In the time between writing part 2 on the limits of fan outrage and this part, there have been no wrestling-related controversies. None whatsoever. It’s been a quiet few weeks … That was sarcasm.
Sometimes, due to difficulties with online media literacy or how our brains work with social media and phones, we miss the tone. It’s something that many fans missed or were deprived of seeing from a now-deleted tweet from Buddy Matthews where he blamed the smaller 18×18 ring for injuring his ankle at AEW Grand Slam. Plenty shared the screenshot but edited out Mathew’s follow-up comment: a picture of a troll doll.
The edit created misinformation and helped stir the discord pot a bit more. Some consider it a business practice failing or “scandal,” compared to the various moral failings or scandals that are still fresh in some fans’ minds in early 2025. It’s a perfect example of a wider issue of modern wrestling outrage.
Outrage can feel performative and can become a multi-purpose currency fans trade with, sometimes unknowingly. Throughout this series, I will not condone, defend, or attack sides. Wrestling discord reflects wider issues of online discord in Western culture and politics.
At times, it can be performative, like wrestling itself. There is a cottage industry of websites, influencers, and podcasters making money from hot-takes, wild opinions, and catering to an audience. But the binary nature of things creates issues. The discord elevates one side and puts down one side to another. It does, often unsaid, leave some ideological collateral damage. For example, Pro Wrestling Australia, whose 18×18 ring was the butt of various jokes.
Amplified
Whether something is controversial or not is sometimes subjective when it’s not linked to moral concerns. However, wrestling media sources and fans amplify this news or ideas into Discord, which can be weaponized. Some controversies help promote narratives and feel like PR and artificial. The PR war between WWE and AEW is real. In “AEW is under attack,” I outlined how and why this has truth, but also why it’s not a bullet-proof vest for AEW against criticism.
Issues become weaponized. Wrestlers use it to create buzz. Sometimes wrestling companies will try to make money from them. Fans, whether they are writing as themselves or a persona behind a username can gain dopamine from likes and reactions. Communication online removes tone, and sometimes, the attempt at jokes and trolling crosses lines or causes unseen damage. Misery can be two-way also.
It becomes a cycle where responses from all sides keep the wheel spinning.
The amplification of news can sometimes make trivial and subjective matters, like a promotion’s ring choice, seem equal or equitable to a moral controversy. Controversy can feel homogeneous when presented as equal in value to other outrages. In part 1, I highlighted the differences between perceived moral crimes of injustice and legal criminal offenses.
There are times when morality becomes a means of creating or reinforcing outrage. Reality is not as simple as some companies and wrestlers are faces, and some are heels. Yet sometimes reality cuts through the kayfabe.
Wrestling Performing Sorry
Wrestling is, after all, a performance.
Someone once said that the apology must be loud and as public as the disrespect. Both fans and wrestlers have shared dismay at the performative and false way they have felt Hulk Hogan and Tessa Blanchard tried to make private amends to their co-workers.
Fans booed Hulk Hogan on the Raw Netflix premiere. Some online reported the display filled them with joy. Others said they would do the same if Hogan appeared again. On the one hand, it suggests a wide condemnation for Hogan’s lack of apology or accountability for his past comments. A similar case study can be seen from TNA Genesis and recent Impacts where Tessa Blanchard received “she’s a racist” chants.
On the other, such statements are grey. Being part of a wrestling crowd brings a sense of collectiveness and unity. We might chant or shout in unison, but everyone still retains their reasoning, beliefs, motives, and morals.
One commenter on a Reddit thread wrote about attending a US indy show and seeing Blanchard perform while in “exile.” They serenaded her with chants of “You’re a racist.” They acknowledged some fans chanted in jest and for fun. Not everyone who chants does so to make a moral or political point.
Finally, Hogan or Blanchard are still on their respective companies’ payrolls. Hogan’s beer brand remains on the WWE canvas. Blanchard is still with TNA. Also, it appears most fans, attending and online, did not subsequently boycott either promotion.
But online, some have and do plant their flag on their chosen hill.
Online Performance
In some discord between fans of AEW, WWE, or the other companies associated or not with them, there can be, at times, blame, finger-pointing, and moralism. I’m not going to explore the specific trenches of either.
Some compare it to the political spectrum. It’s left vs. right. Right vs. wrong. Us vs. them. Yet the problem with this binary narrative of faces and heels, moral and immoral, is the suggestion of equality or equity.
It would also be wrong to say both “sides” are as bad or equal in their actions. There is some overlap, but there is inequity between both fandoms and each company. They are not equal, and to suggest so is to ignore nuance in favor of vague generalizations.
Some of which hold nuggets of truth. Yet not all that glistens is gold. Conversely, it’s easy for fans to slip into stereotypes and assumptions. It’s both easy and can be rewarding to please or agree with the tribe.
The problem of binaries is the inherent assumption of right and wrong. With controversy in wrestling between WWE and AEW, there are times when moralism becomes weaponized.
Last year, this happened with Stephanie Vaquer joining WWE and false rumors. Misogyny is still present with discord around Mercedes Mone. Another discussion, for example, comparing the treatment of black wrestlers in AEW and WWE, falls into the same paradoxical moral trap.
Talking about real-world problems as part of a game of “my company is better than yours” reduces human experiences of systemic issues to point scoring. People become chess pieces, and alleged discrimination moves them to play in a larger game of one-upmanship.
Intention to Action
Discussion of topics like systemic racism and misogyny are valid. Wrestling, like the rest of the world, is not immune. I’ve pointed out systematic issues in the treatment of women in WWE and AEW. The problem sometimes is spotting intention when social media can obscure it.
As Reni Eddo-Lodge, the author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, puts it: “Solidarity is nothing but self-satisfying if it is solely for performance.”
Numerous folks talking about these issues bring valid concerns, if not always articulated fully or even as a game. The problem is the follow-up, intent, and what gets done with that upset when everything can be so overblown. Performance makes it difficult to unite or act.
Sometimes it feels like reality is slipping into kayfabe.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
Header photo – AEW – Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
