Last night’s iMPACT! Show was pretty good, but you’d never believe that by reading all of the marks who have access to a computer and the internet. After watching last night’s iMPACT!, I was definitely a little annoyed that there weren’t some of my personal favorites on the show (the Motor City Machine Guns and Desmond Wolfe, for example), but by no means did the show “suck” nor was it “horrible.” You won’t get that type of feedback if you check out 99% of the post-iMPACT! recap columns.
Which brings me to the internet wrestling community. I’ve always said that, by and large, the people who comprise the internet wrestling community absolutely suck. These are the people who go to the house shows and talk a mile a minute about all of the talent in the ring to anyone within earshot just to prove that they “know” something more than the people around them. Meanwhile, absolutely no one cares and most of the time the bullshit that these people spew is only half correct, if correct at all. It’s for this reason that I am taking this opportunity to return the hatred that the internet wrestling community doles out on TNA…and I’m going to use The Nasty Boys to help my case.
When The Nasty Boys showed up on the 1/4 edition of iMPACT!, a collective groan rose up from the internet wrestling community. What was the reason for that groan? Well, if you read the dirtsheets (and after reading all of the internet hatred towards TNA, I now have a better understanding of what that term means), then you would think that these guys sucked because they were friends with Hulk Hogan.
What?
This tag team makes the douchebags in the internet wrestling community sick because they’re friends with Hulk Hogan? How does that make any sense?! Wait – are the kids on the internet mad because Hulk Hogan is bringing in a tag team that he is personal friends with outside of the wrestling business?
Notice I used the term “kids” in the statement above. I use this term because it is obvious that children (or very, very immature, inexperienced people) are populating the vast reaches of the internet wrestling community. How can I tell? Easy. As someone who has been working in the “real world” for over a decade, I can tell you that when a new boss rides into town, he or she invariably brings their friends along with them! It’s what happens in the business world you dummies!
That said, now we’ve removed the largest source of the collective hate surrounding The Nasty Boys by using ageism against the professionally inexperienced, immature folks populating large portions of the internet wrestling community. I hate to use ageism to make the point, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
Why else are people mad at The Nasty Boys being in TNA? Well, some people will say that they aren’t that good in the ring. I’ve never been sure what the idiots mean when they say that “so and so isn’t a good wrestler and has no place in a wrestling ring.” What does that mean? Does that mean that The Nasty Boys aren’t technical wrestlers? Does that mean that they aren’t athletic?
So do the stupid kids on the internet think that they are proving something when they make these statements? Saying that The Nasty Boys aren’t technical wrestlers and that they aren’t athletic is like saying that in the morning the sun will rise and at night the sun will go away. Of COURSE they’re not technical wrestlers and nor are they major athletes! Who the hell ever said that you needed to be a technical mastermind or an Olympic athlete in order to be a professional wrestler? Harley Race wasn’t a technical wrestler, Ric Flair has never been a technical wrestler, Dusty Rhodes doesn’t know a damn thing about technical wrestling. Race, Flair, and Rhodes, though, lit up the 1980’s and early 1990’s with fighting – just straight hand-to-hand combat and an occasional wrestling hold.
Not everyone is a Bret Hart or Kurt Angle or Desmond Wolfe in the waiting.
Okay, so we’ve shown how the “they’re Hogan’s friends” argument will only be accepted by professionally inexperienced internet smarks. Now we’ve had a brief discussion as to why the “they don’t have any wrestling ability” argument flies in the face of professional wrestling. What does that leave?
Well, you have the WWE marks who try to pass themselves off as regular wrestling fans. In reality, though, these people hate anything that isn’t WWE. I guess that most of these people have to be pretty put off by the fact that The Nasty Boys were contacted by WWE after the 1/4 iMPACT! show and offered full contracts. Oh wait, the internet didn’t report that news? Oh, weird…because it’s true. Pretty shocking, huh? Do you think that the WWE would use these guys the same way that Hogan and Bischoff are going to use them? To put over younger talent? Probably, right?
So with one stone, we’ve shot down both the “only WWE rules!” mindset as well as the “they should only be used as enhancement talent” ideas. What does that leave us now?
That leaves the people who say that The Nasty Boys suck because they don’t like them.
Ah ha! We’ve found it! We’ve been able to wipe away the years of internet-based superiority from the kids and broken down their irrational dislike of The Nasty Boys to what it stems to – they don’t like the tag team. By the way, the comment that these kids are professionally inexperienced is only enhanced by the fact that they mask their true feelings (i.e. they don’t like the tag team) with bullshit arguments like “they’re Hogan’s buddies” or “they suck in the ring.” But I digress…
Well, if you don’t like a tag team or a wrestler, what does that make you? Lo and behold, it makes you a wrestling fan! Could it be that deep down inside of all of these internet smarks there is a traditional wrestling fan hiding? I think so.
And I think that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are trying to find a way past the irrational haters (see the 30 or 40 freeloaders who attend each iMPACT! taping and try to act like they are bigger than the show itself). I think that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are trying to find a way to draw up that useless, senseless hatred that people have towards TNA and throw it back in their faces (see The Band storyline where the internet stereotypes are being put on display while the dummies online don’t even realize it). I think that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are trying to bring back traditional professional wrestling.
As a wrestling fan, I enjoyed the iMPACT! show last night. It was exciting, fun to watch, and well paced. The Nasty Boys were great in the ring and while watching them was different than watching the Motor City Machine Guns, I didn’t have any irrational hatred towards Brian Knobs and Jerry Sags. I found them entertaining. I also found it entertaining when Team 3D (who I may have an irrational dislike for) laid out The Nasty Boys.
That’s what wrestling fans do – they enjoy the shows that they’re watching or they stop watching those shows. I used to enjoy watching WWE, but now I don’t like they’re shows so guess what? I don’t watch!
I think it’s high time that the immature, inexperienced kids spewing all of this anti-TNA hate online make a decision. Either watch the show and be the true wrestling fans that you are deep down inside by putting aside all of the internet-fueled bullshit that you try to pass off as learned fact or stop watching the show.
Either way, TNA is moving forward with or without you.
Quote of the Night:
“That’s three in German, Taz.” – Mike Tenay explaining what Mr. Anderson was saying in the ring
– Joe Vincent
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