I truly can’t fathom what it’s like to be online and on television. Just doing the first one opens you up to unsolicited advice, casual insults, irrational hatred, and the threat of much worse. Combining the two means more people are aware of who your are, and more likely to believe they have a right to send their thoughts on you your way.
Because they had or have high profile spots on TV this week, a pair of wrestlers probably saw an uptick in social media crap coming their way. They responded to at least some of it, and they present an interesting contrast of styles.
Shayna Baszler showed off her approach when someone responded to a WWE tweet about her appearance on Monday’s Raw to let the world know where Baszler stands in their personal “Women of WWE Attractiveness Power Rankings”.
Go watch the Miss America pageant. In the meantime, I’ll keep breaking limbs and pulling hotter tail than you. https://t.co/uZDcZGClHX
— Shayna Baszler (@QoSBaszler) July 14, 2020
It’s kind of in-character, kind of not. There’s a bit of an insult in there, but nothing too severe - and honestly less than “Jackie” deserved. It definitely puts over Shayna’s gimmick & abilities, which if you’re going to respond at all, you might as well.
Sonny Kiss is probably the most high profile queer man in wrestling, and certainly the one whose identity is most integrated into his kayfabe persona. So he’s sadly no stranger to hate from people who’ve never met him. But because he’s challenging Cody Rhodes for the TNT title tonight (July 15) on Dynamite, he’s gotten even more of it over the last seven days. Rhodes made headlines over the weekend for standing up for Kiss to someone who used a slur to refer to Sonny in a tweet.
Kiss himself takes the high road with this statement on the booking and the response its received.
— ☀️Sonny Kiss☀️ (@SonnyKissXO) July 13, 2020
Kiss is more gracious than most of us could be, perhaps because he’s had more practice. I don’t know that I could do it myself, but I respect his wanting to be positive in response to [gestures broadly]. It doesn’t matter whether he’s in character or not, it’s hard to not be more of a Sonny Kiss fan after reading his statement.
Here’s hoping Shayna, Sonny and everyone has to deal with less hate in the future.