AEW is having unprecedented success with their All In London at Wembley Stadium; per WrestleTix’s newest replace on August 9, 79,346 tickets have been distributed. This put them previous the earlier European document of WWF SummerSlam 1992, which had an attendance of 79,127. Each are among the many highest attendances in wrestling’s historical past.

Wikipedia, nevertheless, has embraced a brand new technique this week for its checklist of the highest-attended wrestling occasions. On August 10, consumer “Mt.FijiBoiz” began combining the attendances of multi-night occasions like WrestleManias 38 and 39, which moved them as much as the second and third highest attended occasions of all time, behind solely Collision in Korea. This checklist oddly doesn’t think about different multi-night occasions like New Japan’s previous few Wrestle Kingdoms and does nothing to handle the inclusion of Collision in Korea, an occasion with no paid attendance and allegations that attendees had been compelled to go by the dictatorial authorities of North Korea.

The timing is conspicuous.

The identical consumer additionally eliminated an entry for All In London, labeling it vandalism. Whereas I personally assume ready till the occasion occurs earlier than including it to the checklist is completely affordable, between the sudden change in rating standards for multi-night occasions, the appliance of it solely to WWE occasions, and the elimination of an AEW occasion with confirmed studies of ticket gross sales provides as much as the looks of bias, even when it’s unintentional.

This compounds an extra challenge. Earlier than the checklist, Wikipedia has this sentence: “Though {many professional} wrestling attendance figures are disputed, for the aim of this checklist, the promotions’ introduced attendance figures are proven.” So, sure: Wikipedia’s checklist of wrestling attendances knowingly makes use of false numbers, together with one which Vince McMahon mentioned on a WWE earnings name contains “ushers and ticket-takers.” That is on a web site which is organized round co-founder Jimmy Wales imaginative and prescient assertion of “Think about a world through which each single individual on the planet is given free entry to the sum of all human information.”

This follows different controversies involving Wikipedia’s protection {of professional} wrestling. Their 2018 elimination of wrestlers’ nicknames, signature strikes & finishers, and theme songs was universally despised.

The reliance on a paragraph explaining what skilled wrestling is on each occasion web page (instance: “The occasion featured six skilled wrestling matches with totally different wrestlers concerned in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines.” from TripleMania III-C serves nobody. Pages for different works of drama equivalent to movie, tv, stage performs, and operas don’t embody declarations that the occasion shouldn’t be actuality earlier than describing its plot. Think about “This movie options actors performing in roles of individuals in scripted occasions as a part of a storyline that will or could not have been primarily based on actuality.” showing earlier than each movie’s plot recap.

Wikipedia additionally made the choice to exclude point out of Mr. Wrestling II’s arrest as a teen for a gang rape, regardless of its point out within the obituaries written by Greg Oliver on Slam Wrestling and by Dave Meltzer within the Wrestling Observer E-newsletter. One of many key arguments cited to exclude this info was that perhaps it was simply one other John Francis Walker listed on the Hawaii intercourse registry with the identical metropolis & age on the time of his dying, with {a photograph} that seemed similar to the publicly unmasked skilled wrestler. Who might presumably say?

At this level, I believe it’s truthful to query precisely who’s being served by Wikipedia’s articles on skilled wrestling. It’s a area of interest topic to start with, and in true Wikipedia vogue these pages dominated by individuals who want citing the varied obscure guidelines of the location to win arguments fairly than making an attempt to protect recognized and correct info. If you happen to aren’t making an attempt to current correct info, then what precisely are you making an attempt to perform?

Yow will discover Fred on Bluesky.

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