To whom it may concern,
You may be asking yourself, who are these 87 percenters and what exactly do they represent?
The 87 percenters are the wrestling fans that are tired of being told what they should like and who they should cheer for. The 87 percenters are the wrestling fans that hope for change in the wrestling business. The 87 percenters are the wrestling fans who are frustrated with being ignored. We, the 87 percenters are taking a stand here and now. We will no longer tolerate this injustice in professional wrestling.
On May 24th, Joey Ryan made an appearance on TNA's Impact Wrestling television program in a Gut Check Challenge. After an impressive showing which included becoming a worldwide trend on Twitter, Impact Wrestling's Gut Check then told their audience that their opinions matter and to let their voices be heard and promoted a poll on their website and on their twitter accounts (@IMPACTWRESTLING & @TNAGutCheck). After seven days of pushing the poll to their entire fanbase, the results were 87% in favor of Joey Ryan getting a contract with the company. However Bruce Pritchard, Al Snow and Taz had a different agenda to fulfill.
On the May 31st edition of Impact Wrestling, the 87 percenters tuned in to see the man they all enjoyed just one week earlier. The fans once again made Joey Ryan a worldwide trend on Twitter and also provided Impact Wrestling with its highest rated segment on the night. TNA's Gut Check judges then proceeded to forsake the fans opinions and deny Joey Ryan of an Impact Wrestling contract leaving the TNA faithful to question why Gut Check even asked for their opinions in the first place. Do the fans really matter? Does wrestling matter? Thus, the 87 percenters and the 87 percenters movement was born.
We are the 87 percent! We are intelligent wrestling fans. We do not need a company or a promotion to look down on us. We do not need higher ups to shove who they like down our throats and tell us that we should like them as well. Your agenda doesn't match ours and we are your consumers and the consumer is always right. It is our money that you are interested in. We should be dictating business to you and you should be catering to us!
On June 5th, Joey Ryan launched an investigation into Impact Wrestling's Gut Check and its conspiracy against him and against its own fan base when the internet series "Joey Ryan has a camera and a YouTube account" debuted on Joey Ryan's YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/joeyryantube). The series man purpose was to give the fans a voice in which they did not previously have through social media and in a medium that the powers that be would no doubt be monitoring and paying attention to. The series main goal was to get Impact Wrestling's Gut Check to acknowledge their fan bases' concerns and answer questions. This purposeful neglect was alarming to us. The 87 percenters just wanted them to prove that fans mattered.
However, much like the initial poll on the Impact Wrestling website and Twitter accounts, the 87 percenters were once again ignored.
On June 28th, a frustrated Joey Ryan decided to gve the fans what they wanted and what they were being denied of. 87 percent of Impact Wrestling's audience wanted Joey Ryan on Impact, and Joey Ryan gave it to them by showing up in the audience carrying a sign representing the 87 percent before being removed by security. Using the money from his t-shirt sales, Joey Ryan flew himself out to Orlando to make a statement on behalf of the 87 percenters. The positive feedback and support given to the appearance was overwhelming. Fans all over the country were showing up in arenas at various wrestling events carrying signs representing the 87 percent. We would no longer be denied! This movement surely had to make Impact Wrestling's Gut Check admit to their mistakes.
It did not. Once again, Impact Wrestling's Gut Check would ignore 87 percent of their audience.
On July 26th, the 87 percenters would make quite possibly their final stand. Once again using money from t-shirt sales, Joey Ryan showed up at Impact Wrestling with a more violent intent. Backed by an entire audience filled with signs supporting the 87 percenter movement, Joey Ryan would make his presence felt by striking Gut Check judge Al Snow in face and disrespecting him in the way that the 87 percenters feel disrespected by the continuous neglect shown by Impact Wrestling's Gut Check in regards to what they want.
Now it is up to the establishment. We, the 87 percenters have done all that we can with Impact Wrestling's Gut Check to show them the error of their ways, yet they continue to ignore us rather than to admit and fix the problem. At least if they ignore us this time, we know that we stood up to their bullying tactics and they will go out looking like the cowards we know that they are.
Nobody is strong enough or powerful enough stop or kill the 87 percenters. They cannot simply write the 87 percenters out of their storylines, for we are here to stay. We are not a person but we are a movement. Even if Impact Wrestling's Gut Check wants to continue to alienate itself from 87 percent of it's audience, that does not mean that we cannot still rally together and make it known that we do not need our hands held. We do not need a company to act as though it knows what is best for us. We are perfectly capable of deciding the kind of wrestling and the wrestlers in which we want to see. We will no longer be denied a voice. This is our resistance! United we will stand!
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