365 Days Later
by Jonathan Brown
June 13, 2004 saw the debut of Mr. Brown’s Class that went largely unread. “Class is in Session” was the premier of a series of columns that have had an impact larger that it its author intended.
The Origin
Mr. Brown’s Class started on a freak chance. It is sort of a spin-off if you will. The buzz hit Jonathan as he saw his name splashed across the pages of prowrestling.com. Former Internet columnist, Josh Tariff’s column, “From the Couch” had been the preeminent interactive column on the Internet. His unique style often encouraged a plethora of wrestling fans to write in responses to his weekly homework assignments. When Mr. Brown’s response to an RVD based question was selected to appear, the ego was turned on.
The Beginning
When he wrote his first column, Jonathan sent it into the upstart website, thewrestlingvoice.com. Originally rejected in his attempt to get a log in name and password, Mr. Brown did not stop there. After re-writing his original work, Mike Steele and Dougie Nunny sent an email of congratulations. So it began.
Writing columns is not what it seems. Jonathan by no means is a wrestling expert. However, when you have the power of the keyboard in your grasps, it can be easy to fall into the self importance trap. While Mr. Brown had a variety of ideas the issue was finding a way to present ideas that everyone else was already writing about. After puttering around for a while, Mr. Brown found his niche after writing “Get the F Out”.
I have always appreciated the energy that goes into writing one of my own columns. You would not believe the amount of unfinished and unpublished columns that are stored on my hard drive. When “Get the F Out” was written it was the only column that I churned out immediately after the concept for it popped into my head. It usually takes one to three days of stewing over an idea before a single word for that column can be written.
Unlike some of my colleagues I have no real desire to make a career out of writing columns on professional wrestling. Hell, most of what we write does not even fit the journalistic definition of column writing. For me this is a hobby that has gone much further than I expected but not hoped for. After only two weeks on TWV, I was invited to write for the now defunct website ringrage.com. I had told an earlier reader of my column that my goal was to write for a multitude of websites. Fortunately that goal has been achieved as Mr. Brown’s Class is published on 17 different web sites. While the biggest of them all has ignored my twice sent application, getting on web sites is only the means to an end.
Fan feedback is what drives me. The only feedback I received after my first few columns were from my now deceased uncle and my big sister. I frequently visited forums to ask other columnists if this was normal. The resounding answer was if you are not Linda Robin the answer is yes. Linda is a huge part of the IWC and a motivating factor for this writer’s career (if it can be called that)
Fortunately I have learned to live without fan feedback because believe it or not there is very little of it coming into the inbox of this writer. When I get first time writers I ask, “Why not write before this?’ Their answer is usually a sad one, “We agree with what you said and there was nothing to write about.” In an attempt to change this dilemma, columns like “The Champion of Crap, Wrestlemania Sucks and Cancer is Killing Me” became HUGE drivers of hate mail and feedback. You could not believe the outrageous numbers of angry readers that have sworn to never read my column again. While it was a good feeling to know that the column was getting read, the price of getting readers was a piece my soul.
Fortunately though, I have had consistent feedback from a few readers that I consider to be Internet friends. Brendan Walker from the U.K. sends me weekly emails. His voice and perspective often help to keep me grounded and centered. Every columnist has wanted to quit at one time or another. His encouraging words have often kept me from taking the Ross Perot route. Tenay Ghosh was another reader that would send easily ten to twelve emails a month. Writing from India, he made me aware of the impact these few words can have on places we may never see. Since the unfortunate and untimely tsunami disaster of last year I have not heard from him at all. Tendai from New Zealand is another of my readers that writes often and with good ideas/
Don’t get me wrong, ego stroking is part of the game, but fan feedback in general is always good.
The great thing about being a citizen of the world is that we can focus on our similarities instead of our differences. You do not know what I look like, what I do for a living, my religious convictions or my sexual preferences, yet you are reading this work. Bing a columnist allows all of us a certain extent of anonymity that we would otherwise be void of in the real world. The only thing that matters here is wrestling.
It is for this reason that I love the WWE. Much like an abusive mother we can openly criticize it but we challenge any outsider to do so at the risk of a beat down. This wonderful distraction of column writing has helped fill voids in my life that many of you share. Mr. Brown’s Class has become the voice for many people that thought that they were the only ones with these same opinions and thoughts.
Others have come and others have gone but it is for you, yes you that Mr. Brown’s Class exists. Thank you all for taking this voyage with me as fans of professional wrestling.
Here’s to another 365 days of wrestling rumors, spoilers and leaked storylines.
Post Column
While many consider offering thanks as a sign of weakness, it is actually the first step into becoming a productive and positive adult. I would like to thank Douglas Nunnaly and Mike Steele at thewrestlingvoice.com for creating a website devoted strictly to opinion. TWV is the first site of its kind and has helped aspiring writers everywhere to find a platform that allows them to display their talents.
Josh Tariff, while absent from the IWC for some time now, inadvertently jump started my interest in the field of column writing. While he may not have been the easiest person to deal with, there would be no Mr. Brown’s Class without his work.
Vince McMahon and the WWE have provided us all with tons of topics in which to discuss. Instead of dealing with the monotony of daily life, we can bitch about his decisions for countless hours.
To those mentioned and those left unnamed the wrestling community present on the Internet is a real community. Complete with politicians, criminals and cheaters, the IWC provides me with hours of laughs. The center of the IWC truly lies at TWV and its forums. Check it out.
Thanx
Eviluther99@yahoo.com
