I don't expect to win any friends in the press with this one.
A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for non-bias viewpoint.
“CROWD CRIES ‘FAKE’ AFTER LAST NIGHT’S ‘WRASTLE’.The mainstream media’s grudge match with professional wrestling spans almost right from the sport’s introduction to North America more than a century ago. The fact is, debunking the myth of professional wrestling as always been en vogue and to poke fun at the industry really doesn’t have a reporter hanging out there on a limb to secure buy in. I would venture to say that to attack professional wrestling does not demonstrate any journalistic talent.
- February 6, 1912, St. John’s, Newfoundland newspaper
As I have done my own digging into wrestling’s history in western Canada, I have been interested to see the number of newspapers in particularly that outright refused to give pro wrestling any ink. The Brandon Sun, the Winnipeg Free Press and other papers outright refused to cover professional wrestling at different points – much to the dismay (and frustration) of someone like me trying to track down all of that history after the fact.
The wrestling industry has made significant changes over the past two decades from the ground up, yet the media is allowed to maintain the same closed-minded opinion of our industry. Imagine if the same closed-mindedness was allowed with any other topic, say politics - (An easy choice, because politicians are more heavily and consistently scrutinized than wrestlers): What if the media said “We used to like politics, but after Pierre Trudeau stepped down, he was the last of the true politicians. We don’t cover the current ‘circus’ of politics anymore.” I think we can both agree that this simply wouldn’t fly.
A lot has changed in the business since John Stossel asked David Shultz in 1984 if wrestling was fake. However, the changes in wrestling and the dynamics of the professionals involved have changed in other sports as well since the extravagance of pro sports in the 1980’s – remember the major league baseball team that trashed their own plane during a mid-flight party?
Professional wrestlers cannot be pigeon-holed as monosyllabic brutes anymore. Take a look at the number of books that have been written by today’s pros. While some, admittedly, have used ghostwriters to help tell their story, there are an increasing number of wrestlers who are as skilled with a pen as they are with a piledriver. Certainly, among today’s active wrestlers and retiring greats, there is a much greater ability to articulate wrestling’s validity and nuances than the approach taken by Shultz twenty five years ago. I know of a number of wrestlers active in British Columbia who are College and University graduates, one wrestler who is a lawyer, some that have produced films – and then there’s a guy like me that has written a book about the deep roots of wrestling’s history in this country.
Last week, I had one journalist tell me: “Get over yourself, wrestling is bad amateur theatre.” I would challenge that same writer to identify the last time that they attended a live professional wrestling match. How easy is it for them to pick holes in the work being done by the wrestlers of today? The fact is, from my perspective, most professional writers exercise selective bias when it comes to pro wrestling – refusing to give it validity by attending/reviewing a match, but sitting in judgment of those performers and their abilities with a blanket statement.
To me, that would be similar to an entertainment reporter generalizing the live performance of a band, based not on what they delivered when they came to town, but based on their opinion of other artists of the same genre. How would that be received?
Like it or dislike it, believe it or tear it apart, the fact is that professional wrestling is a part of the cultural fabric of Canadian sports/entertainment. Thousands of fans are ringside for matches across the country and beyond to cheer on their favorites and live vicariously through the excitement of the action.
I would invite anyone from the mainstream media to set aside their pre-conceived biases about professional wrestling and check out some of the outstanding action as presented by local wrestling companies in your area. In the Vancouver area alone, here are some of the upcoming cards:
All Star Wrestling
February 21 – Totem Hall; Squamish, BC
February 28 – Chief Joe Matthias Centre; North Vancouver, BC
Contact: Mark Vellios 604-710-0782
Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling
February 27 – Bridgeview Hall; Surrey, BC
March 7 – Russian Community Centre; Vancouver, BC
Contact: Dave Teixeira republic@eccw.com
Independent pro wrestling, experience it again for the first time
Vance Nevada