*WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE, AND MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN*
At this point, most of us are used to people saying silly things on Twitter. Jeff O’Reilly, a freelance beer writer who is commonly featured in the Ottawa Metro called Montreal Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban a “Yard Ape” and later tried to claim he didn’t realize it was racist. Former child star Amanda Bynes has destroyed any of her girl next door charm on her Twitter by being constantly shallow and telling people how much she hates them. Jose Canseco has seemed completely crazy on his Twitter account and has now taken his time up to challenge Shaquelle O’Neal to a fist fight.
Professional wrestling has been no different really. Everyone knows about the Iron Sheik twitter account, which is really run by two alleged comedians. Austin Aries has been in hot water with some fans by being a “Truther” on the Boston Bombings. But even that pales in comparison to Ring of Honor World Champion Jay Briscoe’s comments on Twitter after the State of Delaware passed a new law allowing same sex marriage in Delaware.
Here were his two tweets:
“The Delaware Senate passed a bill yesterday that allows same sex couples to get married. If that makes you happy, then congratulations!!!!!”
“… try and teach my kids that there’s nothing wrong with that and I’ll f***ing shoot you.”
This isn’t exactly new from Briscoe. Back in 2011 he wrote, “”Damn there’s a lot of f**s out in New York today #WhatTheF***.” In other words, Briscoe has been a homophobe for a very long time and it really isn’t just a play on his gimmick. He has been a babyface for years now and is the babyface that finally brought the ROH World Title back to the company out of the clutches of SCUM. Clearly the Delaware comment caused a firestorm that eventually lead to the deletion of Jay Briscoe’s Twitter account, likely by him. ROH, 24 hours later, issued a statement that included:
“Jay Briscoe would like to again express his sincerest apologies and regrets to all, especially his young fans, for his recent hateful twitter comment. Ring of Honor has insisted that Jay also make a public apology at the Ring of Honor event this Saturday night. Jay will address the public during the event.”
ROH also linked to the website Partners Against Hate and stated that Briscoe will be donating his next full pay from the next two ROH events to the organization.
I decided to take a peek at what ROH fans were saying on the Facebook and it wasn’t pretty. First of all, this is not a freedom of speech issue. Jay Briscoe was promoting hate speech (“I will shoot you if you try to explain homosexuality as okay to my children”) and that is beyond the lines of free speech. He also works for ROH, meaning his comments reflect the company. Especially since he’s ROH World Champion. Without an apology, it’s basically saying, “Hey there, we’re Sinclair Broadcasting, home of Ring of Honor. Our World Champion is a homophobe and that’s okay.” If you’re a hockey fan you know how fast the NHL jumped on Sean Avery for merely saying, “sloppy seconds” and Avery was by no means the champion of the NHL. This is Sidney Crosby bashing gay marriage levels for the company. Well, for pro wrestling, it’s more like Mathieu Roy of the ECHL Florida Everblades bashing gay marriage. It’s still an issue.
I do commend ROH for answering this immediately and punishing Jay Briscoe for his comments. I thought the donation part was a little too much (whenever a celebrity gets foot in mouth disease and says they are going to donate to a charity for their words, I always feel like they are trying to buy their way out of guilt) but it will be interesting to see how long Jay stays ROH World Champion. What I anticipate is the public apology this Saturday. Ring of Honor has a reputation for two things: having passionate fans and having those fans turn on babyface World Champions.
If ROH fans turn on Jay Briscoe, it could ruin storylines where he’s the competitive world champion who just took a peg out of SCUM. But I don’t fear that. It would actually be a good way to shame him. What I fear is what I saw on the ROH Facebook. I fear them making it a disillusioned freedom of speech issue and cheering Jay Briscoe for bashing gay marriage. I fear them bucking the trend of booing World Champions and instead cheering this one for “saying how he felt” and appreciating his backwater homophobia. It will be a real test to see if ROH can get through this without having to alienate their fans, which they haven’t always been good at.
It’s hard enough for the pro wrestling industry to attract fans and hard enough for ROH to get viewers when they actually provide their show online and you can watch them any time after airing. Bad publicity is the worst thing they can have right now and bad publicity they cannot avoid would be ROH fans expressing their dislike for the company “walking all over” Jay Briscoe’s freedom of speech (which, again, hate speech does not apply and you do not have freedom of speech when working for a company). If I could make a plea to those who attend Ring of Honor and support the product, understand that even if you think Jay Briscoe is receiving a raw deal from speaking his mind, this could stain your company to the point of no return. Who is going to sponsor a company where the fans support homophobia?
As for Jay Briscoe, you’re of course welcome to your opinion but just understand you’re a dinosaur. Let’s hope your children do grow up to know that gay marriage is okay and do not repeat the mistakes of their father. And hopefully, you’re still alive to see them say you’re wrong.
Feel free to comment below, and follow me on twitter @lonerogue and the site @lastwordonsport.
photo credit: Anton Jackson via photopin cc
