THE RANT: Pro Wrestling Journalism - Its for the Love of the Game

Submitted By James Walsh on 08/20/08

An article was brought to my attention in the past few days which was written by a former member of the WrestlingEpicenter.com staff. In fact, it was my former partner on The Interactive Interview, Erik Clancy. In the article, Clancy takes entirely too much credit for the birth of this site. But, he also takes unfair shots at the entire Internet Wrestling Community. As a result, I feel I must offer my rebuttal. I first want to address the truths and lies about the creation of this web site. As you know, I have been around pro wrestling in some form or another since the dying days of WCW. It was then that I started helping moderate the WCW Live! chat room and began writing editorials for the show's site. After that, I started reporting news on a small scale and writing articles for another show, Chairshots. From there, I created my own show which morphed into a partnership with Daniel Edler. After 2 years of doing a show with Daniel, we decided we didn't like each other anymore in December of 2004. I carried on the name of the show with Erik Clancy starting in January of 2005. Erik was a friend of mine who was angling his way into doing the show with me for months. Daniel Edler always said he thought Clancy was a "two face". But, I liked him and as a result, he was the natural choice to continue the show. As Edler owned the web URL we were using at that time, we needed to create a new one. But, bodyslam.com and headlock.com just sounded too cartoonish for my taste. Together we agreed upon WrestlingEpicenter.com. In that sense, and perhaps in that sense only, his "fathering" of the web site has legitimacy. What is not noted in this article is who actually did the work. After all, it was my history that our site was being built off of. I received no help designing the original outlay of the site and only bitching when it came to the means of which I opted to exploit the content. I can take criticism... I welcome it! What I can't take is bitching without offering an alternative. "That sucks" might fly in 3rd grade but when you are a college graduate as we both are, it seems a little beneath us. It was I who created this site's content and decided it would be more than an outlet to listen to the classic interviews I've conducted through the years. I had help along the way in the form of Chuck D and we all know how that turned out... Suddenly a site I created was nudging me out of the way to fulfill some ego trip for someone else. But, when I got control back on this site, it has been all my wife and I in the rebuilding process. And, we have done a hell of a lot more to the site than Erik Clancy was ever involved in. Funny how everyone wants to take credit on their resume for the Hulk Hogan interview... Erik does and it is even listed on Chuck's resume which he sends out to radio stations. Without sounding like an egomaniac, it was me who scored that interview. People are welcome to take credit for it but it was my annoying the hell out of his management company with daily calls that got that interview. Let them use it if it is all they have to make their case with. We all know who really scored it anyway. I am getting off topic, I do apologise. The point of the article written by Clancy was not to take credit for this site, though he did a lot of that, and it also wasn't to bash it, though he did plenty of that as well. The point of his article was basically to piss, bitch, and moan about the entire Internet Wrestling Community. Smart thing to do when you're writing your article on the Internet, isn't it? In his article, Erik mocks every wrestling news site including this one. In his estimation, we are all uneducated 14 year olds with no clue what we're talking about and no inside source for news. Funny considering I'm older than Clancy, have a higher degree than he does, and a proven higher IQ. I will never deny my opposition to the Internet Wrestling Community's viewpoints. I don't agree with certain things they, as one, fall hopelessly in love with and I also don't agree with their barometer in regards to what is and what is not a good match or who is or is not a good wrestler. But, to mock every wrestling news site and every wrestling journalist sans a few is incredibly ignorant and one sided. When each of us wakes up in the morning, we all put our pants on one leg at a time. From that point onward, our similarities end. Some people go work in a toll both while others go work on computers all day. Some kiss their wife and others tell the hooker the money's on the dresser and to lock up on her way out. We all are different and we all take our different paths not only in life but each and every day. Therefore, I'm not the same as Mike Nagel nor is he the same as me. Ryan Clark and I are two entirely different people as is Andy Stevens and Ryan Clark. And, if you didn't know, Dave Scherer starts out his day putting his pants on one leg at a time also. The difference between wrestlingepicenter.com and PWInsider.com are drastic. I will not blast their site as they do great things for professional wrestling. However, they are guilty of everything the Internet media is blamed for doing by people like Erik Clancy. Believe it or not, they often have typos and grammatical errors. With the amount they bring to the table, they're bound to! After all, to error is human. PWinsider also expresses their personal viewpoints as fact. Don't believe me? Ask any member of that staff to explain why in a "Greatest of All Time" contest, Bret Hart defeated Ric Flair in their poll handily. Their favorite wrestler is clearly Ric Flair. And, they will defend him to the death... Just like I will do for Hulk Hogan. Just like the mainstream media, you need to select your choices. No source is better or worse than the other because that is an opinion and not a definable fact. CNN has a liberal spin so some might like that while FOX has a more conservative viewpoint. MSNBC has ratings that are defined by the occasional show of hands and CSPAN is designed to put people to sleep... Not snoring sleep, it actually bores them to death like a lethal injection. So, if Ric Flair was liberal which I know he is not, PWInsider would be CNN. If Hulk Hogan was conservative, WrestlingEpicenter.com would be FOX News. And the sites that claim to have pictures of Linda and Stephanie McMahon making out are the tabloid newspapers that most of us consider total crap though some argue is the finest investigative journalism out there. None of us are better than the other. It is all a matter of perspective. To say "everyone" is one thing or another is not fair. But, one thing is for sure, anyone who can make that kind of generalization must surely know everyone he is referring to personally and really have done some investigative research to come to that conclusion. If they didn't, they must just be talking out their ass. An article must have been bad if I felt I needed todefend the IWC over it. But, I am covering my own ass as well as others. I am standing up for each end every owner of a web site out there that was basically called a piece of shit. We all work hard. I respect everyone's efforts. And, we all strive to be the best. If someone doesn't like what we do, they probably should just shut their mouths and go elsewhere. :: DISCUSS THIS POST ON THE FORUMS! :: SEE MICKIE JAMES & THE DIVAS NUDE! :: BUY WRESTLING DVD'S THROUGH OUR STORE! :: GO BACK TO THE HOME PAGE WRESTLING EPICENTER STORE IS OPEN! THE HOTTEST WRESTLING DVD'S ARE NOW AVAILABLE! 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