Dirt Sheet Audience & Significance
Dirt sheets are important. As important as it is for the WWE or any wrestling company to have competition is as important as the dirt sheets being in existence. Imagine if the only NFL news came from the NFL via the NFL network or NFL.com. All one sided and with an agenda.
The best thing about the dirt sheets is the audience you serve. The dedicated fans who have your website as its home page and never miss a story that comes out.
The worst thing about the dirt sheets is the audience you serve. Those who feel because of the intense time they have watched, read and remembered wrestling facts are always going think they know or can do better. Truth is, the things they critique about they probably don't know the reasoning behind. They don't get the privilege to talk to some of the people that dirt sheet reporters do and don't have access to certain information like certain dirt sheet reporters do. Some of the dirt sheet audience accepts that and others are bitter because they feel they could do better.
Some will highlight the above paragraph and say “truth well told.” Others who are the subject of the paragraph above will use it to further do what that paragraph says.
Dirt sheets provide a sense of truth, theory or at the very least cheap interpretation and entertainment. Depending on which website decides which service they provide. I think its fair to say most of the major wrestling sites provide some mixture of all three.
Like anything, the inventions of Twitter and Facebook have expanded the playing field. They are new resources for established, legitimate news reporting sites and a platform for any joe blow to allegedly see or hear something for themselves and then post it online on social media or a blog.
Some people complain about the use of Twitter as a source in wrestling news stories. When LeBron James tweets about leaving Cleveland and going to Miami it is used by ESPN and everyone else as a quote from James. When a musician, athlete or any celebrity uses it to talk trash on someone they have a beef with its used by entertainment and morning shows. So why are you shocked when all dirt sheets use tweets from wrestlers?
Twitter is sometimes can be like what the AP wire is in a mainstream newsroom. I work in mainstream sports and news when not doing wrestling. AP wire is an an automatic news wire alert that is visible to everyone that usually prompts news directors to start chasing down and uncovering a particular story. Twitter is the same thing. Wrestler tweets something, it can be a sign for dirt sheet writers to start working the phones and getting the rest of the story.
Final Thoughts
I didn't write this to be cryptic and rip on other sites or reporters. I wrote it because there are lot of assumptions and curiosity about working for a dirt sheet. I felt a column like this would be of interest to people. I think there are good sites and good reporters. This column is fueled by my point of view and experiences on how I have discovered who it is I like in this business of online wrestling “journalism. ” Its not my place to name names of who I trust and don't. Every consumer is open to read who appeals to them. Hopefully for your sake, especially when it comes to paying money, you choose wisely.
The bottom line is those who work for wrestling sites, those who read them, we are all fans. Just as when you become a professional wrestler, yeah, you are a wrestler but like everyone it starts with being a fan. All of us have years or eras in the past which are our favorite from the wrestling business. Many will bitch, complain and have the million dollar solution, but at the end of the day we are all fans. The dirt sheets might get a bad name by some and might get praised by others (this includes wrestlers/writers in the business). At the end of the day we are all fans who want wrestling to be as good as possible.
