Vince Russo continues to cling on to the wrestling business through his social media accounts, where he imparts his thoughts and wisdom on all things dirty and sheety. This week he aimed his target at the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer again, basically saying because the wrestling news guru doesn’t publicly reveal his sources, his reports are worthless – which if you know anything about journalism is absurd. But nonetheless this is his rant, as it pertains to Meltzer’s coverage of TNA’s post ROH/Destination America backstage meeting:

Today, the same dirt sheet who broke the story about the imminent cancelation of TNA on Destination America filed the following report concerning a conference call that Dixie Carter held with the talent:

“The wrestlers at the meeting were not happy because they felt overall Carter was being evasive, and also it was hard to buy the idea that she was presenting that adding ROH to Destination America was to their benefit. The keys to the talent question and answer period is that talent complained that they wanted better lines of communications”.

Here lies the issue, folks—unless you were actually on that call yourself, this is second hand reporting coming from “a source”—a mole—who was presumingly on the call and then in turn reported the result to the said dirt sheet—speaking for ALL the wrestlers at the meeting. The information did not come directly from the call to reporter—there was a middle man. A middle man. A middle man who was perhaps dissatisfied with the call himself, was maybe even a bit disgruntled, thus putting HIS/HER spin on the phone conversation the way THEY saw it—in speaking for ALL the wrestlers on the call.

The overall feelings of the wrestlers are being stated as “fact”, when the only “fact” is that the person/persons who gave that information—gave it from THEIR perspective which is simply that—THEIR PERSPECTIVE.

Again, when looking at stories such as this, you just really have to be careful in determining “truth” from “perspective/opinion”. No two people view anything the same, everybody always has, and presents their own “take”, or “spin”.

My point–take what you read with a grain of salt. Don’t fall into the trap of allowing “reporters” to make you believe what they want you to believe.

Russo seems to think it’s some big revelation that as readers we should have discernment about the things we read. No shit! However logic tells us he’s being a bit unfair regarding this story.

It’s highly unlikely that Meltzer is just making things up. If that’s all he did, he wouldn’t have ever become the premier wrestling reporter. Wrestlers and employees trust him and give him information. As Russo concedes, he has “moles”, or as the rest of the world calls them – sources. So if we accept that he’s talking to the wrestlers in the meeting, what incentive do they have to lie about such an issue? This is the company that pays them a check, are they just going to pretend they’re disgruntled when really they’re happy? Do they just want the promotion to die so they can enjoy not feeding their families?

Meltzer’s report points to some very specific information: “Talent complained that they wanted better lines of communications.”

If this didn’t happen you can bet your bottom dollar the talent would be all over Twitter calling out Meltzer for besmirching them and their employer.

Did every single wrestler on the roster feel that TNA management is being evasive? Probably not, but then not every single wrestler on the roster is a veteran that gives a damn or has the confidence to make their voice heard. There’s always room for different perspectives, but on the scale of “I’m Angry About TNA” and “I Love Everything TNA Is Doing,” it’s fair to assume most of the talent don’t go past the midway point.

As for the opening reference to TNA being cancelled, let’s not forget that the cut off point is September/October, so you can’t hold that story against Meltzer when the cancellation date hasn’t come around yet. And things could always change before then.

In the end I’d sooner go to him than Vince Russo to read an honest wrestling story, and the current meme of the Observer getting everything wrong is pretty annoying. It’s ironic that these comments come from fans who have probably never read a Newsletter and appear on wrestling news sites that for the most part simply re-report what real journalists like Meltzer have already covered, often taking what he wrote out of context. In a nutshell without Meltzer and a few others there is no insider wrestling news. All you’d have is podcast recaps and wrestler Tweets.

TNA Impact moves to Wednesday nights starting June 3rd, with ROH’s syndicated one hour show as the lead in.