Social media, and in particular Twitter, is one of the most powerful tools modern day wrestlers have at their disposal.
It gives them the power to connect with fans, companies, and each other in ways that just weren’t possible for the previous generation of stars. As this is a two-way street, there are sadly some who use this unprecedented access to spread their toxic attitudes and ruin the experience for everyone.
Just recently the current WWE Universal Champion, Seth Rollins, took a leave of absence from Twitter after receiving a storm of hate from so-called fans. Death threats, comments about his relationship with Becky Lynch, and many more uncalled for tirades came his way forcing him to go dark on the site for a brief period. Simply put, this shouldn’t be allowed to happen. We live in an age where everyone has a voice but not everyone deserves one. Instances such as this call to light the callous nature of some individuals and it doesn’t start and end with Rollins either.
There is a worryingly popular trend of people, typically young males, becoming obsessed with the female wrestlers to the point where they are essentially stalking them through social media. If you click on any number of Alexa Bliss’ posts, you will nearly immediately see this in action. Nestled between the supportive fans and inspired young women are the creeps who exist only to objectify these women.
One might be inclined to brush this off and tell those targeted to simply not read the messages, but what if this behaviour goes unchecked and bleeds into the real world? It wasn’t all that long ago that a man was shot by police outside of the Performance Centre in Orlando due to his threatening behaviour. These types of people grow bolder the longer things continue and so it’s entirely plausible that such a thing could happen again. Beyond that, though, you have to think about the mental health of the victims.
Bliss has been very frank about her battle with an eating disorder and whilst she is thankfully in a good place today it is still concerning to think that others who aren’t as well equipped to deal with the unwanted attention may find themselves spiralling because of it.
It isn’t just nameless fans who are causing these problems either as supposed journalists can also contribute to the epidemic. One recent example that was beautifully highlighted on the WWE Network’s Sasha Banks Special was the damage caused by baseless accusations thrown out by Ryan Satin. Whether or not he intended to spread falsehoods is up for debate, but the fact is that he did just that by not bothering to fact check the news he was being fed.
The desperation for a scoop and some semblance of relevancy led to him defaming a person and causing her mental turmoil. This carelessness isn’t unique to Satin either as the likes of Brad Shepard also revel in outright lying to their audience in an attempt to gain clicks. What seems to be forgotten in all of this is that each of these wrestlers are people first and foremost. They have feelings; they hurt just like anyone else.
It is irresponsible and deeply unprofessional for those who brand themselves as members of the media to lead witch hunts and disseminate fake news all to raise their own profile. This is undoubtedly the worst aspect of wrestling social media as, unlike with other types of toxicity, this frequently makes headlines and is swallowed up hook, line, and sinker by all manner of readers.
Beyond even these journalists there is another type of toxic person involved in wrestling’s social media circus – the wrestlers themselves.
Sometimes they can be forgiven for questionable posts as they are quite clearly just an extension of their on-screen persona. When Baron Corbin boasts about his admittedly very cool cars or The Revival talk of how much money they make, it is done to build a little more heel heat and keep that consistency in their character going across all public forums. This is okay. What is not okay is when someone like Corey Graves uses his platform to bully fans.
It was earlier this year when Graves went on a rant about his views when it comes to raising children amongst other topics. This isn’t an inherently bad thing to do at all, but the fact that he seemed to be quite strongly advocating for bullying youngsters in order to toughen them up is. He boasted about how his kids were tougher than other people’s, how he held beliefs about “motivation” and “coaching” that are now considered as bullying, and how about how he was raised that way and turned out just fine.
No, Corey, you didn’t.
The man may be extremely talented at his job but this insight into his real-life personality showed that he is not the type most would want to leave their kids with.
The real issue is that when someone of his status speaks in this manner it emboldens other toxic people with similar beliefs. Possibly without meaning to, Graves could have made a child’s life that much worse just by telling their abusive parent that their behaviour is okay. This may seem like an extreme example, but we already know that these types of people emulate their idols and use such things as justification for their actions. The fact that he works for a company that champions the Be A Star campaign just makes this an even worse look.
It can seem like these insidious cretins are coming at you from all sides every time you log in to social media. These few examples go to show how pervasive toxic mindsets are in the wrestling world. There is something that you can do though. For every nasty tweet, lying news story, or sexually harassing comment, leave a positive one.
Do something that makes this weird world we’ve chosen to exist in that little bit better. It could be as simple as complimenting a fellow fan, thanking a wrestler for entertaining you, or whatever else you choose to do to bring a smile to someone’s face. It isn’t hard to be a good person, on or off of social media, it’s just more people need to actively do it to clean up this group.
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You can find the author of this article on Twitter @Impers0nalJesus. Thanks for reading!