In Defense of Pro Wrestling: “Internet Journalism” Gone Haywire

As someone who's been a wrestling fan since 1995, I constantly find myself being put in awkward situations. The very fact that I enjoy watching guys “fake fight” for hours in a day has to make me a little crazy right? I'm not the type of person who enjoys having to constantly defend what I watch, so for the most part, I keep my wrestling fandom relatively private. It's always a constant battle because as much as I complain about what I’m watching, I still love wrestling. My obsession with wrestling has led to me physically getting on airplanes and travelto Phoenix for Wrestlemania, Philadelphia for King of Trios, and hopefully at some point in the near future, PWG in California. I take what I do for this website very seriously, hence my going to over 20 live events in four states and witnessing at least four different promotions for the second consecutive year. It’s very rare that I’ve felt the need to defend wrestling on this website because of its very nature and the fact that I’ve cocooned myself from what other people have to say.

Ever since the Chris Benoit tragedy, I’ve done my best to avoid nearly all wrestling columns written and “investigated” by mainstream sources because almost none of them have actually respect for the product. It’s so easy for people to laugh at guys oiling themselves up and wearing tights to perform in front of various audience sizes. It’s another thing to walk in with an open mind and try to see the art of wrestling for what it is. It’s why I gave Resistance Pro an opportunity last Friday. Despite all the jokes that have been made about Billy Corgan and the Baron brothers opening his own company, I gave the promotion a chance because it deserved that much. Why? Because of the talent. Because of the owners putting their butts on the line to at least try to put on a good show. Was the show perfect? No. There were absolutely problems up and down with the show considering some aspects of the booking and the wrestling. But I at least had the common decency to give the audience, no matter who they were, the chance to read about what happened and give both positive/negative parts of what I saw. With this in mind, I had the displeasure of reading a Resistance Pro review. I only provide the link to give some context as to why I’m writing this piece. I originally saw this article last night but decided against writing about it so I just didn’t angrily rant or write incoherent thoughts. Today I write this with a relatively clear head. I’m not going to do a line-by-line breakdown like T.J. Hawke did on his blog, but I did want to write about some of the issues I had with the author.

I have no idea how one Kevin Camps came to discover R-Pro. Was he a disgruntled Smashing Pumpkins fan? Was he looking for something write about? Does he hate wrestlers and fans this much that he would choose to demean the performers? In the opening paragraph, Camps establishes his position right from the get go by classifying the wrestlers and their fans as morons. It’s extremely easy for people on the outside to look at something they don’t like and immediately dismiss it. Example? I don’t like NASCAR. In fact, I despise everything about it. But if you notice, I’ve never written a single word about it. I’ve never made fun of the drivers or the fans in a public forum because it would be wrong of me to do so. Who am I to demean drivers who make left turns for a living or fans who ride in a Winnebago all over the country to see their favorite driver? Privately and amongst my circle of friends, a joke or two might be exchanged. But to publish something about NASCAR where I simply make fun of the sport and bury it serves no purpose except to make me look like a pretentious jerk.

NASCAR, pro wrestling, and professional sports are all aspects of American culture that we should all try to understand. Sure, we might not like them, but there is a commonality among these aspects of life. They are a release, a chance for us to get away from the trials and tribulations of life. Professional wrestling is so many things. Exhilarating. Frustrating. Anger-inducing. Surprising. Think back to Money in the Bank and the genuine happiness when CM Punk won the WWE title. All 18,000 people knew damn well Punk didn’t beat John Cena in a real fight. But for 45 minutes, we all suspended our disbelief and cheered Punk on like it was a fight for our very souls. Were all of us morons for wanting Punk to win? I think for everyone in the audience, this match was a representation of everything we love about wrestling. Forget the star rating. F

orget the workrate. Everyone cared about who won. I saw children in Cena garb crying after Punk won. Does that make them morons for believing in Cena and having him as a hero? And think about a guy sitting in the front row cheering his friend on. Colt Cabana is both a wrestler and still a fan. It comes across in all of his podcasts and in every interview he’s ever done. This is a man who’s beloved by nearly every fan who comes across him. How could someone possibly look at Colt Cabana and go “What a shmuck!”

Apparently, this despite the fact he’s worn a similar type jacket for nearly the whole of his career, Colt Cabana was ripping off the movie Drive when he strutted out for his Resistance Pro match. I’m one of the 15 or 20 people who’s actually seen this wonderful film, and the last connection I made one between the jackets of Ryan Gosling and Colt Cabana. I did make a connection between Drive and pro wrestling, but I believe that has more to do with Chris Hero’s character in WRP. I can only imagine what this author would have to say about that project. The author also accuses Colt of wearing the jacket because it might be a reference to Kurt Cobain. Well, gee shucks, this author sure is smart. He probably looked on Wikipedia and saw how Corgan once dated Cobain’s ex-girlfriend, Courtney Love. If only he had bothered to stay on this website, perhaps even long enough to make a donation to keep it free, and check the spelling of one of R-Pro’s performers.

Now I understand my reviews have probably contained a spelling error or two. I’m not going to pretend that I or anyone else on PWP or the Internet is perfect. These mistakes happen. The difference is I feel some sort of shame after making mistakes and try to put some effort into correcting them. This leads into another part of the article I want to draw your attention to. Hallowicked has been a wrestler since 2002. This isn’t some wrestling rookie who just walked out onstage and had his first match. Enough wrestling companies in Chicago allow that to happen. This is someone who obviously takes his craft seriously. Who goes from Philadelphia, be it by plane, train, or automobile, to Chicago during Thanksgiving for just over what amounts to ten minutes of work? Someone who is dedicated to their craft and cares about wrestling. Therefore, the conclusion I come to is the man deserves to have his name spelled correctly. It’s not “Hallowikid,” it’s “Hallowicked. If this author had bothered to use the sixth through ninth letters, typed all in a row, he could have found the correct spelling and saved me about 100 words. He even makes reference to how this wrestler will feel in March since presumably, it will be too far away from Halloween to actually care about him. I almost wish I could zing away and say “Oh he’s only going to be participating in an international wrestling tournament involving 48 wrestlers from some three continents.” But sadly, he has to wait until April or May (even farther away from Halloween) for that to happen. Not sure what he’ll be doing at that point, but I assure you the reader he will be more relevant to everyone on PWP than Kevin Camps.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking. “This really isn't that good, but it's relatively harmless.” There is a certain point when this becomes a failure of quality and degenerates into someone having a fundamental misunderstanding of what they're supposed to be covering. The worst part of all comes in one of his last captions when he says this, “Fuck! Some guy died!” You don’t even need to go to Wikipedia to understand the amount of people who have died in and out of the ring. Hell, if Camps had given one damn about what he was writing, he could have gone up to David Hart Smith to ask about tragedy in wrestling considering everything his father went through. How about Teddy Hart, who lost a family member in the ring 12 years ago on international PPV? How about Icarus, Akuma, and Hallowicked, who lost one of their best friends (and fellow wrestlers) this year and are only now just ending the grieving process with the recent CHIKARA High Noon PPV?

I will never call what I do for Pro Wrestling Ponderings journalism. If I do, then it’s a mistake. To be honest, I feel Kevin Camps owes a lot of people an apology. He owes his readers an apology for not taking five minutes of his life to actually give pro wrestling a chance and instead make snarky comment. He owes the wrestlers an apology for demeaning what they do. As much as I make fun of Mike Bennett and dislike nearly everything he's ever done in Ring of Honor, deep down, I still respect what he has to offer. Most of all, he owes the wrestling fans an apology for saying what they like somehow doesn’t meet some sort of standard. Well, Kevin Camps’ article didn’t meet my standards. For writing. For humor. For anything except giving me an excuse to write 2,000 words. I guess because I’ve given him all this attention and even provided a link to his article, he’s somehow won. But make no mistake about it. I will never make this mistake again.