The Hassan-Undertaker angle has finally been defended with the classic, "It's just wrestling" line, and I really thought that some people spouting that one off had a little intelligence and/or common sense in ther brains, but I guess they don't.

Such a defense shows a startling lack of intelligence and foresight, and can only be espoused by people living in a wrestling bubble. In case it's escaped your attention, and I think it has, there is something called the REAL WORLD out there. It's that place you reside in once you turn off the wrestling, assuming you ever turn it off at all. And out there in the real world, shit like the Hassan-Undertaker angle doesn't exactly do wonders for the business you apparently like so much, but clearly don't really care for. Do you people even have a concept or clue about how angles like this go over in the real world, where the decisions are made that can very easily take away the very thing you say you care for, but actually don't?

Wrestling has a bad enough time gaining any kind of respect, understanding or acceptance in the real world. Even when WWF/E was getting huge numbers for Raw or Smackdown, they were still getting just a fraction of the kind of ad dollar that much lower rated programs got. Why? Because people look at wrestling like it's something only retards and the emotionally stunted watch. They look at like a joke. It's on the lowest rung of the entertainment ladder. And crap like the Hassan angle, like the Katie Vick nonsense, like the Billy and Chuck wedding bullshit doesn't help. The Billy and Chuck deal did get WWE some publicity, I'll give them that, but do you remember, or want to remember what happened when everyone found out that Billy and Chuck weren't actually going to get married? The press went away. They stopped giving WWE the kind of publicity they crave. The Billy and Chuck deal got so much press because it was presented as wrestling finally showing some sort of class, by having a pair of openly gay characters get married and it was seen as something progressive in a world that everyone had previously looked down upon. So, when it was revealed that it was 'just another silly wrestling angle', the press felt burned, and they turned their backs on WWE. The Katie Vick angle the next month was another desperate attempt at getting some kind, any kind of publicity, but it didn't get anything at all. It didn't even get the kind of scorn and ridicule that most OTT crappy angles get. Do you know why? Because nobody was biting so soon after getting burned, and having it reaffirmed in their minds that wrestling is a total joke.

Now, imagine that the Billy and Chuck deal happened last month, and it ended with them getting married. The press wouldn't have felt so burned, WWE would have gotten some good press for being progressive, wrestling would have been seen in a somewhat more positive light by people, and the press might have paid WWE some real attention.

And then the Hassan-Undertaker angle happens.

Do those of you with a grasp of the real world and how it sees wrestling know what would have happened if the press were actually paying WWE some kind of attention when the Hassan-Undertaker angle happened? Do those of you living in the wrestling bubble want to try and be brave and think about how the REAL WORLD would see wrestling, would see wrestling fans, with that kind of angle under any kind of press microscope? With what is still going in the real world, the world outside of wrestling for those of you still in the bubble, do you know what kind of damage that would do, not only to the publics view of wrestling, but of anyone even associated with wrestling, when it's presenting that kind of angle on national television, especially with what happened in London just hours before the show went to air? (And it was possible to edit the angle out, so don't even go there)

I know most of those people defending the angle probably don't give a shit about how people view wrestling, but in a subject closer to their hearts, how do you think people would view YOU for watching the kind of product that put out something so distasteful and reprehensible?

And even if it was 'just wrestling', is an angle like this really the sort of thing you want out there for people to use to knock wrestling? Is it really the kind of thing you want out there for people to see if they're only tuning into wrestling for the first time? Or do you only care about your view of wrestling, and don't care about the views of people who could help bolster the business by supporting it in some fashion?