The Worst Criticism of E-Fedding Ever

Oooh, a post!

As many of you know, my love for wrestling has been rekindled in the last two years, so much so that it's grown my interests past the WWE and the other company masquerading as a major wrestling promotion (TNA for the rubes out there). Chikara is pretty much my favorite fed going right now. With their comic lucharesu stylings, it's hard not to see why. Their message board can be rough sometimes. It's a great read for the most part, but when they start getting on the hate train, well, game over, man, game over.

One such example of this came in about e-fedding. Look on Page 3 and get this nugget of blissful ignorance:

if you want to pretend to be a wrestler find a shitty wrestling school and train. or find a good wrestling school and train.

dont sit in your house typing about how hardcore your imaginary personality is...

There's training centers all over --- if you live in the north east theres litterally 100's of places you can learn, and im sure a smattering everywhere else as well. Some you can get good deals at.

Just become a wrestler. even if its for a little bit.

Oooh, where to start.

For one, most people who participate in e-fedding, at least in the FW/PTC corner, can't just pick up and go to wrestling school. For some, they can't afford it. For others, they're too entrenched in their real careers and just do e-fedding as a game or *shudder* hobby. For some others, health concerns get in the way. It's way easier said than done, people.

Two, wrestling is a fucked up business. Let me repeat that, wrestling is a fucked up business. You take body-degrading bumps every night you work. You travel long distances in cramped cars, or have to end up spending all your purse if you want to fly to where you're going. You work for sleazy promoters. You may end up getting addicted to painkillers just to deal with the aches and pains. You share a locker room with some of the most depraved individuals ever (I've heard the stories, they're not pretty). I mean, God bless people who have the mental constitution to enter the business, but it's not for everyone. Why should people who want to express their fandom by pretending to be a wrestler compromise their relatively normal lives for the freakshow that is professional wrestling?

Three, people e-fed to express their creativity (or try to at least). In wrestling, even at the low indie level, your creativity is stifled from the very start. You have bookers and writers telling you what your gimmick is and what you're supposed to say. Granted, there's way more freedom at the indie level than there is in the terribly-scripted WWE or TNA, but still, a lot of times, you don't have control over your content. Screw that, unless the fedhead you're working for is a total douche, you have complete freedom. No restraints at all. Sometimes, this can be a bad thing, but I'd rather err on the side of letting people be free rather than restricting them.

Honestly, this criticism of e-fedding smacks of ignorant elitism. Oooh, let's make fun of the roleplayers! They're D&D nerds! My response? So fucking what? Everyone has their nerdy side, and if they don't, well, they probably have anuses tighter than an infant's belly button. Next thing you know, they'll be saying you can't play fantasy football unless you try out for the NFL, or that you can't criticize actors unless you were in a school play. Total and complete horsecrap.

There's no better way to express your fandom for wrestling than to pretend that you're a wrestler. Live vicariously through e-fedding (and through Smackdown vs. RAW or other video games). Keep your health and your creativity intact. This is a great game. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.