Victors, Spoiled

WARNING! YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A WRESTLING NERD DISCUSSION. PLEASE KEEP EYES AND EARS INSIDE OF KAYFABE AT ALL TIMES Sorry for doubling up on the nerddom, but it’s a strange world we live in now that the Authority are gone. It’s mass hysteria, cats and dogs living together, all that. But it felt important to spend some time talking about the problems with people not understanding the difference between “being a bully” and “giving the heels their comeuppance”. To wit: there was massive complaining on the internet — or should I say Wrestling Twitter — by some writers your correspondent respects a great deal, and also, presumably, Brandon Stroud (it’s hard to tell, as that insane fanboy shitstorm has thankfully been muted by the power of user settings) regarding the supposed vindictiveness of Daniel Bryan. Here’s a thing: sometimes bad guys deserve to be punished for what they do.

And when the punishments are “work with two of the best workers in a handicap match where you have the advantage”, “pledge allegiance to a country you’ve spent the last year bad mouthing despite making your living there”, “work the concession stand”, “be in a match with someone” and “be in a title match with someone”, there really isn’t much to complain about. If anything, their punishments — especially Seth Rollins’ — probably should have been more severe considering what the Authority has kayfabe done to everyone else in the company. They’ve ruined lives, nearly ended careers, and stolen titles, and we should somehow interpret “having to do your job”/”deal with getting ribbed”/”getting demoted from a position of power after abusing said power” as anything other than the righteous bend of the Universe?

They — meaning Daniel Bryan as an avatar for the aggrieved — didn’t even put them in a situation that could have been really called “dangerous” or really even “unfair”, in fact, they didn’t even give someone a task that was outside of their job description. Now, if you want to say “hey, maybe force feeding American patriotism down the throats of a “foreigner” when America is at the same exact moment showing how pockets of it (like certain municipalities in Missouri, para exemplo) can be the absolute worst”, sure, that’s a sentiment that has some legs and some logic. But it doesn’t mean that Rusev — and it’s important to underline here just how much I love Rusev AND also believe that he has mostly been a face over the past few months — doesn’t deserve to be embarrassed publicly for the things he’s said about his adopted country. If someone says something stupid or worse, racist and/or  sexist, we flog them publicly.

Why should Rusev be treated any differently for the intentionally offensive things they say on television? Or should we just not have feud blowoffs anymore?

And finally, for those asking “what are Vince McMahon’s motivations?!”: they are to give his daughter and son-in-law a chance to overcome the same kind of adversity that he feels made him into the business man the way he is. You know how I know this? BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT HE FUCKING SAID! ARE WE A NATION OF SIX-YEAR-OLDS? WARNING! YOU ARE NOW EXITING A WRESTLING NERD DISCUSSION ZONE. PLEASE KEEP EYES AND EARS INSIDE OF KAYFABE AT ALL TIMES

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