-picking here, but if the Internet wrestling reporters can do this to WWE, I can do it to them.

I mean, no one is trying to convince anybody that the real life Vince McMahon is dead…at least not from WWE. A thorough examination through the section WWE.com has put up containing all of the stories related to this storyline (here) finds only one mention of the word “Vince” and it’s what a fan wrote in the memorial outside WWE Headquarters (here).

And hey, if fans want to do that, that’s their business. They either really care about the character, or are having fun with the storyline. If you are not those fans, then you have no idea what they are thinking. So don’t speculate or judge them on their actions. Of course this didn’t stop Dave Scherer from engaging in said speculation though (here). Man, he really cares about us I guess…. I wonder if we will all be getting Christmas cards from him.

There were also many people, such as Bob Ryder of 1Wrestling.com that spent the entire week calling out WWE for the “realness” of the angle, such as including moments of silence, and 10 bell salutes. While I understand how some would find these aspects of the storyline a little edgy, you have to remember you are watching a scripted television show. I borrowed the title of my column this week from a Wall Street Journal article because I think people are forgetting that wrestling is scripted or something (here). If a character dies on a show, such as Smallville, would Bob Ryder be offended if they had filmed a wake and funeral for the deceased? And better yet, if WWE didn’t do the salutes and moments of silence, would people be complaining that the storyline can’t be taken seriously if WWE doesn’t treat it as if it was genuine?

So yeah, WWE is scripted. But they have an argument for that too! According to Ryan Clark, who credits Dave Meltzer, it’s apparently hard for people (and the FBI) to tell WWE is scripted because they don’t run writers credits at the end of their shows (here). Where do I even start on that one? I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life hearing “you know that stuff is fake” when I told (and still tell) people I enjoy wrestling. But now, all of a sudden, everyone forgets that it’s scripted because WWE doesn’t run credits at the end of their shows? I don’t buy it. And, quite frankly, if our FBI doesn’t know the difference between a scripted television show and reality, I’m actually a little worried for my own well being.

So, for all the complaining, all the negative statements made by so many wrestling reporters and fans, and all of those stupid feedback articles they run on every website, what happened? Well, Raw did a 4.2 the week after the explosion, up from a 3.8 the week before. I’m glad all those offended people tuned out! But don’t worry, Dave Scherer had an excuse for this too. You see, we can’t use that number to judge the June 11th show yet (despite the fact that they do that for every other weekly rating number and use it to justify their response from the previous week’s show). And also, according to Dave, we can’t use this coming Monday’s number either since that’s a post pay-per view Raw, and the rating, he says, jumps because of post pay-per view interest (despite the fact that this hasn’t happened all that much recently). So we can’t judge rating numbers for the Mr. McMahon storyline for another 2 weeks (here). I’d like to point out, that the ratings for Smackdown! four days after the explosion were flat (please visit my blog for more on that) and it automatically meant the angle failed (here). Just some more of that double standard I hate so much in the wrestling media.

Personally, I think it’s a great storyline. And hey, some people agree with me, like Lance Storm (here) and respected sports business analyst Darren Rovell, and he’s even got statistics other than ratings to back up his argument (here). People complain about repeated storylines, so here is something new. Plus, it’s got suspense. It’s got a cliffhanger. So if you don’t like it, stop watching. And if you are a reporter who is personally and morally offended by it, like Bob Ryder (doesn’t he work for TNA or something?), stop collecting a paycheck by reporting news about WWE. And since that won’t happen, I’ll be watching and calling out their biases – someone’s got to police the police.

Feedback is always welcome at figurefanatic@gmail.com (and I have a feeling I will be getting a lot) and if you enjoyed my column, please visit my blog at kurtangle520.blogspot.com for more of the same all week long!