Welcome To Dr. Shelby's Office!

Welcome to Dr. Shelby's Office, a new blog dedicated to intelligent and opinionated discussion of professional wrestling. Many people label wrestling as childish or silly, but its just another form of entertainment - think of it as the country's oldest reality show. Just like The Real Housewives, America's Got Talent, or Top Chef may dominate the water cooler talk, there exists a large, smart segment of the wrestling crowd that wants to dissect every twist and turn in the WWE and beyond. Just like there exists pages and pages of fan fiction devoted to scripted entertainment like Twilight or The X Files, wrestling fans want to discuss their own dream scenarios and ideas.

Unfortunately, wrestling does appeal a very large, vocal, audience, in which a huge amount are either extremely young or extremely immature. It's an unfortunate stereotype, but one look at wrestling communities online shows a huge lack of intelligent discussion, full of fans who can't understand kayfabe and the psychology behind wrestling. Combine that with the anonymity of the internet, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Even 'major' websites like Bleacher Report are overflowing with poorly written articles articulating contradicting opinions. My goal here is to foster intelligent conversation with wrestling fans, based upon a deep knowledge of how wrestling works, through kayfabe, the structure of WWE (and other organizations) as a business, as well as a knowledge of both the current and past product. Shout out to /r/SquaredCircle, which seems to be the best and most balanced pro wrestling community out there. Think of this as a place to post long thoughts without throwing down a 'TL;DR'.

I hope you enjoy some of these ramblings, whether you agree or disagree. As long as it fosters great conversation - that's all I want. Many, if not most, wrestling fans watch their shows alone. Wrestling is meant to be a social experience, shared with strangers. That's all I am trying to do.

Best,
Dr. Shelby