Wrestler-fan interaction 30 years ago is worlds apart from how it is today. Social media has blurred the lines and allowed fans to have direct access to superstars who otherwise they would have to buy a ticket to boo, cheer, insult or hug. Today, any fan can sit at their computer and tweet at a celebrity, hoping to get a response. This has its benefits, but it also has to be hard on wrestlers, many of whom try to keep at least some semblance of their onscreen character going on social media (again, that gets blurred with reality too). What results is fans tweeting at the person but criticizing the character (sounds confusing), and that has to wear on a person. People (hopefully) dont go on Twitter and yell at Billy Zane for being mean to Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. They see the difference between an actor and a character they play. But with wrestlers, its a different world. This is an instance where Batista is probably justified in going off on fans for not being able to differentiate between SHOW and REALITY, though he probably went a little too far when he started mocking their appearance. Still, even though its a perfectly reasonable reaction for any person to want to defend themselves (especially against those who dont seem to get how to use social media with wrestlers), lashing out is going to lead to some backlash.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
