Hello and welcome once again to The Trademark Rants. This week, in the interest of writing a different kind of column, I’d like to share with you a couple letters from a fellow wrestling fan, Melinda Christian from North Carolina. She wrote me last week in response to my column concerning the lack of strong Main Event Babyfaces to counter-act the superman pushes received by Triple H and John Bradshaw Layfield. From that response, we ended up having a conversation via e-mail about TNA, the state of wrestling, and the ever-growing lack of interest in WWE. I received a lot of letters like this over the past few months, but Melinda’s stood out, so much so that I decided to share these letters with all of you. Enjoy!
Melinda’s Letter:
First of all I just have to say thank you. I know a lot of people I know that like wrestling are seeing the same things you do. I do not agree with the way RAW is going. I can not even be bothered to watch SmackDown anymore. I do want to say though that I had the privilege and honor to go to the TNA fan interaction weekend and Victory Road PPV. I have to say, this is the best wrestling PPV, I have seen in forever. I rented a few WWE PPV’s and I swear I wanted to beg Vinnie for my money back. Then again, I was the dumb idiot who paid the money for it. I had not been able to see iMPACT but I knew a lot of the wrestlers from other places. When I found out about the package, I begged my hubby to go for our anniversary. (My husband gave up on wrestling months ago.) He said sure why not. It might be fun but I doubt it. So, we make the travel arrangements, get the tickets and get ready to go. Yes, we traveled from N.C. to Orlando. We get there and as Saturday went by my hubby was getting more and more excited and his faith in the wrestling business was beginning to return. After Sundays PPV, he was totally hooked again. We got home on Monday, and guess what we did? We rented the PPV. Yes the PPV, we just had the honor seeing live we rented. We enjoyed it that much. I loved everything about it and it was freaking awesome. I called up DTV last week, and had sports package added to my package. Why? Well, quite simply I would much rather pay the extra $13.00 a month to watch 2 hours a week (with Xplosion) of TNA than watch 4 hours of WWE’s crappy programs a week. So, I just wanted to tell you that I agree TNA is a better program, and I pray for the day to come where Vinnie Mac will be eating his words a couple months ago. You know the ones where he said “TNA will never be competition for them.” How do you explain the crap Vinnie has been pulling the last couple of weeks with TNA?? OK. I am done ranting. Keep up the good work.
Thanks,
Melinda Christian
My Response:
Hi Melinda. Thanks for taking the time to write me.
I’m glad to hear that you’ve found a wrestling show that you enjoy. After all, that’s the reason we watch wrestling at all. I get a lot of flak from some people because I’m on the Internet, the supposed hotbed for negative opinions, and while many of my fellow writers are extremely negative, I can’t say that I blame them. I have all but give up WWE in favor of TNA and the Independents, which has reflected in my columns over the past several months. In fact, I think this past week’s column might have been the first time in months that I have talked about WWE at any major length. I want WWE to be a good show, so then we all will have more good wrestling shows to watch and attend, but if it’s not going to put the effort into making itself a better product, there are plenty of other promotions who will.
You mentioned that you lived in North Carolina. Have you by any chance heard of a promotion called OMEGA? It’s the promotion the Hardys, Shane Helms, and Shannon Moore started from, and from what little I’ve been able to see of it, it’s pretty good stuff. If you ever have the chance, you may want to google it and see when they’re having a show. I’m not sure how much of the state they cover as a territory, but it’s still worth looking into, if you’re interested.
I’m glad you had fun at the Victory Road PPV. I hope to be able to go to a live TNA PPV myself one of these days. It sounds like a great live experience. If you ever have the chance, pay attention to the live crowds on Impact. They are some of the most interesting fans I’ve seen since watching ECW. There’s a “heel section”, which appears to be on the left of where the central camera is (if you watch Impact on TV, and they have a shot of the whole ring, the heel section is to the left) who always seems to cheer for the bad guys, while right in the center, there’s the babyface section, who’ll cheer for the good guys. Often times, the two sections of fans will start a chanting war in the middle of matches. For instance, lately, during the Raven/Monty Brown matches, the heels will be chanting for Raven, while the faces will chant for Monty Brown, in a round. I don’t know why I find this so intriguing. Then again, I love crowd participation. It really adds to a show, and gives you a sense that the fans really care about the performers and the company. That, if anything, is what sets TNA apart from WWE these days.
Thanks for sharing, and for supporting the shows that you enjoy.
– Mike
From Melinda
Michael,
Thank you for replying. I do support TNA whole-heartedly. It is amazing how quickly they gained my support after just one PPV. I actually enjoy your columns as well some others. I may not agree with them all the time, but hey I do not have too. That is the great think about being individuals. I do not see the Internet as being negative. I can, however, see why some people would think that. However, my thoughts on this is the people writing these columns know what they are talking about from a fan’s standpoint. Because they are fans. I have been told several times, that Vince is showing the fans what they want. That he knows what we want. Then how come those same fans, the ones Vince says he knows what they want, are not watching anymore? No one from WWE has ever called me and said, “Would you like to see Triple H hold the belt for the next 100 years?” Because if they had I would have said, “Hell no. It would be nice if he did not hold it again for the next 2 years or so.” Yet, I have no right to complain about what Vince is giving to me, because he knows what I want? How can he know if he does not ever ask the fans? I mean more than once a year. Anyways, enough of that rant.
It is funny you mention the crowd section with TNA. Yes we did notice that. It was actually funny because we were sitting on the heel side. Right by the ramp where they come out. The only heel team I like is Triple X. So we were the only ones in our section that was cheering the good guys. During the Styles and Williams match the crowd would start the “Lets go Petey”, “Lets go AJ” chants and I was the only one in my section that was going for AJ. The chants were really loud and it was the same way during the Jarrett/Hardy match. I was very much into the whole thing. I will also say this. This is coming from someone who has been to many matches in my lifetime. I have met many wrestlers, some were very nice, but many were not so nice. The weekend I was down there all the guys that were there, were very nice. Not just at the interaction either. We had the pleasure to stay at the hotel where many of the stars were staying. So there was many times, going to the lobby or to outside and smoke I would run into someone like Chris Daniels or Elix Skipper. I would not say anything to them (I did not want to bother them), but they would come up to me and ask how I was and if I was enjoying myself. The same thing with the announcers who were staying there as well as Jerry Jarrett himself. It was refreshing to see them interacting with the fans, both at the interaction and outside of it.
I have heard of Omega. I will have to look it up and see if they travel with in the state or what. I have heard good things about it.
I hope you get to go to a TNA PPV soon. I think you will enjoy it, and from what I can tell it will really restore your faith that there is a better program out there.
Melinda Christian
From Me:
Hello again, Melinda. I was wondering if would you mind if I posted your letters in an upcoming edition of my column? I’m always trying to come up with different kinds of columns so I’m not always writing the same thing over and over every week, and I thought that our conversation could make a really good column. It would give some people an idea about the TNA live experience, as well as just the experience of being a fan right now. That, and with you being a married adult woman (three things that most people don’t expect an Internet Wrestling Fan to be), I figured, this could show people how broad the fanbase for this show/sport/whatever you want to call this really is, and just who all reads the stuff we write on the ‘Net. I’ll give you full credit for your words and thoughts, and I won’t give out your e-mail or anything like that. But if you don’t feel comfortable with it, I completely understand. I won’t post anything you’ve shared with me without your approval.
Thanks for the feedback and the great conversation
– Mike
From Melinda:
Michael,
No go ahead. I do not mind at all. I have always wanted to write a guest column, bit I can not always express what I want to say. You know to make it really stand out? So yes please go ahead and do your column. I do not mind at all. Actually I can not express how happy it makes me that you would even consider it. I think it would help to let everyone out there know also that it is not just the Internet reporters that are seeing this. So, again yes please it would be an honor.
Melinda Christian
From Me:
The best thing to do, if you really want to write columns, is to just do it. There are a few places you can go to get started. The WNW Message Boards (WrestlingNewsWorld.net) has a thread dedicated to columns, where anyone and everyone who wants to try their hand at writing. You can begin posting any columns there, and if you’re good enough, you may be able to earn a spot on the main WNW Site (WrestlingNewsWorld.com). This is also a good route to go if you’re only wanting to write every once in a while, or as a one-time venture.
You can also submit a guest column to TheWrestlingVoice.com. At the very least, you’ll get some tips on what you can do with potential future submissions.
As with the content of your columns, don’t be afraid to be yourself. The best writers in any medium are those who are willing to be completely open and honest with their readers about who they really are, and how they really think or feel. Ultimately, a column is about wrestling from your perspective.
Also, don’t expect to get paid. A lot of people think we get paid to do this. The truth is that most of us do not. There is probably some out there that’s getting paid for this, but I wouldn’t know who they are or where they are working. Most of us do this merely a hobby. You’re a pretty sensible woman, and you might have even known this already.
Thank you for your letters, and the new column with your letters should be up in a matter of days. Good Luck with any future endeavors, and keep enjoying the shows.
– Mike
And Lastly, From Melinda:
Michael,
I hope you had a good holiday. Thank you for all your advice and I am going to think about that. I have nothing to lose right. Also, I look forward to reading your next column. Keep up the good work. I knew you guys did not get paid. It is not about the money. Wrestling, is something I have been around all my life. I did not have a happy childhood, but my aunt who always tried to make me, my sisters and my cousin see past all the things that happened in out life. At the time NWA did a lot of shows in and around Greensboro, so my aunt would take us. I was 2 years old when I went the first time. I am 25 and have been watching it since I was 2. I have a lot of thoughts on the way things were in my eyes and the way things are now. Wrestling, as kids was something that united us and kept us sane. I remember right after my mom died, to cheer us up my aunt packed us all up and took us to a show. It took our mind off the situation for a little while. So I do have a lot of feelings and having a way to express it is always a good thing. So thank you. I will give it a shot. So have a good weekend and I look forward to reading your column.
Melinda
That’s all for this week, folks! If you have any comments, questions, or anything else you’d like to share, feel free to write me at TheMaverickMJ@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading, and feel free to come back again for another installment of The Trademark Rants!
