Let’s be honest here, being a WWE fan isn’t what many would consider to be the “cool” thing. Me personally, I’m not a fan of things because they’re “cool” or “popular” I’m a fan of things, like WWE, because I enjoy them. I’m sure many of you reading this feel the same way. One thing that WWE did recently made me proud to call myself a WWE fan. They made a heartwarming and very emotional tribute video to young fan Connor “Stone Crusher” Michalek.
For those of you who don’t know the story, Connor suffered from brain cancer and didn’t have long to live. One thing he wanted was to meet his favorite wrestler, Daniel Bryan. That happened backstage at the December 18 , 2012 Smackdown/Raw supershow from Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, PA. This story hit home for me because I’m from the Pittsburgh area myself. I never met Connor or knew him personally, but I felt like I did. I loved that he got to meet Daniel and hoped that he would pull through. Just think about it, this whole story started with this short and simple video.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U3KZ7n6T0Y[/youtube]
Unfortunately, he didn’t. Connor passed away in April at the young age of 8. He didn’t have a long life and suffered in ways that nobody ever should, but he made the most of it. From footage I’ve seen of him, a smile was always on his face. You could tell that he loved WWE. One thing that makes this story even more special, is that before his unfortunate passing, Connor got to attend WrestleMania XXX and see his hero finally win the big one. It’s the happy climax of a tragic story. It seemed that Connor was just as special to Daniel Bryan and Bryan was to him. That just shows how genuine of a person Daniel Bryan is. This is the kind of publicity WWE needs. To often the company is looked at in a negative light. You hear about violence, premature deaths, drug abuse, and even domestic violence involving WWE superstars. This makes them look like monsters, when in reality, they are just people make a living, just like anyone else. It just happens to be that their way of making a living in traveling and risking their lives night in and night out to entertain the fans who pay their hard earned money to watch WWE and attend the shows. If the media highlighted more stories such as this one, WWE would be looked and positively and respected, as it should be. With a heartfelt and emotional tribute like this one, WWE showed that they really are a great company, with real, genuine people working there, and that they should be respected.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfS0deQlgHw[/youtube]
Until next time, focus of the positive, not the negative
-Nick
