Hashtag IWA-MeToo: 1st Match

Sometimes I feel satire is dead. I suppose the Internet is to blame. It is great that everybody is reading, but if you do not have the ability to comprehend, what is the point? November 8, 2016 is evidence of that.

I think back to my intro to literature class at Illinois Central College in 2007 when we were assigned to read “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift. My best friend and I were the only ones who spoke of thoroughly enjoying it. Everyone else in the room who had an opinion questioned how someone, an Irishman at that, would dare suggest the English eating the children of McImmigrants. That is Peoria for you, and sadly since it is the premier test market in the country, that is a reflection of the rest of the country, at least the cities and suburbs that lack major league sports franchises…and Indianapolis…Mike “Fucking” Pence.

I bring up the rest of the country because population density suggest that they do not truly have neighbors. They only have themselves to care for. So they lack any thought to being empathetic because everyone around them looks or acts just like them. If you cannot understand how other people feel, how are you going to comprehend a joke about how ridiculous one group of people were treating another? To them it is a tale of the evil British eating the white babies that we all identify as on March 17 instead of a statement about how people do not care for the marginalized.

It is these kind of people who are fine with a Tracy Smothers’s wrestling school, School of Smothers, using the Confederate battle flag as part of the logo. I have fought this battle before and was shat on for by the likes of Christian Rose for reminding Tracy he was a Full Blooded Italian. With the training center being in Lincoln, Illinois, a town named after the President who destroyed the identity of the Southern States, it is fair to mention him in a blog that is about excusing awful people or, at the very least, awful acts.

Without a college newspaper to write for, anything non-wrestling related that I have written, may have fallen on blind eyes. Hence, if you have not been keeping track of my blogs since November 2016, I have been trying to call for change to the misogynistic patriarchy, but with my long-winded nature, I was trying to be clever working through my observations while I was trying to come up with my satirical solutions. In the meantime, society listened to the right people and was allowed to catch up. Losing the race is the story of my life, thank the gods I just love to chase, fight and complete.

But, the United States of Whiskey City is my audience, and you cannot unfollow everyone who says hateful, uncaring or ignorant things, so you are going to find some stuff you must write about. Sadly, you have to state your opinion before you can give it a comedic spin.

The following is a Facebook post from John “Ian Rotten” Williams, best known for being the promoter of IWA Mid-South Wrestling, a promotion that never booked shows in Bill Watts’s Universal Wrestling Federation territory (Mid-South Wrestling). To say that he has not allowed for great things to occur in pro-wrestling would be a falsehood. The man had something in the early to mid 2000’s that allowed the best talent in the Midwest to make it to the damn near the top of the business. But if you watched how any of his shows were structured, saying that he was a man of great ideas would be an overstatement. To his credit, he will give anyone an opportunity, but that is also to his detriment as shown by the following statement.

So, I have a great idea. How about wrestling fans go back to being wrestling fans? Don’t worry about who is cheating on who’s wife, who’s got a criminal background, how about worrying about if the person entertains you and works hard? In my opinion, and my opinion alone, as good as social media is for the wrestling business it is double bad. It amazes me how nosy people are nowadays and how much they can’t stay out of other people’s business. People never assume that anyone is innocent, they’re always guilty. Buy a ticket, sit in a seat, enjoy the show. Lose yourself for a few hours. You will be better off.

What can I say accept the greatest two-pack in DVD history was “Bloodsport” and “Showdown in Little Tokyo?” No, I am not protecting a potential love interest or the principles of Bushido. It may actually be more along the lines of “see something, say something,” but if I do not try and get his followers or himself to think like a better person, what kind of person does that make me? You can say someone who is only doing this for ego, and I will counter with a need to be someone I can respect. The response(s) to the blog will determine the ego massage.

Wrestling fans going back to wrestling fans is a promoter asking them to be sheep. How many bad people have gotten to make a living because of their talent? How many good people are kept from getting opportunities because a promoter allows assholes to thrive?

A stance like this also displays a laziness if coming from a booker. Why book around an issue if you can find marks who will ignore the issue?

Social media may not make it fair for the accused, but with so many incidents that are based on the words of the victimized versus the words of one with power who can control the physical narrative, it has to be a place where people must take responsibility for their actions and let the chips fall where they may. 

You maybe forgiven, you may never work in this field again. All you can do is you build a catalog while you can. People will ask, “why is this guy gone,” when we can all look back with 20/20 vision and rewrite the narrative accordingly. 

If you are not placing yourself in positions where your integrity will be questioned in the first place, your social record should be clean any how would you not say?

There are things that are no ones business like infidelity and I’ll say substance issues. But we know there are things that cannot be ignored. Not asking questions about those topics (harassment and abuse towards others, hateful beliefs, willful ignorance) permits a worst environment for everyone.

It sucks being an underemployed website designer. Not because of the lack on additional income, just that I know when a webpage is too long (NBC, CNN, NYT take note). I have got more to say about this, and plenty of Facebook comments and replies to see. And I might have some insights on my own experiences in terms of the current movement. This maybe a series of blogs that I can tie back to my “Schrodinger’s Cat” series or my own personal Supercard of Dishonor. If the episodes get the attention of the local bookers, maybe it will be a guideline to how to run shows.

Now, I’m hopeful to get that booking to call it a 16-year career. A nihilist with hope, this blog has done something at least.