Why Apologist Fans Are Idiots

Back in the dying days of WCW, there was an episode of Nitro that I still remember even now. Not the entire show, but one segment in particular. It was a short video of a number of young fans outside the arena -- which were probably plants, now that I think of it -- cheering WCW on and professing their love for the company with chants of "WCW rules!" and "We're #1! We're #1!"

It was another one of WCW's increasingly desperate and transparent attempts to make it look like the company was not falling apart at the seams. Then they cut back to the arena in which the embarrassingly small crowd in attendance couldn't have looked less interested in the product if they tried.

This was the first time I really sat up and took notice of how stupid some fans can be, specifically the people in that video. Plants or not, there was no denying that WCW was as far from #1 as it could possibly be. I honestly felt like throwing something heavy at the TV and screaming at these people, "Are you out of your minds? WCW doesn't rule! It's not #1! It's DYING! This company is on life support right now! It doesn't need a cheering section! It needs someone to ride its ass and get the problems fixed before it's too late!"

This never happened. The problems were never fixed. WCW soon folded, was sold to Vince Mcmahon and the rest is history.

I've often been asked about my admittedly critical stance when it comes to pro wrestling and TNA. I'll always stress the positives whenever I can, but if I see them do something stupid, something I feel is a mistake, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm not going to dress it up and try to make it seem better than it is just to show my support the company. That's BS.

If you're not addressing the problems a company has, and thus not letting them know that these problems exist and need to be fixed, how is that supporting the company? It's not. It's perpetuating a flawed business model. Something I learned from being a frustrated WCW fan is that you can polish a turd all you want, but it's still a piece of crap at the end of the day.

You want to know why I'm often so critical of TNA? That's why. I'm critical because I care about the company and I want it to succeed. It's not my nature to be a cheerleader. Cheerleaders have their place and they're surely appreciated by wrestling companies, but when a company is in a certain position, cheerleaders are the last thing they need.

That's why it upsets me so much when I see Hulk Hogan insulting a fan on his twitter page because the fan dared to voice his displeasure with the current state of the product. That's why it pisses me off when I see Eric Bischoff ask for feedback on the show from fans on facebook and then claim they have no idea what they're talking about when they say they don't like it.

This is something I've discovered about TNA, about Hogan, Bischoff, Jarret, and yes, Dixie Carter too. They want cheerleaders. They want apologists that will excuse TNA all of its faults and wrap up the product in a pretty bow. They want the fans to tell them they're on the right track, that everything they're doing is great, and when the fans do this, they love the fans back. But when the fans aren't happy, the reception is quite different.

Well, I'm sorry if I don't feel like saying everything about iMPACT is awesome when I don't feel that way. I'm sorry if I feel the storylines are sloppy, carelessly written and find character development to be all over the place a lot of the time. I'm sorry if don't feel like saying that Madison Rayne is the greatest thing to happen to the Knockout division since Awesome Kong when such a thing is obviously not true to anyone with 2 eyes and a functioning brain stem.

I promise you... whatever I write, whatever I say in a video is the unabashed truth as I see it. You might not like what I have to say, but I swear it will always be 100% honest. I'm not a cheerleader. I'm not an apologist. If that's what you're looking for, go to TNAwrestlingnews.com -- that site is full of them.

TNA already has their share of apologist fans. Good for them. But there's always going to be people like me telling it like really is, whether they want to hear it or not. Because, damn it, somebody has to!

Apologists are idiots. I say screw 'em. It's time to get real.