However, what I’ve been discovering as a pro wrestling blogger for over a year is that there are some wrestling criticism out there that just make me wanna scratch my head to the point where my hands turn into an electric shaver if that makes sense. For instance, “Why is Ricochet’s trunks red instead of white?” or “Why’s Andrade wearing his Luchador mask for his entrance every week?”
In other words, they’re nitpicking and trust me I do that ALL THE TIME in my wrestling reviews. There’s nothing wrong with nitpicking certain things but the difference is that I acknowledge that I’m nitpicking and those guys clearly don’t.
There are fans out there on the interweb that believe their criticisms are nothing but “facts” or the “truth” aka toxic fans (What? I didn’t know that). Now, I’ve compiled a guide on how to improve wrestling criticism and I divided it into three elements.
Element #1: Self Education.
This point is especially for all the young fans out there. Now, what do I mean by self-education? Watching old matches before your time, reading articles/watching documentaries about infamous incidents, reading books about pro wrestlers’ lives etc.What I’m trying to say is that educating yourself about an industry you love will make you smarter as a result. Also, history repeats itself and when you see a storyline that looks so similar you’ll instantly recognize it. Always educate yourself when you can otherwise you'll look like an idiot in a conversational setting and you don't want that do you?
Element #2: Listen To Opinions That Are The Opposite Of Yours.
Listening to different opinions will do two things (or at least it does for me). One, it makes you more aware of the topic and two, it makes you think about the topic. For example, the recent Sasha Banks story. Reading the reports of that story will make you aware of the situation and seeing people talk about the story will make you think about the situation. “Is she entitled or does she wants to be utilized properly on WWE television?”A psychology blog called psychreg.org talks about the differences of opinions in the best way possible:
“While you’re listening to the other person explain their side of things, remember that just because you understand where someone is coming from and why they think what they do, it doesn’t mean that you have to agree with them nor does it mean you’re conceding defeat to them. It just means that you’re willing to listen to their side of things because the other party may have something for you to learn”.
Element #3: Understand The Subjectivity Of Professional Wrestling.
This is by far, the most important element on wrestling criticism. If you don’t understand that professional wrestling like any other art form is subjective then I’m sorry, you shouldn’t be talking about pro wrestling. Not understanding the subjectivity of pro wrestling will lead to toxic conversations, egos being build and other worst things. We as human beings can measure a lot of things but the thing we can’t measure is the human experience of a piece of entertainment consumed on a daily basis.Just because somebody liked Monday Night RAW (which is not the most popular thing to say) or vice versa that doesn’t mean he or she is a “smark mark” or a “WWE shill”. What it does mean is that they simply liked or disliked a show and that’s what fandom should be. To quote in the style of Roman Reigns:
“There’s no wrong opinion. There’s no right opinion. There’s THE opinion”.
I hope you find this informative and if you did, please share it around. Follow me on the tweets @omartheplayaguy and follow the blog for honest pro wrestling opinions. Anyways, stay safe smarks.
Additional sources: www.psychreg.org/respecting-other-peoples-opinion/