The Unbelievable Truth Behind Wrestling Fan TRIBALISM
Tribalism is awful to begin with. It is even dumber in the AEW Vs. WWE war.
It's everywhere. Like refuse and faeces, it's everywhere, and you can't escape the stench.
Tribalism in pro wrestling is out of control. Preference is inevitable. You can't possibly enjoy every motion picture ever made, every studio album ever released, every novel ever written. That isn't possible. You are hard-coded as a human being to prefer some things to others. To deny that, to "just enjoy wrestling", is absurd. On the other side of that extreme is promotional tribalism: this equally preposterous idea that a wrestling promotion is so irredeemably bad that no good can come of it. Even WCW in 1999 had Blitzkrieg. Even 2019 WWE had Planet's Champion Daniel Bryan.
AEW by express design has attempted to avoid this, which is heavily ironic. You could make the argument that, if you've ever liked anything about pro wrestling, it's impossible to outright hate the promotion. You might despise and cringe profoundly at the Elite's spot-heavy melodrama and tales of fwiendship, but Bryan Danielson once worked Timothy Thatcher, so there's that. WWE is different, in that you have to like the general WWEness of it all to truly connect with the product, but come on. They've got GUNTHER and they let him be GUNTHER. Charlotte Flair Vs. Rhea Ripley at this year's WrestleMania was a unifying, brutal match that was surely impossible to hate.
Beyond some egregious use of NXT Face, it was just wonderful, snug, big-time pro wrestling. Some people who hate WWE in and of itself with an undying zeal hated it because that's just how it goes.
Why?
Why are some people so anti?
WWE was antagonistic at its very worst and hasn't been a nice company historically. That might have something to do with it, but it's wrestling. It's a gross industry in general. WWE conditioned its audience for years and years that it was the "recognised global leader in sports entertainment". It was clever and very effective marketing, clearly.
These people seem like they are nasty toxic losers who ruin everything with their horrific vibe, but they can't be fulfilled. Perhaps they use wrestling as an escape they desperately need, for reasons nobody knows that might have serious mental health implications. Maybe an element of pity should exist.
It isn't going away. Every single day, some dismal conversation or other dominates the online wrestling space. Every single day, you wonder why you involve yourself in it, even passively.
Contrary to the introduction, perhaps you can enjoy AEW and WWE at the same time, and the irony is that, if you fused the sensibilities of Tony Khan and Triple H, one incredible wrestling booker would be spliced together.
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