SERGIO URIBE

Let me ask you a few questions, Colin. First, does this actually upset you? Does the action in this clip genuinely make you, as a human being, angry or sad? If the answer is no (which I suspect it is), I encourage you to move on. It's something that happened during a wrestling match on a television show. You have no control over it. So who cares? Get a coffee. Do something productive. Enjoy your day. If the answer is yes (meaning you are experiencing genuine anger or sadness because a referee jumped during a wrestling match), my advice is exactly the same. Get a coffee. Do something productive. Enjoy your day. That being said, I'll briefly engage with your criticism because I do want to understand where you're coming from. From your perspective, a professional wrestling referee is supposed to be invisible. Their job is to enforce the rules, count to three, and otherwise stay out of the way. Correct? Well, as someone who has spent years training for and working in professional wrestling, I can tell you that you're generally correct. My suspicion is that you heard this particular "rule" on a podcast or read it in an article, and you've since adopted it as an absolute. An unbreakable commandment of professional wrestling. Something that must NEVER be violated, under any circumstances, or else the entire presentation is somehow compromised. But here's where I'd encourage you to consider a different perspective. A referee should be invisible 99.9% of the time. And that is precisely why something like this can be entertaining. It's unexpected. It's unusual. It's different from everything else happening on the show. The very convention you're so passionately defending is what allows a moment like this to stand out when it's occasionally broken. If referees were doing this in every match, it wouldn't be special. But they aren't. That's the point. Professional wrestling is an art form. And like any art form, it requires a willingness to appreciate nuance, context, and the occasional departure from convention. If you insist on interpreting every moment through an inflexible set of rules, you're going to miss an awful lot of wonderful entertainment. Now, perhaps your objection is that the referee's actions were unrealistic or impractical? If that's the case, I'd argue that four enormous professional wrestlers competing inside a smaller-than-normal wrestling ring ON A BOAT is precisely the sort of unusual circumstance in which a normally inconspicuous referee might need to jump, dodge, or otherwise get the hell out of the way of incoming traffic. Seems pretty reasonable to me. And finally, allow me to pull back the curtain just a little bit. Professional wrestling is a performance, and performers make creative decisions based on their environment, their audience, and the atmosphere they're trying to create. If you're wrestling inside a steel cage during a bitter blood feud, you might choose to emphasize violence, intensity, and absolute seriousness. If you're WRESTLING ON A BOAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN, surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of people who have gathered specifically to enjoy the absurd spectacle of professional wrestling on a boat, you might occasionally choose to do something unusual, exciting, or even a little ridiculous. Because you're entertaining people. That's the job. From my perspective, this was a fun, memorable moment designed to entertain the live audience. It worked within the unique circumstances of that particular show. And here's something I think is especially important for you to understand, Colin: This moment was not necessarily created for you. Not everything that happens in professional wrestling is specifically tailored to your personal preferences. Not every meal is made for your mouth. Not every story is written for your enjoyment. And not every creative decision needs to satisfy your particular interpretation of how professional wrestling is supposed to work. Cont.