Most fandoms have had the issue of celebrating figures that shouldn’t be celebrated and wrestling is not the exception to this. Many people especially wrestling fans, seem not been able to realize the dangers of celebrating figures that shouldn’t. Celebrating figures that shouldn’t create conflict to people and the fact they don’t want address it.
One of the most notable cases in the wrestling world is Chris Benoit. While most fans don’t celebrate his legacy after what he did, there’s still wrestling fans that celebrate him, and even campaign for WWE to include him into their HOF. Separating the man from the wrestlers is something we should never do, especially regarding Benoit.
Vince McMahon is a very recent case. Wrestling fans, pundits, wrestlers and more were celebrating Vince McMahon’s career after he announced his retirement. The people celebrating McMahon seem to have forgotten the main reason of his retirement and the many consequences that could lead. Right now, it’s not the time of celebrating anyone, especially someone under investigation and with a lot of allegations against him.
Ric Flair is another recent case. To start, yes Flair is one of the all-time greats in the sport, but that doesn’t change the fact that Flair is a controversial figure, from accusations of racism from Teddy Long to the infamous Plane from Hell situation. Flair celebrating his Last Match show was a nice end to his career, if this is his actual retirement, but that show should’ve never been celebrated to begin with, for the obvious health reasons regarding Flair and the allegations.
Wrestlers, pundits and fans claimed to have changed after #SpeakingOut but that is not true. Actions speak louder than words, and yet, we still celebrate wrestlers accused of some very serious stuff or the fact some are still part of the wrestling business.
As mentioned before, this is not exclusive to wrestling, the music and movie industries are big examples of celebrating people accused of some serious things. People ignoring terrible actions of someone because someone entertained you is not the way to go.
Wrestling has A LOT of examples of problematic wrestlers and figures being celebrated; despite the fact they shouldn’t be celebrated for many obvious reasons. This is something that will never change, and this is a problem for a fandom that already is very problematic and with a lot of issues that need to be addressed.
