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Guest Editorial
By Kira Simpson of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
PWTorch.com reader

17,640 Canadian fans cheered on the heels last night at Summerslam 2004 much to the dismay of many television viewers. When Edge came out, being introduced from Toronto, Canada, I began to think; have Canadian's not been built as heels in recent months? If Trish is from Toronto to give her more heel heat; if Jericho is from New York to allow him more pops; if the biggest heel tag team sings my national anthem, shouldn't I be a heel, too? Perhaps it's not Bizarro World but rather Heel World that we're in. 

It lays at the hands of Vince McMahon, who a few months ago decided to announce face Canadian wrestlers as "residing in (insert your choice of American state here)." I for one was quite upset by this as a Canadian. It may not be well known, but Canadians are very patriotic, especially when it comes to celebrities coming out of Canada and making it big on an international, or even American, stage. Every time Jim Carrey, Matthew Perry, or Mike Myers are mentioned on American television, Canadians countrywide go crazy with cheers or proudly state that the person is from Canada. So when Vince McMahon decided to stop announcing Canadian wrestlers as Canadians, those fans got something big taken away from them. 

This isn't the only Anti-Canadian campaign in the WWE. It's been going on for years; remember the Anti-Americans? But for the sake of being current I mention that La Resistance, the current Raw tag team champions are from Quebec, Canada and proudly "sing" their national anthem before their matches to a chorus of boos from the crowd. "USA" chants even start to oppose the team. This reinforces the fact that Canadian's are bad and should be booed, whereas American supporters (even those not from America like Tajiri) are cheered.

So is it really any surprise that Canadian fans were backing the heels and going against the faces? I don't think so. Canadian fans have always been a unique crowd and have been anything but predictable. For the record, booing Eddie Guerrero was probably not the best of ideas, it didn't even make a lot of sense, but the WWE could have found a simple way to have the storylines work with the crowd and to even advance this Anti-Canadian buzz. Instead of playing off the chants as being in Bizarro World, the King and J.R., Tazz and Michael Cole, should have been playing the crowd as heels, seeing as after the event the crowd was getting more heat than any heel wrestler on the card.

Sure, there are some ridiculous bits of the night, like cheering Triple H even after he threw Lilian Garcia to the ground. But what would Ric Flair do? He would cheer Triple H, he would clap him on, just as the Canadian fans were doing. Why? Because he's a heel. Heels don't change sides because their heel friend is doing something bad. That's seen as good in the heel world, so let's cheer him on.

Though I can see how the crowd may have ruined the event for many people watching on television, the WWE had it coming to them. If La Resistance sing MY national anthem, if Jericho is only Canadian if he's a heel, and the only time that Edge is from Toronto, Canada is when he's IN Toronto, Canada, then I stand proudly with Trish, Christian, La Resistance, and all the rest of my Canadian heel countrymen and will forever boo the hell out of any face that comes into town.

***

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