You’re Entitled To Your Opinion…or Are You?

You’re Entitled To Your Opinion…or Are You?

Don’t you just love when people tell you that you’re entitled to your opinion when they disagree with you? At least they relent that point. Everyone has their own opinion and they have the right to it, but did you know there are people out there who say that not everyone’s opinion has any sense of value? In fact, if you’re a wrestling fan, there are many people in the business (from promoters to wrestlers) who have gone public to say that, quite frankly, if you haven’t been in the ring, your opinion doesn’t count. Wow.

Isn’t that amazing? There are people out there that YOU support, either by buying their merchandise or paying for a ticket to their shows, who have PUBLICLY said that your opinion doesn’t matter. How interesting. Think about that for a minute. If you’re a blogger, column writer, ticket buying fan, tweeter, Facebook poster, or forum poster, your thoughts and opinions have absolutely zero value.

Before anyone takes the perspective that those quotes come from “a heel working the marks…brother”, take a step back and realize that it’s not just heels making comments like this, it’s fan favorites/baby faces…or whatever insider term you want to use. Why do they say these things? They really believe that the people who spend money to watch them can have opinions, but their opinions have no merit, because they’ve never been in the ring.

That being said, I guess ESPN, NFL.com, Foxsports.com, and every other sports media site or magazine should just go ahead and fire all of their writers. Many of them have never been on a professional football field, baseball field, or basketball court, so hey, their opinions mean nothing if they haven’t done it themselves. Opinion pieces by anything other than former players need to stop immediately. They are garbage and unreadable. Awards for great articles, columns, or even books by people who haven’t competed professionally in the sport in which they’re writing simply need to go away. In fact, they should be rescinded and given to the ex-players who have VALUABLE opinions, because no one cares what non-athletes have to say. They know nothing of what they speak.

OK, I confess, that last paragraph was riddled with sarcasm. Read it over again, please. Ridiculous wasn’t it? If you subscribe to the theory that wrestling fans have no valuable opinions because they haven’t been in the ring (some of us actually have been in the ring by the way), then hey, by all means, continue to smile and pretend to be happy when you get a poor product. Your opinion doesn’t matter and no one should listen to you, right? Wrong.

Complete garbage is what I call those opinions of the wrestlers who like to hold themselves up to a high standard simply because they’re “in the biz”. Sorry guys. We respect you as wrestlers, but just like you have a right to your opinion (no matter how wrong you may be), we have the right to write about how good you are, bad you are, or how mediocre you are….and guess what? PEOPLE WILL READ IT…and even *gasp* enjoy it. Crazy concept isn’t it?

You know what’s great? My opinion. You know what else is great? Other people having an opinion, even if they disagree with me.

Imagine if we took those wonderful wrestler opinions to other areas like say, the culinary arts. If I go eat at a restaurant and my steak is full of gristle and underdone, I have every right to complain about it. My opinion MATTERS when it comes to what I’m paying for. It’s an old idea, but a good one. I’ve never been a chef, but I can damn sure tell you if a steak is good or bad.

So I guess at the end of the day, if we’re to take these wrestlers’ beliefs and run with them, I guess we should wrap this up by putting this back to them. Please, wrestlers, don’t tweet or write blogs anymore about things you haven’t done. You’re not cooks, quarterbacks, law enforcement officials, movie critics, or columnists, so just know that no one cares about your opinions about these things. Stings, doesn’t it? Just throwing that out there, because truth be told, we enjoy your opinions on social media, podcasts, etc… and your in-ring work, just as much as you enjoy reading our opinions despite your insistence to the contrary. Take your criticism and move on and we’ll do the same, but just remember, without us, there would be no you, at least in terms of who you are as a wrestler. You have to “get over” to someone outside your own locker room…brother, so think about that next time you make an arrogant statement about the fans and their opinions.

Want to discuss this article? Tweet me @PhenomenalTLD or email me at PhenomenalTLD@gmail.com
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Indy Power Rankings for the Week of October 7^th, 2013: