On Tuesday, August 18, and Wednesday, August 19, the (New York) Daily News published the results of the WWE Monday Night Raw card held at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the night of August 17.
This may not seem like a newsworthy event, and the publication of professional wrestling results in a newspaper’s sports section shouldn’t be — regardless of whether or not you consider pro wrestling a sport. But what is important to note is how the results were published. Bottom line: There were factual errors.
First, the name of the card and when and where it was held were printed correctly, but where only referred to the city and state without any mention of the venue.
Second, I watched the card in question on TV and there was a total of seven matches booked. The newspaper only printed five of the matches that were held. The matches left out were the two Divas singles contests, which is glaring because it makes it look like those bouts weren’t important enough to be made known. The omissions are more glaring in light of the recent Divas Revolution currently taking place in World Wrestling Entertainment.
As for the matches that were listed, first up was WWE Intercontinental Champion Ryback defeating The Miz. That’s true, but the match was described as being “Main Event, IC Title.” Wrong on both counts. Not only was the match not for the title, but it was match No. 5 of 7 and lasted for 2:23.07 … So, yeah, that’s not a main-event-level match.
The next contest listed was the first one held on the card: a tag-team match ending with Cesaro and Randy Orton beating Kevin Owens and Sheamus. It was described as a “Tag Challenge,” but it should’ve just been called a “Tag Match” or “Tag Team Match.” Also, Sheamus’s names was spelled without an e.
Third listed was a “Fatal Four Way Tag”: The Lucha Dragons and The Prime Time Players defeated Los Matadores and The New Day. While the former two teams did defeat the latter two, the match was actually a straight 8-man tag team match. It was not a Fatal 4-way Match. If it were, then all four teams would’ve fought independently against each other and the match would’ve ended with one winning team and three losing teams.
Finally, two singles contests — Roman Reigns beating Luke Harper and Rusev defeating Mark Henry — were listed. Even so, only the Reigns-Harper match was listed as “Single.” Where’s the consistency?
Now, to be fair, from top to bottom the matches seem to have been listed from most to least important. I guess that’s all right, but I think it would’ve been better to list all seven by starting with the first match booked. Forget status — just give readers the results as they actually played out.
Of course, when it comes to print journalism, space is limited, which might explain why the two women’s matches weren’t mentioned. But after the results, there was enough room for a “Wrestling Alert.” This was an ad for two things: an upcoming local card and an announcement of an interview between King Jordan and Road Warrior Animal. The results and ads are credited to Jordan, who hosts a podcast.
Now, for the record, I’m not against a local card running an ad in a newspaper, calling for Jordan to quit providing the News with wrestling card results, or saying that I’ll never read the News again. I’m not looking to start a feud or cause trouble.
But what I am saying is that the printing of a pro wrestling card’s results should be considered just as important as, say, baseball box scores. If you’re going to make the argument that pro wrestling isn’t a sport, then why print the card results in the sports section to begin with? Plus, what other newspaper section would be appropriate if not the sports section? Pro wrestling may be staged, but pro wrestlers are just as athletic as baseball, American football, basketball, and ice hockey players.
“Well, we didn’t have enough space for every match on the card.”
Fair enough, perhaps, but the News could’ve found space. For example, in August 19’s paper, the News devoted a 5-1/4-inch-by-1-1/2-inch space to noteworthy dates in sports history. That’s more than enough space for a proper reporting of the card’s results as well as the ad and some of those noteworthy dates.
In August 18’s paper, you could’ve done away with a Mega Millions ad and the lack of a New York Red Bulls schedule in the sports calendar. You also could’ve held off printing the start times of August 19’s baseball games till the August 19 edition. And what’s the point of pitchman statistics and, especially, betting odds? Most of this printed material could’ve been cut to make room for all the results of that Raw card and the ad.
For the record, I don’t know who makes the decision as to the layout of the News‘s sports section. I also don’t know if Jordan submitted the printed results and ad as is or in full and the News edited the results for space. And I also don’t know if it Jordan or the paper described the matches as they were printed.
(And not to beat a dead horse with a stick, but on Thursday, August 27, the News published the results of the August 24 Raw card at the Barclays Center. It had room for the same ad and all the results except for a tag team match that ended in a no-contest. Instead, the first match listed was “Main Event Challenge: Brock Lesnar battled Bo Dallas to a no contest.” Wow. Lesnar-Dallas wasn’t a match, so why was it printed as such? Furthermore, why not print the results of SummerSlam, the card held the day before, since it’s WWE’s second-biggest night of the year?)
In any event, I just hope that in the future the News will print WWE card results in full and describe each match correctly. Pro wrestling may not be important to everyone, but if you’re going to reserve space in your paper for it, then it’s only right that you report the results correctly. It’ll make the paper look good and show wrestling fans that the paper appreciates something people generally look down on.
Yeah, I know, this was a lot over what probably is a nothing issue, but what can I say? It’s the copy editor in me …
Follow me on Twitter at @JosephFGargiulo.
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Here’s a video of WWE wrestlers participating in a celebrity softball game:
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