by Bob Morris

Yes, I know…it's the second time this week you are hearing from me, and it isn't just another dose of "Weekly" Wrap-Up either.

Instead, I believe it's time to address something that has been proliferating around the Internet and the online wrestling community, and it's something that I believe has gone far enough.

It's called "taking somebody's opinion too seriously."

I'm sure many of you are aware of the verbal bashing that has been taking place between Dave Meltzer and the members of the WCW Live crew. I'm sure others are aware of the constant debates going on in Delphi forums and elsewhere about the opinions of people like Scott Keith, Sean Shannon, and a host of other well-known Internet personalities.

I would first like to say that there are a great number of people on the Internet who I have had discussions with about wrestling and everything that is a part of it, and whether I have agreed or disagreed with these people, I have enjoyed those various discussions.

But then there is another group of people who take the opinions of various folks on the Internet too seriously. And it's these people who have been responsible for the back-and-forth "flame wars" over this Internet personality's show recap, or repeating whatever it was that was said by this well-known writer on somebody's live audio show, or writing or calling up a person you disagree with and doing nothing more but harass this guy just because he happens to hold a different opinion.

The most recent example of this was posted on the Delphi forum by Matt F. about what happened on Dave Meltzer's live audio show, where the two callers in question harassed him. I recognized the quotes that were being used by the callers…they were taken from comments made by Dave Scherer in his Friday Daily Lariat regarding the bickering between Meltzer and the WCW Live crew, and were twisted around by said callers just for the purpose of bugging Meltzer.

Regarding that situation above, I don't blame either Scherer, Meltzer, or the WCW Live guys for it. The fault lies with the callers in question, and not anybody else. So let's not play the blame game here.

But to the point, it is things like this that result from taking somebody's opinion too seriously. And all it does is cause plenty of harm to the people who's opinions are involved.

There are plenty of people on the Internet who happen to be big fans of a particular personality's writing or shows. It's not limited to one individual either. Scherer, Meltzer, Keller, the WCW Live team, and every other personality have fans of theirs who are avid readers or listeners for their material.

But some of these people follow their material so closely, and are such big fans of these personalities, that they start taking everything these individuals say to be "the truth." And then they assume that anybody who holds an opinion contrary to the opinion of their favorite individual, must be "wrong."

You've probably seen these people…they say things like "well, so-and-so said this about such-and-such, and so-and-so knows what he's talking about, so it must be true." Well, so-and-so may be very knowledgeable about wrestling, but it doesn't mean so-and-so's opinions about wrestling are turned into facts.

I know Scherer, Meltzer, and Keller each have a fanbase who love their writing, but part of that fanbase is so devoted to them that whatever opinion they say, these fans take it to be "the truth." By no means am I saying, or even implying, that it's the fault of Scherer, Meltzer, or Keller, because it is not…but some of their fans do take the opinions they express more seriously than they should.

On the other hand, you have a number of people who are frequent readers of an Internet personality's material, but disagree with that personality often. However, some people let this disagreement get them to the point where they start questioning the individual's right to hold this opinion, or saying the individual is not qualified to talk about this subject because he's always negative, or any other reason they can think of, simply because they disagree often with the individual's opinion. Herb Kunze, Sean Shannon, and Scott Keith are three people who tend to take a lot of this type of flack (and no offense to any of them, I'm just using examples to make my point clearer).

It then gets them to the point where they spend more time complaining about this individual and "how can he say this" or "he's biased" or "if all he does is complain, he shouldn't be writing about it." And then this comment leads to a "flame war" where instead of discussing the differences of opinion, it turns into a name-calling session.

Here's a little advice to those who take opinions too seriously…chill out.

Opinions are just that…opinions. They are NOT facts, and never will be. A person may use facts to support his or her opinion, but that doesn't make the opinion a fact.

And yes, there are plenty of Internet personalities who write good material, and are well-spoken with their opinions…but just because these personalities are good at expressing their opinions, doesn't mean those opinions are facts. And it also doesn't mean that, because you disagree with an individual's opinion, that you should let it get to the point where you find yourself questioning the person's right to hold that opinion.

Sometimes it's a good idea to step back and think a little more clearly about what the various personalities are saying, and to realize that just because they said that this is their view on WCW, or WWF, or ECW, or a particular wrestler, or whatever it is, that it is suddenly the "gospel of the Internet" or that it means "the end of the world if he keeps saying this."

Heck, it even applies to me. Yeah, somebody on the Rage Board referred to me as a "big name on the Internet," but I'm just a guy who happens to recap Nitro for TheSmarks and occasionally express his opinion on another subject. If you still want to think of me as a "big name on the Internet," that's fine, but it doesn't suddenly mean that my opinions either hold more weight and become "the truth," or that you should spend your time calling me names simply because you disagree with me.

And while I would like to think that maybe these views might hold a little more weight with you and you'll keep them in mind. I would think the Internet would become a better place to discuss wrestling if people didn't take opinions too seriously.

But even then, just remember…it's only my opinion.