Wrestling. A semi-sport based on pretending to fight and trying to make the crowd cheer or boo in response to the wrestler's actions. The way it's supposed to work, the wrestler will incite the crowd by calling people names or telling the guy in the front row how good his mother was in bed last night. Or say things about great the crowd is to make them cheer. It's really simple stuff.
However, every so often, someone will come along and try to use serious subject matter as a way to get crowd response. I'm here today to tell you all...stop it.
Back in 1996, a group called the "Nation of Domination" started in the WWF. Led by Faarooq (Ron Simmons with a snappy new Muslim sounding name), this Nation of Islam analog was a heel faction (of course) filled mostly with black wrestlers. They came out with their suits and bowties, usually at least 15 of them (eventually whittled down to four), and before all their matches, raised their right fists to the crowd in unison and said, "by any means necessary." They spoke out against perceived racism in the WWF and engaged in some good ol' black-on-black crime at one point. Nothing makes the white folks smile and laugh like black-on-black crime.
Every so often, they'd speak out about some real racial issues in America or in American history, as get booed for it by the largely white audiences. Why? Because they're talented bad guys and have a way with a phrase? No, because white people don't want to hear that crap. We have a hard enough time talking about racial issues in everyday life. No one wants to deal with it at a wrestling show, regardless of how true it might be.
At one point, they actually started a storyline where the Nation was actually victimized by a white group (D-Generation X) and another group (The Hart Foundation) was blamed for it. Apparently, someone had broken into the Nation's locker room, tore up the place and spray-painted racial epithets on the walls. The Nation was rightfully upset and called upon the WWF to do something about it. When they didn't, they got upset and started talking about racism again. D-Generation X got involved again and began to try to instigate a fight between their enemies using racism.
Now, being completely in the right, you'd think the crowd would support the Nation. But since it's a racial issue, it played out just like you'd expect: Down racial lines. White people supported white wrestlers. Black people supported black wrestlers. And it being a majority white audience, the black fans were drowned out. Four black wrestlers who were completely justified in their actions were being booed, even though they were right.
Now, I know you're probably be thinking, "Damn, it's just wrestling." And it is. And because it's just wrestling, that fact that a very real and very serious issue is being trivialized by being used in this way. Seriously. Let's look at some of the more common ways that feuds happen in wrestling: "You stole my girl," "I want your title," "You're holding me back," "You accidentally hit me with a chair, but I'm going to be mad, anyway." You're lumping "blatant racism" in with that stuff. Suddenly, the Civil Rights movement has become Jerry Springer-level fodder.
Now, why am I even bringing this up? I mean, this happened from 1996 to 1998. It's over, right? Well, no. No, it isn't. In TNA, Konan and his Latin street gang, LAX (Latin American Exchange) started right back down that same road again. Recently, they won the tag team titles and they came out and started talking about their "Latin heritage" in wrestling, which is fine. But these guys are heels. Bad guys. They're supposed to be gang members. So when the crowd starts cheering the names their dropping, well-respected names in wrestling, like Pedro Morales, Mil Mascaras, the Guerrero family, LAX makes it a racial thing. Then, they bring up dedicating their title win to all the immigrants both legal and illegal and something about them being here to stay...etc., etc. It made me roll my eyes and change the channel. Again, it's a real issue and a serious issue that people feel very strongly about...why trivialize all that by making it a part of wrestling?
It's one thing to be proud of your heritage. No one's going to have a problem with that. If you do, you've got an issue that needs to be worked out. I hear that therapy works wonders. But it's another thing entirely to bring politically charged issues into an entertainment arena that's geared around inciting the emotions of those watching.
It's not just racial issues, either. Back in 2003 or 2004...I don't remember...they had a "debate" in the ring, with known Bush-supporter, Bradshaw debating with Mick Foley about the mess in Iraq. Foley was bringing up real issues (Bush not being honest, and such) and Bradshaw, like all Republicans were doing at the time, was going right for the base human emotions (hit 'em in the patriotism!). The two wrestlers weren't even feuding with each other. They just had this just to do it. Bradshaw, based on crowd response, supposedly won the debate.
What's entertaining about that? Going back to 1997 again...there were real-world issues going on between USA and Canada. So what does WWF do? Make a storyline out of it. And it's really no big deal, because there's always been a rivalry of sorts between the two countries. But when Bret Hart, a Canadian, starts taking digs at the US that I personally agree with...I'm supposed to boo that? Hell, for the entirety of the storyline, I was practically Canadian.
Earlier this year, Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon teamed up to wrestle Shawn Michaels, known born-again Christian, and his tag-team partner...God. I guess it was supposed to be comedy, but it wasn't. It might be because Vince McMahon just isn't funny, though. I wasn't offended or anything, but the thing is, I don't want religion mixed in with my degenerate wrestling. As best I could tell, the whole thing was met with indifference. I'm not religious, but about 5.85 out of 6 billion people on Earth are. Apparently, people weren't big on wrestling openly mocking one of the lynchpins of their lives. Who knew?
So what I'm saying is...it's entertainment. It's supposed to be an escape from the real world. Why not keep it that way? It's not even deep entertainment. It's not like Gray's Anatomy or something, where the intricacies of an issue can be worked out amongst the characters in an hour long show. All you can do with wrestling is just rile people up. And sure that's what you're supposed to be doing in wrestling, but some of this stuff hits a little too close to home. Like racism. Some things are just too serious to make light of.
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