For many of us, social media is a very powerful, but dangerous tool that we use on a daily basis because we use it to do certain tasks like following the latest news, chat with friends or relatives, or playing games.
But social media also has its flaws in decreasing social interactions in public, increasing our short attention spans, and even making some of us us engage in very unhealthy and destructive behavior through social media. Here are top 5 ways in which social media has harmed wrestling
1. Taking Away The Surprise Element - One of my favorite wrestling orgasms is seeing a wrestler’s shocking return to the ring either during a run-in or a battle royal that nobody even saw coming. Nowadays, social media has completely took away this aspect of wrestling by constantly reporting and posting about potential wrestlers making their return to the ring at an event. Case in point, numerous wrestling sites have reported that Edge was training for his potential return to the ring in which he initially denied, but when he returned at this year’s Royal Rumble, it just didn’t feel that special to me because of how much social media and wrestling news sites took away the surprise factor from Edge’s return. But one of the very few times that I’ve been surprised this year was seeing Naomi make her surprise return during the 2020 Women’s Royal Rumble or Roman Reign’s surprise return at SummerSlam 2020.
2. Wrestlers Using Their Real Names - One of the things that I absolutely hate about modern day wrestling is when I see many wrestlers using their real names on social media which completely takes away from their character that they actually took time to build and develop in the wrestling industry. Examples of this: “Jordynne Grace” using her real name of Trisha Parker or “Sonya Deville” using her real name of Daria Berenato on social media. Would Randy Savage and Shawn Michaels have been big stars back in the day if they used their real name on social media?
3. Disrespecting Kayfabe - Another one of the biggest things that I personally hate about modern day wrestling is when many wrestlers constantly disrespect kayfabe to the point of showing little regard for it. Some of the most notorious examples of wrestlers disrespecting kayfabe is when two wrestlers that are in a feud posting a picture of themselves being together, a wrestler taking a picture after a match behind the curtain, or even a wrestler who doesn’t stay in character when they’re out doing interviews on big corporate media outlets like ESPN. Would legendary feuds like Austin vs Rock or Undertaker vs Kane been memorable back in the day if all four men took a photo together out in public and uploaded it on social media?
4. Seeking IWC Validation - Another one of the biggest issues with modern day wrestling is that many of these young indie wrestlers in particular don’t seek legit validation from The O.G.s that have been in the wrestling business for 20+ years, but instead they seek it from the controversial, polarizing, and toxic IWC aka Internet Wrestling Community. When many of these young wrestlers particularly indie wrestlers get positive feedback from The IWC, it makes many of them feel psychologically that the type of wrestling they’re doing is “wrestling”, but it’s not. This causes many of them to go out to the ring and do more overglorified crash and burn type stuff that in which not only the storytelling, chemistry, selling, and emotions don’t matter, but also greatly increases the chance of them getting injured or even paralyzed.
5. Takes Away The Unpredictable Element - One of the things that I missed about wrestling from back in the day was that you had no idea who was gonna win most of the matches on TV and PPV and when your favorite wrestler(s) win on TV or PPV, it felt special. Nowadays, the extreme influence of social media has taken away the unpredictable element of wrestling when wrestling media sites often report on which wrestlers would win a match and I absolutely hate that. Along with being boring, stale, and repetitive, WWE is the ultimate culprit of being as predictable as it has ever been. When polarizing women such as Shayna Bazler winning The Raw Women’s Elimination Chamber Match earlier this year or Sasha Banks winning her first Smackdown Women’s Title recently at Hell In A Cell, neither one of their victories felt special because we already knew exactly in advance who was going to win those matches.
The Conclusion - Not everything about social media is negative in regards to wrestling because it does have its positives like wrestlers using social media to further their feuds or fans, influencing promotions to sign certain wrestlers that they like, and bringing more attention and exposure to many other wrestlers and promotions.
By Kwame Shakir
