Cook: You Don’t Have To Like Everything
Steve Cook lets you know that every segment of every show isn’t meant to entertain you (specifically you).
I’ve been reading Internet wrestling columns for eighteen years now. I’ve been writing Internet wrestling columns of my own for thirteen. So much has changed during this period of time that it’s tough to keep track of it all, but one change stands out from the rest:
Writers are expected to like everything now.
Back when I started reading, the biggest names & most popular writers seemed to be the ones that complained the most. Scott Keith was never happy with any wrestling show. Rick Scaia was always talking about how his ideas were better than what any wrestling creative team could come up with. Chris Hyatte was always making fun of everybody associated with pro wrestling, from the wrestlers to his fellow Internet writers. Eric Szulczewski’s news columns were profanity-laced tirades against the world. Even CRZ, the most detailed wrestling show recapper I’ve ever seen, made sure you knew what wrestlers he couldn’t stand. I wouldn’t have read these people if I didn’t find them entertaining, and they were all entertaining complainers.
There’s a reason “smark” became a popular term. Sure, it’s a nice little combination of “smart” & “mark”, but it wouldn’t have caught on if most of the Internet’s biggest voices weren’t so darn snarky. Snarkiness was all the rage in the late-90s early 00s, and one of the main reasons I got into writing was to have an outlet for my own brand of humor & snark.
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At some point that all changed. As the 2000s bled into the 2010s, being snarky became less of a good thing. Readers didn’t want to read snark. They wanted to read about how everything in wrestling was awesome. And if you dared to poke fun at somebody, they would jump all over you with rage & fury. If you dared to not like everything on a wrestling show, you were worse than Satan himself.
I have a couple of theories on how this change happened. For one thing, the end of the Attitude Era & the deaths of WCW & ECW led to casual fans tuning out. Die-hard WWE fans were the only ones left watching pro wrestling by the mid-2000s. Sure, there were still some indy fans & puro fans hanging around, but much like the WWE fans, you didn’t dare insult their favorite wrestlers or their wrestling shows. The laid-back wrestling fans that didn’t take everything as a matter of life & death mostly moved on to watching other things. Only the true hardcores were watching Raw by 2003 when Hot Lesbian Action & Katie Vick were program staples.

And really, once you’d seen that, nothing on a wrestling show was going to be quite as terrible in comparison.
I also have to credit some of the change to positivity being the driving force behind IWC sentiment to many of my fellow writers, as they largely decided to look at the bright side of things instead of critically assessing shows. My good friends James Thomlison & JP Prag’s Hidden Highlights column was a good example, as was John Meehan’s weekly news column. Heck, I’ll admit that I’ve pulled some punches over the years, as the older I get the less I worry about every little bad thing on a wrestling show.
“It is what it is”, right?
Not always.
Sometimes you need to lash out. Sometimes a wrestling show is just so wretchedly bad that you have to let it be known. It’s built up for months as quality has deteriorated to the point where nothing of value is presented, and you just have to let it go. You can’t hold back.

WWE Battleground was one of those shows. Outside of the Usos/New Day match, the kickoff match & the popcorn match prior to the main event, everything on the show was pretty godawful. When AJ Styles & Kevin Owens have a bad match, Shinsuke Nakamura mails it in and Great Khali returning is one of the highlights of the show, you know it’s a pretty rough night. I don’t know what it is about SmackDown & July PPVs, but this was a fine addition to that lengthy run of Great American Bash shows in the 2000s that were all pretty terrible.
The apologists are out in full force though. “Oh, it wasn’t that bad!” “Stop comparing WWE to New Japan!” “Quit complaining!” “The show was fun, stop whining!” “Don’t hinder Jinder!”
My message to my fellow wrestling writers is quite simple: Don’t listen to these people.
Vince McMahon doesn’t listen to his audience, and he does pretty well for himself.
The most important tool any writer has is their own voice. If you think something was bad, even though you have a pretty good idea your audience is going to disagree with you, talk about how bad it was and why. You’re not there to rubber-stamp everything that happens on a wrestling show just because it’s wrestling and if you don’t like it you shouldn’t watch.
If you think Jinder Mahal is a crappy champion even after you’ve given him a chance, go ahead and say it. Don’t bend to the people who go “Awww, it’s all Randy Orton’s fault! Wait until Jinder wrestles somebody else! He’ll be good, honest! #DontHinderJinder”
I have no problem with people that honestly love everything. If that’s you, more power to you. But if you’re holding back because you don’t want to rock the boat, you’re wasting your time, and the time of people that want to read what you have to say because it’s your opinion. Even if they’re unhappy that you don’t think Jinder is the greatest choice for WWE Champion in July 2017, they’ll keep reading what you have to say as long as you’re somewhat interesting.
Just like how even if Jinder isn’t the greatest choice for WWE Champion, people will keep track of what’s going on during SmackDown Live as long as it’s interesting. I almost said “people will keep watching”, but apparently people don’t watch TV anymore. Or read.
And if they’re not reading, you better be ready to yell and scream about how bad wrestling shows were. That seems to be the next step.
