Tasteless political jokes belong outside of the wrestling ring

As you know, I am a longtime fan of professional wrestling. Usually when someone involved with wrestling makes the news, it’s not for a good reason, and this past weekend was no different.

Joey Styles, an announcer and commentator who had worked for Extreme Championship Wrestling and the WWE, was fired from Evolve Wrestling, an independent wrestling organization. During an event, Styles made an inappropriate comment toward ring announcer Joanna Rose, saying she “looked great tonight and if our next president were here tonight, he’d want to grab ....”

Styles’ comment was alluding to President-elect Donald Trump and a video that had surfaced before the election of a conversation between him and Billy Bush, formerly of “Access Hollywood.” I’m not going to include the video’s dialogue in this column because we already know what it is.

Styles cut himself off before he finished the comment, but that did not stop Evolve promoter Gabe Sapolsky from parting ways with the former WWE employee, and later apologizing to fans. According to reports, Sapolsky told Styles not to make jokes about Trump because of the immediate effect the election had on the country.

FloSlam, a broadcast company that airs Evolve’s wrestling events, announced it “does not support or condone Styles’ comments” and supported Sapolsky’s decision to fire him. In a letter to his fans, Styles said he panicked during the broadcast and the comment was “ad-libbed.” He also later apologized to everyone in the locker room and said he agreed with Sapolsky’s decision to fire him. On Monday, two other wrestling organizations announced they cut ties with Styles for his actions.

Some pro wrestling fans are calling “foul” because Styles was released from his contract for what they viewed as making a joke. Personally, I think most of the fans who are upset that Styles was fired, are letting their emotions cloud their judgement and are not really seeing the bigger picture.

I’ve been a fan of Styles’ work for many years — he’s one of the few wrestling commentators that can hold down a broadcast booth by himself — but that joke was tasteless and unnecessary. Being in the professional wrestling game as long as he has, he should have been able to think on his feet and come up with a different comment.

The issue is that Trump’s comments in the video with Bush are sexual assault, which is not funny any way you put it.

The problem with Styles’ joke is that it makes it seem like Trump’s comments about women are OK.

During his campaign, Trump also made offensive comments about immigrants, Muslims and people of color. After the election, there have been stories about African Americans, Muslims and immigrants being harassed in their communities and on college campuses. Not all of Trump’s supporters have caused these horrible acts in his name — it’s only an extreme minority of those that do and the knife cuts both ways as there have been Trump supporters who have been attacked as well. Other fans are saying that Sapolsky firing Styles infringes on the latter’s right to free speech.

While Styles is entitled to that right like every other American, he also has to follow company guidelines while he is under contract. In this case, he was told not to make a Trump joke and he did it anyways.

Freedom of speech does allow you to say what you want, but it does not protect you from the consequences that result from your words. While one small group of fans may think your jokes are funny, there are others who do not.

Pro wrestling is about using your actions to elicit a response from the crowd and get them emotionally invested in the characters and the matches, but most of the people who attend wrestling matches are there to escape from the various elements — including politics — they encounter on a daily basis.

If the audience had wanted to hear bad political jokes, they would have stayed at home and turned on the TV.

Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.