Several years ago, I wrote a review of Eric Bischoff’s Controversy Creates Cash over at my personal blog. As I’ve written many times on this website, my personal blog, and on our site-wide Twitter account – I’m a huge Eric Bischoff fan. Whether any one ever wants to give him credit or not, the fact is that he changed the face of the wrestling business. If you think that’s an exaggeration, then I dare you to watch Monday Night RAW before Monday NITRO started. See how long you can sit through matches like Duke “The Dumpster” Dreose taking on Doink the Clown before you wonder why you’re watching this crap. The wrestling media has a short memory about how incredibly boring and nearly unwatchable some wrestling programming was before Eric Bischoff took over WCW and changed the game with his mantra of controversy creates cash.
And before you think that this is going to be an article talking about how great Eric Bischoff is for the team at iMPACT Wrestling, that’s not where I’m going. Nope. I just want to steal his “controversy creates cash” line and apply it to something that really has me bothered over at TNA.
I agree that controversy creates cash. How does it create cash? Well, typically controversy will get more eyes on your product and by getting more eyes on your product you widen the base of potential customers. More potential customers usually leads to more paying customers and more paying customers leads to more cash. And thus we have controversy creating cash.
Which brings me to a new item available at ShopTNA.com.
Just like I’m a big fan of Eric Bischoff, I’m a huge fan of Robbie E. I firmly believe that this guy is the future of professional wrestling in the same way that Chris Jericho was clearly the future of the business in the late 1990’s when he was toiling through the Cruiserweight Division in WCW. Robbie E. really is that good (though in a different way than Jericho was good some 15 years ago). So this article isn’t a hit piece on Robbie E. – far from it.
This article is, however, a call for the folks at ShopTNA.com and the entire TNA Wrestling family to stop and think about what they’re doing by promoting this faux rosary. I understand that TNA is based out of the South and primarily operated by people from the South and I’m sure that none of my fellow Roman Catholics hold any major leadership positions in the company and that’s okay. But that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t stop and think about whether it is a good idea to take one of our religious symbols and use it as a propaganda piece for one of the wrestlers. Look, I know that a lot of Christians out there have an unfounded hatred of my Roman Catholic brothers and I and that’s okay because we love them all the more. However, degrading one of our symbols is totally out of control.
And before someone chimes in that this is the same style of rosary beads that are being used by the dickheads on the Jersey Shore, rest assured that we’re pissed off about that, too. And someone else is waiting to chime in, I’m sure, that the rosary beads being worn by Robbie E. in the picture above aren’t exactly rosary beads because the number of beads are different, Robbie E.’s fist logo is in the centerpiece (disgusting), and the beads aren’t blessed. No shit – I “get” all of that, too. However, when you look at that picture and see that thing around his neck, if “rosary beads” aren’t the first thing that pop into your mind, then you’re living in La La Land.
All I’m trying to get across in this article is that there are 78 million Roman Catholics in America. We are the largest single religious denomination in the country. Many of my brothers and sisters in Christ are lapsed (in the interest of full disclosure – I attend mass each Sunday and on Holy Days) and many wouldn’t be offended by this sacrilege. However, just because no one points the finger and says, “NO!” doesn’t mean that promoting an item like this is okay. It’s wrong when the supposed-high end clothing companies sell rosary replicas. It’s wrong when morons wear the rosary as an accessory and then go off and disgrace their religion at the same time (yes, you can wear the rosary as an accessory, but breaking the tenets of the faith while doing so is unacceptable). And it’s wrong that TNA Wrestling is jumping on the bandwagon and trying to be “cool” by selling this product.
I’m just one voice and I understand that I’m not very loud. But I hope someone at TNA Wrestling reads this article, stops, and thinks about how they are potentially offended 78 million Roman Catholics in America (plus over a billion more worldwide). I hope that someone makes the right decision and pulls this product. I’m not even calling for an apology – I understand that sometimes mistakes are made. I’m just asking for TNA Wrestling to make this blunder right and pull this product.
– Joe
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