The v2 wrestling brain of the year - fight 6 - round 1

Please vote for your favourite response to the question at hand. The judging will be open until Tuesday and further rounds will be published as and when.

To avoid bias, the contenders are not revealed.

Should heels boycott the pink t-shirts?

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Contender 1

Should heels boycott the pink t shirts?

No.

Each year we all bear witness to a parade of pink, with almost all superstars and divas opting to sport a brighter piece of merchandise in the hopes of raising money and awareness for a cancer charity, Susan G Komen. With each superstar, be them face or heel, being marched out clad in these bold, jarring clothes, there is quite clearly a purpose. However with this purpose comes the obvious criticisms of “Why would a bad guy support a cancer charity? this makes no narrative sense whatsoever”.

We as WWE fans are asked to do only one thing, suspend disbelief. Whilst pausing this for one moment and thinking reveals the truth that what you’re watching is not entirely real, we accept this and choose to immerse ourselves so entirely that it becomes irrelevant. It’s for this reason that we all tuned in to see a claiming to be undead wrestle undefeated for over 20 years. It’s for this reason that we can sit back and enjoy a man coated in gold paint prance around in a blonde wig. The realism is secondary to the entertainment.

There are plot holes in almost every WWE storyline, but do we accept them? After a little bit of grumbling on the internet, yes. We accept insignificant mistakes and inconsistencies as long as the product is entertaining, yet many choose to complain about these t shirts. T shirts that save lives, t shirts that raise money to combat a disease that affects millions around the globe. We can allow for alter egos and superheroes, demons and dancers, and yet the notion that a villain may support a charity warrants complaint and argument.

The WWE realises and understands that as important as entertainment is, there is a bigger picture that trumps storyline, that’s why Chris Benoit isn’t mentioned in their history, that’s why John Cena is eternally emblazoned with ‘NEVER GIVE UP’. As much as I or any other audience member feels disdain for that character, feels disdain for inconsistencies in storyline, it is not a great stretch to look past it under the knowledge that real people are suffering when messages and merchandise like these dont exist.

There are unfortunately things more important than wrestling, and human lives are one of them.
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Contender 2

Heels boycotting pink shirts would be a ridiculous decision which would only create bad PR for the WWE and show a clear lack of creative thinking. The pink shirt is to raise awareness for breast cancer, ignoring the merits of the charity that is behind the pink shirts and the problems with that which are well documented, this is generally quite a good thing. Raising awareness for a disease is not something to be discouraged and is something bigger than WWE. To have some characters not wearing the shirts could lead to a media frenzy over WWE’s lack of support for breast cancer awareness, if some characters do and some don’t. This is not something WWE wants or needs from a financial or creative point of view. WWE already has a lot of issues with the wider media, a lot stemming from the Chris Benoit incident but in general its glamorisation of fighting is obviously something that concerns people. To do something so antagonistic would be to deliberately put themselves in danger of being targeted by a media storm. This would be bad for the product, obviously financially they will be harmed but also WWE would then likely have to make up for this blunder by attempting to fix it by being too charity focused. In response, the ham-fisted WWE would have every week sponsored by a different charity. We would see charity-awareness driven storylines and charity themes and while this may seem good, creatively it would be a nightmare for WWE and it would make the support of the charities look like a joke.

Perhaps more importantly from the fans’ perspective, if WWE had heels boycott the pink shirts it would suggest that WWE is incapable of writing a three dimensional character, or even a two dimensional character. For a character to do that, heel or not, it would suggest that they are actually ‘for’ cancer, or at least against raising awareness. This would be insane and benign. Just because a character is heel because they are obnoxious or vain or arrogant or cruel or any other way a character can be heel does not mean they should also dislike cancer charities. Bad characters shouldn’t be bad in every sense, heels don’t have to hate children, or dislike the disabled or kick the homeless. Being a heel does not even necessarily mean they have to be evil. For example, The Miz is a heel because he is arrogant over his Hollywood success, why would that mean he is ‘for’ cancer? Triple H doesn’t want people he doesn’t like as his main eventer, why would that mean he is ‘for’ cancer?


It would not only be bad business perspective to do something so stupid, it would also harm the product creatively and would suggest WWE don’t know how to write a character beyond the basic traits of good and bad. This would not bode well for the future of the product.
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Vote for your favourite above and don't forget to vote in round one and two as well -

How can wrestling break the mainstream again? - https://www.606v2.com/t55539-the-v2-wrestling-brain-of-the-year-fight-one-round-1
Would Bray Wyatt defeating the streak have benefited WWE more in the long term? https://www.606v2.com/t55549-the-v2-wrestling-brain-of-the-year-fight-2-round-1
The best wrestler still active today to have not won the top belt is….- https://www.606v2.com/t55573-the-v2-wrestling-brain-of-the-year-fight-3-round-1
Would the death of TNA be a good thing? - https://www.606v2.com/t55588-the-v2-wrestling-brain-of-the-year-fight-4-round-1
Should WWE remain PG going forward? - https://www.606v2.com/t55604-the-v2-wrestling-brain-of-the-year-fight-5-round-1

I think both of these are great replies and both can clearly write excellent articles but Contender 2 just edges it for me.

Still time to vote on this one as the vote is tied!

Crimey nicks this with a last minute vote for him!

The winners will be receiving their next topics shortly