Toxic fandom exacerbated the deteriorating situation with ACH

The response to ACH and his new claim, that he’s quitting professional wrestling, proved once again that fandom has some toxic tendencies.

It has been a messy few months for the man formerly known as Jordan Myles. He immediately stood out as the winner of the first NXT Breakout Tournament. Unfortunately, he seemed to drop off of WWE programming just as quickly as he broke away from a new pack of superstars. Then, his controversial battle with the company, and subsequent exit, divided fans.

However, things seemed to be looking up ACH, who just turned 32 on Saturday, when he was granted his release. He quickly amassed several appearances for indie promotions, where he made a name for himself, like MLW and AAW Pro.

It seemed like he was back in his element until he had an unexplained outburst on Twitter on Saturday morning. ACH took to his account to express frustrations with the industry and fans “who think [they] know it all.” Then, he proceeded to cancel his new bookings and state he is quitting pro wrestling.

It’s unclear what exactly caused this change of heart or if he is truly done for good. Nevertheless, it’s apparent that something is going on with him and he needs time to sort it out. Judging by the things he said before and after he left WWE, this all seems like a build-up of various incidents.

Now, it must be said that ACH isn’t handling this situation well, but some of the response to him has been unnecessarily cruel. It started when he initially brought attention to the shirt design that ultimately caused him to leave WWE. The backlash got worse when he name-dropped and insulted Jay Lethal.

Some fans expectedly defended WWE, while others simply didn’t understand how insensitive the shirt appeared. The problem isn’t even just that they may have inadvertently alluded to an offensive caricature of black people. They ignored their talents’ concerns about the image and seemingly tried to run with the design anyway.

See, even if they didn’t see anything wrong the design, WWE handled the situation very poorly. They gaslit one of their performers, and when they got called out publicly they tried to put the onus on him. They took an incident that was probably a mistake and refused to address it as such, which is inherently racist.

More to the point, many onlookers, who haven’t experienced something like this, were also oblivious as to how microaggressions can build up until someone becomes irrational. Yes, there were many fans who supported ACH, but there was also a vocal sect who didn’t seek to understand him.

Again, that isn’t to say that ACH has done everything right or that there aren’t other things going on that made him lash out this way. Still, this does point to a tendency among fans to take sides as opposed to objectively analyzing the situation.

It’s similar to the way some people turned on Sasha Banks when she went on a hiatus earlier this year or the way some of them attacked CM Punk during his exodus in 2014. Don’t forget how some people made Lio Rush out to be entitled earlier this year.

Of course, we don’t know the whole story, but this incident shouldn’t be viewed through the lens of brand loyalty. It’s not particularly helpful to WWE or the talent. Whether you like ACH or not, his initial grievances with the company weren’t unfounded. Furthermore, his campaign “For the Culture” had the right intentions.

If anything, this proves people should support movements for change, but we should also be mindful enough to question individuals. Even if someone has good intentions, no one is infallible. In short, you don’t have to agree with everything ACH has done to be empathetic or see the merit in his cause.

“For the Culture” was a means to take a negative experience and use it to promote positive representation. Unfortunately, that message has been lost in all of the back and forth on Twitter. But it was a salient attempt to highlight black wrestlers and fans in an industry that historically downplays their contributions.

Hopefully, ACH finds some happiness and the support he needs in his personal life. With that said, the last thing he needs to be greeted with right now is hate and misplaced anger. You don’t have to support ACH but it’s not necessary to slam him either. As we’ve seen in the past, sometimes you have to give people a chance to recover, and tell the full story later.