Life's Scapegoat Known as the WWE

**NOTE: Just a side disclaimer, I may get onto subjects that may lead you to base opinions on me, please leave your opinions of me to yourself, and just read the article as an article, and not a way to say "you're stupid" or "get a life"**

So, I ran across an article on the Internet the other day that just baffled me. If you haven't seen it, Google it. Apparently the word is, a nine-year-old boy in Brooklyn, New York jumped out of his 13-story apartment building with a parachute that he made. Of course, tragically the kid didn't make the landing.

Immediately, the mother of the child says that the 9-year-old was a WWE fan, especially of Jeff Hardy, and claims the kid "may have been imitating Jeff Hardy's Swanton Bomb."

People in the wrestling industry are quick to blame the parents of this tragedy. People in the regular world are quick to blame wrestling on the tragedy.

As stupid and pointless the arguing is, it made me glance at another subject I am to write about now. That subject is Backyard Wrestling.

Wrestling gets its worst rap out of everything because of the extreme stunts involved with Backyard Wrestling. 

Backyard Wrestling can be very dangerous without the proper training, and with the videos from Combat Zone Wrestling, Juggalo Championship Wrestling and old school ECW makes kids want to do even stupider spots without practice or training.

Many professional wrestlers acknowledge the facts that they themselves used to backyard wrestle. CM Punk, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Tyler Black, and even the great Mick Foley all frown upon backyard wrestling even though they all acknowledge doing it in the past.

I don't get angry at them though. They are just protecting their image, and for good reason.

The reason I get so angry about it is because I myself am a Backyard Wrestler. The only difference is I am all against the "traditional" backyard wrestling style.

When I say "traditional" i mean I am against the "beat each other with weapons" montage videos. I love wrestling. I enjoyed the Dean Malenko-Rey Mysterio feuds from WCW. As much as I love a good high spot, I enjoy even more a good counter.

And needless to say, if you have a match that doesn't involve some sort of headlock takedown or even a snapmare, it's not really a wrestling match.

In my opinion, people that go in the backyard and beat each other senseless with chairs, fluorescent light tubes, glass, and other objects do not know the true art of wrestling. The whole point in professional wrestling is to tell a story.

When you sit and watch a backyard wrestling match that is nothing but gore and weapons, there is no story told.

All you have is reckless abandon, lack of general direction in the match, and most likely lots of blood. None of that honestly matters to the real wrestling fans.

My favorite part about backyard wrestling is practicing the spots, and/or coming up with cool spots.

You cannot tell a story without having a general direction in it. Whether it consists of rest holds, high pace, quick submissions, or direct ground wrestling, if there is a general direction that is a good place to start.

When I wrestle people my number one rule I have is to make sure all the moves are landed safely. That is exactly why we practice all of our moves and spots.

I know I am not trained, or the wrestlers I wrestle with aren't trained, but if my life depends on them, I make sure at the least, I am gonna be safe at the end of the day.

Which is where backyard wrestling gets its worst rap: the lack of safety, such as the kid who was literally lit on fire in a match.

Reasons like this are why I get mad about backyard wrestling. It not only makes me look stupid as a backyard wrestler, but it makes all of us wrestling fans look stupid.

When Eddie Guerrero tragically died, as wrestling fans, we all justified the situation nd tried to all blame the drug abuse and past steroid abuse. But to be honest, Eddie killed Eddie, and when Eddie died, he didn't help the view of steroids in wrestling.

When Chris Benoit's tragedy happened, as wrestling fans, we all attempted to justify the situation, and that's when it was just too hard to justify.

As wrestling fans we know that nobody forced a steroid needle down Eddie Guerrero or Chris Benoit. Nobody forced Eddie Guerrero to take any drugs at all. Nobody forced Chris Benoit to kill his family (that we know of).

As a wrestling fan, when I tell people I like wrestling, they are ignorant and all they can talk about is the steroids and drug use, which their ignorance makes me just feel pretty stupid.

I know this article is kind of sporadic, and is just kind of a revolving circle of opinions but thank you to all those that took the time to read it. I just get angry with the Wrestling Industry getting such a bad rap for things that honestly have nothing to do with wrestling.

I love watching all kinds of wrestling, and the fact that people frown doesn't hurt my feelings. I'm always gonna watch wrestling. I just hate the fact it gets the blame game thrown around. That is all!