The love affair is over

Hey, Readerland.  The Ogre is back once again. And today is the day that I declare that I'm no longer a wrestling fan.  Before you jump to conclusions, hear me out.

So, people are irritating me.  This should come as no surprise because people tend to irritate me in general.  This time, though, it's other wrestling fans that are pulling my goat's leg.  Or something.

When did every single wrestling fan who is on the internet become an "expert" on wrestling?  Over the past several years, and the past few weeks specifically, it's become clear to me that an awful lot of these fans know how an angle should have been run, instead of potentially enjoying what's actually going on on television.  Am I going to sit here and say that every single angle that the WWE has run has been perfect?  God, no.  Do I think there are some fans out there who have put forth very good ideas on how a particular should or should have been handled?  Yes.  That does not make every wrestling fan an expert, though.


One thing I never try to do is change someone's opinion of wrestling.  Whether they are fans or not, I don't expect people to start watching or enjoy it more if they already watch simply because I say so.  Of course, everyone has an opinion.  I have no problem with that.  I have one, too.  The problem comes up when someone starts treating their opinion as fact.

The biggest thing I've seen in the past month or so is the Internet Wrestling Commiunity's completely love of or utter hatred of Mark Henry.  Personally, I have never been a big Mark Henry fan.  His style of wrestling just doesn't really appeal to me.  However, over the past few weeks, Mark Henry has been booked the way the World's Strongest Man should be.  He has 'taken out' the World's Largest Athlete, The Big Show, and the Big Red Monster, Kane.  He's started a new promo gimmick, the Hall of Pain, and how Show and Kane have their own wings in his Hall.  He has basically been destroying people left and right before this past weekend, where he won his first major WWE Title, the World Heavyweight Championship.

Here's the kicker:  a lot of people in the IWC dislike Randy Orton.  I happen to be one of them.  Not because he's Super Orton or that he wins 'all the time.'  No, it's because he sells injuries like crap most of the time.  They blame him for stopping Kofi Kingston's push a few years ago, instead of the fact that Kofi cuts horrible promos.  They blame him for the ratings decrease on Smackdown, instead of noticing that ratings are down all over for wrestling.  But then a challenger appears!  Mark Henry shows up and steamrolls a whole bunch of established stars en route to a victory at Night of Champions.  So what happens?

"Mark Henry is a horrible (or other adjective here) champion!"

"Mark Henry isn't a believable champion!"

"Watch!  The ratings will decrease even more now that Mark Henry is the champ!"

The next pay-per-view for the WWE is Hell in a Cell, which is in a week and a half.  That's a topic for another blog.  Odds are the title will go back to Randy Orton at that PPV.  And you know what will happen?

"God, Randy Orton is champ again."

"Randy Orton is boring."

"For the love of God, he was twisting your arm for five straight minutes!  Sell the damn arm damage for more than a few seconds!"

Okay, that last one will probably be coming from me.  Anyway.

The WWE basically can't win with the internet wrestling community, because fans aren't simply allowed to be fans of wrestling anymore, according to the IWC.  Everybody has to have an opinion and everybody has to be able to vent that opinion on someone else.  Kinda like I do with this blog, but you know...more jackassish.

Anyway, the point of this whole blog is that I'm done being a "wrestling fan."  It's just not worth it.  Instead, I am a fan of professional wrestling.  What's the difference, you ask?

The main difference is that I watch wrestling to be entertained and to appreciate the athleticism involved.  I don't really care about storylines.  I don't follow one particular wrestler.  Okay, that one might not be true, but anyway.  I want to see more midcard matches than main event matches because they pack more into a 5-7 minute match than the main event usually does in 10-15.  I want to watch more wrestling instead of storylines.  That's why I watch a lot of Chikara and Puroresu.  Are there storylines?  Yes.  Are they awesome?  Usually.  Do I understand many of the Japanese storylines?  Nope.  But the wrestlers they have are incredibly gifted athletes and that makes it all worth while.

Wrestling is entertainment, dammit.  I watch to be entertained and I've decided I can't be entertained by other wrestling fans' 'opinions' on the sport.  Henceforth, I am no longer a wrestling fan.  I am a fan of professional wrestling.