Saturday, JULY 5 – 12:25 P.M.

-Jason Powell is in Brainerd, Minnesota for the holiday weekend. Yours truly is staying home. Given the fact that I am single and have never really loved fireworks, it is probably a pretty good decision. I hope everyone is having fun and safe holiday weekend.

-Today’s topic is something faced by all professional wrestling fans, so I am sure everyone reading can relate. Wrestling is fake. We have all heard it many times. I guess the issue goes a little deeper with me. If people uneducated about wrestling want to make their observations, that is fine. However, I dislike when people act arrogant about something they know very little to nothing about. They say wrestling is fake as though we fans do not know the inner workings. “You do know it’s fake, don’t you?” Ugh.

Beyond that, we hear that wrestlers are not real athletes, wrestling is no more difficult than acting, and there is some magical store that sells fake tables and chairs. Some people shrug these attitudes off. I applaud you. To me, when ignorant people try to act like an expert, it is frustrating.

The thing is: the same people make these comments every single time I watch a show or grab my computer to write for the website. It is exhausting to make the same points over and over again, so I decided to write this blog.

As for what to tell these people, I say professional wrestlers are the best athletes in the world. I tell them they would be gassed if they ran the ropes for ten seconds. I challenge them to work out and eat like a professional athlete year round with no off season. I ask them if actors break their necks. I ask them to think about people they know that weigh 250 pounds or more and what type of shape they are in. Finally, I ask them to find a fake chair and table store online so I can make an order.

-Professional wrestling has always been the ugly stepchild in the world of professional sports. Whenever sports and news journalists are forced to cover a wrestling story, they do so with a tongue in cheek attitude. They treat professional wrestling with the utmost disrespect, just like the people that call it fake. They often report the story with a humorous tone, as if to say the story itself is also fake.

In any other instance, these flippant attitudes would be met with resistance and protest. With professional wrestling, they are welcome and even encouraged. If someone who was not a doctor pretended to be an expert in the field of medicine in a public forum, everyone would laugh. If a non-educator tried to tell a teacher how to work with their students, everyone would laugh. If someone who has never cooked in their life tried to instruct a chef, everyone would laugh. When someone like Nancy Grace makes a fool of herself when talking about wrestling, only the wrestling fans laugh. I guess those people who look down on wrestling fans are the real ignorant and uninformed population.

What do you tell people when they say wrestling is fake? Let me know by sending an email to dotnetrich@gmail.com and your entry could appear in an upcoming mailbag segment.

Tuesday, JULY 1 – 10:16 A.M.

-C.M. Punk is the new World Heavyweight Champion. I wrote that because I still barely believe it myself. I, like many of you, was worried that WWE was going to reverse the very intelligent move of putting the belt on Punk by immediately having him drop the title to JBL. I would not be surprised to see a title change to JBL down the road, but I am very glad they did not pull the trigger on that last night.

I thought the move to put the belt on Punk was 100 percent the right decision. WWE hit a home run last night. A lot of people have argued that Punk should have been built up before winning a title and that his win last night was a fluke. I disagree. While Punk winning in “Edge-like” fashion last night would normally be considered a heel move, it made perfect sense.

First of all, I like when they blur the line with traditional faces and heels. WWE made a lot of money doing this during a little time we call the Attitude Era. Punk’s character is someone who is very intelligent and calculating. Every single match he has is competitive. Whether he is facing Bastion Booger or Ric Flair in his prime, Punk’s victories are always hard fought. Thus, it would not fit his character to have him win multiple matches in a row without struggle.

Punk, like Edge, would wait for the perfect opportunity to cash in the briefcase. The difference between Punk and Edge however, is that Punk agreed to defend the title later in the show when Edge would not have. Some will say he was coaxed into the title defense by a manipulative JBL, but in my mind, Punk will always be open to competition and is not in the least bit naive.

-Fans have been clamoring for change in the top programs. Punk, while he has not always been pushed as such, is a believable top guy. Dot Net reader Brian Moore and I figured out that since September of 2002, one of the following stars: Triple H, John Cena, or Randy Orton have appeared in all but two Raw title matches on PPV. I would say this change is welcome and long overdue.

-This begs the question: will Punk’s title reign mirror the title reign of Rey Mysterio? I doubt it. Mysterio was the underdog champion. Punk is not going to be a dominate champion, but he is not a traditional underdog either. I see Punk winning competitive matches with high workrates in order to keep his title. Every time he successfully defends the title, the fans will say he did so by the skin of his teeth. This is perfectly okay with me as the element of surprise will keep his reign fresh.

Your opinions are always welcome. Feel free to send me an email at dotnetrich@gmail.comor post on the new Rich Twilling section in the new Members' Forum. Selected entries could make their way into my mailbag and would be visible on the website. Thank you!

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