I’m a wrestling fan. I like wrestling. I don’t like everything about wrestling, but I try to like everything that gives me wrestling. In my lifetime, I’ve enjoyed wrestling provided by the following: WWF/WWE, Crockett, AWA, WCW, Global, New Japan, All-Japan, UWFI, Watts’ UWF, World Class, ECW, TNA, AAA, CMLL, FMW, XWF, Ring of Honor, Wrestling Society X, Pro Wrestling Revolution, and some local indy action on occasion as well. I’ve attended countless events, TV tapings, and even pay per views. What I’m saying is, again, I like wrestling.

When I was growing up, there were always some good battles between fans of certain federations. The Crockett/NWA/WCW kids would always talk about how the WWF’s “circus atmosphere” (a phrase they most likely borrowed from WCW-friendly Apter Mags) just wasn’t for them. They’d point out how Hulk Hogan was a horrible champion that rarely defended his title, and that the cartoonish personas were just too much for them to take seriously.

WWF fans would counter that NWA/WCW’s rules were silly, that matches ending with someone getting thrown over the top rope were anticlimactic, and that some of the older guys that were still on top made it hard to believe. I had a huge problem with Dusty Rhodes when I was a youngster in the 80s for the simple fact that he looked like a fat tub who had no problem handling guys like Ric Flair, Lex Luger, and The Road Warriors. I hadn’t learned my history yet, and thus had no perspective when it came to Dusty’s accomplishments. To me, I just couldn’t understand how this guy was the freaking World Champion. In my head, Hulk Hogan would murder this guy.

However, at the end of the day, we were still fans. We understood that there wasn’t anyone else we could talk wrestling with- we only had each other. Hell, if we even had our wrestling talks around people that didn’t watch, we could guarantee that we’d have to listen to them tell us how that “fake shit” was so stupid, and that we must be idiots for thinking it was real. I always love when kids parrot what their parents tell them with the authority of an expert. In third grade, I believed wrestling was real, and I wasn’t going to even try to see if those jerks were right.

When the Monday Night Wars kicked into gear, things got a little more tense between the tribes. While I had considered myself a “WWF first, everything else” kind of fan, that didn’t mean that I disliked any of the other groups more. It was simply a matter of having much easier access to WWF programming when I was young, and thus knowing the product better. But my NWA/WCW knowledge was always right there, as I loved what they put on TV. Their more realistic, brutal wrestling programs always had me honestly worried about the guys there. When Lex Luger appeared at the end of an NWA program with torn street clothes and looking like he had beaten (he had been- by the Horsemen), I remember as the program went off the air being completely worried about him.

Now, though, lines in the sand had been drawn. WCW attempted to make fans choose by placing their show directly against the WWF’s. These tricks had been done before, notably with WWF’s initial Survivor Series, as well as WCW holding a Clash of the Champions card on the same day as WrestleMania. But really, those were one time events, and it was a matter of watching a pay per view event or a program on TV. With Nitro and Raw, the fans were basically riled up into picking a side for the most part. As someone living on the west coast, I was lucky. TNT would air Nitro at 6pm pacific time, allowing me to watch that show, do some homework in between, and then watch Raw when it started up. So, for me, I still enjoyed both programs equally. But there was definitely an undercurrent of fans who were proudly staking their claim to a side in this battle.

This became really apparent when the New World Order came into existence and started the next wrestling boom. People I had known for years, who did not watch wrestling, were now coming up and doing the “For Life” hand signs, and people I knew that were fans of wrestling had decided that WWF sucks, and WCW was where it was at. At some point, I decided that I would be a “WWF kid,” then. I still watched Nitro, but I was a cheerleader for Raw. TNT would eventually wise up to the time zone thing, and would air Nitro directly against Raw in all areas. And so I’d watch Raw and tape Nitro. And for a while, I really hated the fact that WCW was way better than WWF. Watching Raw at times was an exercise in discipline. I’d get through the offering, looking forward to seeing the chaos that Nitro would be providing.

At some point in time, however, the tides began to turn. I’d watch Raw and be completely into the entire program. When it was over, I’d watch Nitro, and find the 39 run-in finishes to be a bit too much. At the same time, the nWo had expanded its ranks far too large, and had become too big a part of the program. The amazing wrestling matches that made Nitro must-see were now shoehorned into small bits of the show, so that we could have more backstage shenanigans and fun with the nWo guys taking over the announce booth for the 315th time. I’d return to school the next day telling my friends that Raw was the better show, only to be laughed out of the room. “WWF sucks. I hope that shit dies.”

The first time I heard that, I was dumbfounded. You want the WWF to be dead? “Yes! I hope WCW puts Vince and his shit show out of business.” That, to me, was the dumbest thing I had ever heard. Even while I was identifying as “Team Raw” or whatever, at no point did I hope that WCW would die. Hell, I didn’t even want Nitro to die. All I wanted was for the WWF to rebound from whatever funk they were in, and figure it out so that we would have two awesome shows to watch. But the WCW fans I knew wanted WWF gone. There was something about putting Vince McMahon out of business that really appealed to something inside of them. At this time, the internet was also in its infancy, so besides just using the old “my friends” as a measuring stick, I was able to go hit some AOL chats (holy crap) and other news sites at the time, where I could see this idea of “WCW needs to kill the WWF!” repeated.

Eventually, as we all know, the WWF rebounded, thanks to Steve Austin, Mr. McMahon, Mick Foley, and others. At this point, however, us WWF kids had developed this sense of hate towards WCW. Some of us (not me personally, but definitely those I knew), started repeating what used to be said to us- “I hope the WWF puts WCW out of business!” And then, one day, it did.

WCW dying was one of the saddest days I can remember as a wrestling fan that didn’t involve actual tragedy. I was absolutely not happy to lose WCW. I was not happy to lose Nitro, or even Thunder. For as bad as WCW had been, they seemed to show some promise in their dying days, and having that taken away seemed so unfair.

Sadly, the Monday Night Wars had created this idea that in order to like one, you must hate the other. It started by brainwashing the WCW fans into believing it, and then that led to WWF fans believing it as well. When WCW died, those fans had to go somewhere else. They didn’t want to watch the WWF trot out their beloved superstars and make them look like shit. And so, when TNA wrestling started up a little over a year later, they had a haven. It may not have been perfect, but damn it, it wasn’t the WWF- which was now WWE.

However, the damage from the Monday Night Wars had been done. The WWE fans were unable to shake the mindset that they had been forced to take on, and began openly hoping for TNA’s demise, nearly from the very start. Everything from a “WCW redux” roster, to having Jeff Jarrett and Ken Shamrock as the big stars, to the “stupidity” of weekly pay per view offerings were ripped on. For many WWE kids, there was nothing TNA could do to make them happy. They were simply going to sit on the sidelines and eagerly await the day that TNA finally died.

On the flip side, these former WCW fans held the hate deep in their hearts as well. As WWE’s ratings fell from the Attitude Era heights back to reality, these fans continued to hope that the big, bad WWE monster would go away. However, with the pain in their hearts from losing their beloved, these fans couldn’t really hope WWE would die. That would just be cruel.

And so, for over 10 years now, there’s been this ridiculous war between WWE diehards and TNA diehards. It’s nearly impossible to write about TNA without having someone come in and openly hope for the company to go away. Sure, sure, they try to sugarcoat it with some garbage about how “I only hate Dixie Carter and want her to go away,” but that’s hard to interpet from “This shit sucks and is a waste of time.”

Last week, for example, I wrote a column titled “TNA: It’s still good, people.” That invited comments like “Since when?” and “who cares when it’s gonna be dead.”

I get it. Part of this is just to rile up the TNA fans, some of whom have been labeled “TNA Defenders” in this very column before. It’s easy to poke at them, because they’re so protective of the company that they love. At the same time, quite frankly, what kind of shitty “fan” of wrestling would ever hope to have less wrestling provided to them? That’s where I always get lost in this- why would you ever want TNA dead? Because less wrestling is better?

And don’t get it twisted- this isn’t about opinion. This isn’t about me trying to get you to like TNA if you think it’s stupid, or to like WWE if you think it sucks. The “it’s just my opinion!” retort is the laziest thing we have going, because it doesn’t require anyone to explain their opinion. We’re just supposed to be okay with it. If your opinion is that TNA needs to die because it sucks, then my opinion is that you’re a horrible wrestling fan and you’re doing it wrong.

This is about a mindset that was created in the late 90s, and one that is no longer relevant, still being clung to by fans with nothing better to do than hate on the “other” fed instead of enjoying what they enjoy, and not watching what they don’t. And it’s not just a wrestling thing, either.

I am also a huge MMA fan. And by that, I mean I watch UFC, watched Pride, watched Strikeforce, watch Bellator. I’ve also attended a local MMA show that had amateur and professionals fighting. Because I’m a fan of MMA.

Still, it’s not hard to read a story on Bellator and see the UFC fans come out and trash the “cans” they have for fighters, and how their champs must suck. Then the flipside will try to call out those fans for being “new to the sport” since they must “only watch UFC.” Again, fans of the SAME THING arguing over which brand of the SAME THING is better. But at least it’s rare to see someone openly hope for Bellator to shut down.

It’s not rare in wrestling circles to see fans openly hope for TNA to die. They’ll try to say it in a pc way, and talk about how they just “wish those poor guys on the roster could go somewhere else to make a living” or something along those lines. But in the end, they are wrestling fans who want less wrestling to exist. And, for me, I will never be able to reconcile that line of thought. No matter how much TNA does to annoy me (and rest assured, WWE bugs the crap out of me as well often), and no matter how many “Oh what a surprise, another anti-TNA article!” woe-is-me comments I see from TNA fans, I will never wish that TNA is dead. I will never wish any wrestling league dies.

I’ll hope they get better. I’ll hope they figure it out. I’ll hope they find owners that make it work, the way Bellator recently ousted horrible owner Bjorn Rebney when it became apparent that he played favorites and couldn’t run an honest promotion. I’ll always hope for a turnaround. Because I’m a wrestling fan. If you honestly want TNA- or any fed, for that matter- to die, then you’re not a fan. You’re just someone that watches wrestling. If you don’t like a particular brand of wrestling, then just don’t watch it. But to wish for it to go away forever?

The Monday Night Wars are over, and have been over for 13 1/2 years. It’s time to move on. Like what you like, don’t like what you don’t like. Save the death wishes for yourself.

The cannibalism just doesn’t make sense to me.

Like I say at the end of every column. It’s ALL wrestling. And isn’t THAT what we’re fans of? I’m not a

fan of any 3 letter acronym more than I am simply a fan of wrestling.



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