To say that professional wrestling is an exciting form of entertainment would be an understatement. This year alone, fans of WWE and Elite Wrestling have witnessed a Samoan family mafia civil war, a bizarre and horrifying villainous faction uprising, a gothic cuckold revenge drama, and a toxic yakuza that formed within the square. Where romance turns into fierce competition. Indeed, professional wrestling is a gymnastics redneck animated soap opera, and it’s beautiful. What’s less fascinating is how the parasocial relationship between wrestlers and fans can lead to unhealthy tribalism.
There has long been an ebb and flow between wrestling companies, and when one company fails to deliver, another one steps up to pick up the slack, and WWE and AEW are no exception. American Professional Wrestling—Under the guidance of Paul “Triple H” Levesque— Focused on long-term booking, wrestlers like Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins made their scripted feuds dramatic with the death-defying moves they performed in the ring. Meanwhile, its rival AEW exists as an alternative to WWE, with Maxwell Jacob Fredman, Will Ospsrey and Sverve Street The athleticism and work rate of young talent like Swerve Strickland have taken center stage in the monologue-style invective that has plagued WWE. WWE in the era of disgraced former CEO Vince McMahon.
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But if you ask wrestling fans what they think of each other, they’ll unleash a tirade of abuse, calling WWE “the Feds” and AEW “all friendly wrestling.” While this Chicago Cubs-White Sox-style crosstown rivalry was initially sparked by public takeovers by two companies kafabe-break in attacking each other in various television segments. and Backstage interview Rather than playful jabs, it consists of poisonous banter in an effort to attract viewers.
Having lurked in the wrestling world online and attended multiple AEW events in Chicago, I witnessed fans needlessly trashing each other. This usually manifests itself in fans heckling AEW shows by chanting CM Punk’s name – a chant that was once reserved for WWE events whenever they didn’t like whatever was going on inside the ring – mocking each other about the size of the crowd, or Harassing wrestlers like Ricky Starks because they have friends who work in WWE thinking he will jump ship. In lively discussions and readings “dirt sheets“Forever a part of the wrestling fan base, it’s just weird behavior to have an unhealthy parasocial relationship with their talent – especially when those are the exact same wrestlers. have no feelings for each other.
Fans are angry about the battle lines between AEW and WWE, but ignore the benefits of the symbiotic relationship between the two companies. In fact, WWE and AEW wrestlers are ecstatic about the existence of competitive promotions like AEW because it means laid-off wrestlers or talents who never made it big, like Malakai Black or I Ethan Page will not lose his job after leaving the company. Likewise, the two companies borrowed lessons from each other to improve their presentations. For example, WWE has recently taken advantage of AEW’s crowd-working technology, allowing wrestlers like Sami Zayn to walk into shows as cold openers, as Jon Moxley did during his entrance as done when. Likewise, AEW drew inspiration from the dramatic love triangle between Dominik Mysterio, Rhea Ripley, and Liv Morgan to shape Angle between Toni Storm, Mariah May and Mina Shirakawa.
AEW wrestler Maxwell Jacob Friedman said in a statement: “There’s this weird thing going on in professional wrestling right now, and I see fans online interacting with each other. Way, like total war. Town Hall Interview Busted Open. “Just so you know, that’s not what happens with wrestlers. We all support each other because literally, the better both companies do, the more money we make. So stop arguing. We all have fun Very happy.
There is no doubt that professional wrestling is greater than ever. However, tribalism masquerading as unbridled support can do more harm than good to the craft. This is the equivalent of someone saying they like pancakes but saying they hate waffles. You can have two cakes, just like you can have two wrestling companies sharing the same space. Whether you have the time to spend 12 hours a week watching both shows is another matter.
