For the most part, I think I’m a relatively intelligent guy. I mean sure, I’ll never fully understand how spaceships fly and I might never be able to grasp the whole process behind mapping the human genome. But when it comes to living life, I think I’m doing a good job because I’m a pretty smart guy.
Yet, for all of my “smarts” I’m baffled by some professional wrestling fans. Worse yet, I’m baffled by a group of professional wrestling fans that are likely considered my peers because they either own wrestling websites, write on wrestling websites, or comment on wrestling websites like I do.
What baffles me is the pain that some professional wrestling fans put themselves through. I’ll never understand it. Some of you may be wondering, “What pain are you talking about, Joe?” Well, today is Friday which means that TNA Wrestling aired another episode of iMPACT! last night. And since today is Friday, I’m willing to wager that there are some horrible reviews of last night’s show floating around the internet.
Just look at any random wrestling website and see if they have some commentary posted on last night’s show. Chances are that there is a review of the show posted and that the reviewer hated the show. Chances are that they had something negative to write about Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, and/or Vince Russo. In fact, I’m writing this column a few days before iMPACT! even airs and I can sense the pain that these wrestling fans feel after watching last night’s episode of the show.
But let me be clear – I don’t agree with these wrestling fans. And – without having seen last night’s show while writing the body of this column – I can sense the contentment that I’ll feel after the show is over. [Editor’s Note: I’ve since watched last night’s show and thought it was great.]
How do I know that I’m going to like last night’s show without even having watched it yet? Well, it’s simple really – I like TNA Wrestling. I’ve liked pretty much every episode of iMPACT! that I’ve seen in the last 6 years since I began following the promotion. Now you might wonder how I know that the review you’ll read on another website hated last night’s show. And that’s pretty easy to answer, too – the reviewer hates TNA Wrestling, but apparently loves self-inflicted pain.
This is the part of the equation that my somewhat intelligent brain can’t grasp. Why are there people watching a show like iMPACT! on a weekly basis if they don’t like it? Granted, I understand that there are people who watch the show to advance a hobby like our own great iMPACT! reviewer Jarrett Cox. But put that small handful of internet users aside and really think about this question – why are people watching a show that they hate? What’s the point?
Here’s a personal example: I don’t watch baseball. I think baseball is the most boring sport on the planet, bar none. Sure, I might cheer for the Yankees in October, but that’s because I grew up in Manhattan and North Jersey – Yankees Country. You’ll never find me freely watching a regular season game – not going to happen. Why? Because I don’t like watching baseball. I don’t like the commentators, I don’t like the useless and unnecessary statistics that pop up on the screen, I don’t like watching the activity of hitting a ball with a stick and running – I don’t like it.
So I don’t watch baseball.
Yet, week in and week out I log on the internet on Fridays and read the horror that some professional wrestling fans had to endure by watching iMPACT! the night before. It’s ludicrous, really. No one is forced to watch the show – so why do these people who obviously hate the show force themselves to watch it?
Some folks will read this as an attack on the typical internet wrestling fan and you may be correct with that view. The truth, however, is that this column is really a call to inaction. That’s right. A call to inaction.
I call on the iMPACT! haters of the world to stop. Just stop. In fact, stop dead in your tracks. Stop watching iMPACT! and watch some other Thursday night programming (there is a lot to choose from these days!). Stop forcing yourself to watch a show that clearly causes you mental anguish. Stop bashing and berating the same people each week. Stop with the same tired phrases week in and week out like “Hogan and Bischoff need to go,” or “Fire Russo!”
Frankly, your comments are getting old. And boring. And ignorant.
And on a personal note – who wants to put themselves through this pain?! I urge you to stop watching the show if you hate it so much. But I urge you to be a standup individual and, if you stop watching the show, then stop commenting on it. You’ll rarely hear me talk about baseball because I don’t watch the sport. And now that you won’t be watching TNA Wrestling, the rest of us won’t have to read your complaints about iMPACT! any more.
Everyone wins!
As for me and the million and a half or so fans that watch the show each week, we’ll be quite content continuing to watch the show. But for the haters – seriously, stop watching the show if you don’t like it.
– Joe
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*applause* Well said! Finally, some reason and good common sense posted on the pro wrestling interwebs.
I would like to add, as a stipulation of sorts, that if these wrestling fans insist on being masochists, then every Thursday night they must watch TNA Impact! whilst wearing ball gags and leather masks.
…
Yeah, I said it.
il join Dylan in the applause..i LOVE eric bischoff & have since his wcw/wwf days..so i get totally sick of people smarting off about him..i think there’s more people interested in TNA then ever good & bad
Terrific article! I agree 100% and I’ve never understood a lot of these people myself. I’ve always found most of the overused criticisms about the current TNA product really unfounded, and it’s amazing that people can’t find anything to like about TNA, because I like plenty about it (or love it to be honest!).
I will watch Impact and thoroughly enjoy it (occasionally I won’t like something but everything else makes up for it), but then I will read internet reports/reviews that try and tear holes in storyline logic .etc, when it’s really a lack of their own logic to work out the storyline themselves, albeit be a bit more forgiving on plot holes since every ‘scripted’ TV show is full of them, and wrestling by its nature will inevitably have unrealistic aspects.
Personally, since I gained no enjoyment from reading these supposed ‘reviews’, I took a bit of the same mentality suggested here, and stopped reading those sites altogether a few weeks ago, and have been a lot happier doing so.
This site is a breath of fresh air for wrestling news. No longer do I have to read the same anti-TNA diatribes by supposed professional wrestling writers, who only have a job while people continue to read them. Let them preach to their converted, it’s not going to stop me and all the other TNA fans from enjoying TNA every week.
And those are true ‘fans’ I refer to. Not the ‘fans’ who only watch something to put themselves through pain.
I don’t really know what to say. Everything I could have said to try to add more on the IWC these days is already mentioned in this article. Every last word. I could never have said it better myself. Great article!
Thanks, everyone! I’m glad that you enjoyed the article. For a long time I’ve been baffled at why these people put themselves through the pain. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who is sick and tired of these masochists!