This may come across as self-serving and more than a little high-and-mighty, but… why are wrestling fans some of the worst people you've never met?
John Cena is the WWE Champion for the 15th time after winning a ladder match at Sunday's Money in the Bank PPV. I expressed an opinion on Twitter – and a pretty mild one at that – stating that John's win made sense, given the current situation WWE finds themselves in.
What situation is that? If you're not watching the week-to-week, the basic scenario is this: Daniel Bryan won the WWE title at WrestleMania 30 after the company sunk half a year building him into the one of the biggest underdog success stories in wrestling history – whether they wanted him to be or not – only for him to vacate the belt a month later because of a real-life injury. CM Punk left the company in January when he showed up for work, and couldn't find the motivation to keep putting his body through hell. Both Randy Orton and Batista have been phased out of the main event role, because thousands of fans at every arena have decided its their moral obligation to raise hell because A) Punk left, and B) Batista is not Daniel Bryan.
So when Bryan gets injured, Punk takes his ball home, and neither Randy Orton nor Batista can go near the world title, WHAT DOES THAT LEAVE YOU?
You can build new stars – something WWE is in the process of doing with Bray Wyatt, Cesaro, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, etc. But every single one of you complaining about John Cena winning the title are EXACTLY the same people who complain that WWE rushes the title to stars before they are ready, inevitably resulting in their fall from grace into mid-card irrelevance.
So what options are they really left with? Kane was a placeholder for Daniel Bryan – and my original pick, before the news that Bryan wasn't returning soon. In a lot of ways, the people complaining are the ones responsible for John Cena's 15th title reign – you left them with literally ZERO options in a pinch situation. They know you hate him too, but he's the evil you're used to, and the evil they can get away with using, because they know it'll still result in the same old "let's go Cena – Cena sucks!" chant in every major city that isn't Chicago, New York, or Philadelphia.
Plus, let's not forget that in 2013 John Cena was WWE Champion, and had a surprisingly good PPV match with Ryback, told a great story with Mark Henry, and sacrificially PUT OVER Daniel Bryan clean, in the middle of the ring, at Summerslam. He then went on to elevate Randy Orton as a champion – despite the fans' best attempts to sabotage an otherwise good series of matches – before taking Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family to a main event level.
So seriously, what are you complaining about?
ANYWAYS – my point of this editorial was to rant about how terrible certain wrestling fans are, NOT to talk about John Cena for the 9,001 time.
I voiced my opinion on Twitter, and immediately my timeline was filled with people cursing at me, "calling me out", threatening me – there was even one guy who personally attacked me, and my mother for raising me to be – and this is a DIRECT QUOTE – a "John Cena loving faggot."
My first instinct was that I now understand what Vince Russo goes through on a daily basis. There's a guy who is passionate about the wrestling business, started from the very bottom and worked his way to the very top of his profession, and has nothing but respect for the industry. And yet people threaten him, and curse him out on the daily. WHY!?
I once stated on Twitter that I'd like to see LeBron James and the Miami Heat score their third NBA Finals win in as many years. I grew up in Chicago during the '90s, and I like dynasty teams. Plus, my Portland Trailblazers and Chicago Bulls had already been eliminated, so I really had nothing else to cheer for. THE WORST I got in retaliation – and mind you the Heat are basically the John Cena of professional basketball – is two people unfollowing me, and one person telling me "go back to talking about wrestling". That's it.
So why is it that I make one statement about John Cena on Twitter, and I have to block FOURTEEN PEOPLE, and even report one individual because he personally threatened to KILL ME?? That's a personal opinion about a guy who does choreographed fighting for a living, folks.
Guys, I've been overweight most of my life. If you honestly think calling me "fat" in the comments section or on Twitter is going to ruin my day, you live a sad life. And really, if you're taking cheap shots at a person you don't even know – a person you've NEVER EVEN MET – you live a sad life anyways.
This isn't OK. This internet wrestling sub-culture of people who blast each other for opinions, slinging mountains of hate and vitriol at a complete stranger – IS. NOT. OK. You're not a "troll" – you're just a bad person who's living in ignorance of how awful they are on the inside. At some point in your childhood, your parents messed up. If I had repeated even 5% of the things said to me tonight on Twitter, in front of my mother growing up, I would have been forced to consume an entire box of soap bars.
I tried to keep this wrestling related, because that's my job and I genuinely don't want to abuse my platform by broadcasting an after-school special on the most trafficked wrestling news website on the planet. But even if all this accomplished is me having to block another dozen people, at least somebody said something. I think a lot of people on the internet – especially wrestling fans – need to take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror, and honestly figure out if what's looking back is good, or bad.
Now, shut up and enjoy this amazing picture from last night's PPV:
