ProWrestling.Cool is Taking a Break

From the moment we recorded our first episode of Heel Turn in April 2013, the goal of Owen, me, and every single person that has contributed to this podcast and website has been the same: to create something that celebrates professional wrestling as a transformative sport and storytelling medium, while also reveling in the blissful stupidity of it all. It’s something we’ve always worn on our sleeves, right down to the tagline we chose to describe who we are: “Jerks who love wrestling.” Sure, we’ve always tried to take this seriously and provide insight beyond talking about cool spots, and we’ve definitely become less of jerks in the past seven years, but it’s an ethos we’ve tried to maintain in everything we’ve done. It says everything about us: we’re not self-serious–we may even be a little too self-critical–but we come to our perspective from a place of genuine love where we want to see the wrestling industry thrive.

ProWrestling.Cool is not a profitable venture. We make just enough from Patreon every month to break even on our hosting costs. I say this not to complain–we are not entitled to your or anyone else’s money and we are incredibly grateful for every dollar we have generously been given us over the years–but to highlight that everything we have done for this website has been because we deeply love professional wrestling. This is, and has always been, a passion project. This website is how we relax, blow off steam and hang out with each other. This is supposed to be fun.

2020 has not been fun. In the past six months, we’ve watched as an industry that has sold itself as the ultimate escapism, here to put “smiles on faces,” reflect the absolute worst in our society. None of this is new – the dangerous working conditions; the promotions that are hostile towards giving their “independent contractors” any sort of resources that would shift the balance of power out of their favor; the rampant misogyny and a culture that justifies abuse and protects the abusers; and the obscene and yet simultaneously unsurprising number of people in this industry that have been revealed as manipulative and unrepentant predators in the past week is all stuff we’ve talked about many times before and will undoubtedly discuss again.

Make no mistake: as horrifying as it is to watch, what is happening right now in this industry is not just important, it’s necessary. The people who have spoken out about the abuse they’ve faced and continue to face, and those doing the work to ensure this industry is safer, more empathetic and simply better for everyone involved, are nothing short of heroes, and we are so thankful for everything they’ve done. But it’s not their responsibility to do all the work for us and save us from ourselves. As fans and as members of the industry, no matter how on the fringes of it we are, it is our responsibility to use this time to look at ourselves and see where we can be doing more.

To put it simply: we’re a comedy website with a series of comedy podcasts trying to make light of an industry that is nothing but darkness right now. Lord knows we’ve tried to walk that fine line between smart, serious analysis and idiotic jokes about TAICHI and Curtis Axel winning every match by count-out in years past, and I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done up until now. But this period in our industry is something else entirely. This period calls for people with a plan to push our industry forward in a way that is equitable for everyone, and who can articulate that plan and fight for it with the passion that it deserves. We’re not equipped for that right now, and what we can provide doesn’t help. The best thing we can do for this industry right now is to step aside until we can develop the skills to do that work, or until the levity that we provide doesn’t feel like a distraction from doing the hard work that everyone even tangentially involved in this industry needs to be doing.

Let’s be clear: this is not the end of PW.C, Heel Turn, Heel Alternative or any of the other things we do. This is not another story where the hero dies because they don’t know how else to save the thing they love. We’re not sending ourselves to The Void, seemingly never to return. This is a pause. This is a moment to take a step back and look at everything that is happening in our industry and let it play out. This is a chance to see how professional wrestling responds to what can only be described as its “come to Jesus” moment. And perhaps most importantly, it’s an opportunity for us to watch that change, listen to the people pushing for change, and learn how we can use this platform you all have allowed us to have to be better allies in helping to promote that change. We owe that to you all. We owe that to wrestling.

Basically, here’s what you need to know:

Heel Alternative episodes 36 and 37 will release as scheduled, recording on Wednesdays June 24 and July 1 respectively with the podcast editions dropping within the next day.
We will also be releasing two more Casual Fridays – Oscar and I will reconvene on the Main Stage for the second edition of RuThless Aggression, our RuPaul’s Drag Race podcast, releasing on June 26. Then, on July 3, it’s time for another one of my Independence Day weekend solo shows, as PW.C finally presents TeddyCast: Countdown to Prison.
After the release of TeddyCast, ProWrestling.Cool will go dark for at least two months. The plan is we will take the summer off to reflect, recharge and reconsider what our content needs to be going forward. The staff will reconvene after Labor Day to decide where we go from there.

In the meantime, we will continue to use our Twitch channel to host and highlight the various video game streaming endeavors done by our hosts. So if you still want to hear us talking shit on wrestling, don’t worry – we’re not going anywhere. You’ll just have to get that talk while watching us be mediocre at Fortnite and other games for a while.

Thank you for all the support you have shown us over the past seven years. Keep believing that professional wrestling will come out the other side of this better than it has ever been. Wrestling doesn’t have to be this way; it can be better. We’ll be back when it does get better or we’re in a place where we can help make it better, because while many of the people involved are abhorrent, wrestling rules and will always rule, now and forever. And until the next time we see you: y’all come back now, ya hear?