Tagging Out Of Wrestling Twitter
I’m jealous of Jack Dorsey.
Since changing jobs and handing my phone back to my former employer a few weeks ago, I’ve been off the grid. My family can’t get a hold of me, I’ve avoided Osty’s texts and my fiancé serves as my secretary. It’s been fantastic. The best part has been my social media sabbatical, particularly from Wrestling Twitter.
I used to like wrestling fans. Some of my oldest friends bonded with me over our mutual love of WWE. We’d spend class discussing our favorites, fantasy booking and predicting the winners for the upcoming pay-per-view. Nobody was ever ridiculed and differing opinions were welcome.
Wrestling Twitter is much crueler than the schoolyard.
Forget the anonymous trolls and stan accounts. Even public figures have become unbearable on the app. People I admire for their work transform into lawyers and dunk tank clowns, relying upon their bully pulpit to drown out those who disagree. Seemingly every day there’s a new controversy that tarnishes a beloved figure’s reputation, and if you weren’t on Wrestling Twitter, you’d never know about it. And then there’s plenty of misinformation, with click bait sites tweeting misleading headlines to rile folks up and spawn endless debates.
Anyone who’s spent a month on Wrestling Twitter agrees with all of the above, but it’s too addicting to break away from. After all, it’s become the primary channel for news, even for wrestling promotions. Matches are often announced on Twitter before they’re mentioned on TV. You can’t stay away from the app too long or you’ll be out of the loop, especially in this day and age when WWE releases a quarter of the roster once a week.
Aside from staying up to date, which is certainly important for the editor in chief of a media outlet, what value does Wrestling Twitter bring to my life? Well, most of The Wrestling Estate staff joined by sliding in the DMs or emailing after seeing our work on Twitter. There are also some friendly folks sharing interesting findings on the platform, such as @Laviemarg, @draconIANdays and @TrevorDame. Their accounts enhance my fandom rather than make me regret association with the community.
And that’s what it comes down to – Wrestling Twitter has diminished my love for pro wrestling. The more time I spend scrolling the app and reading such ridiculous takes, many of which not only contrast my beliefs but also disparage me for having them, the less time I want to spend watching altogether. I’m not suggesting criticism about WWE is unwarranted; there’s no way I’ll ever sit through a three-hour Raw on a Monday night again. But there’s certainly a correlation with my increasing lack of interest in the genre overall and the amount of frustration Wrestling Twitter has brought upon.
My hope is to one day escape the platform and never return. But as long as The Wrestling Estate exists, that’s just not possible. Maybe someone else on the team can take over our Twitter account, but I’ve tried that with Facebook and Instagram in the past to little success.
So, how do you cope with Wrestling Twitter? Any advice or strategies would be greatly appreciated.
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