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Matt Hardy and Eric Bischoff have been going back and forth lately in a relatively heated exchange over whether the new generation of wrestlers will be more or less likely to have some of the health issues of the older generations. Here's part of Matt's latest reply, including comments aimed at me in bold...

"The majority of America stays up late that night. I was off the next day, and was able to get enough sleep to catch up. The following Friday after our Ft. Lauderdale live event, I went to eat with a friend after the show around midnight and hung out for a while. And because my sleep schedule had been wacky for a couple of days, I was wide awake. Sorry, didn't have or was willing to take any kind of 'substances' to put me to sleep before my 4:30 a.m. wake up call. Had to disappoint you. Or the condescending "pro wrestling journalist" who writes for the preposterous Minnesota .com site who also made some patronizing remarks about the same situation. Once Saturday night rolled around, I was back on my regular sleeping schedule. You guys do realize we keep outrageous hours at work that constantly change depending on scheduling and traveling right? Just checking."

For those who don't subscribe to the PWTorch Newsletter, here's what I wrote, which is what Hardy is replying to...

"I'm pretty much with Bischoff on this one. Not necessarily in predicting Hardy's on the same career-path as those he criticizes, but on Hardy being a 'goof,' to use Bischoff's term. This didn't make Hardy look good. He's largely right that the specific problems that plagued many wrestlers of the 1980s might not be suffered by today's generation of WWE wrestlers, "The Wrestler" isn't about today's wrestlers who have long runs in WWE and save their money. But it might be about the wrestlers who have their time in the spotlight, a Chris Masters or Chris Harris or D-Lo Brown type, who logs a lot of years in the big leagues but then continues to log years on the indy scene, battling the same issues such as pain pill addiction, financial problems, alcoholism, post-concussion syndrome, and an addiction to fame. I just don't have a lot of patience for wrestlers who have it good, and are surrounded only by wrestlers who also have it good and are smart with their money, and think that's reflective of the entire universe. The fact is, not every wrestler from the 1980s ended up like Curt Hennig or Rick Rude or The Renegade or Brady Boone or Chris Benoit. Some saved their money, got out before they got badly hurt or addicted to pills, and live productive, happy, healthy lives outside of wrestling. There's the Robert Gibsons, Dory Funks, Jim Brunzells, and Lanny Poffos who are doing just fine."

I guess it's fair that he name-calls, since I agreed with the name-calling by Bischoff describing him as a "goof." I do find it odd that I'm "preposterous" since he agreed to let me interview him and his brother Jeff for the Ultimate Insiders DVD only a few years ago. Maybe it's only when I criticize him that I become a pseudo-journalist or preposterous. (Actually, I think he hasn't liked me much since I called him out for working his devoted message board/social site fans with the Lita-Edge situation once it went from a shoot to a work, as I really came down hard on him for that because the same people whom he leaned on for emotional support during a real-life tough time he was going through he used as pawns once it moved into a storyline. But I stand by those comments and was really disappointed in him for doing that back then. That's when he stopped returning my calls, which I figured might happen when I wrote what I did. I also might have hit a sore spot with him and come across as "condescending" when I commented in my Smackdown report last week on his rapidly growing gut lately, too, but hey, it's a cosmetic business, and I'm hardly the only one commenting on that these days. He is at that age where keeping a flat belly is going to be tougher with the same diet and workout routine he had in his 20s. That's not condescending, it's true. I know first-hand!)

Back to the current situation, though. My problem with Matt is that he keeps using himself as an example of why his generation is going to be okay. What gets to me is that these level-headed, intelligent, emotionally-stable wrestlers who are able to cope with all of the demands of pro wrestling and are still very young continue to talk as if their good fortune means everyone will experience the same good fortune, and it assumes that when they're the age of so many of these broken down wrestlers that they'll be fine, too. He is right that one night of partying on New Year's Eve hardly disqualifies him from defending what sounds like his overall healthy lifestyle. The problem Bischoff had was the timing of talking about the all-night partying, having a brother who has earned his consideration as a high-risk candidate over the years for problems, and continuing to say that because he and his friends are fine, nobody will have any problems.

Nobody every said all wrestlers are vulnerable to all of the problems that the minority have had that has led to death or destitute. My problem is that the ones who are coping just fine (at still relatively young ages, so they can't really speak for the fortysomethings quite yet) don't seem to care that there might be others who can't handle the system as well as they do. I'd rather hear a wrestler from today in his 20s or 30s like Cena or Hardy acknowledge that some wrestlers fall through the cracks or some are more vulnerable and less fortunate than others, and that this generation is making an effort to look out for one another better than they did in the 1980s or 1990s. Instead, what I hear is that it's just not a problem anymore because "I'm doing fine and my friends are doing fine." Every wrestler who died had friends who were doing fine. But they didn't. The key isn't focusing on why we're better than wrestlers in the past, but what might still be wrong. And the lack of any mandatory semi-annual roster-wide (in rotation or all at once, either way) vacations of several weeks at a time, the lack of a good-faith even-handed transparent drug testing program, the lack of (until recently) any substantial attention paid to concussions and unprotected blunt chairshots to the head, and the lack of any sense that the industry is making efforts to look out for their own who don't make it means it's still not solved.

I'm as surprised as anyone I'm on the Bischoff side of an argument (actually, not really, as I've found myself agreeing more with him lately in his blogs than I did with some things in his book or interviews he did when running WCW), especially one with Hardy, whom I actually largely respect as a true professional in his craft and an all-around good guy. I also can't editorialize about an industry full time and not ruffle most everyone's feathers at different times. I take as much heat from my critics on this very site as I dish out in my commentaries, but I think my twenty year track record has earned something more than the complete dismissal of my work as Hardy did with his comments. Sorry we disagree, Matt, but I'd never call you "a wrestler" (with quotes included to indicate you're not really a true wrestler) and I'd never in general write off your entire career of work just because you disagreed with me a few times. Adults disagree, but discuss specifics. Teenagers put quote marks around things and name call and use sweeping generations that are off-point when their feelings are hurt. (Okay, maybe that was a little condescending. Sorry.)

[Matt Hardy photo by Wade Keller (c) PWTorch]

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