Jim Ross is, arguably, the best wrestling announcer in history. In fact, I think that it’s really a race between he and Gordon Solie with Ross having nowhere to go but up since Mr. Solie has passed away and Ross having at least another good 5 – 10 years in his voice.
That being said, Ross sometimes says things that are taken as controversial on their face. His new blog is a major hit among internet wrestling sites and it certainly has its share of poignted comments. Here is one that I want to briefly discuss with this column:
“I have no issue with people having fun with my TV persona, as that simply goes with the turf. I do have issues with some internet people who consider themselves experts of the product of wrestling simply because they watch a bunch of TV and either operate or contribute to one of the multitude of websites out there. I watch every episode of the Sopranos, many times over, but I don’t consider myself an expert in writing, producing, or performing in a weekly, dramatic TV series and would feel pretty stupid in purporting that I do.”
It’s a well-known fact that many of the folks in the pro-wrestling business look down on internet websites and, having been a part of the internet wrestling scene for over 11 years now, I can understand that sentiment. At one point, websites would just simply lie about “news and rumors” to the extent that it was embarrassing to be associated with them. At one point, I “reported news” (i.e. copied and pasted mainstream media coverage of wrestling) at over sixty sites. SIXTY WRESTLING WEBSITES!!! But because of the disgrace that many of them became, I stopped that many, many years ago.
Today, I put up mainstream wrestling coverage at TBLWrestling.com, XHeadlines.com, and 2xZone.com (though I might expand that short list). Also, for many years I just did not visit wrestling sites because they were trashy and crappy all at once. The trashiness generally came from websites being operated by preteens and young teenagers (what we called the “kiddies”) and the crapiness generally came from their lack of imagination outside of tits and ass.
So I can certainly understand Jim Ross’ comment about finding it laughable that people who watch a lot of wrestling think that they know how to run the business better than those who have been in it for years. I would offer these comments to my favorite announcer, though…
- Not all of the people who post commentary on the internet these days are still “kiddies.” I know a few webmasters who were preteen idiots that have gone on to become respected, professional, and published journalists in other fields outside of wrestling (and a few who have become the same IN wrestling – in fact, one works for WWE.com). Some of their modern day commentary might be more apt for discussion other than memories of their previous mistakes.
- Some of the people who post wrestling commentary on the internet may actually have expertise in the fields of television production, writing, or directing. What’s to say that some of the older folks among this crowd (myself included) aren’t experts in fields that directly relate to the business-end of wrestling? I have a Masters Degree in economic development and I am a professional in the finance industry – I might know a thing or two about numbers on a business’ financial statements. WWE is a publicly-traded business complete with financial statements…just like every other business out there. Economic trends that hurt all businesses hurt WWE, too. Commentary on those trends can be assumed for all businesses – WWE, too.
- The majority of those in the “know” understand that 95% of the stuff you read on “newsboards” or “headline boards” are junk reporting anyway. When a reporter is “reporting news” that is akin to common knowledge, then they’re not really reporting anything are they? Sure, they may be fooling themselves into thinking that they’re putting something new out there, but most of the time wrestling “reporters” just make a garbage post to get a link to their website out in public. I mean what type of breaking news is, “Ashley to be on Survivor,” when it’s all over the entertainment websites, too?
But I can certainly understand Jim Ross’ lament in terms of people trying to act as if they were the next Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, or Paul Heyman. But, unlike in other forms of journalism, the internet has no standards. You can be an expert in one field and then blog about something completely different or you can be an 11 year old kid and write a “column” about “y rasslin iz 4 dumies.”
That’s the lure – and downfall – of the internet.
– E-mail feedback to joe1897@gmail.com
– Read more Balrog Babblings!
