By Will Pruett, ProWrestling.net Co-Senior Staffer (@itswilltime)
Leading into WrestleMania this year, I wrote an entire series of blogs about WrestleMania main events. I watched them. I ranked them. I stared deep into my own soul wondering why Sid had to be on that list twice (both in Justice and Sycho variants). I felt like this was a fun project that could lead to me publishing new entires in the WrestleMania main event rankings annually. I was excited about WrestleMania and looking forward to watching. Then my mind changed.
For a long time I have wondered about the morality of watching WWE. I have thought about how disappointing it is that this company has deep ties with Donald Trump. I stopped watching WWE for the first time since 1997 during the Performance Center and ThunderDome days of 2020 – both because of the horrible product and some questionable health practices. When fans could attend shows again, I came back.
I still wondered about the morality of watching WWE, but chose to use the cop-out of saying there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, because the shows I did watch (you could not pay me to watch WWE weekly TV) were pretty fun. Sometimes I would see something transcendent happen in front of me and reaffirm my desire to keep watching. WWE seemed to know when to dangle that carrot of joy in front of long-suffering wrestling fans and keep them engaged.
Then came the deluge of scandals involving Vince McMahon, which currently see him and WWE accused of sex trafficking. To be quite honest, this should have been the end of viewing WWE for me. I knew this product was made by immoral people and to the tastes of one man. Even when Vince McMahon stepped down the first time, his fingerprints were all over WWE and the merger of WWE and UFC into TKO was plotted out as a way to return Vince McMahon to power. Watching WWE at any point after McMahon’s misdeeds became clear was a mistake.
And yet I watched. I did this knowing it was wrong, because I could pretend the people who were complicit in allowing these alleged these misdeeds were gone. (I believe they are not.) I watched WWE’s shows get more interesting with better storytelling. I watched and was enthusiastic about it at times. The jarring difference of WWE reaching a creative high point and a moral low point was not lost on me.
Then came a few moments this year that caused me to walk away from WWE for the last time.
The first was the announcement of the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia next year. I have been able to ignore WWE’s Saudi shows for a long time. They seemed to exist in an extra-canonical universe where people still wanted to see Undertaker wrestle and Goldberg was interesting. It was easy to make sure I was not watching these. However, the shows have become more essential to WWE’s overall product (particularly with a reduced number of premium live events). This will continue next year, when the best event WWE creates every year, the Royal Rumble, will be used for sports-washing propaganda purposes.
What’s the point of watching WWE when you plan to skip the Royal Rumble? There is not one.
That’s just the first choice in a long line of them – WWE then spent the week before WrestleMania this year sending their major stars out to endorse Donald Trump and proclaim love for its disgraced former chairman and CEO. Even Paul Levesque, a man promoted as the leader of WWE in this “new era” admired Trump during WrestleMania week. While I never bought into WWE’s “we just don’t do politics” spin, this year they even blew that up. WWE’s normal WrestleMania media blitz seemed to be producing story after story about WWE endorsing encroaching fascism in America.
I did not watch WrestleMania 41. That was the breaking point for me and the moment I decided I would write this one day. I had watched 40 editions of the show and could not bring myself to watch another. It’s been a couple of months since then and WWE has just gotten worse.
Even as they clearly dominate the wrestling space and are in no danger of losing their top position, they continues to counter-program AEW in a clear effort to keep a second major wrestling company in the United States from existing.
Just in the last month, WWE sent some top stars to appear at what essentially felt like it became a Donald Trump rally with pre-screened soldiers giving the President his desired responses. It’s impossible for me to separate WWE’s close ties with Donald Trump anymore and it’s impossible for me to see watching WWE as anything but being complicit with these national policies that are ripping families and communities apart in my own town.
For a long time, I made peace with WWE being a bad company with watchable shows I enjoyed. I did The Good Place-esque (perfect TV show, by the way) point calculations to think of how to offset my enjoyment of and spending on WWE. I decided to just not watch the shows I considered wrong while still watching the rest. I cannot do this anymore.
WWE has crossed the line from immoral but watchable to unjustifiable. After I wrote that series about WrestleMania main events, I felt horrible. Did I unintentionally push people towards viewing an immoral product? Was I essentially writing a puff piece blog series promoting a show? While that was not my intention, I worried I had done so.
I am not going to close this out by telling you what to watch. That would be pointless. Watch what you want. Maybe you don’t even see moral tradeoffs in watching or supporting WWE. I am going to tell you that I had watched WWE with almost no breaks since 1997, living through such hits as the Raw Guest Host era, Triple H’s awful never-ending title reigns in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, and The Fiend.
Today there has never been a better time to be a non-WWE wrestling fan. There is a second national touring wrestling show. There is ready and available access to international promotions. You can replace the WWE-sized hole in your wrestling diet. And, if you’re like me, you will feel better about doing so.
Will Pruett writes about wrestling and popular culture at prowrestling.net. To see his video content subscribe to his YouTube channel. To contact, check him out on Bluesky @itswilltime, leave a comment, or email him at itswilltime@gmail.com.
This is going to get the usual foaming-at-the-mouth posters on here really raging! I agree with almost everything you say, but would add it really is a shame that AEW (or Tony Khan) has shown so little interest in making his product a little more accessible to non-hardcore fans. That would make them a genuine alternative, the sickos will always have something to watch.
I would disagree on AEW being a genuine alternative and ask what you think fans would not get were they to watch Dynamite for a week or two. I think we (hardcore wrestling people) tend to think wrestling needs to be over-simplified for folks just tuning in.
I wouldn’t call AEW’s product or outreach to people perfect, but they have come a LONG way.
You can be an American or you can be a modern democrat… you are not both. Progressives are terminal cancer for civilization. Everything they touch disintegrates.
“I put up with sex trafficking, but I draw the line at people being nice to the elected president who most Americans think is doing a good job.”
You are a clown. Trump is the best president of any of our lifetimes.
By your logic, one should never correct one’s own actions. If I allow something in the past, I must always allow it? I’m not supposed to grow, change, or learn? We grow and learn one step at a time. You can’t eat an elephant all at once.
Sir there is no alternative to WWE. TNA is just WWE lite.
Meanwhile AEW is so badly booked that it is impossible to watch.
So we wrestling fans will continue watching WWE since no alternative exists worth watching.
I watch dynamite every couple of months, because I would genuinely like an alternative. The last time was last month.
Everytime I give it a chance it is just booked so sloppily I give up immediately.
So I now have AEW on my list of never watch.
100%. No disagreement here. Supporting a company with a few fkheads affecting a couple of lives in their close sphere is one thing. Supporting a company that is closely aligning itself with someone who would wear a black shirt if they could and affects millions? Line crossed.
Will, Where do you draw the line with this, what about TV/Movie Stars? What about the the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the items in your place, your car. I did not vote for “Trump”, but if you or anyone (Myself included), don’t like a product we have the power to ignore it, but standing on a soap box about a Wrestling company that is own by and run by a Jewish man, who sees no issue in taking Saudia Money, who if you forget his brother “Rahm” was the Chief of Staff for Obama and Ari is a lifelong Democrat. You are free to post any soapbox letter on here, but the fact it brothers you so much to write a blog about it, is kind of sad. as a liberal, I have no issues with anyone’s political beliefs, not HHH, The Undertaker, Batista, Daniel Bryan or anyone else. That’s what a Liberal is, what you are blogging about is Illiberal….Food for thought!!
Hi friend. I think I was pretty clear with both where I draw the line and where I believe I should have drawn the line in the written piece. I’d argue this is beyond generic evil and into specific levels of feeling bad about the entire enterprise of WWE.
As for why I wrote this, I have written about wrestling and WWE in this space since 2011. I have a long history here and folks who frequently read what I write. I felt like this week, as a Saudi Arabia show coming up, was the right time to publish these thoughts.
Will, That was a high level non-response. The reason I am responding to your blog is on a wrestling website (TY Jason), and when veer off of wrestling in Politics, and give a single POV (Right or Wrong), you open yourself up to feedback. The feedback I was giving is that do you boycott cloth maker for using slave labor? Do you boycott TV Makers, Smart phone makers, EV cars, etc for using child slave labor for rare earth minerals, is the computer,tablet, laptop or smart phone you wrote this blog on, are you boycotting them? Or is this just a political vent to make yourself feel virtuous. This is the issue when you bring outside divisive topic into a wrestling/entertainment website, there is no end game because we all have are views and other than affirmation and to feel better about ones self, when you go to political websites the last thing you see them talking about is WWE/AEW, you don’t see them discussing if the Death Riders are running on fumes or if Ron Killings is better as R-Truth. As a former staff member to a very well know liberal member of congress and currently a lobbyist, it is best for everyone to not put down, degrade the person on the other side of the aisle as nothing and trust me no matter how much you disagree with the person on the other side of the aisle, that person is far more in line with you then someone in another country. We see on TV each party ripping each other apart and then 3 hours later they are having drinks together at The Palm, The Monocle, Charlie Palmer etc, how do I know, I would arrange them. My point is see how far off the subject of wrestling it is! This is Jason’s website and I applaud him for allowing a lot more than other sites, but the site is call prowrestling.net for a reason, just my 2 cents
Yep, back when I worked for a constitutional law firm, we would host lunch for Scalia and Ginsburg on a semi-regular basis. SCOTUS, congress, pundits, and even Capitol Hill staffers are almost all friendly. They openly laugh at the idiots on either side of the aisle that get riled up and turn it into some sort of litmus test.
Will is exactly the kind of self-righteous, deluded prick they rely on to keep the machine running.
Word. Thumbs
Thumbs *up.
Holy run-on sentences, Batman. Stop and take a breath for your health.
For some reason on my phone it was spaced, but when I look at it after it posted it was a massive run on sentence, lol
I agree, Will is the illest liberal. I saw him do a kickflip once.
Legit question because I don’t know enough on the topic to know the answer
When WWE first ran in SA women were not allowed to participate. Then they could but basically wrestled in massive shirts. Now they wear more normal attire (although with no skin showing). Does this illustrate progress and does WWE get any credit for being part of that progress?
I’m not in favor of censorship or oppression but I also respect that other countries do have different beliefs and traditions. I also believe that countries, like people, can change. But change is usually slow.
If you remember, the original Evolution show in 2018 was actually a response to women not being allowed on the Saudi Arabia blood money shows. Eventually they started putting women on those shows in heavily modified versions of their ring gear.
This does not change the overall point of the Saudi shows, which are there to help Saudi Arabia launder its image. WWE is making propaganda for a murderous regime. I don’t see a reason to credit them for progress here.
Well when Put it that way it’s hard to argue. Whatever led to the original Evolution show should be criticized!!
Wouldn’t wrestling in nearly any country be contributing to a a murderous regime? Major, major tax money is paid to the US government, right?
If I stopped watching something because of “bad people” working there I literally couldn’t watch anything. There’s bad people and people you don’t agree with in literally every walk of life including wrestling. Not every wrestler is a bad person. Not every person who works for WWE is a bad person. There’s probably a Not great person who writes for this very site. Won’t change shit for me. I’ll continue to watch and read whatever the hell I like and not worry about there being something I don’t agree with happening because..who cares. I’m not perfect and either is anyone else
Allen,
I agree, that’s one thing I enjoy about Jason’s site, agree or disagree with someone you are allowed (Within reason) to voice your opinion.
I wish people could try and enjoy a wrestling website, and check the rest of the world at the “door”, WWE has had people from all over the spectrum of politics on their shows, and if we allow ourselves to cut off something we enjoy because say PeeWee Herman was a guest host, for what he did in a public theater, Al Sharpton (Guest Host) for his transgressions, Jesse Jackson (Guest Host) Donald Trump (WM), Barack Obama for his video promos.
I can keep going but most reasonable people will (No pun intended) change the channel during a segment if they don’t like a certain person, angle, etc, but to if your mind is so cluttered will disgust and rage, that’s a person/s who has been in a bubble, subscribes to group think culture and purity test.
Some of by best friends are bible southern baptist, and guess what we focus on what we have in common vs focusing on what we disagree on. Anyone who thinks different on a view you hold true is not your enemy, it’s just a different POV. That’s what true liberalism is, not if you don’t agree with my “Pure Tribal views” you a blank, blank, blank. That is Illiberal-ism. Feel free Will to jump in anytime and counter my liberal views, since I am assuming you are a liberal in kind.
Hi James, you have a certain eagerness to debate with me that is not shared by me. I said what I wanted to in the piece I wrote and further elaborated for you. I am not an on-demand argument machine or someone who is going to go post-for-post with you. That’s not why I wrote this.
I will quickly defend writing about politics on a wrestling site by saying that all art is political and this has always been true. Writing about the art of professional wrestling (not the podcast) here is something I have done for a long time. I will continue to respect pro wrestling by treating it like I do theatre and classical music. I have spent my life studying and working in the arts.
For a blog you seem to have not enjoyed, you have engaged with it a ton. It looks like we disagree here, but you seem to be having fun talking about it. Enjoy!
I’ve been an avid follower of Prowrestling.net since around 2010-11. I want to say I started watching wrestling again right before Swagger won the mitb briefcase (for reference.) I realize the relevance of that is minimal at best, but I would just like to say that in that time, I’ve always appreciated the pieces put out by Powell, Shore, Pruett, and everyone else over the years. This post changes none of that.
The man gave his reasoning, which is his alone to give, and is his right. You are allowed to feel however you want to feel about it. The piece was meant to evoke, and bring on a discussion. It becomes much less of a discussion when half of the comments seem to boil down to “you’re stupid and weak and should feel that way.”
I’m not going to sit here and white knight someone, nor am I going to act like a beacon of morality (I’ll literally watch pretty much anything) but guys, do you really have to devolve to what everyone imagines wrestling fans are? Nuance my friends. Nuance.
At least take the time to form a full thought, that’s all I’m saying.
You’re quite kind. Thanks for the nice words! And thanks for reading for a long time!
Thanks, Dal. Great post.
Well said, Will. I’m glad you are following your conscience.
Such statements matter. Such actions matter.
You’re damned if you do under capitalism, as the machine chases greed at the cost of everything, from human lives, to labor rights, to very air and water we need to survive. Things need fixing, and starting somewhere is better than staying complicit. The Matt Bors cartoon summed it up.
https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/
Yeah – I might have different feeling on it all if WWE didn’t seem to be loudly endorsing my neighbors being torn from their homes and communities while we’re terrorized by violent militarized police. But here we are. Not watching WWE is the literal least I could do, but watching feels wrong when watching means supporting that.
So ur not going to watch wrestling cause of trump. Wow I wouldn’t do or do something because of someone else thats what weak minded weak men do. Complain waaa waaa cry me a river pal
“So ur not going to watch wrestling cause of trump.”
Yep. Pretty much! Thank you for reading and engaging with my content.
Will,
I haven’t seen your reply to my last post…..
He probably won’t. The people on this site are quite sensitive. Jason got upset because I joked about one of his many many mistakes. It was a joke
You’re leaving out the part where you took my over the top response seriously, but whatever.
Nice virtue signaling! 10/10!
I know you don’t really want to engage and would rather troll – but I would like to note that having virtues and living by them is not a bad thing. Not everything in life cynical. It is okay to believe in something and stand by it.
Will,
So do you want to engage or just make your statement? It couldn’t be you don’t want to engage with a true liberal who deals/works in this every single day the issue you speak about!
It couldn’t be you as a blogger thought you could come onto a wrestling website to oppose your views and thought you would either make yourself feel virtuous, have your views affirmed, but when someone doesn’t insult you and ask you to counter an opposite viewpoint of yours and they aren’t “Trumpers, White Nationalist”, etc. You no longer want to engage especially when it is someone who is on “Your” side of the aisle.
The last thing I ever thought I would do is talk shop on a wrestling website, Jason can easily verify this, I never comment on these boards, but visit almost daily. I am sorry Will but this self aggrandizing, is exactly what “Trumpers” dislike about “Our” side, we get on our soapbox and when challenge we name call, distract, change the subject or say “I said, what I said”. Do better, my friend!
Exactly what I thought would happen, challenged on his ideas, and since he can’t throw out triggered buzz words, he goes silent. POINT PROVEN!!!! Now we can get back to what this is a wrestling news site and stop with the virtual signaling, you’re out of your depth when talking to someone who works in DC and lives this.