The Blame Game
The wrestling community was given very little time to mourn the loss of Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit, and Daniel Benoit. Finger pointing started within minutes of the news breaking.
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Media vs Wrestling Industry
As usual, the media points the finger at the wrestling industry whenever someone dies at an early age.
Professional wrestling has always carried a stigma from the general public.
Tell someone you're a fan of wrestling, and you'll encounter someone ridiculing you for enjoying something fake. Don't know about you, but I really don't think Ross, Chandler, Joey, Monica, Phoebe and Rachel exists in the real world. Nor do I think they've ever run into George, Jerry, Elaine, or Kramer.
Whenever professional wrestling is mentioned, several members of the media view it as an opportunity to follow the pack and bash the industry.
While it's true that there's an alarming rate of wrestlers dying before their time, it isn't necessarily a collective problem within the industry.
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The men and women of wrestling may share a profession, but they don't share the same mind and will. Some choose to live a certain way, and do certain things to harm their bodies. Others don't.
It's pretty easy for any reporter to gather up a list of wrestlers who have passed away before their time. It's actually a pretty big list that's quite disturbing for most wrestling fans to read. However, within every list, there are exceptions to the rule.
Several of the lists that have been utilized this past week have included a wrestler named Rick Williams, who was known as the Renegade in WCW. Rick Williams committed suicide because he was having difficulties dealing with failure and other issues in life. God bless his soul, but you can't put the fault on the wrestling industry for his tragic ending.
Also, it has been convenient to forget that plenty of musicians, actors, athletes, and other entertainers die each year from substance abuse and suicide.
Fans vs Fans
Confrontation also occurs from within as fans are arguing amongst one another on the Chris Benoit situation.
We recently made some negative comments towards Raw diva Jillian Hall for negative comments she made about Chris Benoit.
Apprently, emotions have caused our message to be misunderstood.
Several readers have written to us telling us how disappointed they are that we chose to bash Jillian Hall for speaking her mind.
That's not the case at all. We're not bashing th message itself. We're bashing the timing of the message. Test results are not conclusive at this time. The case has not yet been officially closed. We felt it's too soon for those types of comments.
We also had readers writing in to us saying that our website was "supporting a killer". Once again, we've been misunderstood.
What we support is the right of every individual to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Like a lot of the wrestlers have been telling their fans, we believe people should wait until further evidence is given. We should also not let this situation consume us.
Eric Bischoff said it just right. God bless Nancy Benoit and Daniel Benoit. God forgive Chris Benoit. |
