It tends to be if you enjoy wrestling, you defend it to the absolute hilt. It’s a hill you are prepared to die on. However, wrestling fans have split over the last 20 years and this is why I believe it’s an issue.
I will set my stall here. I have been a wrestling fan since 1988. I’ve grown up in the many different “era’s” that it’s not even funny. From Hogan, to the Attitude Era, to the Ruthless Aggression and then the PG era. It’s been a wild ride.
With that said, I don’t think fans have been as vocal or divisive as they are right now. A lot of this will be due to social media and the part that plays in it. But, was wrestling always this divisive?
During the Monday Night Wars, I can’t remember a time when fans of either product actively wanted the other to go out of business. Now, it was tense and sure, both owners wanted the other to fail but the fan base didn’t seem to be in favour of that. An example of that is below, when DX “invaded” WCW Nitro. Look at the fans cheering it.
For a long time after the Monday Night Wars, WWE was the only game in town. During that time, the fans started to turn, especially against the WWE “machine”. Heels would be cheered, baby faces would be booed.
This then takes us to what I consider to be the “social media” era. The fans have never had this amount of direct access to our favourite wrestlers, but with this access, instead of making it a positive thing, fans tend to do the opposite.
Cast your mind back a year or so ago. Seth Rollins, a baby face at the time, had to take a break from social media due to the type of comments he was receiving. He didn’t exactly help himself with the stances he was taking at the time, but he received death threats and several similar vulgar comments. None more so than when he tweeted Sasha Banks.
Since AEW has been announced, it appears, to me that wrestling fans are now more divisive than ever. Some have picked a side and won’t tolerate any criticism of the others product.
I do believe that stars of AEW have played into that, especially over the last year. They enjoy mocking WWE but what this does, it makes their fans do it. The fans then get so entrenched, that debate or having a conversation turns sour if you criticise even one aspect of the show.
It’s not just an AEW fan base issue either i’d hasten to add. WWE fans on social media can also be toxic. They also get so entrenched that the same happens. Just look at Alexa Bliss and what happened when she tweeted about the current Murphy storyline. Alexa then went on to temporary lock her twitter account. This just shouldn’t be happening in 2020.
In a world where we are already divided on, well, everything, wrestling should be a source of entertainment for us all to enjoy. We can pick all pick a side, but we have never had it so good as wrestling fans. Wrestling is on nearly every night of the week.
Let’s debate what we enjoy, criticise the product if and when justified but as fans, let’s all start to be a bit nicer to each other and have a bit more of a healthy debate, regardless of which “side” you are on.
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